One of the very first acts of William’s reign was the expulsion from Berlin of two French journalists whose sympathetic accounts of his father’s dismissal of Puttkamer had been distasteful to the royal eye. In the following January the correspondents of the _Figaro_ and _National_ of Paris were similarly driven out. In March, 1889, simultaneously with the seizure of the Berlin _Volks-Zeitung_ and the prosecution of the _Freisinnige Zeitung_, a new Penal Code was presented to the Reichstag which contained such arbitrary provisions for stamping out the remaining liberties of the press that even the Cologne _Gazette_ denounced it as “putting a frightful weapon into the hands of the Government for suppressing freedom of speech and silencing opposition.” This measure did not pass, but the odium of having introduced it remained. Although in other respects William was already observed to be separating himself from his Chancellor, it is clear that he has a large share in this odium. All his utterances, both at this time and up to the present date, show how thoroughly he believes in editing the editors. This tendency was during the year 1889 to exhibit its comical side. The special organ of the Waldersee party was the high-and-dry old Tory journal, the _Kreuz-Zeitung_. Early in the year this mouthpiece of the anti-Bismarck coalition was raided by the Chancellor, and both its offices and the house of its editor, Baron Hammerstein, ransacked for incriminating documents. The Kaiser is believed to have intervened to prevent more serious steps being taken. Later in the year, as the success of the Waldersee combination in weaning the Kaiser away from Bismarck grew more and more marked, the _Kreuz-Zeitung_ foolishly gave voice to its elation, and attacked the “Cartel” coalition of parties which controlled the Reichstag. The Kaiser thereupon printed a personal _communique_ in the official paper saying that he approved of the “Cartel” and was “unable to reconcile the means by which the _Kreuz-Zeitung_ assailed it with respect for his own person.” This warning proved insufficient, for in the following January Baron Hammerstein put up as a candidate for a vacancy at Bielefeld, and talked so openly about being the real nominee of the Kaiser that William caused to be inserted in all the papers a notice of his order that the _Kreuz-Zeitung_ should not henceforth be taken at any of the royal palaces, or allowed in public reading-rooms. It may be imagined how the Liberal editors chuckled over this.