"It was, on the part of the Cabinet, one of those acts the merit of

which is only perceived afterward, and in which the Government bears the

weight of the evil at the moment when it is trying most sincerely and

courageously to repress it. There were several deplorable incidents--the

shocking murder of the Duchess of Praslin, some scandalous trials and

violent deaths following hard one upon another, and aggravating the

momentary depression and the excited state of the popular imagination.

The air seemed infected with moral disorder and unlooked-for

misfortunes, coming to join in party attacks and the false accusations

which the Cabinet were subjected to. It was one of those unhealthy

hurricanes often met in the lives of governments." It was certainly

culpable on the part of the opposition to try to take advantage of this

disturbed state of men's minds to gain the end they were pursuing. Seven

times was parliamentary reform, and three times was electoral reform,

refused by the Chambers, from February 20, 1841, to April 8, 1847; the

question being then displaced, it changed its ground. The opposition

made an appeal to popular passion; and parliamentary discussions were

succeeded by the banquets.

From the close of the session of 1847 to the opening of that of 1848

they kept France in a state of constant fever--an artificial and

deceptive fever in this sense, that it was not the natural and

spontaneous result of the actual wishes and wants of the country; but

true and serious in this sense, that the political parties who took the

initiative in it found among some of the middle classes and the lower

orders a prompt and keen adhesion to their proposals. The first banquet

took place in Paris at the Château-Rouge Hôtel on July 9, 1847.

Garnier-Pagès has himself told how the Royalist opposition and the

Republican opposition concluded their alliance for that purpose. On

leaving the house of Odilon Barrot, the Radical members of the meeting

walked together for some time. On reaching that part of the Boulevard

opposite the Foreign Office, at the moment they were about to separate,

Pagnerre said: "Well, really, I did not expect for our proposals so

speedy and complete success. Do those gentlemen see what that may lead

to? For my part, I confess I do not see it clearly; but it is not for us

Radicals to be alarmed about it."

"You see that tree," replied Garnier-Pagès; "engrave on its bark a mark

in memory of this day, for what we have just decided upon is a

revolution." Garnier-Pagès did not foresee that the Republic of 1848, as

well as the monarchy of 1830, should in its turn speedily perish in that

revolution, so long big with so many storms.

For six months banquets were renewed in most of the departments--at

Colmar, Strasburg, St. Quentin, Lille, Avesnes, Cosne, Châlons, Mâcon,

Lyons, Montpellier, Rouen, etc. In many parts there was a great display

of feelings and intentions most hostile to royalty and the dynasty. On

several occasions--at Lille, for example--the keenest members of the

parliamentary opposition, Odilon Barrot and his friends, withdrew, soon

after taking their places at table, because the others absolutely

refused to dissemble their hostility to the Crown and the King. At other

banquets, notably at Dijon, the ideas and passions of 1793 unblushingly

reappeared. They defended Robespierre and the Reign of Terror. The "Red

Republic" openly flaunted its colors and hopes. The attack upon monarchy

and the dynasty ranged itself, it is true, behind the parliamentary

opposition, but like Galatea running away:

"_Et se cupit ante videri_."

It had succeeded well enough in making itself seen. The Government could

no longer shut their eyes. They had tolerated the banquets so long as

they could believe, or seem to believe, that the parliamentary

opposition directed, or at least ruled, the movement. When it became

evident that the anarchical impulse was more and more gaining upon the

parliamentary opposition, and that the latter was becoming the

instrument instead of remaining the master, then only they forbade the

banquets. It was their duty.

It was also their right, in the opinion of the most competent legal

authorities, as well as according to the recent practice of other free

governments, in presence of a situation full of certain danger. This

right, however, was disputed by the opposition. The Government, pushing

the principle of legality to its furthest limit, arranged with several

leading men of the opposition for the purpose of enabling the question

of right to be brought speedily and methodically before competent

tribunals. Just before the opening of the new session, in order to close

the campaign, a new and formal banquet was being prepared in Paris, to

which all the Deputies and Peers who had taken part in any of the

preceding banquets were to be invited. This manifestation was to take

place in the Twelfth Arrondissement of Paris. It was therefore agreed

between the opposition delegates and those of the ministerial majority

that the Deputies invited should go to the place appointed for the

meeting and take their places, so as to avoid any disturbance in the

streets or the hall, and that on the police commissary declaring that

there was an order against it the guests should protest and withdraw, to

lay the question before the tribunals. The agreement thus concluded was

communicated by Duchâtel to the council, which approved of it.

Meanwhile the Chamber met, the session was opened, and from the very

first the Government could perceive a wavering in the majority. Even

among those who blamed and feared the agitation out-of-doors, several

believed in the urgent necessity of a concession to remove all pretext

for clamors and intrigues. On the ministers being informed of it Guizot

said: "Withdraw the question from the hands of those who now hold it,

and let it be brought back to the Chamber. Let the majority take a step

in the direction of the concessions indicated; however small it be, I am

certain it will be understood, and that you will have a new Cabinet,

which will do what you think necessary." It was in the same spirit that

the Ministry, during the discussion on the address, rejected an

amendment tending to impose upon them immediate engagements with

reference to reform.

"The maintenance of the unity of the Conservative party," said Guizot,

"the maintenance of conservative policy and power, will be the fixed

idea and rule of conduct in the Cabinet. They will make sincere efforts

to maintain or restore the unity of the Conservative party upon that

question, in order that it may be the Conservative party itself in its

entirety that undertakes and gives to the country its solution. If such

an operation in the midst of the Conservative party is possible, it will

take place. If that is not possible--if by the question of reforms the

Conservative party cannot succeed in making a common arrangement and

maintaining the power of the Conservative policy, the Cabinet will leave

to others the sad task of presiding over the disorganization of the

Conservative party and the ruin of its policy."

The question was not destined to be taken up again by the Chambers,

having escaped from the weak hands that aspired to direct it. The

courtesy of the Conservative reformers had no result except disquieting

the Government, a sort of precursory sign of the tempest. Even the

parliamentary opposition found themselves baffled in their prudent

efforts. A manifesto published in the _National_ newspaper organized a

noisy demonstration in the streets, though forbidden in the

banquet-hall, the National Guard being called to arms by the

insurrection, and their services arranged beforehand. The convention was

clearly violated, and the legal appeal to the tribunals therefore

abandoned: the Revolution itself declared it would decide the question.

In such a situation, sorrowfully admitted by those who had negotiated

the evening before, the Government officially forbade the banquet. The

evening papers announced that the Deputies of the opposition had given

up the intention of being present, and therefore the proposed

manifestation was deprived of all importance. The revolutionary leaders

in their turn declared that the banquet would not take place.

Disappointment increasing their irritation, the parliamentary

opposition, in a momentary resistance, employed the remainder of their

strength. On February 22d fifty-two Deputies of the Left laid before the

Chamber a bill of impeachment against the Ministry, on account of their

home and foreign policy during the whole course of their Administration.

"What would you have them do?" said to Guizot an old member of the

opposition who had no share whatever in this act. "They have just

rendered the banquet abortive by declaring they would not attend it, and

felt compelled to do something to compensate for and to some extent

redeem that refusal."

Weakness has a constraining power difficult to understand, which is not

foreseen even by those who give way to it; and of this the history of

the Revolution of 1848 offers an eloquent and melancholy example.

The King, as well as his ministers, still hoped that the crisis had

passed, and that the disorder avoided on the occasion of the banquet

should not reappear under any pretext. The display of military forces

which had been agreed upon and prepared was ordered to be suspended;

instructions to arrest the Republican leaders were issued slowly and in

but few instances. Yet a secret agitation was indicated in several parts

of the capital; there were numerous crowds; on the morning of the 23rd

several _corps-de-garde_ were attacked. As the fermentation increased,

the streets were crowded with idle workmen; people collected in knots

from curiosity, or stood at their doors. The storm was in the air,

evident both to those who dreaded it and those who were preparing to

make use of it.

Meanwhile the appeal of the revolutionary leaders to the National Guard

had been listened to. Many of the Parisian shopkeepers took part in the

"reform movement," without well understanding it, and marched under the

orders of their dangerous allies. Several detachments of the Seventh,

Third, Second, and Tenth Legions appeared in the streets, some in the

Faubourg St. Antoine, others marching to the Palais Royal, or the office

of the _National_ in the Rue le Peletier, and others in the students'

quarter shouting "Long live reform!" in every street. When General

Jacqueminot, the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard, ordered a

general muster of the legions, a large number of the guards, respectable

and law-abiding men, did not answer to the summons. They had no desire

for a revolution or reform forced from the legal powers by insurrection,

but they shrunk from entering upon a struggle with soldiers wearing

their own uniform and influenced apparently by reasonable motives. They

remained in their homes dejected and anxious.

