William II is in the seventh heaven.  One by one he dons his shining garments, which the eastern sun gladdens with silver and gold.  He has made another trip on his swan, that is to say, on the white Hohenzollern, which carries Lohengrin to the four corners of the earth.  The German Emperor’s departure from Venice was a master-stroke of scenic effects, one of those subversions of history, to which the eccentric monarch of Berlin is so passionately addicted.  Nothing indeed could have been more original than to make the sons of the ancient Venetians, hereditary foes of the Turk, welcome a Protestant monarch who is the friend of the chief slaughterer of Catholics.

A Christian Emperor landing at Stamboul accompanied by his Empress, obtaining permission from the Sultan to hold a review of troops on a Selamlik day, acclaimed by the Mussulman people and soldiery, exalted amidst all the pomp and splendour of the East, feasting his eyes on magic colours, the hero of unrivalled entertainments, surely it is enough to raise to a frenzy of pride the potentate who has made such things possible.

But amidst these pomps and vanities, William is by no means neglectful of his skilful and lucrative business schemes.  It is said that he has secured a concession for a commercial harbour at Haidar Pasha, near Scutari.  Haidar Pasha is the railhead of the Anatolian line, which belongs to a German company.  Will the great commercial traveller, William II be able to persuade his sweet friend the Slayer, to make him a grant of the coaling station which he covets at Haifa?  The Sultan will refuse him nothing.  Will France and Russia have time to spare for lodging protests, their attention having been so skilfully diverted to Fashoda on the one hand and to China on the other?  Is it not written that the two nations must unite forces if they would check the schemes of him who aspires to world-wide dominion over religion and commerce?

Though France and Russia have sometimes quarrelled over the question of the Holy Places, they cannot regard without anxiety the triumphant entry of the third thief upon the scene.

England, too, is busy with Fashoda and does not seem to be in such a position, diplomatically speaking, at Constantinople, as to be able to oppose the cession by Turkey to Germany of a Mediterranean harbour.  Moreover, the manner in which she has grabbed Cyprus leaves her without much voice to talk of the status quo in the Mediterranean.

William II in Palestine!  This man with his mania for glittering pomp and grandeur going to kneel at the stable in Bethlehem; the proudest and most conceited of men, the most puffed up with vainglory, treading the paths trodden by the feet of the Humblest; the most egotistical and least brotherly, coming to bow before Him who is brotherhood personified:  could any spectacle be sadder for true Christians?

November 10, 1898. [13]