ance to the German Emperor. That you, my Lord Bishop, are called to this see gives me particular satisfaction, and it has filled me with gratification that the weighty question of the appointment to the episcopal see of Metz has been decided so happily. Gladly, therefore, have I placed you in possession of all the dignities and privileges connected with this office. Surely no easy matter has it been for you to leave your peaceful retreat in the beautiful convent by the Lake at Laach, where I have so often been your guest and at the same time a witness of your work-quiet yet rich in blessings-and to enter into a new sphere of activity, with its heavy burden of important duties. But the wisdom and loyalty which have illuminated your whole career will, in your new position, enable you to find the right path, so that now in this wider and more important field of labour blessings may attend your work. It will be your bounden duty to foster harmony, to strengthen among the flock entrusted to your episcopal care the spirit of respect towards myself, and to promote love for the German Fatherland. The activity you have displayed in the past and the spirit of loyalty you have always exhibited are to me a guarantee that such will be the case."

On the 3rd of December, 1901, the installation of the SuffraganBishop of Strassburg, Zorn von Bulach, took place in the Emperor's presence. The speech which the Emperor made at the déjeuner which followed was to this effect:

"It has filled me with satisfaction that a native of AlsaceLorraine has been appointed Suffragan-Bishop in the ancient diocese of Strassburg. You, right reverend sir, are a son of Alsace and a scion of an old Alsatian family, which from a remote antiquity has furnished to its country many distinguished men, and you are now called upon, as Suffragan-Bishop, to take up your position beside the Bishop of your native diocese. Gladly have I installed you, therefore, in all the dignities and privileges attached to that office, and I could not deny myself the pleasure of receiving personally from you also the oath of allegiance, as I did so recently from the Bishop of Metz. The assurances of loyalty and the good wishes that you have just expressed for me and my House, as well as your past services to Church and State,

strengthen my belief that you, too, will regard it as your bounden duty to promote harmony, to strengthen the spirit of respect towards myself, and to increase the love of the German Fatherland in the diocese of Strassburg, so far as it lies in your power. In doing so you will only be following the example of your predecessors, who, in the days of the Holy Roman Empire, remained true to Emperor and empire in good and evil days."

While the Emperor was in Metz in May, 1902, he visited the cathedral, and was welcomed by Bishop Benzler in the following address:—

"Will your Imperial and Royal Majesty permit me, on your entry into this noble House of God, to bid you a most respectful welcome? We have to thank the high artistic feeling and active encouragement of your Majesty for the fact that this glorious edifice now begins to reveal its beauty to the admiring gaze as it will appear when restored and completed. The main entrance, a splendid example of style, is now approaching completion, and already we can form some conception of the appearance of the interior of the Cathedral as it will be when restored to its original magnificence. It was a sublime idea that inspired the builder of the Cathedral of St. Stephen at Metz. Stephen, we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, with his dying eyes saw the Heavens open-vidit cælos apertos. The story goes that the spirit of the artist seized that moment to embody it in stone. In the lofty choir the martyr is just sinking down under the shower of stones cast by the Jews; his failing eye looks up to the glory of Heaven, which seems to stream through the lofty stained windows into the high-vaulted building. Other cathedrals may surpass it in vastness of dimensions, in impressiveness of massive effects, but so far as noble proportion, beauty of outline, and intellectual mastery over the material employed are concerned, the Cathedral of St. Stephen at Metz may rank with the most noble examples of the Gothic style. Your Imperial and Royal Majesty has been pleased to recognise the eminent importance of our cathedral, and has most generously assisted in its restoration. May it please your Majesty to receive in return for such high favours the most respectful thanks of the Bishop, the Cathedral Chapter, and the whole diocese. May the blessing of Almighty God, to whose glory your Imperial and Royal Majesty has assisted this cathedral towards its artistic completion, descend in richest measure upon your Imperial and Royal Majesty, upon her Majesty the Empress, and upon the whole Imperial and Royal House."

On the 19th of June, 1902, the Emperor paid a visit to the town of Aix-la-Chapelle. Accompanied by his Consort, he viewed the minster, and was there greeted by the prelate, Dr. Bellerheim, in the following address:

"The debt of gratitude which the Chapter of the Collegiate Church owes your Imperial Majesty can never be repaid. This sacred duty we perform in the solemn services of prayer and praise which, for a thousand years and more, have re-echoed from the high-sprung arches and vaulted roof of our Collegiate Church. Day by day throughout the year do we pray in this place for Emperor and Empire. These prayers begin when the first blush of dawn rises from the lap of morning, they continue when the sun reaches its meridian, and, your Majesty, they do not die away on our lips till the shadows of evening are falling. May the Imperial Eagle spread its sheltering wings over this holy place of prayer until the last morsel of mosaic shall have been inserted in its place." Thereupon the Emperor replied as follows:

"I thank the Chapter of this Foundation from my whole heart for the noble address which we have just received. If all the clergy of your Church are like-minded with yourselves, then the safety of our Fatherland is well assured.