The King was as dejected as the Parisian citizens, and still more

anxious. For several months he had frequently fallen into very low

spirits, which was attributed to his grief at the death of his only

sister, Madame Adelaide of Orleans, whose life had been always

intimately associated with his, and who had just expired (December,

1847). His most intimate friends urged him to charm away the crisis by

changing his Ministry. He still resisted, but every hour less

vigorously. The Cabinet was not even informed of his perplexities.

"Concessions forced by violence from all the legal powers are not a

means of safety," said Duchâtel; "one defeat would quickly bring a

second. In the Revolution there was not much time between that of June

20th and August 10th, and to-day things advance more quickly than in

those times. Events, like travellers, now go by steam."

The truth, however, was now becoming manifest, both in the King's mind

as to the tendency of his ideas, and in the eyes of his ministers as to

the determination now being formed in the palace. By the very statement

of the question it was resolved upon. Guizot and Duchâtel thus expressed

it to the King: "It is for your Majesty to decide. The Cabinet is ready

either to defend to the last the King and conservative policy which we

profess, or to accept without a murmur the King's determination to call

other men to power. At present, more than ever, in order to continue the

struggle successfully, the Cabinet has need of the King's decided

support. As soon as the public should learn, as they inevitably must,

that the King hesitates, the Cabinet would lose all moral influence and

be unable to accomplish their task." The King seemed still in

perplexity, and said he should prefer to abdicate. "You cannot say that,

my dear," replied the Queen, who was present at the interview with the

Dukes of Nemours and Montpensier; "you belong to France, and not to

yourself."

"That is true," said the King, as Louis XVI had formerly said to

Malesherbes; "I am more unfortunate than the ministers, I cannot

resign." The ministers then in King Louis Philippe's Cabinet had not

resigned. The King, having made his decision, said, "It is with the

keenest regret that I separate myself from you, but necessity and the

safety of the monarchy demand this sacrifice. My will gives way; much

time will be needed to regain the ground I am about to lose." There were

tears in many eyes. The King sent for Molé, and Guizot himself announced

to the Chamber of Deputies the change of the Ministry.

There was much of astonishment and sorrow in the parliamentary majority,

always strongly attached to the leaders they had so long followed in

spite of occasional vagaries and good-natured weakness. The imminence of

a great danger engrossed their minds, together with the consciousness of

a great defeat. The anxiety of the Chambers was reechoed in the

Tuileries; and for the last time the ministers assembled there, anxious

at that last moment of their power to maintain order, now everywhere

threatened. Count Molé was laboriously occupied in the formation of a

cabinet. "To think that this resolution was formed in a quarter of an

hour!" exclaimed the King when engaged with Jayr in some administrative

details.

The excitement was great in the palace, but still greater in the

streets, being skilfully kept up by several insurrectionist leaders, and

spontaneously arising among the reckless portion of the populace, who

are easily influenced by revolutionary clamors. Increased by those

assembling from curiosity or idleness, the crowds in the squares and

boulevards assumed alarming proportions. All at once, opposite the

Foreign Office, there was heard, about nine o'clock in the evening, one

of those fatal explosions, whether accidental or premeditated, which

history often records as the origin of great popular risings.

The soldiers, who till then had remained motionless and patient, thought

they were attacked, and fired in their turn. Several persons fell, some

dead, others wounded, and some were knocked down and trodden under foot.

The greatest disorder, caused both by alarm and indignation, broke out

in the whole neighborhood. Then was the moment of action for the keen

and determined insurgents. A cart which happened to be there was

immediately loaded with the corpses and drawn through the streets, from

one newspaper office to another, in the most populous quarters, with

shouts of "Vengeance! To arms! Down with Guizot! The head of Guizot!" By

daybreak Paris was covered with barricades.

Molé having failed in his efforts to form a Cabinet, the King sent for

Thiers. For the last time he claimed the devotion of his old ministers.

"I must have immediately a military chief--an experienced chief," he

said. "I have sent for Bugeaud, but I wish M. Thiers to find him

appointed. Will you grant me this further service?" Duchâtel, and

General Trézel, on the previous evening still Minister of War, signed

without hesitation Marshal Bugeaud's appointment as Commander-in-Chief

of the National Guard and the Army. It was three o'clock in the morning.

"It is somewhat late to set to work," said the Marshal; "but I have

never been beaten, and shall not make a beginning to-morrow. Let me act,

and fire the cannon; there will be some bloodshed, but to-morrow evening

the strength will be on the side of law, and the factious will have had

their account settled."

The day had not yet dawned when the Marshal was reviewing his forces. He

found them demoralized, having for sixty hours remained motionless

before the mob, with their feet in the mud, and their knapsacks on their

backs, allowing the rioters to attack the Municipal Guard, burn the

sentry-boxes, cut down the trees, break the street-lamps, and harangue

the soldiers. They were moreover badly supplied with provisions and

ammunition. The energetic language of their new commander, and the

precise orders which he gave for the march of the columns, inspired the

soldiers with fresh life and courage. The movements indicated had

already begun to be executed, and the troops were taking position; but

the crowds again filled the streets, and at several points the soldiers

were prevented from marching. One of the generals at the head of a

column sent to tell Bugeaud that he was face to face with an enormous

body of men, badly armed, who made no attack upon him, but only shouted,

"Long live reform! Long live the army! Down with Guizot!" "Order them to

disperse," replied the Marshal; "if they do not obey, use force, and act

with resolution."

There was no fighting on either side. The staff were besieged by the

entreaties of a crowd of respectable men, who in terror and

consternation conjured Bugeaud to withdraw the troops because they

excited the anger of the populace, and leave to the National Guard the

duty of appeasing the insurrection. The danger of such counsel was

obvious, and the Marshal paid no attention to it, till Thiers and Odilon

Barrot, who had just accepted office, came to the staff with the same

advice, and it therefore became an order. The Marshal at first refused

the ministers as he had done the citizens, and then the same order was

sent by the King. "I must have a government," the Marshal had recently

said; and, as he was now without the government, which thus relaxed the

resistance agreed upon, he in his turn gave way. His instructions for

retreat were thus given to his officers: "By order of the King and

ministers, you will fall back upon the Tuileries. Make your retreat with

an imposing attitude, and if you are attacked, turn round, take the

offensive, and act according to my instructions given this morning."

Meanwhile the formation of the Ministry was posted up everywhere. A

mixed crowd carried Odilon Barrot in triumph to the Home Office, which

Guizot and Duchâtel had just left. Those round him shouted, "Long live

the father of the people!" but most of the notices posted up were torn.

At the moment when the new ministers were about to leave Bugeaud's staff

on horseback in order to pass through the city, Horace Vernet, the

artist, arrived out of breath. "Don't let M. Thiers go," said he to the

Marshal. "I have just passed through the mob, and they are so furious

against him that I am certain they would cut him in pieces!" Odilon

Barrot presented himself alone to the crowd, but was powerless to calm

the fury he had assisted in unchaining. "Thiers is no longer possible,

and I am scarcely so," said he on his return to the staff. The King on

one occasion showed himself in the court of the Tuileries, when

reviewing several battalions of the National Guard. There were some

shouts of "Long live the King!" but the most numerous were "Long live

reform! Down with Guizot!"

"You have the reform; and M. Guizot is no longer a minister!" said the

King; and on the shouts being again repeated, he returned to the palace.

The palace also was thronged with a confused crowd, animated by various

feelings and agitated by evident fears or secret hopes. Some urged the

King to abdicate in favor of the Comte de Paris; others vigorously

opposed such a relinquishment of power in presence of the insurrection.

The great mind of Queen Marie-Amélie was displayed in all the simplicity

of its heroism. "Mount on horseback, sire," said she, "and I shall give

you my blessing." She had recently urged the King to change his Cabinet;

a very kind message, intrusted for Guizot to one of his most intimate

friends, at the same time proved her regret.

The King sat at his writing-table, agitated and perplexed. He had begun

to write his abdication, when Marshal Bugeaud entered, having just

learned what was taking place in the Tuileries, and excited by the sound

of some shooting which had already begun. "It is too late, sire," said

he; "your abdication would complete the demoralization of the troops.

Your Majesty can hear the shooting. There is nothing left but to fight."

The Queen seconded this advice, and Piscatory and several others were of

the same opinion. The King rose without finishing his writing, and then

other voices were raised to insist upon the King's promise. He sat down

again, wrote and signed his abdication. By this time the troops had

received orders to fall back, and Marshal Gérard took the place of

Bugeaud as commandant-general. The columns were marched toward the

barracks, and there was no detachment around the Palais-Bourbon, where

the same disorder reigned, and the same efforts were made in vain.

