How can our German Caesar, who has just made a journey to Rome after the manner of Barbarossa, continue to suffer an assembly of talkers, of political commercial travellers, of people who allow their minds to be dominated by the vulgar thing called economics? It is not possible, and therefore Caesar calls to witness the first Military Staff that he comes across at the Tempelhof and makes it judge of the matter. "I have had to order the dissolution of the Reichstag," says William to his officers and generals, "and I trust that the new Parliament will sanction the re-organisation of the Army. But if this hope should not be realised, I fully intend to leave no stone unturned to attain the end which I desire. No stone unturned, gentlemen, and you understand, I hope, that it is to you that I am speaking, and you who are concerned. You are the defenders of the past, and of the prerogatives of the Imperial and Royal Power." If the new Reichstag meets in the same spirit of resistance to the excesses of Prussian militarism, William II will be condemned to constitutional government and then, little by little, to the surrender of everything that he believes to be his proper attributes, and of all his tastes. No further possibility then of an offensive war, to escape from domestic difficulties; no more parades with the past riding behind him; no more finding a way out by some sudden headlong move, for he would drag behind him only a people convinced against its will and too late. The only thing then left to the King of Prussia, face to face with a new majority opposed to militarism, would be the dangerous resource of a _coup d'etat_. Dr. Lieber, an influential deputy, has defined the actual situation with a clearness which leaves nothing to be desired-- "We perceive," he said, "that the Prussian principle of government is developing more and more, and tending to become the idea of the German Empire. The policy to be pursued in the German Parliament should be purely German." The dilemma is clear. Will Germany continue to become Prussianised or will she remain German? If she is Prussian, that is to say, militarist, socialism will grow and increase; if she is German, the development and expansion of her political and social organism, having free play, will come about normally and surely. Therefore, the solidity of German unity should consist in resistance to Prussianism or militarism, to William II, and to the past. On the other hand, submission of the old Confederation to Prussia must inevitably lead to disintegration. May 29, 1893. [7] William II has told us, on the occasion of the unveiling of the statue of William I at Gorlitz, that the question which brought about the dissolution of the Reichstag, that like which confronts the impending election, is that of the Military Bill, and that this question dominates all others.