'How do you know this?'
'Everybody about the court in Berlin knows it, but I hear it from Munich. But Speck von Sternberg would have balanced Hill, if he had lived. They think he would have influenced President Roosevelt. Tell us the secrets of the White House—you ought to know—it was an awful competition between Speck and Jusserand, I hear.'
'President Roosevelt is not easily influenced,' I said.
Persons whom I knew in Berlin wrote to me, informing me how charmed the Kaiser was with the new ambassador; but, in Copenhagen, we learned that what the Kaiser wanted was not a great international lawyer, but a rich American of less intensity.
It was worth while to get Russian opinions.
'The Kaiser is having a bad time,' I remarked to a Russian of my acquaintance—a most brilliant man, now almost, as he said himself, homme sans patrie.
'Temporarily,' he answered; 'those indiscreet pronouncements of his on the Boers and the reversion of his attitude against England in the affair of Morocco have shown him that he cannot clothe inconsistency in the robes of infallibility. He is a personal monarch and he sinks all his personality in his character as a monarch. He is made to the likeness of God, and there is an almost hypostatic union between God and him! Our Tsar is by no means so absolute, though you Americans all persist in thinking so. I have given you some documents on that point; I trust that you have sent them to your President. I am sure, however, that he knew that. Do not imagine that the emperor will be deposed, because he has made a row in Germany. He has only discovered how far he can go by personal methods, that is all; he has learned his lesson—reculer pour mieux sauter. He has played a clever game with you. Bernstorff, his new ambassador, will offset Hill. Your investments in Russia will now come through German hands, and you will get a bad blow in the matter of potash.'
'What do you mean?' I asked. I had regarded Count Bernstorff as a Liberal. His English experience seemed to have singled him out as one of the diplomatists of the Central Powers—there were several—inclined to admit that other nations had rights which Germany was bound to respect. In private conversations, he had shown himself very favourable to the United States, and had even disapproved of German attacks on the Monroe Doctrine in Brazil. 'Count Bernstorff is not likely to offend Washington, or to reopen the wound that was made at Manila.'
'You talk as if diplomatists were not, first of all, instructed to look after the business interests of their countries. Do you think Bernstorff has been chosen to dance cotillions with your 'cave dwellers' in Washington or to compliment [Senators'] wives? First, his appointment is meant to flatter you. Second, he will easily flatter you because he really likes America and it is his business to flatter you. Third, he will do his best to induce you to assist England in strangling Russia in favour of Turkey. Fourth, he will grip hard, without offending you, the German monopoly of potash. He doesn't want trouble between the United States and Germany. He knows that any difficulty of that kind would be disastrous; he is as anxious to avoid that as is Ballin. Under the glimmer of rank, of which you think so much in America, commercialism is the secret of Germany's spirit to-day. In Berlin, I heard an American, one of your denaturalised, trying to curry favour with Prince von Bülow by saying that the national genius of Germany demanded that Alsace-Lorraine should be kept by Germany to avenge the insolence of Louis XIV. and Napoleon. Prince von Bülow smiled. He knew that your compatriot was working for an invitation to an exclusive something or other for his wife. Bernstorff is just the man to neutralise Hill. It's iron ore and potash in Alsace-Lorraine that the emperor cares about.'