Besides, the practice is illegal, and though purposely overlooked, save in one German city, that of Leipzig, where it is punished with some rigour, the Emperor, who is supposed to embody the majesty and effectiveness of the law, is hardly the person to recommend it.  His inconsistency in the matter on one occasion placed him in an undignified position.  Two officers of the army quarrelled, and one, an infantry lieutenant, sent a challenge to the other, an army medical man.  The latter refused on conscientious grounds, whereupon he was called on by a military court of honour to send in his resignation.  The case was sent up to the Emperor, who upheld the decision of the court of honour, adding the remark that if the surgeon had conscientious scruples on the point he should not remain in the army.  An irate Social Democratic editor thereupon pointed out that such a decision came with a bad grace from a man with whom, or with any of whose six sons, no one was allowed to fight.  The Emperor is still a member of the Borussia Corps, but chiefly shows his interest by keeping its anniversaries in mind, by every few years attending one of its annual drinking festivals (Commers), and by paying a substantial yearly subscription.

The German student Corps, historically, go back to the fourteenth century, when the first European universities were established at Bologna, Paris, and Orleans.  Universities then were not so called from the universality of their teachings, but rather as meaning a corporation, confraternity, or collegium, and were in reality social centres in the towns where they were instituted.  The most renowned was that of Paris, and here was founded the first student Corps.  It was called the “German Nation of Paris,” a corporation of students, with statutes, oaths, special costumes, and other distinctive features.  At first, strange to say, it contained more Englishmen than Germans.  The “Nation” had a procurator, a treasurer, and a bedell, the last to look after the legal affairs of the association.  Drinking was not the supposed purpose of the society, but the Corps mostly assembled, as German Corps do to-day, for drinking purposes.

The earliest form of German student associations Was the Landsmannschaft.  To this society, composed of elders and juniors, new-comers, called Pennales, were admitted after painful ceremonies and became something like the “fags” at an English public school.  The object of the original Landsmannschaft was to keep alive the spirit of nationality.  The object of the German Corps is different.  It is to beget and perpetuate friendship, and this accounts for the steady goodwill the Emperor has always shown towards the comrades of his Bonn and Borussia days.