The Duchesse d'Orléans presented herself before the Chamber of Deputies

as soon as the abdication of the King was known. The Duc de Nemours

accompanied her, leading the Comte de Paris by the hand; and the Duc de

Chartres, who was weak and ill, was wrapped up in a mantle and leaned on

Ary Scheffer's arm. Before joining the Princess at the gate of the

Chamber the Duc de Nemours had, with his brother the Duc de Montpensier,

seen the King, their father, take his melancholy departure, to escape

the insurrection, against which he could not make up his mind to use

force.

The Duchesse d'Orléans already knew that depriving the King of the crown

was not giving it to her son. Her natural courage, however, and her

maternal affection induced her to make every effort to secure the throne

for the prince of nine years whom the nation had already intrusted to

her keeping. She had seen the Tuileries invaded before leaving that hall

where her husband's portrait by Ingres seemed to preside over her son's

destinies. "It is here one ought to die," she said, when Dupin and

Grammont came to conduct her to the Chamber. Odilon Barret had gone to

bring her, and succeeded in finding her in the Palais-Bourbon. The crowd

showed sympathy for her, and made room respectfully, though she and her

small retinue had difficulty in getting within the palace, every passage

being crowded. The Duchess stood near the tribune holding her two boys

close to her. After Dupin announced the King's abdication, Barrot, after

presenting the legal instrument, asked the Chamber to proclaim at once

the young King and the regency of Madame la Duchesse d'Orléans.

Shouts of protest were heard on several benches. "It is too late!"

exclaimed Lamartine, as he went to the tribune, eager to urge this

difficulty, reject the regency, and demand a provisional government so

that the bloodshed might be stopped. Some others were already mentioning

the word "Republic." The crowd were gradually pouring into the Chamber

from the corriders, and Sauzet, the President, requested strangers to

withdraw, and made a special appeal to the Duchess herself. "Sir, this

is a royal sitting!" she replied; and when her friends urged her, "If I

leave this Chamber, my son will no more return to it." A few minutes

before her arrival, Thiers had entered the Chamber in the greatest

agitation. "The tide is rising, rising, rising!" he said to those who

crowded round him, and then disappeared. Several voices were heard

together in confusion; among the speakers were La Rochejacquelein,

Ledru-Rollin, Marie, and Berryer.

The Duchess had been conducted to a gallery, on account of the threats

of the insurgent battalions, who burst open the doors after General

Gourgaud had in vain tried to stop them. Armand Marrast, one of the

editors of the _National_, after looking at the invaders, said: "These

are the sham public; I shall call the real!" A few minutes afterward

shots were heard in the court of the palace; the posts in the hands of

the National Guard opened before the triumphant mob, who, after sacking

the Tuileries, hurried up against the expiring remnants of the monarchy.

The Duchesse d'Orléans had already twice offered to speak, but her voice

was drowned in the tumult. The newcomers, stained with blood and

blackened with gunpowder, with dishevelled hair and bare arms, climbed

on the benches, stairs, and galleries; and in every part were shouts of

"Down with the regency! Long live the Republic! Turn out the

'Contents'!" Sauzet put on his hat, but a workman knocked it off, and

then the President disappeared.

Several of the Deputies rushed to the gallery, where the Duchess was

still exposed to the looks and threats of the insurgents. "There is

nothing more to be done here, madam," they urged: "we must go to the

President's house, to form a new chamber." She took the arm of Jules de

Lasteyrie; and on her sons being separated from her in the narrow

passages, she showed the greatest anxiety, crying, "My boys! my boys!"

At one time the Comte de Paris was seized by a workman in a blouse; but

one of the National Guard took him out of his hands, and the child was

passed from one to another till he rejoined his mother. No one knew what

had become of the Duc de Chartres; but he was brought to the Invalides,

where the Princess went for refuge; and in the evening, after nightfall,

the mother and sons withdrew from Paris, and soon after from France.

"To-morrow, or ten years hence," said the Duchesse d'Orléans as she left

the Invalides, "a word, a sign will bring me back." Afterward in exile

she frequently said, "When the thought crosses my mind that I may never

again see France, I feel my heart breaking."

Wanderers and fugitives across their kingdom, after kneeling for the

last time beside the tomb of their children at Dreux, and asking the

hospitality of some friends who were still faithful, and without a

single attempt to recover the crown they had lost, King Louis Philippe

and Queen Marie-Amélie at last reached the seacoast, and set sail toward

England, that safe and well-known refuge of unfortunate princes.

Thunderstruck like them, and at their wits' end, the most faithful of

their servants and partisans waited for some sign authorizing them to

protest against the unparalleled surprise to which France had been

subjected. The fugitive King made no protest. His sons quietly followed

him into exile. Those who were serving France abroad learned at the same

time the news of their fall and the rise of a new power, and thought it

their duty to bow to the national will, resolving that not a single drop

of French blood should be shed in their cause.

(1848) REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY, C. Edmund Maurice

Popular demonstrations in various parts of Germany in the great

revolutionary year 1848 were no doubt partly due to the outbreaks in

France and elsewhere, but it is also apparent that discontent at home

had been long turning the people toward revolt. The agitation that began

in March--the month following the "February Revolution" and the

declaration of a republic in France--was the work of a patriotic party

that cherished not only aspirations for extending popular rights in the

several States, but also a prophetic desire for German unity.

The Congress of Vienna (1815) attempted to adjust the balance of power

in Europe. Some sort of union for the States was imperatively required

by the general situation, but there was fear of making Germany too

strong. The Congress created the German Confederation, constituted by a

union of independent States, under the hegemony or political headship of

Austria. This confederation (_bund_) lacked strength in the Central

Government, and although it reduced the number of States from more than

three hundred to thirty-nine, it still perpetuated elements of

unwieldiness and discord. At the head of the Austrian Government, as

chief minister of the Emperor Ferdinand I, was Metternich, who for many

years had been the great reactionary leader of Europe. He was compelled

now to face conditions such as, in his long and varied career of

statecraft and diplomacy, he never had confronted. Ferdinand himself,

always a weak ruler, succumbed to the revolution provoked by his

minister, whose downfall was followed by the Emperor's abdication

(December 2, 1848) in favor of his nephew, Francis Joseph, the present

ruler of Austria.

The most interesting of the German struggles of 1848 was that in Saxony.

Robert Blum [Footnote: Blum, born at Cologne in 1807, was a writer and

an agitator, leader of the Liberal party in Saxony. He was executed in

November, 1848.--ED.] was present at a ball in Leipsic when the news

arrived of the French revolution. He at once hastened to consult his

friends; and they agreed to act through the Town Council of Leipsic, and

sketched out the demands that they desired should be laid before the

King. These were: "A reorganization of the constitution of the German

Bund in the spirit and in accordance with the needs of the times, for

which the way is to be prepared by the unfettering of the press, and the

summoning of representatives of all German peoples to the Assembly of

the Bund." The Town Council adopted this address on March 1st, and sent

a deputation with it to Dresden; and, on the 3d, the people gathered to

meet the deputation on its return. The following is the account given by

the son of Robert Blum:

"By anonymous placards on the wall the population of Leipsic was

summoned on the evening of March 3d to meet at the railway station the

deputation returning from Dresden. Since the space was too narrow in

this place, the innumerable mass marched to the market-place, which, as

well as the neighboring streets, they completely filled. In perfect

silence the thousands awaited here the arrival of the deputation, which,

at last, toward nine o'clock, arrived and was greeted with unceasing

applause. Town Councillor Seeburg spoke first of the deep emotion of the

King; after him spoke Biedermann. But the crowd uproariously demanded

Robert Blum.

"At last Blum appeared on the balcony of the Town Council House. His

voice alone controlled the whole market-place, and was even heard in the

neighboring streets. He too sought, by trying to quiet them, to turn

them away from the subject of the address and of the King's answer. But

the people broke uproariously into his speech with the demand, 'The

answer! The answer!' It could no longer be concealed that the petitions

of the town had received harsh rejection. Then came a loud and

passionate murmur. The masses had firmly hoped that the deputation would

bring with them from Dresden the news of the dismissal of the hated

ministers.

"But Blum continued his speech, and they renewed their attention to him.

'In constitutional countries,' said he, 'it is not the King, but the

ministers who are responsible. They, too, bear the responsibility of the

rejection of the Leipsic proposals. The people must press for their

removal.' He added that he would bring forward in the next meeting of

the town representatives the proposal that the King should dismiss the

Ministry, 'which does not possess the confidence of the people.' Amid

shouts of exultation and applause, the appeased assembly dispersed."

