Prince Henry, to present to the American nation a statue of—­Frederick the Great, and coupled with the offer a proposal that the statue should be erected—­of all places—­in Washington!  No one doubted the Emperor’s sincere desire to pay the highest compliment he could think of to a people to whom he felt grateful for the honour done to Germany in the person of his brother, but nearly every one smiled at the simplicity, or, as some called it, the want of political tact shown by offering the statue of a ruler whose name, to the vast majority of Americans, is synonymous with absolute autocracy, to a republic which prides itself on its civic ways and love of personal freedom.  The gift was accepted by the American Government in the spirit in which it was offered, the spirit of goodwill.  And why not?  To the Emperor his great ancestor’s effigy is no symbol of autocracy, but the contrary, for to the Emperor and his subjects Frederick the Great is as much the Father of Prussia, the man who saved it and made it, as Washington was the Father of America.  Besides, the spirit in which a gift is offered, not its value or appropriateness, is the thing to be considered.

Irritation in England was still strong against Germany on account of the latter’s easily understood race-sympathy with the Boers during the war just over, but the fact did not prevent the Emperor from accepting King Edward’s invitation to spend a few days at Sandringham with him in November this year on the occasion of his birthday.  The Emperor took the Empress and two of his sons with him.  The hostile temper of the time, both in England and Germany, was alluded to in a sermon preached in Sandringham Church by the then Bishop of London.  It was notable for its insistence on the necessity of friendlier relations between England, Germany, and America, the three great branches of the Teutonic race.  After the service the Emperor is reported to have exclaimed to the Bishop:  “What you said was excellent, and is precisely what I try to make my people understand.”

As a proof that this was no merely complimentary utterance, but the expression of a thought which is constantly in the Emperor’s mind, an incident which happened at Kiel regatta in the month of June previously may be recalled.  The American squadron, under the late Admiral Cotton, was paying an official visit to the Emperor during the Kiel “week” as a return honour for the visit of the Emperor’s brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, to the United States the year before.  There was a constant round of festivities, and among them a lunch to the Emperor on board the Admiral’s flagship, the Kearsarge.  Lunch over, the Emperor was standing in a group talking with his customary vivacity, but, as customary also, with his eyes taking in his surroundings like a well-trained journalist.  Suddenly he noticed a set of flags, those of America, Germany, and England, twined together and mingling their colours in friendly harmony.  He walked over, gathered the combined flags in his hand, and turning to the Admiral exclaimed in idiomatic American:  “See here, Admiral; that is exactly as it should be, and is what I am trying for all the time.”