Now that the Austrians had escaped from all their perils, and
Napoleon's _coup d'etat_ had removed the danger of another revolution
in France, they took in hand the burying of the recent Constitution
which had given so much umbrage to the Magyars and to the Croats no
vast pleasure. In its place, in 1851, the policy of Bach, an
absolutist and a German policy, was introduced. The Croats and the
Serbs of southern Hungary were treated differently, the latter being
given not the territory they had claimed but one much more extensive,
so that they themselves were in a great minority.[42] The Croats found
themselves, of course, no longer joined to the Dalmatians. Everywhere
a flood of Germans, the "huzzars of Bach," was loosened on the
population; German was erected to be the official language. But the
Slovenes took advantage even of the German atmosphere. Their national
consciousness, which Napoleon had awakened after centuries, was now
aroused. They took small interest, as yet, in politics, but strove to
make material progress, principally in agriculture, partly too in
commerce, such as in the exploitation of their splendid forests. Like
the Slavs of Istria, they had no educated class--except the
clergy--which was strong enough and was sufficiently well organized to
lead them. Consequently it was difficult to make much headway in the
towns against the Germans here and the Italians there. But they were
not discouraged; by means of organizations, political and economic,
they fought this denationalizing effect of the towns. That they
succeeded in arresting the tendency--for example at Gorica and
Triest--is even more laudable in view of the serious educational
handicap which for years they had to face, and which the Austrians
continued to inflict upon them until 1914. The provincial
administration of Carinthia, for instance, was in 1914 maintaining
three Slovene schools and six hundred and twelve German schools,
although the Slovenes formed one-third of the population. What the
Austrians said was that German was a world-language and that it was a
fad to want to learn Slovene. Perhaps the Slovenes told them that
Welsh is not a world-language. Anyhow, being not only a patriotic but
a very practical race, they built their own schools in the villages,
with the result that they have to-day a far smaller proportion of
illiterates--171/2 per cent.--than either the Croats or the Serbs. It
was well that they were patriotic and practical; they would otherwise
have reaped a bitter harvest. The Slavs of Istria, Croatia and
Dalmatia were in contact with no German territories and were for that
reason left in the cold shades. The Slovenes, having Germans near them
and among them, had to have a share in what the Germans were enjoying
and they reaped sagaciously. One must admit that it was practical on
Austria's part to favour the Italian language in Dalmatia, for it was
from there that she supplied herself with functionaries for the
provinces of Lombardy and Venice.