242 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XIX 



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 rep 

 resentatives of the older church that he had made a gift 

 of this sacred site to those who had so long and so ar 

 dently 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 mon 

 arch, he is not so in the British sense. British consti 

 tutional monarchy is made possible by the &quot;silver 

 streak&quot;; but around the German Empire, as every Ger 

 man feels in his heart, is no &quot;silver streak.&quot; 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 Ger 

 man Emperor of undue solicitude regarding his official 

 and personal position, as shown in sundry petty treason 

 trials. The simple fact is that German public opinion, 

 embodied in German law, has arrived at the conclusion 

 that it is not best to allow the head of the state to be 

 the sport of every crank or blackguard who can wield 

 a pen or pencil. The American view, which allowed Lin 

 coln, Garfield, and McKinley to be attacked in all the 

 moods and tenses of vituperation, and to be artistically 



