Prusse

1900 · réf. 164924 — 1900-01. Ten-thousand words of musings on democracy aristocracy and plutocracy An extensive manuscript being Kaiser Wilhelm's unpublished translation into German of an article covering political theory from the English journal The Quarterly Review. The original article by Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson published in the October 1900 issue of the journal pp. 359-80 was nominally a review of eight recent books on political philosophy among them Heinrich von Treitschke's Politik E. L. Godkin's Problems of Modern Democracy and Theodore Roosevelt's American Ideals. In practice as standard for the Quarterly Review the article used the reviewed works as a starting point for a wider discourse. The article would have clearly appealed to the Kaiser. It begins by asking whether political philosophy even exists and the author notes that historically political philosophy is characterized by absolutism. However he observes that there is now a shift towards relativism. The trend in modern politics is the state's growing power and size those in control increasingly influenced by plutocracy. He argues that the House of Commons gradually ceded its power to the Cabinet risking a shift in British democracy towards the American plutocratic system. The solution is to preserve an aristocracy but one based on training and ability rather than birth. Wilhelm has dated the first page "25.12.1900" and "2.2.1901" and the last page "17.2.1901" presumably the dates between which he translated it. The lengthy project totalled around ten thousand words. He has made a few corrections and underlined some words for emphasis. Generally the manuscript is written confidently in Wilhelm's bold hand. Wilhelm had an English mother the eldest child of Queen Victoria and spoke English fluently though from his boyhood preferred the Prussian militarist and autocratic teachings of his tutors to the British liberalism of his mother. Wilhelm had been Kaiser for 13 years when he undertook the translation and his reasons for doing so are unknown. He was always deeply interested in political ideas the preservation of the German order and in Britain's development and its threat to German power. A typed transcript of the German translation and a photocopy of the Quarterly Review article is included. Manuscript 38 bifolia with full-page manuscript on 77 pages and running heading "Politik" on first page of each except the first; page size 235 x 202 mm; Wilhelm's coat of arms embossed in silver at head. Housed in custom quarter leather solander box. Very light soiling. In excellent condition. hardcover