THE DOWNFALL OF DESPOTISM. MARCH, 1848.
Character of the French Revolution of 1848.--Its unlikeness to the
revolutions in the rest of Europe.--Position of South German
States.--Wuertemberg.--Bavaria.--Baden.--Struve and Hecker.--The
Offenburg Meeting.--Bassermann's Motion.--The procession to
Carlsruhe.--The risings in Wuertemberg--in Bavaria--in the small
States--in Saxony.--Effect of French and German risings in
Vienna.--Kossuth's speech of March 3.--Its importance.--Its effect
on Vienna.--Dr. Loehner's Motion.--The "Eleven Points."--Effect of
the reform movement on the rulers of Austria.--The Meeting at
Heidelberg.--Heinrich von Gagern.--Division between Students and
Professors in Vienna.--The deputation of March 12.--The meeting of
March 13.--The "first free word."--The "Estates."--The
insurrection.--The workmen's movement.--Pollet.--The fall of
Metternich.--Intrigues of Windischgraetz and the Camarilla.--Kossuth
in Vienna.--Austria "on the path of progress."--The insurrection in
Berlin.--Its character and success.--Bohemia in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.--Policy of Ferdinand II. and III.--of Maria
Theresa--of Joseph II.--The language question.--The March movement
in Prague.--Gabler.--Peter Faster.--The language revives.--The
first meeting at the Wenzel's-bad.--The two petitions.--The mission
to Vienna.--Contrast of Metternich's treatment of Lombardy with
that of other parts of the Empire.--The secret proclamations.--The
final concessions.--Augusto Anfossi.--His programme.--The rising of
the 18th of March.--The appeal to O'Donnell.--The "Five
Days."--Flight of Radetzky.--Difference of Venetian movement from
the other movements.--Manin's imprisonment and its effects.--His
release.--The Civic Guard.--Death of Marinovich.--Magyars and
Croats.--Venice free.--Palffy's treachery.--General summary of the
March risings.
The reign of Louis Philippe had indirectly produced stirrings of
thought in France which were at a later period to have their influence
on Europe; and which, indeed, may be said to be affecting us at this
moment. But the time for this influence had not yet arrived; and the
immediate result of that reign had been in some measure to confirm
France in the secondary position in European affairs to which the fall
of Napoleon had naturally brought her. The foreign aggression, which
had been favoured by the Ministers of Charles X., had given place to
intrigues like those relating to the Spanish marriages; the despotic
policy which had forced on the revolution of July, 1830, had made way
for manipulation and corruption; and aristocratic pretensions for the
arrogance of bourgeois wealth. Attempts at reform were defeated rather
by fraud than by force; and, though the immediate cause of the
revolution was an act of violence, it was to the cry "A bas les
corrompus" that the revolutionists rushed into the parliament of Louis
Philippe. The questions, therefore, with which France had to deal,
vitally important as they were, were not those which were agitating
Europe at that period. And, if the subjects in which France was
interested were not yet ripe for handling by the other nations of
Europe, still less could the watchwords of the European revolution be
inscribed on the banner of France. The principle of nationality, the
development, that is, of a freer life by the voluntary union of men of
the same race and language, was not one which could interest the
French. The first movement for distinctly national independence in
Europe had been the rising of Spain against the French in 1808; the
second, the rising of Germany in 1813; and, though there might be in
France sentimental sympathies with Greeks and Poles, these were due
rather to special classical feeling in the one case, and traditions of
common wars in the other, than to any real sympathy with national
independence. France, at the end of the previous century, had offered
to secure to Europe the Rights of Man, and had presented them instead
with the tyranny of Napoleon; the rights of nations had been asserted
against her, and the national movement would be continued irrespective
of her.
It may sound a paradox, but is none the less true, that this absence
of French initiative in the European revolution of 1848 is most
strikingly illustrated in those countries which seemed most directly
to catch the revolutionary spark from France, viz., Wuertemberg,
Bavaria, and Baden. The States of South Germany had, ever since 1815,
been a continual thorn in the side of Metternich. A desire for
independence of Austria had combined with an antagonism to Prussia to
keep alive in those States a spirit with which Metternich found it
very hard to deal. Wuertemberg had been the first to hamper his
progress towards despotic rule; while the size of Bavaria and its
importance in the German Confederation had enabled its rulers to
maintain a tone of independence which Metternich could not rebuke with
the same freedom which he used towards the princes of less important
States. But it was in the smallest and apparently weakest of the three
States of Southern Germany that the movement was being matured which
was eventually to be so dangerous to the power both of Austria and
France. The Grand Duchy of Baden had had, since 1815, a very peculiar
history of its own. The Grand Duke had been one of those who had
granted a Constitution to his people not long after the Congress of
Vienna. A reaction had, however, soon set in; no doubt, to some
extent, under the influence of Metternich. But it was not till 1825
that the opposition of the people of Baden seemed to be crushed and a
servile Parliament secured. Again a Grand Duke of Liberal opinions
came to the throne in 1830; but he, in his turn, was forced to bend to
Metternich's power, and to submit to the Frankfort Decrees in 1832;
and in 1839 Metternich succeeded in getting a Minister appointed who
was entirely under his control. But these public submissions on the
part of the official leaders made it easier for a few private citizens
to keep alive the spirit of opposition in Baden.