Blum was as successful with his colleagues as with the crowd; and the

Town Council now demanded from the King the dismissal of his ministers,

the meeting of the Assembly, and freedom of the press. The King tried to

resist the last of these three proposals, pleading his duty to the Bund.

But even the Bundestag had felt the spirit of the times, and on March

1st had passed a resolution giving leave to every government to abolish

the censorship of the press. The King seemed to yield, and promised to

fulfil all that was wished; but the reactionary party in Dresden had

become alarmed at the action of the men of Leipsic; and so, on March

11th, when the men of Leipsic supposed that all was granted, General von

Carlowitz entered their city at the head of a strong force, and demanded

that the Town Council should abstain from exciting speeches; that the

Elocution Union should give up all political discussion; that the

processions of people should cease; and above all, that the march from

Leipsic to Dresden, which was believed to be then intended, should be

given up.

These demands were met by Blum with an indignant protest. "Five men,"

said he, "who manage the army cannot understand that, though their

bullets may kill men, they cannot make a single hole in the idea that

rules the world." The town councillors of Leipsic were equally firm.

Carlowitz abandoned his attempt as hopeless; and on March 13th the King

summoned a Liberal Ministry which abolished press censorship, granted

publicity of legal proceedings, trial by jury, and a wider basis for the

Saxon Parliament, and promised to assist in the reform of the Bund.

In the mean time the success of the French revolution had awakened new

hopes in Vienna. Soon after the arrival of the news, a placard appeared

on one of the city gates bearing the words: "In a month Prince

Metternich will be overthrown! Long live Constitutional Austria!"

Metternich himself was greatly alarmed, and began to listen to proposals

for extending the power of the Lower Austrian Estates. Yet he still

hoped by talking over and discussing these matters to delay the

execution of reforms till a more favorable turn in affairs should render

them either harmless or unnecessary.

But great as was the alarm caused by the South German risings, and great

as were the hopes which they kindled in the Viennese, the word that was

to give definiteness and importance to the impulses that were stirring

in Vienna could not come from Bavaria or Saxony. Much as they might wish

to connect themselves with a German movement, the Viennese could not get

rid of the fact that they were, for the present, bound up with a

different political system. Nor was it wholly clear that the German

movement was as yet completely successful. The King of Prussia seemed to

be meditating a reactionary policy and had even threatened to despatch

troops to put down the Saxon Liberals; and the King of Hanover also was

disposed to resist the movement for a German Parliament. It was from a

country more closely bound up with the Viennese Government, and yet

enjoying traditions of more deeply rooted liberty, that the utterance

was to come which was eventually to rouse the Viennese to action.

The readiness of the nobles to accept the purely verbal concession

offered by Metternich in the matter of the "Administrators" had shown

Kossuth [Footnote: Louis Kossuth, the famous leader of the Hungarian

insurrection of 1848, was at this time about forty-six years of age. The

sovereignty of Hungary had been in the hands of the Hapsburgs since

1687.--ED.] that there could be no further peace. But he still knew how

and when to strike the blow; and it was not by armed insurrection so

much as by the declaration of a policy that he shook the rule of

Metternich. On March 3d a Conservative member of the Presburg Assembly

brought forward a motion for inquiry into the Austrian bank-notes.

Kossuth answered that the confusion in the affairs of Austrian commerce

produced an evil effect on Hungarian finances; and he showed the need of

an independent Finance Ministry for Hungary. Then he went on to point

out that this same confusion extended to other parts of the monarchy.

"The actual cause of the breaking up of peace in the monarchy, and of

all the evils which may possibly follow from it, lies in the system of

government." He admitted that it was hard for those who had been brought

up under this system to consent to its destruction. "But," he went on,

"the people lasts forever, and we wish also that the country of the

people should last forever. Forever too should last the splendor of that

dynasty whose representatives we reckon as our rulers. In a few days the

men of the past will descend into their graves; but for that scion of

the House of Hapsburg who excites such great hopes, for the Archduke

Francis Joseph, who at his first coming forward earned the love of the

nation--for him there waits the inheritance of a splendid throne which

derives its strength from freedom. Toward a dynasty which bases itself

on the freedoms of its people's enthusiasm will always be roused; for it

is only the freeman who can be faithful from his heart; for a

bureaucracy there can be no enthusiasm."

He then urged that the future of the dynasty depended on the hearty

union between the nations which lived under it. "This union," he said,

"can be brought about only by respecting the nationalities, and by that

bond of constitutionalism which can produce a kindred feeling. The

bureau and the bayonet are miserable bonds." He then went on to

apologize for not examining the difficulties between Hungary and

Croatia. The solution of the difficulties of the empire would, he held,

solve the Croatian question too. If it did not, he promised to consider

that question with sympathy, and examine it in all its details. He

concluded by proposing an address to the Emperor which should point out

that it was the want of constitutional life in the whole empire which

hindered the progress of Hungary; and that, while an independent

government and a separate responsible ministry were absolutely essential

to Hungary, it was also necessary that the Emperor should surround his

throne, in all matters of the Government, with such constitutional

arrangements as were indispensably demanded by the needs of the time.

This utterance has been called the "Baptismal Speech of the Revolution."

Coming as it did directly after the news of the French revolution, it

gave a definiteness to the growing demands for freedom; but it did more

than this. Metternich had cherished a growing hope that the demand for

constitutional government in Vienna might be gradually used to crush out

the independent position of Hungary, by absorbing the Hungarians in a

common Austrian parliament; and he had looked upon a Croatian question

as a means for still further weakening the power of the Hungarian Diet.

Kossuth's speech struck a blow at these hopes by declaring that freedom

for any part of the empire could be obtained only by working for the

freedom of the whole; he swept aside for the moment those national and

provincial jealousies which were the great strength of the Austrian

despotism, and appealed to all the Liberals of the empire to unite

against the system which was oppressing them all. Had Kossuth remained

true to the faith which he proclaimed in this speech, it is within the

limits of probability that the whole Revolution of 1848-1849 might have

had a different result.

The Hungarian chancellor, Mailath, was so alarmed at Kossuth's speech

that he hindered the setting out of the deputation which was to have

presented the address to the Emperor. But he could not prevent the

speech from producing its effect. Although Presburg was only six hours'

journey from Vienna, the route had been made so difficult that the news

of anything done in the Hungarian Diet had hitherto reached Vienna in a

roundabout manner, and had sometimes been a week on its way.

The news of this speech, however, arrived on the very next day; and

Kossuth's friend Pulszky immediately translated it into German and

circulated it among the Viennese. A rumor of its contents had spread

before the actual speech. It was said that Kossuth had declared war

against the system of government, and that he had said state bankruptcy

was inevitable. But as the news became more definite the minds of the

Viennese fixed upon two points--the denunciation of the men of the past,

and the demand for a constitution for Austria. So alarmed did the

Government become at the effect of this speech that they undertook to

answer it in an official paper.

The writer of this answer called attention to the terrible scenes which

he said were being enacted in Paris, which proved according to him that

the only safety for the governed was in rallying round the government.

This utterance naturally excited only contempt and disgust; and the

ever-arriving news of new constitutions granted in Germany swelled the

enthusiasm which had been roused by Kossuth's speech.

The movement still centred in the professors of the University. On March

1st Doctor Loehner had proposed, at one of the meetings of the Reading

and Debating Society, that negotiations should be opened with the

Estates, and that they should be urged to declare their Assembly

permanent, the country in danger, and Metternich a public enemy. This

proposal marked a definite step in constitutional progress. The Estates

of Lower Austria, which met in Vienna, had indeed from time to time

expressed their opinions on certain public grievances; but these

opinions had been generally disregarded by Francis and Metternich; and,

though the latter had of late talked of enlarging the powers of the

Estates, he had evidently intended such words partly as mere talk in

order to delay any efficient action, and partly as a bid against the

concessions which had been made by the King of Prussia. That the leaders

of a popular movement should suggest an appeal to the Estates of Lower

Austria was therefore an unexpected sign of a desire to find any legal

centre for action, however weak in power, and however aristocratic that

centre might be.

Doctor Loehner's proposal, however, does not seem to have been generally

adopted; and, instead of the suggested appeal to the Estates, a

programme of eleven points was circulated by the debating society. When

we consider that the revolution broke out in less than a fortnight after

this petition, we cannot but be struck with the extreme moderation of

the demands now made. Most of the eleven points were concerned with

proposals for the removal either of forms of corruption, or of

restraints on personal liberty, and they were directed chiefly against

those interferences with the life and teaching of the universities which

were causing so much bitterness in Vienna. Such demands for

constitutional reforms as were contained in this programme were

certainly not of an alarming character. The petitioners asked that the

right of election to the Assembly of Estates should be extended to

citizens and peasants; that the deliberative powers of the Estates

should be enlarged; and that the whole empire should be represented in

an assembly, for which, however, the petitioners asked only a

consultative power. Perhaps the three demands in this petition which

would have excited the widest sympathy were those in favor of the

universal arming of the people, the universal right of petition, and the

abolition of the censorship.

