March 12, 1892. [21]

William II aims at concentrating all power, and, to organise the work of espionage, in the hands of the military authorities.  If the Prussian law of 1851 is still effective, the Emperor in case of need will be able to dispense with a vote of the Reichstag.  This law confers on every general and on his representative, who may be an officer of eighteen years of age, the right to declare a state of siege in the event of war threatening.  On the other hand, the projected Bill against espionage meets with very general approval.  Your German has got spies on the brain.  He wishes to be able to indulge in spying in other countries, but to prevent it in Germany.  The Frankfurter Zeitung and the Vorwaerts assert that the proposed law against the revealing of military secrets was inspired by the publication of the report by Prince George of Saxony, containing revelations of a kind which the Emperor does not wish to occur again.  One of the articles of this law against spying reveals the Prussian character in all its beauty.  One has only to read it, in order to understand the inducements which the Government of William II holds out to informers.  The end of this article runs as follows:  “Every individual having knowledge of such an infringement, and who shall fail to notify the authorities, is liable to imprisonment.”

To hear these Germans, one would think that France and Russia are flooding the Empire with spies, whilst Germany never sends a single one of them to France or Russia.  In the first place, all these statements are purely cynical; and in the second Germany can very well afford to dispense with professionally selected spies, inasmuch as every German prides himself on being one at all times in the service of the Fatherland.

April 12, 1892. [22]

William II makes a solemn promise to his august grandmother, Queen Victoria, and to the “best beloved” of his Allies, the Emperor of Austria, that he will restore the Guelph Fund.  Francis Joseph has obtained from the Duke of Cumberland the somewhat undignified letter of renunciation, which we have all read, and now it is either up to Rogue Scapin or Bre’r Fox, just as you please!  William II says that he never meant to give back the capital, but only the interest!  It is easy to imagine the effect produced on those concerned by the revelation of this astonishing mental reservation.  But this is not all!  The King of Prussia—­always short of money, always in debt on account of his extravagant fancies and expensive clothes, and half ruined by his mania for running to and fro—­had made certain arrangements for meeting his creditors by means of the Guelph Fund, but with the proviso, needless to say, that they affected only the interest!!

It is said that the heir of the House of Hanover has written a second letter which evoked a sickly smile from William II, and of which Councillor Roessing has suppressed the publication with some difficulty.