inge before his master; a peaceful man, he
must submit to the continuation of insensate slaughter; a highly
gifted intellectual, he has had to pursue a policy of insane
stupidity. Twenty-five years ago a professor of the University of
Munich, Dr. Quidde, compared the Kaiser to Caligula. The analogy
between William and Caligula or Nero points to another analogy, that
between Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg and Seneca, the ill-fated counsellor
of the Caesars. Read in the _Annals_ of Tacitus the speech of Seneca to
Nero, and you will perhaps understand the position of Herr von
Bethmann-Hollweg in the Imperial Palace of Potsdam.

II.

The internal political crisis in Germany, which started at the
beginning of last autumn, has come to a head because the Chancellor
will not speak out. There was a time when political crises in Germany
were due, not to the silence of the German rulers, but to their
utterances and indiscretions. In recent months the Kaiser, the man of
the three hundred uniforms and of the three thousand speeches, has
committed no such indiscretions as marked his reign from his ascent to
the throne; he has been almost as reticent as his unhappy father, who
did not speak because he had cancer in the throat. And now the
silver-tongued von Bethmann-Hollweg has also discovered the political
virtue of silence. The people have been loudly clamouring for a few
words of comfort, but above the thunder of the distant guns we only
hear the scribblers of a servile Press, who are beating the air with
their croakings.

III.

Why this ominous, obstinate, sphinx-like silence of the Chancellor,
more pregnant with meaning than the most eloquent speeches? It would
be so easy for so resourceful a man to utter a few oracular sentences,
a few ambiguous phrases, a few patriotic trumpet-calls. Was not the
last great speech which he delivered in the Reichstag covered with
frantic applause? But the days are past for ambiguous utterances,
however patriotic, however oracular. The Chancellor knows that any
clear, outspoken utterance on the peace aims of the German Government
would seal the doom of the Government; he knows that any statement of
terms would reveal the glaring discrepancy between those terms and the
solemn promises so often made to the German people. The people still
passionately believe in the promises and assurance of an early and
final victory. Only such a belief is still sustaining the drooping
spirits of the nation, on