The expression of desire for reform now became much more general and

even some members of the Estates prepared an appeal to their colleagues

against the bureaucratic system. But the character and tone of the

utterances of these new reformers somewhat weakened the effect which had

been produced by the bolder complaints of the earlier leaders of the

movement, for while the students of the University and some of their

professors still showed a desire for bold and independent action, the

merchants caught eagerly at the sympathy of the Archduke Francis

Charles, while the booksellers addressed to the Emperor a petition in

which servility passes into blasphemy.

These signs of weakness were no doubt observed by the Government; and it

was not wonderful that, under these circumstances, Metternich and

Kolowrat should have been able to persuade themselves that they could

still play with the Viennese, and put them off with promises which need

never be fulfilled. Archduke Louis alone seems to have foreseen the

coming storm, but was unable to persuade his colleagues to make military

preparations to meet it. In the mean time the movement among the

students was assuming more decided proportions; and their demands

related as usual to the great questions of freedom of speech, freedom of

the press, and freedom of teaching; and to these were added the demand

for popular representation, the justifications for which they drew from

Kossuth's speech of March 3d.

But, while Hungary supplied the model of constitutional government, the

hope for a wider national life connected itself more and more with the

idea of a united Germany. Two days after the delivery of Kossuth's

speech an impulse had been given to this latter feeling by the meeting

at Heidelberg of the leading supporters of German unity; and they had

elected a committee of seven to prepare the way for a constituent

assembly at Frankfort. Of these seven, two came from Baden, one from

Wurtemberg, one from Hesse-Darmstadt, one from Prussia, one from

Bavaria, and one from Frankfort. Thus it will be seen that South Germany

still kept the lead in the movement for German unity; and the president

of the committee was that Izstein, of Baden, who had been known to

Germany chiefly by his ill-timed expulsion from Berlin. But, though this

distribution of power augured ill for the relations between the leaders

of the German movement and the King of Prussia, the meeting at

Heidelberg was not prepared to adopt the complete programme of the Baden

leaders, nor to commit itself to that Republican movement which would

probably have repelled the North German Liberals.

The chief leader of the more moderate party in the meeting was Heinrich

von Gagern, the representative of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Gagern was the son of a former minister of the Grand Duke of Nassau, who

had left that State to take service in Austria, and who had acted with

the Archduke John in planning a popular rising in the Tyrol in 1813.

Heinrich had been trained at a military school in Munich. He had

steadily opposed the policy of Metternich, had done his best to induce

the universities to co-operate in a common German movement, and had

tried to secure internal liberties for Hesse-Darmstadt, while he had

urged his countrymen to look for the model of a free constitution rather

to England and Hungary than to France. During the constitutional

movement of 1848 he had become Prime Minister of Hesse-Darmstadt; and he

seems to have had considerable power of winning popular confidence.

Although he was not able to commit the meeting to a definitely

monarchical policy, he had influence enough to counteract the attempts

of Struve and Hecker to carry a proposal for the proclamation of a

republic; and his influence increased during the later phases of the

movement.

It was obvious that, in the state of Viennese feeling, a movement in

favor of German unity, at once so determined and so moderate in its

character, would give new impulse to the hopes for freedom already

excited by Kossuth's speech; and the action of the reformers now became

more vigorous because the students rather than the professors were

guiding the movement. Some of the latter, and particularly Professor

Hye, were beginning to be alarmed, and were attempting to hold their

pupils in check. This roused the distrust and suspicion of the students;

and it was with great difficulty that Professors Hye and Endlicher could

prevail on the younger leaders of the movement to abstain from action

until the professors had laid before the Emperor the desire of the

university for the removal of Metternich. This deputation waited on the

Emperor on March 12th, but it proved of little avail; and when the

professors returned with the answer that the Emperor would consider

their wishes, the students received them with laughter and resolved to

take the matter into their own hands. The next day was to be the opening

of the Assembly of the Estates of Lower Austria; and the students of

Vienna resolved to march from the University to the Landhaus.

In the great hall of the University, now hidden away in an obscure part

of Vienna but still retaining traces of the paintings which then

decorated it, the students gathered in large numbers on March 13th.

Various rumors of a discouraging kind had been circulated; this and that

leading citizen were mentioned as having been arrested; nay, it was even

said that members of the Estates had themselves been seized, and that

the sitting of the Assembly would not be allowed to take place. To these

rumors were added the warnings of the professors.

Fuester, who had recently preached on the duty of devotion to the cause

of the country, now endeavored, by praises of the Emperor, to check the

desire of the students for immediate action; but he was shouted down.

Hye then appealed to them to wait a few days, in hopes of a further

answer from the Emperor. They answered with a shout that they would not

wait an hour; and then they raised the cry of "Landhaus!" Breaking loose

from all further restraint they set out on their march, and as they went

numbers gathered round them. The people of Vienna had already been

appealed to, by a placard on St. Stephen's Church, to free the good

Emperor Ferdinand from his enemies; and the placard further declared

that he who wished for the rise of Austria must wish for the fall of the

present ministers of state.

The appeal produced its effect; and the crowd grew dense as the students

marched into the narrow Herren Gasse. They passed under the archway

which led into the courtyard of the Landhaus; there, in front of the

very building where the Assembly was sitting, they came to a dead halt;

and, with the strange hesitation which sometimes comes over crowds, no

man seemed to know what was next to be done. Suddenly in the pause which

followed, the words "_Meine Herren_" were heard from a corner of the

crowd. It was evident that some one was trying to address them; and the

students nearest to the speaker hoisted him upon their shoulders. Then

the crowd saw a quiet-looking man, with a round, strong head,

short-cropped hair, and a thick beard. Each man eagerly asked his

neighbor who this could be; and, as the speech proceeded, the news went

round that this was Doctor Fischhof, a man who had been very little

known beyond medical circles and hitherto looked upon as quite outside

political movements. Such was the speaker who now uttered what is still

remembered as the "first free word" in Vienna.

He began by dwelling on the importance of the day and on the need of

"encouraging the men who sit there," pointing to the Landhaus, "by our

appeal to them, of strengthening them by our adherence, and leading them

to the desired end by our coöperation in action. He," exclaimed

Fischhof, "who has no courage on such a day as this is only fit for the

nursery." He then proceeded to dwell at some length on the need for

freedom of the press and trial by jury. Then, catching, as it were, the

note of Kossuth's speech of March 3d, he went on to speak of the

greatness which Austria might attain by combining together "the idealist

Germans, the steady, industrious, and persevering Slavs, the knightly

and enthusiastic Magyars, the clever and sharp-sighted Italians."

Finally he called upon them to demand freedom of the press, freedom of

religion, freedom of teaching and learning, a responsible ministry,

representation of the people, arming of the people, and connection with

Germany.

In the mean time the Estates were sitting within. They had gathered in

unusually large numbers, being persuaded by their President that they

were bound to resist the stream of opinion. Representatives as they were

of the privileged classes, they had little sympathy with the movement

that was going on in Vienna. Nor does it appear that there was anyone

among them who was disposed to play the part of a Confalonieri or

Szechenyi, much less of a Mirabeau or a Lafayette. Many of them had

heard rumors of the coming deputation; but Montecuccoli, their

President, refused to begin the proceedings before the regular hour.

While they were still debating this point they heard the rush of the

crowd outside; then the sudden silence, and then Fischhof's voice.

Several members were seized with a panic and desired to adjourn. Again

Montecuccoli refused to yield, and one of their Liberal members urged

them to take courage from the fact of this deputation to make stronger

demands on the Government.

But before the Assembly could decide to act the crowd outside had taken

sterner measures. The speakers who immediately followed Fischhof had

made little impression; then another doctor, named Goldmark, sprang up

and urged the people to break into the Landhaus. So, before the leaders

of the Estates had decided what action to take, the doors were suddenly

burst open, and Fischhof entered at the head of the crowd. He announced

that he had come to encourage the Estates in their deliberations, and to

ask them to sanction the demands embodied in the petition of the people.

Montecuccoli assured the deputation that the Emperor had already

promised to summon the Provincial Assemblies to Vienna, and that, for

their part, the Estates of Lower Austria were in favor of progress.

"But," he added, "they must have room and opportunity to deliberate."