In 1845 Gustav Struve had come forward, not merely to demand reform in
Baden, but also to prophesy the fall of Metternich. For this offence
he was imprisoned; but he continued to keep alive an element of
opposition in Mannheim, where he founded gymnastic unions, and edited
a journal in which he denounced the Baden Ministry. But, though Struve
seems to have been one of the first to give expression to the
aspirations of the Baden people, the man whom they specially delighted
to honour was a leader in the Chamber of Deputies named Hecker, a
lawyer of Mannheim, who had gained much popular sympathy by pleading
gratuitously in the law courts. He was elected to the Chamber of
Deputies in 1847; and he soon began to distinguish himself by his
championship of German movements, and, more particularly, by his
sympathy with the reform movement in the German Catholic Church and
with the German aspirations of the people of Schleswig-Holstein. By an
accidental circumstance, he and another Baden representative named
Izstein attracted a large amount of attention to themselves; for,
happening to stop at Berlin in the course of a journey, they were
suddenly, and without any apparent reason, ordered to leave the town.
This was believed to be the first occasion on which a representative
of the people had been treated in this contemptuous manner; and thus
the names of Hecker and Izstein became more widely known in Germany
than those of the other leaders of the Baden movement.
The struggle in Switzerland naturally had its effect in Baden; and the
Grand Duke began once more to assert those Constitutional principles
which he had held when first he came to the throne. He did not,
however, keep pace with the desires of the reformers; and so, on
September 12, 1847, the Baden Liberals had met at Offenburg, and
demanded freedom of the Press, trial by jury, and other reforms,
amongst which should be mentioned, as a sign of Struve's opinions, the
settlement of the differences between labour and capital. It was for
their action at this meeting that the reformers had been threatened
with the prosecution which never took place.
But, in the meantime, the rush of German feeling was adding a new
element to the reform movement in Baden. Amand Goegg had been trying
to revive the demand for a German National Assembly. The religious
reforms of Ronge, which had excited so much interest in Saxony, also
attracted sympathy in Baden. Struve's gymnastic unions kept alive
the traditions of Jahn; and song, as usual, came to the help of
patriotism. These causes so hastened the movement for German unity
that, on February 12, 1848, Bassermann moved, in the Baden Chamber,
that the Grand Duke should be petitioned to take steps for promoting
common legislation for Germany. This motion, coming from a man who was
never reckoned an advanced Liberal, naturally hastened the awakening
of German feeling; and on February 27 the Baden Liberals met at
Mannheim, and decided to summon a meeting at Carlsruhe, at which they
intended to put forward the demand for a really representative German
Parliament. Thus it was on ground already prepared that there now fell
the news of the French Revolution; and when, on March 1, the leaders
of the procession from Mannheim entered Carlsruhe, wearing the black,
red, and gold of United Germany, the Ministry were ready to make
concessions; and, on March 2, the Second Chamber of Baden demanded the
repeal of the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, of the Frankfort Decrees of
1832, and of the Vienna Decrees of 1834; and they further required
that the Government should take means to secure representation of the
German people in the Bundestag.
While Baden was striking the keynote of German unity, the other small
States of Germany were preparing to take it up. In Wuertemberg the
Ministers had grown, in latter days, somewhat tyrannical; and, when
the citizens gathered in Stuttgart to demand freedom of the Press and
a German Parliament, the President of the Council advised the King to
summon troops to his aid. But the King was more Liberal than his
Ministers; he consented to call to office a Liberal Ministry; and the
Chamber which was now formed speedily decreed the abolition of feudal
dues. In Bavaria the power exercised by Lola Montez over the King had
long been distasteful to the sterner reformers. She had attempted,
indeed, to pay court to the Liberals; but she had given such offence
to some of the students of Munich as to provoke a riot which led to
the closing of the University. The nobles and Jesuits would now have
gladly sacrificed the King's favourite to the people; but the Baden
rising had fired the Bavarian Liberals with a desire for much greater
reforms. Their hatred of the Jesuits quickened their zeal; for that
body was supposed to divide with Lola Montez the conscience of the
King. Animated by these various causes of indignation, the Bavarian
Liberals were ready enough for action; and on the news of the Baden
movement they broke into the arsenal at Munich, provided themselves
with arms, and demanded a German Parliament. The King consented to
summon, at any rate, a Bavarian Parliament for the present; but,
unable to fall in readily with the popular movement, and resenting the
opposition to his favourite, he abdicated a few weeks later in favour
of his son. The spark, once lighted in the South, spread among the
smaller States of Germany. In Hesse Cassel the Elector tried to offer
some opposition; but the citizens of Hanau marched upon Cassel and
compelled the Elector to yield. In Hesse Darmstadt the Grand Duke
yielded more readily, under the influence of his Minister, Heinrich
von Gagern. In Nassau the movement received additional interest from
the seizure by the victorious people of the Johannisberg, which
belonged to Metternich.
