“dashes the beat of ocean at the doors of our people and compels it to preservation of its place in the world, in a word, to Weltpolitik.  The ocean is indispensable for Germany’s greatness.  The ocean testifies that on it and far beyond it no important decision will be taken without Germany and the German Emperor.”

His words on the present occasion were: 

“My entire task for the future will be to see that the undertakings of which the foundations have been laid may develop quietly and surely.  We have, though as yet without the fleet as it should be, achieved our place in the sun.  It will now be my task to hold this place unquestioned, so that its rays may act favourably on trade and industry and agriculture at home inside, and on our sail-sports on the coast—­for our future lies on the water.  The more Germans go on the sea—­whether travelling or in the service of the State—­the better.  When the German has once learned to look abroad and afar he will lose that ‘hang’ towards the petty, the trivial, which now so often seizes him in daily life.”

And he closed:  “We must now go out in search of new spots where we can drive in nails on which to hang our armour.”

Early in August the Emperor was called to the death-bed of his mother, the Empress Frederick, at her castle in Cronberg.  She died on the afternoon of her son’s arrival, on August 5th.  The Emperor ordered mourning throughout the Empire for six weeks, and forbade all “public music, entertainments, theatrical or otherwise” until after the funeral.  The Empress was buried in the mausoleum attached to the Friedenskirche in Potsdam on the 13th of the month.

The delivery of a famous speech on art by the Emperor in December brings the chronicle of 1901 to a close, but perhaps it will not displease the reader if a new chapter is opened for the purpose of quoting it and of considering the Emperor in what is a traditional Hohenzollern relationship.

X.

THE EMPEROR AND THE ARTS

Art is a favourite subject of conversation on the Continent, where it is more popularly discussed than in England and where authorities of all kinds are more alive to its educative capabilities.  It is eminently “safe” ground, does not savour of gossip, and no one need leave the field of discussion with the feeling that he has been driven from it.  Hence it is the salvation of diplomatists who are apprehensive of committing their Governments or themselves when mixing in general society, and it doubtless does good service for the Emperor also upon occasion.  Indeed it is a topic on which he speaks willingly and well.