Fischhof assented to this suggestion, and persuaded his followers to

withdraw to the courtyard. But those who had remained behind had been

seized with a fear of treachery, and a cry arose that Fischhof had been

arrested. Thereupon Fischhof showed himself, with Montecuccoli, on the

balcony; and the President promised that the Estates would send a

deputation of their own to the Emperor to express to him the wishes of

the people. He therefore invited the crowd to choose twelve men, to be

present at the deliberations of the Estates during the drawing up of the

petition. While the election of these twelve was still going on, a

Hungarian student appeared with the German translation of Kossuth's

speech. The Hungarian's voice being too weak to make itself heard, he

handed the speech to a Tyrolese student, who read it to the crowd. The

allusion to the need of a constitution was received with loud applause,

and so also was the expression of the hopes for good from the Archduke

Francis Joseph.

But however much the reading of the speech had encouraged the hopes of

the crowd, it had also given time for the Estates to decide on a course

without waiting for the twelve representatives of the people; and,

before the crowd had heard the end of Kossuth's speech the reading was

interrupted by a message from the Estates announcing the contents of

their proposed petition. The petition had shrunk to the meagre demand

that a report on the condition of the state bank should be laid before

the Estates, and that a committee should be chosen from Provincial

Assemblies to consider timely reforms and to take a share in

legislation.

The feeble character of the proposed compromise roused a storm of scorn

and rage; and a Moravian student tore the message of the Estates into

pieces. The conclusion of Kossuth's speech roused the people to still

further excitement; and, with cries for a free constitution, for union

with Germany, and against alliance with Russia, the crowd once more

broke into the Assembly.

One of the leading students then demanded of Montecuccoli whether this

was the whole of the petition they intended to send to the Emperor.

Montecuccoli answered that the Estates had been so disturbed in their

deliberations that they had not been able to come to a final decision.

But he declared that they desired to lay before the Emperor all the

wishes of the people.

Again the leaders of the crowd repeated, in slightly altered form, the

demands originally formulated by Fischhof. At last, after considerable

discussion, Montecuccoli was preparing to start for the Castle at the

head of the Estates when a regiment of soldiers arrived, but they were

unable to make their way through the crowd, and were even pressed back

out of the Herren Gasse.

The desire now arose for better protection for the people; and a

deputation tried to persuade the burgomaster of Vienna to call out the

City Guard. Czapka, the burgomaster, was, however, a mere tool of the

Government; and he declared that the Archduke Albert, as

Commander-in-Chief of the Army, had alone the power of calling out the

guard. The Archduke Albert was, perhaps next to Louis, the most

unpopular of the royal house. He indignantly refused to listen to any

demands of the people, and, hastening to the spot, rallied the soldiers

and led them to the open space at the corner of the Herren Gasse, which

is known as the "Freyung." The inner circle of Vienna was at this time

surrounded with walls, outside of which were the large suburbs in which

chiefly workmen lived.

The students seem already to have gained some sympathy with the workmen;

and for the previous two years the discontent caused by the sufferings

of the poorer classes had been taking a more directly political turn.

Several of the workmen had pressed in with the students in the morning

into the inner town, and some big men, with rough darned coats and dirty

caps over their ears, were seen clenching their fists for the fight. The

news quickly spread to the suburbs that the soldiers were about to

attack the people. Seizing long poles and any iron tools which came to

hand, the workmen rushed forward to the gates of the inner town. In one

district they found the town gates closed against them, and cannon

placed on the bastion near; but in others the authorities were

unprepared; and the workmen burst into the inner town, tearing down

stones and plaster to throw at the soldiers.

In the mean time the representatives of the Estates had reached the

Castle, and were trying to persuade the authorities to yield to the

demands of the people. Metternich persisted in believing that the whole

affair was moved by foreign influence, and particularly by Italians and

Swiss; and he desired that the soldiers should gather in the Castle, and

that Prince Windischgraetz should be appointed commandant of the city.

Alfred Windischgraetz was a Bohemian nobleman who had previously been

known chiefly for his strong aristocratic feeling, which he was said to

have embodied in the expression "Human beings begin at barons." But he

had been marked out by Metternich as a man of vigor and decision who

might be trusted to act in an emergency.

Latour, who had been the previous commandant of the Castle in Vienna,

showed signs of hesitation at this crisis; and this gave Metternich the

excuse for dismissing Latour and appointing Windischgraetz in his place.

To this arrangement all the ruling council consented; but, when Archduke

Louis and Metternich proposed to make Windischgraetz military dictator

of the city, and to allow him to bring out cannon for firing on the

people, great opposition arose. The Archduke John was perhaps one of the

few councillors who really sympathized with Liberal ideas; but several

of the Archdukes, and particularly Francis Charles, heartily desired the

fall of Metternich; and Kolowrat shared their wish. This combined

opposition of sincere reformers and jealous courtiers hindered

Metternich's policy; and it was decided that the City Guard should first

be called out, and that the dictatorship of Windischgraetz should be

kept in reserve as a last resource.

In the mean time the struggle on the streets was raging fiercely.

Archduke Albert had found to his cost that the insurrection was not, as

he had supposed, the work of a few discontented men. The students fought

gallantly; but a still fiercer element was contributed to the

insurrection by the workmen who had come in from the suburbs. One

workman was wounded in his head, his arm, and his foot; but he continued

to encourage his friends, and cried out that he cared nothing for life;

either he would die that day, or else "the high gentlemen should be

overthrown." Another who had had no food since the morning entreated for

a little refreshment that he might be able to fight the better; and he

quickly returned to the struggle. In those suburbs from which the

workmen had not been able to break into the inner town, the insurrection

threatened to assume the form of an attack on the employers. Machines

were destroyed, and the houses of those employers who had lowered wages

were set on fire.

It was this aspect of the insurrection which encouraged the nobles to

believe that, by calling out the guard, they would induce the richer

citizens to take arms against the workmen; and this policy was carried

still further when, on the application of the rector of the University,

the students also were allowed the privilege of bearing arms. But the

ruse entirely failed; the people recognized the City Guard as their

friends, and refused to attack them; and the rumor soon spread that the

police had fired on the City Guard. It was now evident that the citizen

soldiers were on the side of the people; and the richer citizens sent a

deputation to entreat that Metternich should be dismissed.

But the Archduke Maximilian was resolved that, as the first expedient

proposed by the Council had failed, he would now apply some of those

more violent remedies which had been postponed at first. He therefore

ordered that the cannon should be brought down from the Castle to the

Michaelerplatz. From this point the cannon would have commanded, on the

one side the Herren Gasse, where the crowd had gathered in the morning,

and in front the Kohlmarkt, which led to the wide street of Amgraben.

Had the cannon been fired then and there, the course of the insurrection

must, in one way or other, have been changed. That change might have

been as Maximilian hoped, the complete collapse of the insurrection; or,

as Latour held, the cannon might have swept away the last vestige of

loyalty to the Emperor, and the republic might have been instantly

proclaimed. But in any case the result must have been most disastrous to

the cause both of order and liberty; for the passions which had already

been roused, especially among the workmen, could hardly have failed to

produce one of those savage struggles which may overthrow one tyranny,

but which usually end in the establishment of another. Fortunately,

however, the Archduke Maximilian seems to have had no official authority

in this matter; and, when he gave the order to fire, the master-gunner,

a Bohemian named Pollett, declared that he would not obey the order,

unless it was given by the commander of the forces or the commander of

the town. The Archduke then appealed to the subordinates to fire, in

spite of this opposition; but Pollett placed himself in front of the

cannon and exclaimed: "The cannon are under my command; until there

comes an order from my commander, and until necessity obliges it, let no

one fire on friendly unarmed citizens. Only over my body shall you

fire." The Archduke retired in despair.

In the mean time the deputation of citizens had reached the Castle. At

first the officials were disposed to treat them angrily, and even tried

to detain them by force; but the news of the concession of arms to the

students, the urgent pressure of Archduke John, and the accounts of the

growing fury of the people finally decided Metternich to yield; and,

advancing into the room where the civic deputation was assembled, he

declared that as they had said his resignation would bring peace to

Austria he now resigned his office, and wished good luck to the new

government. Many of the royal family and of the other members of the

Council flattered themselves that they had got rid of a formidable enemy

without making any definite concession to the people. Windischgraetz

alone protested against the abandonment of Metternich by the rulers of

Austria.

Metternich had hoped to retire quietly to his own villa, but it had been

already burned in the insurrection; and he soon found that it was safer

to fly from Vienna and eventually to take refuge in England. He had,

however, one consolation in all his misfortunes. In the memoir written

four years later he expressed his certainty that he at least had done no

wrong, and that if he had to begin his career again, he would follow the

same course he took before, and would not deviate from it for an

instant.