But the most interesting of the struggles was that in Saxony. Robert
Blum was present at a ball in Leipzig 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 Leipzig, and sketched
out the demands which 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 1, and sent
a deputation with it to Dresden; and, on the 3rd, the people gathered
to meet the deputation on their return. The following is the account
given by the son of Robert Blum:--
"By anonymous placards on the wall, the population of Leipzig was
summoned, on the evening of March 3, 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 neighbouring streets, they completely filled. In
perfect silence the thousands awaited here the arrival of the
deputation, which, at last, towards 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 neighbouring 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
in uproariously even 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 Leipzig 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.' Amidst tremendous shouts of exultation and
applause, the appeased assembly dispersed."
[Illustration: ROBERT BLUM.]
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 1, 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 Leipzig; and so, on March 11, when the men of Leipzig 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 Leipzig 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 Leipzig were equally firm. Carlowitz abandoned
his attempt as hopeless; and on March 13 the King summoned a Liberal
Ministry, who abolished the censorship of the Press, 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 meantime 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 executions of reforms till a more favourable 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
which was to give definiteness and importance to the impulses which
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 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 3 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 for ever, and we
wish also that the Country of the People should last for ever. For
ever too should last the splendour of that Dynasty whom 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. Towards a Dynasty which bases itself on the freedoms of its
Peoples 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 only be brought about 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 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 the 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 only be
obtained 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 1848-9 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 very 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 rumour 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 1 Dr. 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 in composition, that centre might be.
Dr. 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
chiefly directed 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 only asked a consultative power. Perhaps the three
demands in this petition which would have excited the widest sympathy
were those in favour 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 performed. 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 meantime 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 now added the
demand for popular representation, the justifications for which they
drew from Kossuth's speech of March 3.
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
Wuertemberg, 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
chiefly known to Germany 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,
yet the meeting at Heidelberg was not prepared to adopt the complete
programme of the Baden leaders, nor to commit itself definitely 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 steadily increased
during the later phases of the movement.
It was obvious that, in the then state of Viennese feeling, a movement
in favour 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 12; but it proved of little
avail; and when the professors returned with the answer that the
Emperor would consider the matter, the students received them with
loud 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 in
procession 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 the 13th of
March. Various rumours of a discouraging kind had been circulated;
this and that leading citizen was 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 rumours were added the warnings of the
professors. Fuester, who had recently preached on the duty of devotion
to the cause of the country, now endeavoured, by praises of the
Emperor, to check the desire of the students for immediate action; but
he was scraped 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 denser 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 someone was trying to address
them; and the students nearest to the speaker hoisted him on to 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 neighbour who this could be; and, as the speech proceeded,
the news went round that this was Dr. 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 co-operation 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 the 3rd of March, 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.[9]
In the meantime 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 which 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 rumours 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 few Liberal members
urged them to take courage from the fact of this deputation, and to
make stronger demands on the Government.
But before the Assembly could decide how 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
favour 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. They were, however, 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 the workmen chiefly 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 eyes, 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 meantime 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 got up 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 chiefly known 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 vigour 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 the background as
a last resource.
In the meantime the struggle in 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 rumour 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 Am
Graben. 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 generally 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 Pollet,
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
Pollet 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 meantime 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
continued 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 have
followed again the course which he took before, and would not have
deviated from it for an instant."
When, at half-past eight in the evening of March 13, 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 the
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 liberties 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, yet 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 meantime 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 in public on the 15th of March, 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 were the
Hungarian deputation who had at last been permitted by the Count
Palatine to leave Presburg, and who had arrived in Vienna to demand
both the freedoms which 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 16, Sedlnitzky, the hated head of
the police, was dismissed from office. On the 18th a responsible
Ministry was appointed; and on the 22nd Windischgraetz himself
announced that national affairs would now be guided on the path of
progress.
In the meantime 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 artizans, 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 the 7th of March; but it seemed very unlikely
that this concession would be accompanied by any securities which
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 artizans 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 favour 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 13, 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 2; 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 18, 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 someone 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 Neufchatel 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 honour 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 21 he came
forward in public, waving the black, red, and gold flag of Germany.
But while the movements for German freedom and unity were
strengthening the cause of the Viennese and destroying the hopes of
Metternich, two other movements for freedom, which might have helped
to produce a newer and freer life in Europe, were preparing the way,
against the wishes of their leaders, for that collision of interests
between the different races of Europe which was to be the chief cause
of the failure of the Revolution of 1848. Of these movements the one
least known and understood in England is that which took place in
Bohemia. In order to understand it we must recall some of the events
of earlier Bohemian history.
