Germany was in great need of something to distract her attention by a stroke of exotic brilliancy and by the creation of some new object of hatred.  Enmity for ever directed against France, was beginning somewhat to pall.  This continually living on the strength of one’s old triumphs, made Germany to appear like some much-dyed old dandy, seeking to gain recognition for past conquests by means of art and cosmetics.  The time had come to create a diversion.  The German Emperor, King of Prussia, has found it with his usual headlong impetuosity, the quality which impels him always to seize things on the wing, to display alternately the capacity of a genius, and that of a stupid blunderer. . . .

March 1, 1896. [2]

German opinion persists in expressing its severe criticisms on the subject of the Transvaal business and continues to display its sympathy for the Boers.  There is every reason to expect that German interests will now be able to create for themselves numerous outlets in the Transvaal.

William II has made another speech on the subject of the war of 1870; in this he is like the tide, which the waves carry away only to bring it back.  Lord, Lord, deliver us from this torture!  I, for one, can bear it no longer.  My eyes are filled with tears of rage as I listen and listen again, for ever, unceasingly and without end, to the tale of our defeat and to the glorification of the army which conquered us, to the tale of the German Empire born of these Prussian victories.  Will it ever be finished, this tale?  When will they have done, once and for all, with inscribing these cruel records of theirs in the golden book of Germany, and shut the clasp upon it?

We know that William II either painted himself, or had painted, a picture, which was all the rage in Germany and which represented Europe invaded by the Chinese.  It would look as if William II really believed in the danger of this impending invasion, to judge by the inscription on the engraving of this picture, reproduced by the thousand; “Nations of Europe, take care for your most sacred treasures!—­WILLIAM I.R.”

But if this be so, how comes it that the German Emperor is sending hundreds of military instructors to the Chinese, who are supposed to be threatening his country?

June 1, 1896. [3]

William II believes that the victories of 1870 were due to Prussia alone, and that it was she who made the Empire; and this explains why he takes such complete possession of the Empire, and makes the celebrations of these victories so personal a matter.  The people of Bavaria, Wuertemberg and Saxony are herein exposed to humiliation of a kind which they decline to accept.  There is no doubt that all Germans hate us with an equal hatred, and all have united with the same enthusiasm to crush our unfortunate France; nevertheless, we may derive some profit from the antipathy inspired in them by Prussia’s grasping claims to glory and authority.