doctrine of international law. Interesting was it, then, to see
the Emperor, on his visit to the Sultan, knock the ground from
under the feet of all this doctrine by securing for the Roman
Catholic interest at Jerusalem what the French had never been
able to obtain--the piece of ground at the Holy City, so long
coveted by pious Catholics, whereon, according to tradition, once
stood the lodging of the Virgin Mary. This the Emperor quietly
obtained of the Sultan, and, after assisting at the dedication of
a Lutheran church at Jerusalem, he telegraphed to the Pope and to
other representatives of the older church that he had made a gift
of this sacred site to those who had so long and so ardently
desired it.

Considerable criticism has been made on the score of his evident
appreciation of his position, and his theory of his relation to
it; but when his point of view is cited, one perhaps appreciates
it more justly. I have already shown this point of view in the
account of the part taken by him at the two-hundredth anniversary
of the Royal Academy, and of his remark, afterward, contrasting
his theory of monarchy with that of Dom Pedro of Brazil. Jocose
as was the manner of it, it throws light upon his idea of his
duty in the state. While a constitutional monarch, he is not so
in the British sense. British constitutional monarchy is made
possible by the "silver streak"; but around the German Empire, as
every German feels in his heart, is no "silver streak." This fact
should be constantly borne in mind by those who care really to
understand the conditions of national existence on the continent
of Europe. Herein lies the answer to one charge that has been so
often made against the German Emperor--of undue solicitude
regarding his official and personal position, as shown in sundry