Bohemia, like Hungary, had, in the sixteenth century, freely elected
Ferdinand I. of Austria as her King. Nor had the Bohemians, at that
time, the slightest desire for closer union with any of those other
Kingdoms which happened to be under the rule of the same Prince; nay,
they would have avoided such union, even in matters where common
action seemed the natural result of common interests. Ferdinand I.,
indeed, and some of his successors, did undoubtedly desire a closer
bond between the different territories subject to the House of
Austria; but, during the sixteenth century, their efforts in this
direction were, in the main, defeated. The continual wars against the
Turks, indeed, did necessitate common military action; and, to that
extent, they paved the way for a closer union; but, in spite of this
ground for fellow feeling, no public recognition of any common bond
between Bohemia, Austria, and Hungary could be obtained at that period
from the Estates of Bohemia.
The seventeenth century, however, had produced a great change in the
relations between Bohemia and the House of Austria. The ill-fated and
ill-organized struggle for liberty and Protestantism, which was
crushed out in 1620 at the Battle of the White Hill, was followed by a
change in the objects aimed at by the House of Austria in their
government of Bohemia. Considering his military successes, it
must be admitted that Ferdinand II. was even generous in his action
towards Bohemia, so far as the forms of Constitutional Government
were concerned. For in 1623 he restored its old Constitution,
re-established its independent law-courts, and declared that he had
"no intention of destroying or diminishing the rights of our faithful
subjects of this Kingdom."
But, alongside of the restoration of Constitutional forms, there went
on an organized system of oppression by which Ferdinand II. was
endeavouring to crush out the Protestant faith and the Bohemian
language. While, on the one hand, the old Bohemian nobles were
banished or executed, the German Dominicans and members of other Roman
Catholic orders were at the same time destroying all the Bohemian
literature on which they could lay their hands; and some Bohemians
tried to save these relics of the past by carrying them to Stockholm,
where, it is said, the remains of their early literature can still be
found. Without any direct change in the law, German officials were
gradually introduced into the chief offices of State in Bohemia; and
German became the language of ordinary business relations. Thus, by a
natural process, the Bohemian language underwent the same change of
position which the English language experienced in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries; that is, it ceased to be a literary language,
and became merely a popular dialect of peasants and workmen.
But Ferdinand II. soon found that he could not carry out completely
his purpose of Romanizing and Germanizing Bohemia without departing
from that Constitutional line which he had attempted to follow in
1623. He could not trust a Bohemian Assembly to carry out his plans;
and in 1627 he issued an ordinance which remained in force till 1848.
By this edict the King claimed the right to add to, alter, or improve
the Government of the country at his own pleasure. Yet even this he
claimed to do in virtue of a previously existing royal right; the
judges took advantage of this admission to interpret the new ordinance
in the light of Ferdinand's previous promises to respect the Bohemian
Constitution; and this interpretation was justified by the fact that
Ferdinand, in the very same year in which he issued the ordinance,
reiterated the Constitutional promises which he had made in 1623. The
explanation of this apparent contradiction is that Ferdinand II. cared
more for the unity of the Roman Catholic Church than for centralizing
the Government of the Austrian dominions; and the same might be said
of his successor, Ferdinand III. Nevertheless, from motives of
convenience, both these Princes resided very little in Prague and much
in Vienna; and thus those court officials who give the tone in these
matters to the Government gradually gathered together, rather in the
Archduchy of Austria than in the Kingdom of Bohemia; while the process
of centralization was still further encouraged by that denationalizing
movement which dated from the Battle of the White Hill.
With the growth of an alien aristocracy there naturally grew up that
union of class bitterness with race bitterness which intensifies both;
and the difference of faith between the conquerors and conquered added
another element of division. An attempt of the peasants to shake off
the yoke of their conquerors led to the destruction of privileges which
they had hitherto possessed; and thus the Estates of Bohemia became
even more aristocratic than those of the neighbouring countries. Under
such circumstances the gradual absorption of the Government of Bohemia
in that of the other lands of the House of Austria seemed the natural
consequence of the Austrian policy in the seventeenth century; and
Maria Theresa propounded a plan for a Central Assembly in which
Bohemia, Hungary, and Galicia were to share a common representation
with the Archduchy of Austria. These schemes, like all measures for
moderate unification in the Austrian dominions, received a fatal shock
from the impetuous policy of Joseph II. The claim to Germanize Bohemia
by force awoke in that country, as it had done in Hungary, a desire for
new national life and a zeal for the old national literature. The
opposition to Joseph did not, indeed, take so fierce a form in Bohemia
as it assumed in Hungary and the Netherlands; but it was strong enough
to induce Joseph's successor, Leopold II., to restore the old
Constitution of Bohemia.
