He: “Oh, quite satisfactory, and for several months past, as also with her. When the Emperor seemed to be drawing near his latter end, he approached me, as he saw that the time was at hand when he must plunge into the water and swim on his own account. Ever since we have been on good terms. He wishes to retain me, and when he commands as King I must remain, although I am ill and require rest—but we must come to an understanding first. The main point for him is to get some one to conduct the foreign policy. Domestic affairs would go on all right under Bötticher, who manages them quite well, except that he is rather too vehement, so that water must sometimes be poured into his wine.” He then spoke against the “collegial system”[12] and in favour of a homogeneous administration.
I mentioned the Emperor and the jubilee of his reign, observing that a good text for a sermon on that occasion would be found in Ecclesiasticus, where it is said “The work praiseth the master, and his hands do honour to a wise prince”; and in particular the further passage “the prosperity of a ruler resteth with God; he giveth him a worthy Chancellor;” and again, “A wise servant shall be ministered unto by his master, and a master that hath understanding murmureth not thereat.” (I had already directed attention to these passages[13] in the Grenzboten of the 31st of December of the previous year.) He smiled; after remarking that the Emperor had acted conscientiously in State affairs and knew how to subordinate his amour propre to the interests of the country, he said: “He always gave me to a great extent a free hand, although he had been accustomed previously to command, while his brother, on the other hand, could never have got on with any independent Minister.”
I then referred to the Irish crisis and the English parties, observing that there one saw plainly what Parliamentarism resulted in, and whither it led a State. Our Liberals would have had a similar experience in Posen and in Polish affairs generally, but, happily, they had not the same influence here as they have in England. He said: “Parliamentarism only works where there are merely two rival parties that come to power alternately, and where the members of the Legislature are well off and unselfish, and do not find it necessary to struggle for their personal advancement. I am no advocate of absolutism. Parliamentarism is good even here, as a veto upon the resolutions of unwise Governments and bad monarchs—for purposes of criticism. In England, up to the present, there have been two great parties, whose principles have latterly not differed very widely, and both desired the welfare of the country and nothing for themselves. They were the representatives of a few hundred families who were well enough off not to want more, and who could therefore study exclusively the welfare of the whole community—a remark which at bottom also applies to Kings, who should be under no necessity to think of their own interests. The Irish are now coming in as a third party, together with the Radicals, who are still more dangerous. It is worse here in Germany. We have eight or ten parties and the leaders are place hunters, who want to improve their own positions and become Ministers, and who also put themselves at the service of the capitalists—not without a consideration.”
He then spoke about the Kulturkampf, and mentioned that the Pope was now thoroughly well disposed. I said: “Of course you have done him a great pleasure in asking for his mediation in the difference with Spain, and given him an importance for which he has every reason to be grateful.” He smiled and said: “Well, he has invested me with his highest Order, and has at the same time written me a very flattering letter.” We then spoke of other Orders and I asked him how many he had now. In 1872 he had, I believed, already sixty-four.
He: “There can hardly have been so many. Since then, however, the Siamese and other Asiatics have added theirs.”
I: “Japan was also included with the two great razors, the case containing the swords with which you were raised to the rank of Daimio.”
He: “Even the Emperor of China has made me a present, a great elephant tusk with carved figures, flowers, houses and birds, all so deeply cut out that you almost see through the carving. It is believed that the carving took eight years. You ought to have a look at it some time. It stands in the corner on the black chimney piece in the second room upstairs, near the large salon.” He rang the bell and instructed the servant to show me upstairs when I was leaving.
“Why have we not been able to secure the Santa Lucia Bay?” I asked. “Ah!” he replied, “it is not so valuable as it seemed to be at first. People who were pursuing their own interests on the spot represented it to be of greater importance than it really was. And then the Boers were not disposed to take any proper action in the matter. The bay would have been valuable to us if the distance from the Transvaal were not so great. And the English attached so much importance to it that they declared it was impossible for them to give it up, and they ultimately conceded a great deal to us in New Guinea and Zanzibar. In colonial matters we must not take too much in hand at a time, and we already have enough for a beginning. We must now hold rather with the English, while, as you know, we were formerly more on the French side. But, as the last elections in France show, every one of any importance there had to make a show of hostility to us.”
I inquired as to the spirit monopoly, and he replied: “They will scarcely pass it, but we shall introduce it. They will look upon us as people who have evil intentions against the country, and in particular against themselves, their rights and powers, and who must, therefore, be kept in check and taught to entertain proper respect towards the representatives of the people, to which category, of course, we do not belong. But after all we are only fulfilling the duties of our office, part of which is to promote the interests of the State to the best of our ability.”
On my saying, “Well, Münster is now in Paris,” he observed: “A change has taken place in him. He is now less phlegmatic, more diligent, and sends fuller reports, which, moreover, have something in them.” (...)