Enough perhaps has been said in preceding pages to show the attitude of the Emperor, and consequently the attitude of his Government, towards them.  A history of the long agitation in connexion with them is beyond the scope of this work.  The agitation itself, however, may be viewed as a step, though not a very long one, on the way to the desired solution, and it is a matter for congratulation that the two subjects have been, and are still being, so freely and copiously and, on the whole, so sympathetically and hopefully ventilated.  The great difficulty, apparently, is to find what diplomatists call the proper “formula”—­the law-that-must-be-obeyed.  Unfortunately, the finding of the formula cannot be regarded as the end of the matter; there still remains the finding of what jurists call the “sanction,” that is to say, the power to enforce the formula when found and to punish any nation which fails to act in accordance with it.  Nothing but an Areopagus of the nations can furnish such a sanction, but with the present arrangements for balancing power in Europe, to say nothing of the ineradicable pugnacity, greed, and ambition of human nature, such an Areopagus seems very like an impossibility.  Time, however, may bring it about.  If it should, and the Golden Age begin to dawn, an epoch of new activities and new horizons, quite possibly more novel and interesting than any which has ever preceded it, will open for mankind.

XVI.

THE EMPEROR TO-DAY

What strikes one most, perhaps, on looking back over the Emperor’s life and time, are two surprising inconsistencies, one relating to the Emperor himself, the other to that part of his time with which he has been most closely identified.

The first arises from the fact that a man so many-sided, so impulsive, so progressive, so modern—­one might almost say so American—­should have altered so little either in character or policy during quarter of a century.  This is due to what we have called his mediaeval nature.  He is to-day the same Hohenzollern he was the day he mounted the throne, observing exactly the same attitude to the world abroad and to his folk at home, tenacious of exactly the same principles, enunciating exactly the same views in politics, religion, morals, and art—­in everything which concerns the foundations of social life.  He still believes himself, as his speeches and conduct show, the selected instrument of Heaven, and acts towards his people and addresses them accordingly.  He still opposes all efforts at political change, as witness his attitude towards electoral reform, towards the Germanization of Prussian Poland, towards the Socialists, towards Liberalism in all its manifestations.  He is still, as he was at the outset of his reign, the patron of classical art, classical drama, and classical music.  He is still the War Lord with the spirit of a bishop and a bishop with the spirit of the War Lord.  He is still the model husband and father he always has been.  Most men change one way or another as time goes on.  With the Emperor time for five-and-twenty years appears to have stood still.