In Bohemia, as in Hungary, the spirit of national independence had now
embodied itself in the desire to preserve and revive the national
language; and in 1809 a new impulse was given to this desire by the
discovery of a parchment which had been wrapped round the pillars of a
hall, and which was found to contain some old Bohemian poems. These
poems were believed to belong to the thirteenth or fourteenth century;
and the Bohemians held them to be superior to anything which had been
produced by the Germans at that period. As a matter of course, German
scholars at once came forward to try to disprove the authenticity of
these poems; and the fight raged hotly. The expulsion of the Bohemian
language from its literary position seemed to many to have deprived
this struggle of any living interest. But writers were arising who
were determined to show that that language could still be made a
vehicle of literary expression; and they even hoped to make it the
centre of a Slavonic movement. For the Bohemian language had a kind of
offshoot in the North of Hungary among the race of the Slovaks; and the
interest which the poet Kollar and the philologer Szaffarik were
stirring up in the Slovak dialect was adding new force to the Bohemian
movement. The historian Palacky increased the effect which was produced
by these writers; and, what is more remarkable, men whose names showed
an evidently German origin became fascinated by this new movement.
Count Leo Thun entered into a controversy with Pulszky about the worth
of the Slavonic languages; and one may still see in Prague the statue
of Joseph Jungmann, who was one of the first founders of unions for
reviving the national language. A struggle of the Bohemian Estates in
1837 to maintain their control over taxation was sufficient, though
unsuccessful, to increase considerably the interest felt by their
nation in their political life. And thus it came to pass that, when, in
March, 1848, the news of the French Revolution came to Prague, it found
the Bohemians ready for the emergency.
A young man named Gabler, who had been in Paris in 1846, was requested
by some friends who were gathered in a cafe to read the account of the
French rising and explain its details. On the following day more
people came to the cafe to hear the news; discussion began, and
suggestions were made as to the best way of adapting the French
movement to the needs of Bohemia. German was still the language of
intercourse between educated people in Prague; and the discussions
were at first carried on in that language. But among those who came to
the meetings was a publican named Peter Faster; and, while the
discussion on various questions of reform was going on, Faster broke
out suddenly into a speech in Bohemian. Instantly, the whole assembly
joined in the national cry of "Slawa." Other speeches followed in the
same language; the fashion quickly spread; and soon all adherents of
the new movement began speaking the national language. A committee was
now formed for the preparation of a petition; and a unanimous summons
was circulated, calling on the Bohemians to meet at the Wenzel's-bad
on March 11.
This bath-house stands in a garden at some little distance from the
main streets of Prague, and it was overlooked by barracks. One picquet
of cavalry was seen in the streets, the rest remained in the barracks.
Slowly the streets near the bath-house filled; at about half-past
seven the doors opened; and half an hour later appeared Peter Faster,
a lawyer named Trojan, and others. They announced that they had called
the meeting for the purpose of proposing a petition to the Emperor.
The petition[10] was adopted with little trouble, and a committee of
twenty-five was appointed to present it. The petition was as follows:
"A great event in the West of Europe is shedding its light, like a
threatening meteor, over to us. It has scarcely begun; but this great
movement which we guessed afar off is carrying away Germany's allied
States with it. There is much excitement near the frontiers of
Austria; but Your Majesty and the allied Princes have controlled the
movement, while you have magnanimously placed yourselves at the head
of it, to warn it from a dangerous abyss and from bad ways. The time
has become new and different; it has brought the people nearer the
Princes, and lays on the people the duty of rallying round their
Princes, offering confidence and entreating for confidence in the days
of danger.
"Prague's faithful people, touched by the universal movement, ruled by
the impulse to go before the monarchy in loyalty and truth, lays at
the feet of Your Majesty its most heartfelt thanks for being allowed
to speak from their full heart to their beloved King and Master. May
their words find echo and just appreciation. Our confidence in God and
our conscience leads us to hope that it will.
"New and unwonted is the benevolence of this high permission; if we
are less choice in our words and expressions, if we seem immodest in
the extent of our petitions, our King's fatherly consideration will
graciously put a right construction on our acts. Two different
national elements inhabit this happy Kingdom, this pearl in your
Majesty's illustrious imperial crown. One of them, the original one,
which has the nearest right to its land and King, has hitherto
been hindered in its progress towards culture and equal rights by
institutions, which, without being hostile or denationalizing, yet
naturally involve a partial wiping out of original national feeling as
the condition of obtaining recognition as citizens.
"The free development of both nations, the German and Bohemian,
which are united by fate, and both of which inhabit Bohemia, and a
similar striving after the objects of a higher culture, will, by
strengthening, reconciling, and uniting them in brotherhood, lay the
foundation of the welfare of both nations.
"Bohemia has not yet reached that high position which it ought to have
attained, in order to meet forcibly the serious events which are
developing themselves; and this failure arises from the superiority
which has hitherto been granted to the German element in legal and
administrative arrangements. It is not mere toleration, it is the
equalizing of the two nationalities by legal guarantees which can and
will bind both nations to the throne.
