Tue blow that has fallen on Europe in] the death of the Emperor William the First of Germany is not lessened by having been long feared: in fact it would] have been much less felt had it fallen a) year ago. There were no doubts then} as to his successor; a worthy son was to follow a worthy father; and there is no acuteness in the grief that is felt for one who dies full of years and honours, whom fate has permitted to drain the} cup of life to its last drop; who is followed on the throne by an heir so} well loved and respected as the man] who was Crown Prince three days ago. But the necessarily mortal illness—for] there is little hope that any milder form of words will describe it—of the} new Emperor adds an almost impenetreble gloom to the sorrow caused by the death of Kaiser Wilhelm. If the prayers! of Germany and England could avert the fate that threatens Frederick William, it would have been averted long ago but there is, alas, little doubt that the} fiat has gone forth; and it is the conviction of this impending misfortune that makes the death, the news off which we circulated on Saturday, such file a calamity to the civilised portion of the old world. No one knows the true character of the young prince who} stands already so near the throne that its shadow falls on him, although on that character the peace of Euro] depends. Of one thing we may certain, that even if the stories of the young prince's warlike tendencies are} well-founded, there is and always has) been a vast difference between the} ideas of an heir apparent and the acts of a sovereign, On the throne as in every other position in life, responsibility brings with it unsuspected powers of control. And the new Emperor, even if. it is really cancer that has him in its grasp, may live} for years; long enough to continue the consolidation of Germany, to firmly establish the reign of those constitutional] principles which he is believed to favour,} and to see a new set of ministers in power. For the men who have made the German Empire are all-old. Moltke! will be 88 on the 26th of October] next, Bismarck will be 73 on the 1st of April, and they cannot hope to long] survive the man whom their genius} made Emperor. Meanwhile it is by no} means certain that the death of Kaiser} Wilhelm will be followed by any cataclysm in Europe. It has been so long} expected that the leaders of Germany have had time to make all their plans. The change will be more than is implied in the popular phrase " Lo Roi est] mort, Vive lo Roi!", but it may come} gradually and without a catastrophe.
The greatest men are those who achieve} a high position by their own efforts, and} shew themselves worthy of the position when they have achieved it. Next come] those whom the accident of birth or fate, jas we calls it, puts into a high position, and who then fill it worthily. The late Emperor of Germany belongs to the latter class. It is not likely that he would ever} have been a marked man, had he been born in a humbler sphere; but he had] ithe merit of being able to form a just estimate of his position and circum-his country afforded; he was never jealous, as weaker sovereigns have been, lof their superior powers; and they re-Ispected him so thoroughly, that he ever lost his sovereign power over them. This of itself is no small praise,} jand puts him justly in the second rank lof great men. "Both his predecessors on their dislike to employ in their councils men above the intellectual standard of an Eichhorn, or a Manteuffel, or, at the best, a Radowitz.
William I, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, was born on the 22nd lof March, 1797; so that if he had been spared thirteen days longer, he would have completed ninety-one years. His father was the Crown Prince, afterwards King Frederick William III, of Prussia; his mother the beautiful, good iburg-Strelitz; one of the most saiutly} women who ever ascended a throne, He was the second son, his elder brother} becoming afterwards Frederick William] IV, the King Clicquot of the satirists. Dark clouds overshadowed his country] lat the time of his birth, for the then King, Frederick William, lo ventru, had allowed his country to lose altogether the proud position achieved by his erick, and the late Emperor was born, but his] successor, Frederick William IIT, though]
better man, was little better as la King. The young prince, who had then no thought of ever succeeding} to the throne, was brought wp as jo soldier, and it is not long since he celebrated the eightieth anniversary o ihis entrance into the German army, The good Queen Louise, whose efforts to save her country were equalled by the care and devotion she bestowed on! her children, died when he was only! thirteen years old, and he was soon, though still only a boy, to take part in} After Waterloo he continued his _mili-ithe campaigns of the war of Liberation,
ary studies—he was then only eighteen!—and made himself generally respect-fed as a sober-minded, studious, young! officer, of fair, but not brilliant abilities, devoting himself mainly to the important question of the organisation of the Prussian armies. In 1829) he married the Princess Marie Louisa) Augusta Catherine of Saxe-Weimar, whose sister, Maria, had married his Jyounger brother, Prince Charles, two years before. There were two children of the marriage, the present Emperor, who married the Grand Duke of Baden. in 1840 his father, Frederick William LI, died, and his brother, Frederick William IV, ascended the throne of Prussia, he himself becoming heir prelsumptive to the Crown, the Ring having Ino children, and being appointed Governor of Pomerania. It was in the forties that the revolutionary movement began in Europe which was to break lout in 1848. The aristocratic and abso-hutist tendencies, which the King and ihis Bavarian wife, Elizabeth, were known ito hold, were also credited to the quiet and studious soldier, and he Has even accused of encouraging his royal brother in his opposition to the popular will. Che revolution came to jo head in March, 1848; an unsuccessful attempt was made to quell it in Berlin with grapeshot, but the king gave way 5 ihis brother was made the scapegoat, land was forced to fly for his life to England. Iwo months afterwards, the junker party having regained ascendency, Prince William was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly, and in June he returned to Berlin, In 1849 he was appointed to the com mand of the Prussian army that was sent to put down the revolution in Baden. 'I'he revolutionists, under the Pole Mieroslawski, and the Badener Sigel, the latter of whom subsequently distinguished himself in the Northern ranks in the American war, were soon crushed; and the Prince's conduct of the campaign did much to restore him to popular favour, It was at Nieder-Ingelheim, while he was on his way to take command of the Prussian army, that the first of the four unsuccessful uncle and predecessor, the great Fre-Mfattempts in the course of his life was made had sold himself toffto assassinate him. On his return from France, He died six months afterffBaden he was made military governor lof Rhineland-Westphalia; he took up his residence at Cobleuz, and romaine quiet while the comedy of the pauline nents of Frankfort and Erfurt, and the attempt to induce Frederick William IV to assume the Imperial Crown of Germany, was being acted out. Austria was then the leading power of Cen tral Europe, and so low had Prussia fallen that Schwarzenberg did not hesitate to say, "Il faut avilir la Prusse d'abord, et ards la demolir." The vacillation of the King of Prussia and the pro Austrian leanings of the Queen made the utterance of such threat as this possible; but they confirmed the future King and those who were working with hin in their determination to re-organise the Prussian army, and, like other curses, were to come to home to roost before long. Lhe King himself began to realise ihis brother's value, and in 1854 he was made Governor of the confederate fortress of Mayence, and the title of Colonel General of infantry, with Field-Marshal's rank, was created expressly for him, His popularity with the nation as a whole Iwas gradually growing at the same time, land Prussia was turning to him as a welcome resource, when the increasing
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.