It is because he is an Empire-builder that his numerous journeys abroad and restlessness of movement at home have earned for him the nickname of the “travelling Kaiser.”  The Germans themselves do not understand his conduct in this respect.  If one urges that Hohenzollern kings, and none of them more than the Great Elector and Frederick the Great, were incessant travellers, they will reply that their kings had to be so at a time when the Empire was not yet established, when rebellious nobles had to be subdued, and when the spirit of provincialism and particularism had to be counteracted.  Hence, they say, former Hohenzollerns had to exercise personal control in all parts of their dominions, see that their military dispositions were carried out, and study social and economic conditions on the spot; but nowadays, when the Empire is firmly established, when the administration is working like a clock and the post and telegraph are at command, the Emperor should stay at home and direct everything from his capital.

The Emperor himself evidently takes a different view.  He does not consider the forty-year-old Empire as completed and consolidated, but regards it much as the Great Elector or Frederick the Great regarded Prussia when that kingdom was in the making.  He believes in propagating the imperial idea by his personal presence in all parts of the Empire, and at the same time observing the progress that is being made there.  He is, finally, a believer in getting into personal touch, as far as is possible, with foreign monarchs, foreign statesmen, and foreign peoples, for he doubtless sees that with every decade the interests of nations are becoming more closely identified.

In connexion with the subject of the Emperor’s travelling, mention may be made of the fact that many years ago he thought it necessary to explain himself publicly in reference to the idea, prevalent among his people at the time, that he was travelling too much.  “On my travels,” he said,

“I design not only to make myself acquainted with foreign countries and institutions, and to foster friendly relations with neighbouring rulers, but these journeys, which have been often misinterpreted, have high value in enabling me to observe home affairs from a distance and submit them to a quiet examination.”

He expresses something in the same order of thought in a speech telling of his reflections on the high sea concerning his responsibilities as ruler: 

“When one is alone on the high sea, with only God’s starry heaven above him, and holds communion with himself, one will not fail to appreciate the value of such a journey.  I could wish many of my countrymen to live through hours like these, in which one can take reckoning of what he has designed and what achieved.  Then one would be cured of over self-estimation—­and that we all need.”

When the Emperor is about to start on a journey, confidential