"But the guarantees for this excellent and sacred result, so much to
be desired by every patriot, whether German or Bohemian, do not
consist in the cultivation of language only. It consists in the
essential alterations of the institutions, which have hitherto
existed, in the removal of the barriers which hinder intercourse
between Prince and People, and at the same time in universal,
benevolently guarded, popular instruction by school and writing."
After more to the same effect, and after dwelling at some length on
the need of publicity in national affairs, the petitioners formulate
their demands in eleven points. The first and second of these
are concerned with the equalization of the races and with the
Constitutional development hinted at in the previous petition; but
they also include a proposal for the restoration of the union between
Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, to be effected by an annual meeting in
common of the Estates of the three provinces. The third is concerned
with communal freedom and the condition of the peasantry. The fourth,
fifth, sixth, and seventh relate to those ordinary securities for
civil and religious freedom which were being demanded at this time by
all the nations of Europe. The eighth clause of the petition demands
"the appointment to offices of men who know completely and equally
both the languages of the country." The ninth is concerned with
the popularization of the military service. The tenth with the
redistribution of taxation, especially the abolition of taxes
on articles of consumption; while the eleventh deals with the
equalization of education between German and Bohemian, and the freedom
of teaching at the universities.
The gathering at this first meeting was rather small; but the news of
the movement rapidly spread. On the 12th a meeting of the Town
Councillors was held in the Rath Haus; and, on the 15th, the students
met to draw up a petition of their own. They had soon caught the
excitement of the time; and had been stirred up by a German-Bohemian
named Uffo Horn to take separate action. Guided and restrained by
Gabler, they consented to help in preserving order, and embodied their
petition in eight clauses. In these they not only demanded the
ordinary liberties of teaching for which other universities were
contending, but also pleaded for the right to full instruction both in
Bohemian and German; for the power to visit foreign universities; for
the development of physical education, and for the right to form
unions among the students, after the fashion of those recently
sanctioned by a statute of the Munich University. It is worth noting
that they also demanded that the test of fitness for State service
should be made severer.
The news of the rising in Vienna came to encourage and strengthen the
Bohemian movement; and on March 18 the students of Prague sent a
letter of exulting congratulation to the students of Vienna on their
services to the cause of freedom. But the Bohemian movement was not
yet to be turned out of that quiet course which distinguished it among
the Revolutions of the period; and on Sunday, March 19, the deputation
that was to bear the wishes of the Bohemians to the Emperor met in the
streets of Prague to hear a silent mass before starting for Vienna.
Prague, like Vienna, has been so much altered in recent years that it
is difficult to realize the exact scene of this event. At the top of
the long avenue which now ornaments the Wenzelsplatz there was, in
1848, a large gate called the Rossthor; and this was closed on March
19 so that no traffic should disturb the service. Within the gates
stood a statue of St. Wenzel; and round this the deputation gathered,
wearing scarves of the Bohemian colours, white and red, edged with the
Austrian black and yellow, to show their zeal for the unity of the
Empire. Outside the group formed by the members of the deputation
stood the newly-formed students' legion and some others of the
National Guard. The Archbishop took the leading part in the mass; but,
after it was over, the Bishop of Prague gave out a Bohemian hymn,
which was heartily joined in by the people. To impress the citizens
still further with the solemnity of the occasion, Faster and Trojan
had issued an address, declaring that the deputation left their
families and property under the protection of the citizens of Prague;
and, on the other hand, a committee chosen by the citizens appealed to
the deputation to impress upon the Emperor the danger of delays and
unfulfilled promises, and expressed a desire for a closer union
between the Peoples of the Austrian Empire.
When the ceremonies were over, the deputation started, led by Faster
and Trojan. Faster took charge of the petition from the citizens of
Prague; Trojan carried the petitions from the provincial towns of
Bohemia; while a chosen band of the students were to present the
University petition. The people who were gathered at the station
joined in Bohemian songs; and the ladies showered flowers and ribbons
as the train moved off. After the departure of the deputation, the
citizens' committee set themselves to check any violent movement among
the workmen, by making special arrangement for providing work for the
resident workmen in Prague. Soon came the news that the deputation had
been warmly welcomed in Vienna. A great part of the National Guard had
turned out to greet them; the Emperor had addressed them in Bohemian;
and Count Kolowrat had said that, though he was seventy-one years old,
and had served the State for fifty years, yet his last days were the
happiest, because he could now advise according to his heart.
In striking contrast to this, the most peaceable of all the March
risings, was the movement which was going on at the same time in
Lombardy. It seemed, indeed, as if the Austrian Government were
determined to drive the Lombards into violent action. In Vienna
Metternich was at least talking about extending the power of
the Estates; in Hungary Kossuth was able to speak freely in the
Presburg Diet; in Bohemia the Government seemed to drop into the
hands of the people almost without an effort; but in Lombardy the
savage proclamation of February had been followed on March 2 by an
announcement from Spaur that the people must abandon all hope of any
reform in the organic institutions of Lombardy which could imply a
relaxation of the union with other parts of the Monarchy; and so
rigorously were the repressive laws carried out that on March 11 there
were 700 political prisoners in Milan.
