Meanwhile, the Emperor’s malady was making fatal progress.  The Shadow was growing darker and more formidable.  A season of patiently-borne suffering followed, until Death in his terrific majesty appeared and another Emperor occupied the throne.

IV.

“VON GOTTES GNADEN”

Prince William is now German Emperor and King of Prussia.  Before observing him as trustee and manager of his magnificent inheritance a pause may be made to investigate the true meaning of a much-discussed phrase which, while suggesting nothing to the Englishman though he will find it stamped in the words “Dei gratia” on every shilling piece that passes through his hands, is the bed-rock and foundation of the Emperor’s system of rule and the key to his nature and conduct.

Government in Germany is dynastic, not, as in England and America, parliamentary or democratic.  The King of Prussia possesses his crown—­such is the theory of the people as well as of the dynasty—­by the grace of God, not by the consent of the people.  The same may be said of the German Emperor, who fills his office as King of Prussia.  To the Anglo-Saxon foreigner the dynasty in Germany, and particularly in Prussia, appears a sort of fetish, the worship of which begins in the public schools with lessons on the heroic deeds of the Hohenzollerns, and with the Emperor, as high priest, constantly calling on his people to worship with him.  This view of the kingly succession may seem Oriental, but it is not surprising when one reflects that the Hohenzollern dynasty is over a thousand years old and during that time has ruled successively in part of Southern Germany, in Brandenburg, in Prussia, until at last, imperially, in all Germany.  Moreover, it has ruled wisely on the whole; in the course of centuries it has brought a poor and disunited people, living on a soil to a great extent barren and sandy, to a pitch of power and prosperity which is exciting the envy and apprehension of other nations.

In England government passed centuries ago from the dynasty to the people, and there are people in England to-day who could not name the dynasty that occupies the English throne.  Such ignorance in Germany is hardly conceivable.  In Prussia government has always been the appanage of the Hohenzollerns, and the Emperor is resolved that, supported by the army, it shall continue to be their appanage in the Empire.  Government means guidance, and no one is more conscious of the fact than the Emperor, for he is trying to guide his people all the time.  Frederick William IV once said to the Diet:  “You are here to represent rights, the rights of your class and, at the same time, the rights of the throne:  to represent opinion is not your task.”  This relation of government and people has become modified of recent years to a very obvious degree, but constitutionally not a step has been taken in the direction of popular, that is to say parliamentary, rule.