"It affords me great pleasure that I am able personally to further and take under my patronage the work of continuing the decoration of your church. In so doing I am but continuing in the spirit of my predecessors. My lamented grandfather and my father regarded it as an imperative duty to restore to its pristine splendour this beautiful House of God, and we now continue the work which the great Charles once began. Throughout the centuries a certain spirit has pervaded the Teutonic characterthe love of Nature, which the Creator implanted in our hearts to be a true birthright of us Germans. They have exhibited the same spirit in their art as applied to the ornamentation of their churches, and no German can free himself from the influence of the models which were thus originated, the protection of which becomes the duty of the Sovereign.

"I shall be glad if Heaven will, in the evening of my life, permit me to see the completion of this church."

On the same day the Emperor, in the Council Chamber at Aix-laChapelle, replied as follows to the address of Chief Burgomaster

Veltmann-a reply which did not fail to attract attention, especially in Catholic circles, even outside the borders of Germany:

"My dear Chief Burgomaster: In the name of her Majesty the Empress and in my own I thank you sincerely, and from the bottom of my heart, for the indescribably patriotic reception which all quarters of the city of Aix-la-Chapelle have accorded to us. It was one of the dearest wishes of my heart to visit the town of Aix, and I thank you for the opportunity you afforded me by your invitation. Who on such historic soil as this of Aix can fail to be deeply moved by the echoes and the sounds of the past and the present? Who can fail to recall the acts of Providence when he surveys the history of the centuries during which our Fatherland has been associated with Aix-la-Chapelle? Aix is the cradle of the German Imperial power, for here the great Charles set up his throne, and the town of Aix has since retained. some reflex of his glory. So powerful and so great a figure was this mighty Germanic Prince, that Rome herself offered him the dignity of the ancient Roman Cæsars, and he was chosen to enter upon the heritage of the Imperium Romanum-assuredly a splendid recognition of the efficiency of our German race then first entering on the stage of history; for the sceptre of the Cæsars had slipped from the feeble grasp of their successors, crumbling and insecure the Roman fabric was tottering to its fall, and only the appearance on the scene of the Germans, flushed with victory and unspoiled in spirit, was able to divert the history of mankind into a new channel, which it has followed ever since. It goes without saying that the powerful Charles, the great King of the Franks, drew upon him the gaze of Rome, who saw in him her bulwark and protector. But to unite the office of the Roman Emperor with the dignity and burdens of a Teutonic king was a task beyond the power of man. What he, with his mighty personality, was able to accomplish, fate denied to his successors, and in their anxiety to gain the empire of the world the later Imperial dynasties lost sight of the German nation and country. They marched to the South in order to retain the empire of the world, and, thereby, forgot Germany. Hence our kingdom and nation gradually broke up. Just as the aloe, when it puts forth its blossoms, devotes its whole strength to this one task, unfolds

from its ascending crest bloom after bloom-to the astonishment of the beholder-and then breaks and dries up at the root, so also fared the Holy Roman Empire.

"And now another Empire has arisen. The German people again have an Emperor, of their own making. Sword in hand, on the field of battle, the crown was won and the banner of the Empire once more floats high in air. With the same enthusiasm and love with which the German people clung to their ancient Imperial idea did the new Empire come into existence, only with other problems to solve. It is shut off from the outer world and confined within the limits of our country, in order that we may gather strength by way of preparation for the tasks which lie before our people at home, and which in the Middle Ages could not be performed at all. And we see that the Empire, although still young, grows in strength year by year, while on all sides ever-growing confidence is placed in it. The mighty German Army, however, is the mainstay of the peace of Europe. True to the Teutonic character, we confine our Empire within definite limits, that we may have unlimited scope for the development of our resources within. In ever-widening circles does our speech extend its influence even across the sea. Into far-distant lands do our science and research wing their way. There is no work in the field of modern research which has not been published in our tongue, and no discovery in science which we are not the first to turn to account, to be subsequently adopted by other nations. Such is the World Power to which the German spirit aspires. If we would do justice in all respects to the great tasks laid upon us, we must not forget that the main foundation upon which this Empire rests is based on simplicity, the fear of God, and the high sense of moral duties possessed by our ancestors. With what sore affliction was the hand of God laid upon our country at the beginning of last century, and how mighty was the arm of Providence which shaped and welded the iron in the furnace of affliction until the weapon was forged. So I hope that all of you, clergy and laity alike, will help me to preserve religion among the people. Together must we labour to preserve to the Germanic race its vigour and the moral basis of its strength. That, however, is only possible by preserving for it religion-Protestant and Catholic alike. My joy to-day is the greater because I have im