When, at half-past eight in the evening of March 13th, men went through

the streets of Vienna, crying out "Metternich is fallen!" it seemed as

if the march of the students and the petition of Fischhof had produced

in one day all the results desired. But neither the suspicions of the

people nor the violent intentions of the princes were at an end. The

archdukes still talked of making Windischgraetz dictator of Vienna. The

workmen still raged in the suburbs; and the students refused to leave

the University for fear an attack should be made upon it. But in spite

of the violence of the workmen the leaders of the richer citizens were

more and more determined to make common cause with reformers. Indeed

both they and the students hoped to check the violence of the riots,

while they prevented any reactionary movement. The Emperor also was on

the side of concession. He refused to let the people be fired on, and

announced on the 14th the freedom of the press. But unfortunately he was

seized with one of his epileptic fits; and the intriguers, who were

already consolidating themselves into the secret council known as the

"Camarilla," published the news of Windischgraetz's dictatorship, and

resolved to place Vienna under a state of siege while the Emperor was

incapable of giving directions.

The news of Windischgraetz's accession to power so alarmed the people

that they at once decided to march upon the Castle; but one of the

leading citizens, named Arthaber, persuaded them to abandon their

intention, and instead to send him and another friend to ask for a

constitution from the Emperor. A struggle was evidently going on between

Ferdinand and his courtiers. Whenever he was strong and able to hold his

own, he was ready to make concessions. Whenever he was either ill or

still suffering from the mental effects of his illness, the Government

fell into the hands of Windischgraetz and the archdukes, and violent

measures were proposed.

Thus, though Arthaber and his friends were received courteously and

assured of the constitutional intentions of the Emperor, at eleven

o'clock on the same night there appeared a public notice declaring

Vienna in a state of siege. But even Windischgraetz seems to have been

somewhat frightened by the undaunted attitude of the people; and when he

found that his notice was torn down from the walls, and that a new

insurrection was about to break out, he sent for Professor Hye and

entreated him to preserve order. In the mean time the Emperor had to

some extent recovered his senses; and he speedily issued a promise to

summon the Estates of the German and Slavonic Provinces and the

congregations of Lombardo-Venetia.

But the people had had enough of sham constitutions; and the Emperor's

proclamation was torn down. This act, however, did not imply any

personal hostility to Ferdinand; for the belief that the Austrian

ministers were thwarting the good intentions of their master was as

deeply rooted at this time in the minds of the Viennese as was a similar

belief with regard to Pius IX and his cardinals in the minds of the

Romans; and when the Emperor drove out on March 15th, he was received

with loud cheers.

But as Ferdinand listened to these cheers he must have noticed that,

louder than the "_Es lebe der Kaiser_" of his German subjects and the

"_Slawa_" of the Bohemians, rose the sound of the Hungarian "_Eljen_."

For mingling in the crowd with the ordinary inhabitants of Vienna was

the Hungarian deputation, which had at last been permitted by the Count

Palatine to leave Presburg, and which had arrived in Vienna to demand

both freedoms that had been granted to the Germans and also a separate

responsible ministry for Hungary. They arrived in the full glory of

recent successes in the Presburg Diet; for, strengthened by the news of

the Viennese rising, Kossuth had carried, in one day, many of the

reforms for which his party had so long been contending. The last

remnants of the dependent condition of the peasantry had been swept

away; taxation had been made universal; and freedom of the press and

universal military service had been promised. Szechenyi alone had

ventured to raise a note of warning, and it had fallen unheeded.

In Vienna Kossuth was welcomed almost as cordially as in Presburg; for

the German movement in Vienna had tended to produce in its supporters a

willingness to lose the eastern half of the empire in order to obtain

the union of the western half with Germany. So the notes of Arndt's

"_Deutsches Vaterland_" were mingled with the cry of "_Batthyanyi Lajos,

Minister Praesident!_" Before such a combination as this, Ferdinand had

no desire, Windischgraetz no power, to maintain an obstinate resistance;

and, on March 16th, Sedlnitzky, the hated head of the police, was

dismissed from office. On the 18th a responsible ministry was appointed;

and on the 22d Windischgraetz announced that national affairs would now

be guided on the path of progress.

In the mean time that German movement from which the Viennese derived so

much of their impulse had been gaining a new accession of force in the

north of Germany. In Berlin the order of the Viennese movements had been

to some extent reversed. There the artisans, instead of taking their

tone from the students, had given the first impulse to reform. The King

indeed had begun his concessions by granting freedom of the press on

March 7th; but it seemed very unlikely that this concession would be

accompanied by any securities that would make it a reality. The King

even refused to fulfil his promise of summoning the Assembly; and it was

in consequence of this refusal that the artisans presented to the Town

Council of Berlin a petition for the redress of their special

grievances. The same kind of misery which prevailed in Vienna had shown

itself, though in less degree, in Berlin; and committees had been formed

for the relief of the poor. The Town Council refused to present the

petition of the workmen, and, in order to take the movement out of their

hands, presented a petition of their own in favor of freedom of the

press, trial by jury, representation of the German people in the

Bundestag, and the summoning of all the Provincial Assemblies of the

kingdom. This petition was rejected by the King; and thereupon, on March

13th, the people gathered in large numbers in the streets. General Pfuel

fired on them; but instead of yielding, they threw up barricades, and a

fierce struggle ensued.

On the 14th the cry for complete freedom of the press became louder and

more prominent; and the insurgents were encouraged by the first news of

the Vienna rising. The other parts of the kingdom now joined in the

movement. On the 14th came deputations from the Rhine Province, who

demanded in a threatening manner the extension of popular liberties. On

the 16th came the more important news that Posen and Silesia were in

revolt. Mieroslawsky, who had been one of the leaders of the Polish

movement of 1846, had gained much popularity in Berlin; and he seemed

fully disposed to combine the movement for the independence of Posen

with that for the freedom of Prussia, much in the same way as Kossuth

had combined the cause of Hungarian liberty with the demand for an

Austrian constitution. In Silesia, no doubt, the terrible famine of the

previous year, and the remains of feudal oppression, had sharpened the

desire for liberty; and closely following on the news of these two

revolts came clearer accounts of the Viennese rising and the happy

tidings of the fall of Metternich.

The King of Prussia promised, on the arrival of this news, to summon the

Assembly for April 2d; and two days later he appeared on the balcony of

his palace and declared his desire to change Germany from an alliance of

states into a federal state.

But the suspicions of the people had now been thoroughly aroused; and on

March 18th, the very day on which the King made this declaration, fresh

deputations came to demand liberties from him; and when he appealed to

them to go home his request was not complied with. The threatening

attitude of the soldiers, and the recollection of their violence on the

preceding days, had convinced the people that until part at least of the

military force was removed they could have no security for liberty.

The events of the day justified their belief; for, while some one was

reading aloud to the people the account of the concessions recently made

by the King, the soldiers suddenly fired upon them, and the crowd fled

in every direction. They fled, however, soon to rally again; barricades

were once more thrown up; the Poles of Posen flocked in to help their

friends, and the black, red, and gold flag of Germany was displayed.

Women joined the fight at the barricades; and on the 19th some of the

riflemen whom the King had brought from Neuchâtel refused to fire upon

the people. Then the King suddenly yielded, dismissed his ministers, and

promised to withdraw the troops and allow the arming of the people.

The victory of the popular cause seemed now complete; but the bitterness

which still remained in the hearts of the citizens was shown by a public

funeral procession through Berlin in honor of those who had fallen in

the struggle. The King stood bare-headed on the balcony as the

procession passed the palace; and on March 21st he came forward in

public waving the black, red, and gold flag of Germany.

(1848) THE REVOLT OF HUNGARY, Arminius Vambery

Deep interest throughout the civilized world was aroused by the

unavailing struggle of Hungary, in 1848, for national independence. The

name of Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot and famous orator, became

celebrated in many lands; and in the various countries where he

sojourned as an exile from his own--especially in the United States

(1851-1852) and in England--his eloquent appeals awakened profound

sympathy for his people's cause. Vambery, however, regards Kossuth's

compatriot, Count Stephen Szechenyi (born in 1791) as "the greatest

Hungarian of the nineteenth century." He was descended from a

distinguished family, which had given to its country many champions of

liberty. The great aim of his life was to revive the drooping energies

of the nation. As a youth he served in the army. Entering the famous

Diet of 1825, in which, by right of birth, he took his seat in the Upper

House, he distinguished himself by his liberal leadership, and as a

writer and an advocate of public endowments accomplished much for the

education of his people.

Up to the time at which Vambery, the celebrated historian of Hungary,

begins the present narrative, the growth of the national spirit had been

more and more evident each year since the end of the Napoleonic wars.

