This was called “Ministerial despotism” by Count Harry Arnim. I call it the maintenance of an absolutely essential devotion to duty under a great leader. Arnim was offended at the expression made use of on one occasion by the Chancellor: “My Ambassadors must wheel round like non-commissioned officers at the word of command without knowing why.” I, on the contrary, consider it quite an excellent description of the relations which should always exist between the leading spirit of the Foreign Office and its branches at foreign Courts, especially when a man of highly original character and quite exceptional ideas and principles is in charge of the administration. With the kind permission of the Excellencies and Grand Crosses in question I should not have objected even if in that expression of the Chancellor’s they had been described as his senior clerks. The more they subordinate to him their own views, tastes and wills, regarding themselves as his staff sergeants, or clerks, and acting accordingly, the better services will they render, and the better will be their work. If, in addition thereto, they should prove to be impartial, clear-sighted observers and diligent reporters, with a sense of what is of importance, and a distaste for phrasemongering and smart writing (of these attributes, by the way, the only one with which Count Arnim could be credited was a desultory industry), they will have done pretty well everything that can be fairly expected of them. I ought now to conduct the reader upstairs under the green and gold cupola to the first floor and there show him the rooms occupied by the Imperial Chancellor and his family. I prefer, however, first to pay a visit to the park behind the courtyards and the smaller outbuildings. It is a stately and pleasant fragment of the Thiergarten, which formerly extended to this spot, and of which many fine groups of beautiful old shady trees are still preserved behind the Wilhelmstrasse, where the nightingales beneath their spreading branches celebrate the budding springtime and the sunrise. The long avenue which runs in a straight line to the left, shaded by elm trees or white beech, and which finishes not far from the further end of the garden, narrowing more and more in perspective, I always thought to be specially charming and indeed fairy like. Exceptionally beautiful in the first days of summer with the green shadows falling athwart the branches in the foreground while the far end is bathed in a soft green light, it remains beautiful even in winter, when the fine lichens and mosses lend a greenish sheen to the stems of the trees. I believe the garden is one of the Chancellor’s favourite walks, and I hope that this, at least, will be preserved when the house is pulled down. A further reason for hoping so is that many a deep plan was thought out, and many a decision of great moment taken here. The Minister had often strolled up and down here at a late hour of the evening