William II, after having sent General Loe to congratulate Leo XIII on his Episcopal Jubilee, has just made a speech on the occasion of the silver wedding of King Humbert I and Queen Margaret.  It will please the Italians, but this ambiguous policy seems to me anything but flattering, either for the Italian Kingdom or for the Papacy.  As in 1888 and with the same ceremonies, Leo XIII will receive the Emperor-King of Prussia at the Vatican, and William II, as on that previous occasion will be able to split his sides with laughter on returning to the Quirinal, mimicking the Holy Father and boasting that he has befooled him once more.

April 27, 1893. [5]

The wisdom of the nations is now enriched with a new proverb, “A rolling Emperor gathers moss, and gathers nothing more.”  Before long the tumult and the shouting of the fetes at Rome will die down, and with them the popular excitement of enthusiasm for the all-powerful German Emperor.  The Italian people will then find itself confronted by the exhaustion imposed upon it by the compulsory militarism of the so-called pacific Triple Alliance.  Even if cavalcades, reviews and tournays, should awaken again in the heart of the Roman people that love of the circus, which this people has inspired in all the latinised races, the economic question still remains, the question of money and of bread, implacable.  I know not why it is, but the brilliancy of William II’s visit to Italy gives me the impression of a fire of straw.  What object had he in going there, and what has he attained?  I can see none.  All his fervent protestations appear to me in bad taste, when compared with the correct dignity of the Court of Austria, third of the Allied Powers.

May 12, 1893. [6]

How can our German Caesar, who has just made a journey to Rome after the manner of Barbarossa, continue to suffer an assembly of talkers, of political commercial travellers, of people who allow their minds to be dominated by the vulgar thing called economics?  It is not possible, and therefore Caesar calls to witness the first Military Staff that he comes across at the Tempelhof and makes it judge of the matter.  “I have had to order the dissolution of the Reichstag,” says William to his officers and generals, “and I trust that the new Parliament will sanction the re-organisation of the Army.  But if this hope should not be realised, I fully intend to leave no stone unturned to attain the end which I desire.  No stone unturned, gentlemen, and you understand, I hope, that it is to you that I am speaking, and you who are concerned.  You are the defenders of the past, and of the prerogatives of the Imperial and Royal Power.”