The Monarchists who derive benefit from their attachment to the reigning monarch deceive themselves as to their true feelings.  They are Monarchists because they consider that form of government the most satisfactory one.  The Republicans, who apparently glorify the majesty of the people, really mean themselves.  But in the long run a people will always recognise that form of government which soonest can give it order, work, prosperity and contentment.  In ninety-nine per cent. of the population the patriotism and enthusiasm for one or other form of government is nothing but a matter of material considerations.  They prefer a good king to a bad republic, and vice versa; the form of government is the means to the end, but the end is the contentment of the people governed.  Nor has the liberty of those governed anything to do with the form of government.  Monarchical England is just as free as Republican America, and the Bolshevists have demonstrated ad oculus to the whole world that the proletariat exercises the greatest tyranny.

The war that was lost swept away the monarchs, but the Republics will only be maintained if they can convince the people that they are more successful in satisfying the masses than the monarchs were, a proof which—­it seems to me—­the German-Austrian Republic, at any rate, has hitherto failed to give.

The conviction that these questionable statements not only are false but also objectionable and criminal errors; that the Divine Will has placed the monarch at his post and keeps him there—­this conviction was systematically imprinted in the German people, and formed an integral part of the views attributed to the Emperor.  All his pretensions are based on this; they all breathe the same idea.  Every individual, however, is the product of his birth, his education and his experience.  In judging William II. it must be borne in mind that from his youth upwards he was deceived and shown a world which never existed.  All monarchs should be taught that their people do not love them; that they are quite indifferent to them; that it is not love that makes them follow them and look up to them, but merely curiosity; that they do not acclaim them from enthusiasm, but for their own amusement, and would as soon hiss at them as cheer them.  The loyalty of subjects can never be depended on; it is not their intention to be loyal, but only contented; they only tolerate the monarchs as long as they themselves are contented, or as long as they have not enough strength to abolish them.  That is the truth, a knowledge of which would prevent monarchs from arriving at unavoidably false conclusions.