in her military agglomerations is compelled to
increase unceasingly the number of her soldiers.

At this very moment William is planning to add a permanent effective of
40,000 men to the tactical units. In return, he will promise Parliament
and the country a provisional two years' service, being quite capable of
withdrawing his promise so soon as the vote has been secured.

Numbers, always numbers! It is the German Emperor's only ideal, and he
becomes further and further removed from any principle of selection. . . .

The German newspapers make a speciality of the fabrication of sensational
rumours. I could not ask any better vengeance for our beloved country
than to have their stories placed before the most loyal of Sovereigns,
the most far-seeing of diplomats, of the politician the furthest removed
from sordid calculations that the world knows or has ever known, that is
to say, of the Emperor Alexander III. . . .

But all this is just a manoeuvre of the enemy who plays his own game, and
it has no importance whatsoever beyond that which credulous and anxious
people choose to give it. Inasmuch as the renewal of the Triple Alliance
has produced a definite situation, which affords no opportunity for any
of the combinations which might have resulted had it been broken up into
independent parts, the Tzar with his usual foresight was naturally led to
proclaim his _rapprochement_ with France, and this he has done. What
change has there been in the situation since Kronstadt? None at all,
unless it be that Lord Salisbury has revealed something more of the
nature of his intrigues at Sofia, and of the anti-Russian intentions of
his Bulgarian policy. The King of Italy has surrendered himself a little
more into the hands of the King of Prussia, placing at the disposal of
William's diseased restlessness further and inexhaustible sources of
trouble and uneasiness for Europe.

July 9, 1892. [25]

It seems to me that the speech addressed by William to his new Admiralty
yacht at the port of Stettin has not attracted sufficient notice. It is
simply beautiful, a very choice morsel indeed. To show how little I
exaggerate, I will ask my readers to study it in the actual text, and I
would like to engage the services of the King of Prussia to collaborate
in the _Nouvelle Revue_ for a page in precisely the same style. Here is
this little masterpiece of classic purity--

"Thou art ready to glide into thy new element, to