Yet, in spite of this tremendous rigour, there were still signs of the
irrepressible aspirations of the Lombards. On March 10, a feast was
held in Brescia in honour of the proclamation of the French Republic;
and the Italian soldiers quartered in that town showed sympathy
with this demonstration. Even during the actual rising at Vienna,
Metternich still showed his determination to hold down Lombardy by
force; he suddenly recalled Spaur and Ficquelmont from Milan, and sent
Count O'Donnell, a man of fiercer type, to take the place of Spaur.
Even Metternich's idea of Lombard reform was not changed by the rising
in Vienna; for on March 16 there appeared in Milan a proclamation
which must either have been prepared by Metternich just before his
fall, or adopted by the Camarilla directly after it; and in this the
Lombards were offered exactly the same programme of reform which had
been proposed to them in January.
But in the meantime the people were not idle. The Italians in Vienna
managed to keep up a secret correspondence with their countrymen in
Lombardy, and to warn them that new troops might be sent against them;
while the Milanese managed to circulate secret proclamations which
stirred the hopes of their fellow Lombards. On the 16th or 17th of
March one of these proclamations appeared, containing a final protest
against all the tyrannies exercised by Austria in Lombardy since 1815,
down to the massacres of 1848. The composers of the proclamation
concluded by finally declaring their resolution "to feel as Italians,
to think as Italians, to will once for all to be Italians; to resolve
to break once and for all the infamous treaty that has sold our
liberties without our consent; to exercise our rights as men, our
revenge as Italians." Thus, by some mysterious freemasonry, the
champions of liberty in Milan had gradually been drawn together and
prepared for action; and when on the 17th of March the news arrived
that the Viennese insurrection had succeeded, that liberty of the Press
had been granted, and that the Congregations of Lombardy as well as the
estates of the other parts of the Empire were to be called together,
the news gave the signal for insurrection. The Congregations which, up
to the time of Nazari's speech, had been so silent and helpless, and
whose uselessness had been further proved by the failure of that very
protest, could not be accepted as the representatives of national life;
and the suggestion of freedom of the Press while Radetzky remained in
Milan could only supply a subject for a caricature.
The leading spirit in the Milanese movement, so far as it is possible
to single out any individual, was Augusto Anfossi. He had been born
in Nice and educated by the Jesuits. That education, in this as in so
many other cases, had produced the most violent reaction; and
Anfossi's first claim to distinction was a bitter attack on his former
teachers. In consequence of this, he had been compelled to fly to
France; and he had served for a time in the French Army; but his hopes
had been raised by the accession of Charles Albert; and he had
returned to Piedmont to experience the disappointment shared by the
other Liberals of that period. The punishments which followed the
risings of 1831 had driven him again into exile; and he had then
joined in the rising of the Egyptians against the Turks. But the
movements of 1848 once more called his attention to Piedmont; and he
now hastened to Milan and drew up a proclamation which was adopted and
issued by the leaders of the insurrection. How little these leaders
could have foreseen the actual result of the struggle may be gathered
from the contents of the proclamation; for, eloquent and enthusiastic
as are its opening words, its demands fall far short of the claim for
that complete independence which the Lombards were for a time to
achieve; while so little did the Milanese recognize the determined
savagery of their opponents that the seventh demand made in this
proclamation was that "neutral relations should be established with
the Austrian troops, while we guarantee to them respect and the
means of subsistence." But the only really important point in the
proclamation was its final summons to the people to meet at three p.m.
the next day in the Corsia dei Servi; and this appeal roused not
merely the hopes, but the impatience of the people.
Three hours before the time appointed, while Casati and the Municipal
Council were deliberating in the Broletto, or town-hall, they heard
loud shouts in the streets of "Death to the Germans!" and "Long live
Italy!" Then a crowd bearing sticks covered with the Italian colours
entered the Broletto, and required that Casati and the leading
Councillors should come with them at once to O'Donnell, to demand the
establishment of a Civic Guard, and the placing of the police under
the municipal authorities. Cesare Correnti, one of the Council, urged
the leaders of the movement to trust to the municipality; but Enrico
Cernuschi, one of the organizers of the movement, refused to yield to
this suggestion; and a man named Beretta seized Casati by the arm to
lead him to the Governor. O'Donnell was startled at this sudden
demonstration: and Casati, on his part, was equally astonished at the
position into which he had been forced. He shook hands with O'Donnell
and encouraged him to look on him as a friend; and it was, perhaps, in
reliance on this help that O'Donnell ventured at first to refuse the
proposals to subject the police to the Municipal Council and to
surrender their arms to the Civic Guard. Cernuschi, however, insisted
that O'Donnell should not only yield these points, but that he should
sign his name to his concessions. O'Donnell, in terror, consented; and
then Casati desired to send a messenger to Torresani, the head of the
police, to secure his approval of the concessions. But the movement
had gone far beyond Casati's control; and, while his messenger was
hastening to put the matter before Torresani in proper diplomatic
form, Cernuschi and his friends had rushed to an armourer's shop to
avail themselves of their new privilege.
