Amongst other things, William II has had quick-firing guns, supplied to the people of Dahomey by slave merchants.  The Berlin Post, directly inspired by the Emperor, tells us exactly what is his object in so doing—­

“England and Russia will not help France to settle her difficulties in her colonies.  These two Powers are far too pre-occupied with the struggle for supremacy in Asia.  France is, therefore, reduced to looking to Germany as her sole support.  If France consents to work together with Germany, Africa will be won for civilisation, and for the best civilisation of all, the Franco-German, but so long as France pursues this task single-handed, she will not attain her end, and will find in Africa nothing but disappointment.”

Such evidences of effrontery remind us that William II is the pupil of Bismarck.  We are, therefore, justified in concluding that the Germans realise that it is not Aristides the Just who has been exiled, but a master rogue, whom his pupil now imitates.

April 29, 1892. [23]

William II continues to expel from Berlin all unemployed workmen, quite regardless of the cause of their temporary or continuous idleness.  He sends them back to their native parishes, without caring in the least whether they will find there the work which they are unable to secure at the capital.  The “Workmen’s Emperor” compels an emigration into the interior of all the most discontented, the most irritated and wretched, thus sowing throughout all the land the evil seed of the most dangerous kind of propagandist.  The spirit of Germany is full of surprises for any one who takes the trouble to observe it carefully, and it is not only in the acts of the Emperor that we perceive its contradictions.

To take one instance out of a thousand.  Five non-commissioned officers of dragoons have just been tried at Ulm, accused of having beaten recruits with sticks until they drew blood.  They have been acquitted, after having proved that they acted under the orders of their captain.  In this connection it is interesting to read the following—­

“The Court of Saverne has just condemned a carrier named Schwartz to six weeks’ imprisonment and a fine of ten marks for ill-treating his horse.”

The unstable grandson of the steadfast William I threatens before long to get between his teeth a fourth war minister; he has already devoured three chiefs of the general staff, and, in a few years, as many ministers as his grandfather had during the whole course of his long reign.

It remains to be seen whether, after the withdrawal of the scholastic law, William II will still find a majority willing to accept his new and disturbing schemes.

May 28, 1892. [24]

As the German Empire has no other force of cohesion except such as lies in militarism, William is necessarily compelled to do everything to magnify and increase it.  Whereas we in France are free to develop the quality rather than the quantity of our army, Germany, finding the elements of cohesion only in her military agglomerations is compelled to increase unceasingly the number of her soldiers.