246 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XIX 



quietly, but resolutely and effectually, put his foot upon 

 them. 



Another complaint sometimes heard in America really 

 amounts to this : that the Emperor is pushing German in 

 terests in all parts of the world, and is not giving himself 

 much trouble about the interests of other countries. There 

 is truth in this, but the complainants evidently never 

 stop to consider that every thinking man in every nation 

 would despise him were it otherwise. 



Yet another grievance, a little time since, was that, ap 

 parently with his approval, his ships of war handled sun 

 dry Venezuelans with decided roughness. This was true 

 enough and ought to warm every honest man s heart. 



The main facts in the case were these : a petty equatorial 

 &quot; republic, &quot; after a long series of revolutions, one hun 

 dred and four in seventy years, Lord Lansdowne tells us, 

 was enjoying peace and the beginnings of prosperity. 

 Thanks to the United States, it had received from an 

 international tribunal the territory to which it was en 

 titled, was free from disturbance at home or annoyance 

 abroad, and was under a regular government sanctioned 

 by its people. Suddenly, an individual started another 

 so-called &quot; revolution. He was the champion of no re 

 form, principle, or idea ; he simply represented the greed 

 of himself and a pack of confederates whose ideal was 

 that of a gang of burglars. With their aid he killed, plun 

 dered, or terrorized until he got control of the govern 

 mentor, rather, became himself the government. Un 

 der the name of a &quot;republic&quot; he erected a despotism 

 and usurped powers such as no Kussian autocrat would 

 dare claim. Like the men of his sort who so often afflict 

 republics in the equatorial regions of South America, he 

 had no hesitation in confiscating the property and taking 

 the lives, not only of such of his fellow-citizens as he 

 thought dangerous to himself, but also of those whom 

 he thought likely to become so. He made the public 

 treasury his own, and doubtless prepared the way, as so 

 many other patriots of his sort in such l republics have 