For more than two centuries Hungary had been under the oppressive rule

of Austria. Hungary had furnished soldiers to Austria in her struggle

against Bonaparte, and the Austrian Emperor had repeatedly promised to

redress Hungarian grievances; but after the fall of Napoleon these

promises were repudiated. Hungary so emphatically showed her indignation

that the Emperor was compelled to convoke the Diet in which Szechenyi

distinguished himself. The subsequent career of this leader, the

character and aims of Kossuth, and the insurrection they did so much to

incite are powerfully described by Vambery, who writes not only as an

author fully versed in his country's annals, but also as a patriot

jealous of her liberties, proud of her heroic sons, and loyal to her

fame.

For fifteen years, up to 1840, the popularity of Szechenyi extended over

Hungary, and his name was cherished by every patriot in the land. About

this time, however, the great statesman was destined to come into

collision with a man who was his peer in genius and abilities. The two

patriots were representatives of different methods, and in the contest

produced by the shock of antagonistic tendencies Szechenyi was compelled

to yield to Louis Kossuth, his younger rival. Although there was no

material difference between their aims--for both wished to see their

country great, free, constitutionally governed, prosperous, and advanced

in civilization--yet in the ways and means employed by them to attain

that aim they were diametrically opposed to each other.

Szechenyi, who descended from a family of ancient and aristocratic

lineage, and presented himself to the nation with connections reaching

up into the highest circles of the court, with the lustre of his ancient

name, and with his immense fortune, wished to secure the happiness of

his country by quite different methods from those adopted by Louis

Kossuth, a child of the people, who, although he was a nobleman by

birth, yet belonged to that poorer class of gentry who support

themselves by their own exertions, and who, in Hungary, are destined to

fulfil the mission of the citizen-classes of other countries. It is from

this class of the gentry, for the most part, that are recruited the

trades-people, the smaller landowners, professional men, writers,

subordinate officials, lawyers, physicians, clergymen, teachers, and

professors. By virtue of their nobility, it is true, they belonged to

the privileged class of the country, and were not subjected to the

humiliations of the oppressed peasantry, yet they had to earn a living

by their own work, and were therefore not only accessible to, but were

ready enthusiastically to receive, the lofty message of liberty and

equality which the French Revolution of 1830 began to proclaim anew

throughout Europe.

These doctrines formed a sharp contrast to the views of Count Stephen

Szechenyi, views which, owing to the social position of the man who held

them, were not devoid of a certain aristocratic tinge, and according to

which the most important part in the regeneration of the Hungarian

nation was assigned to the aristocracy. It was a part, however, which

the Hungarian aristocracy was itself by no means disposed to assume.

Among its younger members, indeed, could be found, here and there,

enthusiastic men who were devotedly attached to the person of the lordly

reformer, but the great majority of his class were hostilely arrayed

against Szechenyi's aims, and, obstructing the granting of even the most

inoffensive demands of the nation, supported the Viennese Government;

which was rigidly opposed to political reforms and to any changes in the

public institutions of the country. This attitude of the aristocracy

compelled Szechenyi to avoid as much as possible all questions

concerning constitutionality and liberty, and to confine the work of

reform chiefly to the sphere of internal improvements.

The only way in which he could hope to obtain the support of the court

of Vienna and of the majority of the Upper House for his

politico-economical measures, was to remain as neutral as possible in

politics. The idea which chiefly governed his actions was that the

country should be first strengthened internally, and that afterward it

would be easy for the nation to bring about the triumph of her national

and political aspirations.

After 1840, however, the bulk of the nation, and especially the small

gentry whose preponderating influence was making itself continually

felt, were unwilling to follow Szechenyi in his one-sided policy. The

reformatory work of Szechenyi during the preceding fifteen years had

educated public opinion up to new and great ideas, but the leaders of

that public opinion were now to be found in the House of Representatives

in the persons of Francis Deak and Louis Kossuth. They wished to obtain

for their country both political liberty and material prosperity. They

knew the effect of political institutions upon the material well-being

and civilization of a nation, and they no longer deemed it possible to

attain these objects without a modern constitutional government.

Louis Kossuth, who was born in 1802, was the very incarnation of the

great democratic ideas of his age. He was entirely a man of work and

entered the legal profession, after he had completed his studies with

great distinction, for the purpose of supporting himself by it. Kossuth

was present at the Diet of 1832, when the Government, which conducted

itself most brutally and arbitrarily toward the press, refused to allow

the newspapers to print reports of the deliberations of the Diet in

spite of the repeated urgings by the Deputies for such an authorization,

and it was owing to his ingenuity that this prohibition was evaded. The

censorship was exercised on printed matter only and did not extend to

manuscripts. Kossuth wrote out the reports of the Diet himself, had

numerous copies made of them in writing, and circulated them, for a

slight fee, in every part of the country, where they were looked for

with feverish expectation, and, owing to the spirit of opposition with

which they were colored, were read with the greatest eagerness.

This manuscript newspaper produced quite a revolutionary movement among

the people, frightening even the Austrian Government. The latter now

attempted to silence Kossuth by gentle means, promising him high offices

and a pension, but he refused the enticing offers and continued his work

for the benefit of the nation. Foiled in the attempt to lure Kossuth

from his duty, the Government resorted to violence, seized the

lithographic apparatus by means of which Kossuth planned to multiply his

manuscript newspaper, and gave directions to the postmasters to detain

and open all those sealed packages which were supposed to contain the

reports. But these arbitrary proceedings of the Government could not put

an end to the circulation of the newspaper; the country gentlemen, by

their own servants, continued to send each other single copies, and the

matter was given up only when the Diet ceased to be in session.

Then Kossuth, at the urgent request of his friends and, one might say,

of the whole country, started a new manuscript newspaper at Budapest,

which reported the deliberations of the county assemblies. The effect

produced by this new paper was fraught with even greater consequences

than the first had created, for it was instrumental in bringing the

counties into contact with one another, thus giving them an opportunity

to combine against the Government. The latter, however, soon prohibited

its publication, but the prohibition gave rise to a storm of indignation

throughout the whole country. The counties in solid array addressed

protests to the Government against the illegal act and in behalf of

Kossuth, who continued to publish the paper in spite of the inhibition.

The Government at last resorted to the most barefaced brutality.

Kossuth, the brave champion of liberty, its eloquent pen and herald, was

dragged to a damp and dark subterranean prison-cell in the castle of

Buda, and detained there, while his father and mother and his family,

who were looking to him solely for their support, were robbed of the aid

of their natural protector.

Although at that period lawlessness was the order of the day, yet this

last cruel and illegal act of the Government greatly exasperated the

public mind, which was already in a ferment of excitement. But while the

excited passions raged throughout the country, the Government, nothing

loth, caused Kossuth to be prosecuted for high treason, and, having

obtained his conviction, had him sentenced to an imprisonment of three

years. Kossuth applied himself during his detention to serious studies,

and acquired also, while in prison, the English language to such an

extent that he was enabled to address in that language, during his

exile, with great effect and impressiveness, large audiences both in

England and in the United States of America. His imprisonment lasted two

long years, after the lapse of which he obtained, in 1840, a pardon in

consequence of the repeated and urgent representations of the Diet.

Kossuth returned to the scene of his former activity as the martyr of

free speech and the victim to the cause of the nation. He very soon

found a new field in which to labor. The Government perceived at last

that violence was of little avail, and that those questions which were

occupying the minds to such a degree could no longer be kept from being

publicly discussed by the press. Kossuth now obtained permission to edit

a political daily paper. Its publication was commenced under the title

of _Pesti Hirlap_ ("Newspaper of Pest") in 1841, and may be said to have

created the political daily press of Hungary. It disseminated new ideas

among the masses, stirred up the indifferent to feel an interest in the

affairs of the country, and gave a purpose to the national aspirations.

It proclaimed democratic reforms in every department; the abolition of

the privileges of the nobility and of their exemption from taxation,

equal rights and equal burdens for all the citizens of the State, and

the extension of public instruction, and it endeavored to restore the

Hungarian nationality to the place it was entitled to claim in the

organism of the State.

The wealth of ideas thus daily communicated to the country appeared in

the most attractive garb, for Kossuth possessed a masterly style, and

his leaders and shorter articles showed off to advantage so many

unexpected beauties of the Hungarian language that his readers were

fairly enchanted and carried away by them. His articles were a happy

compound of poetical elevation and oratorical power, gratifying

common-sense and the imagination at the same time, appealing by their

lucid exposition to the reader's intelligence, and exciting and warming

his fancy by their fervor. Kossuth always rightly guessed what questions

most interested the nation, and the daily press became, in his hands, a

power in Hungary, electrifying the masses, who were always ready to give

their unconditional support to his bold and far-reaching schemes.