222 Wilhelm' s Remarkable Pronouncement [1908 



by Kaiser Wilhelm, in the form of an interview with a retired diploma- 

 tist. It is most compromising with regard to past history, the most 

 remarkable thing in it is where he declares that the French and Russian 

 Governments proposed to him in the winter 1899-1900 to intervene 

 against England in favour of the Transvaal, which he refused to join 

 in doing, and that he then supplied the English Government with a 

 plan of campaign against the Boers, which was the one adopted suc- 

 cessfully. As to the first part of the statement, what I heard at the 

 time was that it was Wilhelm himself who proposed the intervention, 

 promising to get England out of Egypt if France would waive all claim 

 to Alsace-Lorraine, and that the French government refused. If au- 

 thentic, which it has every appearance of being, it is a wonderful docu- 

 ment. 



" 30/^ Oct. — Went picknicking at Storrington on the heath below 

 the Windmill. Father Tyrrell joined us, and he gave us his interesting 

 views about monastic life a propos of the Premonstratention convent 

 close by. They are a branch of the Augustinians, and came to England 

 originally on the invitation of the Emperor Napoleon when in exile, 

 but they had a quarrel with the Empress, and some twenty years ago 

 migrated to Storrington, and being very rich, built the huge monastery 

 outside the village. All went well till the Father in charge of their 

 finances ran away with the money and disappeared, since when they 

 have settled down to an indigent and sleepy life. Tyrrell thinks the 

 monastic orders of that kind are doomed to extinction in the modern 

 world. As for himself, he is clearly becoming more and more emanci- 

 pated, and cannot, I think, hold on much longer to his connection, slight 

 as it is, with the church. I should not be greatly surprised to see him 

 throw off his cassock altogether, though I should regret it. If he had 

 a less happy life than he leads at Storrington, I feel sure that this would 

 happen, for he does not believe enough in ecclesiastical authority to 

 worry himself about his excommunication. He is an interesting and 

 charming man, and whatever line he may take I shall approve. He 

 read us out a part of Thompson's ' Ode to the Setting Sun,' which was 

 very appropriate to the time and place. He also told us that some 

 lines he had written in Gwendolen Ryan's autograph book, and which 

 I was so much taken with, are a translation from the German, the 

 fourth verse only being an addition to his own. They are these : 



' Two chambers hath the heart 

 Wherein do dwell 



Sorrow and joy apart. 



' When in the one joy wakes 

 Then in the other 



Sorrow her slumber takes. 