But, as they still wished to place the Municipal Council, as far as
possible, at the head of their movement, they carried their arms to the
Broletto, where they demanded to be enrolled in the new Civic Guard. In
the meantime, Torresani had refused to act without Radetzky's
authority, and Radetzky was furious at the news of O'Donnell's
concessions. Hearing that one of his officers, who was ill in bed, had
offered to give his sanction to these concessions, the savage General
threatened to have him dragged from his bed and shot, if he did not at
once recall the order; and troops were despatched to the Broletto to
suppress the movement. Casati, indeed, had fled from the scene of
action, and taken refuge in a private house; but the people, who had
brought the arms to the Broletto, closed the gates against Radetzky's
force; and, though they had only fifty guns with them, they prepared to
defy the Austrian cannon, backed by more than 2,000 soldiers. The
proposal to capitulate was rejected with scorn; and, from seven to nine
p.m., this little band, many of them boys, defended the Municipal
Council Hall. But it was impossible to conquer against such odds; and
at last the Austrian soldiers broke in, attacked all whom they found
there, whether armed or unarmed; hurled down into the streets some boys
whom they found on the roofs, hung one little child, and marched off
the rest of their prisoners to the castle, to be tortured by Radetzky.
But, as they were actually on their way to the castle, the victorious
soldiers met some of their comrades who were flying before the
citizens. Augusto Anfossi had been, in the meantime, reducing into
order the gallant, but undisciplined defenders of their country; and,
before the morning of the 19th, stones and wood had been put together
and fastened with iron; and thus secure barricades had risen in many
of the streets. Amongst other interesting materials for the barricades
may be mentioned O'Donnell's carriage, which had been seized for this
purpose. Radetzky, startled at the vigour of the opposition, wrote to
Ficquelmont that "the nature of this people is changed as if by magic;
fanaticism has infected every age, every class, and both sexes." In
his alarm he offered to grant the demand which had been made in the
morning, that the police should be placed under the command of the
Municipal Council. Casati would, even then, have accepted this as a
settlement of the struggle; but he was now quite powerless. For, while
he was signing decrees, and appointing as head of the police a man who
was still prisoner to the Austrians, the bells throughout Milan were
ringing for a storm.
At no stage of the struggle were there greater efforts of heroism than
on this 19th of March. At the bridge of San Damiano two men held at
bay a whole corps of Austrians; not far from the Porta Romana another
champion carried off some youthful scholars, one after another, on his
shoulders, in the face of a body of Croats. Guns were often wanting,
but the insurgents used swords and sticks instead. The Tyrolese fired
from the tower of the cathedral upon the people, and the cannons from
the Piazza Mercante played upon them; but three cannoneers were
killed, and at last the cannon were captured by the Milanese. The 19th
of March was a Sunday; and, as the congregation came out from mass in
the church of San Simpliciano, they were attacked by the Austrians and
driven back into the church. Food was brought them from neighbouring
houses; and they retained their position till four o'clock in the
afternoon, when they succeeded in making their escape. Nor were there
wanting touches of the Milanese humour to relieve the terrors of the
fight; boys sometimes exhibiting a cat, sometimes a broomstick with a
cap on it, as a mark for the Austrians to fire at. But the fiercest
fight raged at the Porta Nuova, on the south side of the town, where
Augusto Anfossi commanded in person. There a band of Austrian
grenadiers brought their cannon to bear on the defenders of the city;
and Anfossi had a long and fierce struggle before he could drive them
back. At last, however, he made his way to the gate; and, lifting on
high the Italian flag, he kissed it, and planted it on the arch of the
gateway.
On the 20th the Austrians began to show signs of giving way. The
Tyrolese fled down the giddy staircases of the Cathedral tower and
escaped through secret passages; and the family of Torresani fell into
the hands of the insurgents. But the Milanese, though they had seen
their children spitted on the bayonets of the soldiers, their women
insulted, and the prisoners tortured by Radetzky, were ready to take
charge of the family of one of their worst tyrants, and to protect
them from violence. Even the brutal Bolza, when he became a prisoner
in their hands, was carefully guarded from ill-treatment; and he is
said to have been so much impressed by this unexpected magnanimity
that he died penitent. Again offers of compromise were made by the
Austrians, and a truce of fifteen days was proposed till the officers
could hear from Vienna. Again Casati hesitated; but again his
hesitation had no effect on the struggle.
On the 21st the Genio Militare, one of the chief barracks of the city,
was attacked by the insurgents. The struggle was continued for some
time with great fierceness on either side; but at last a cripple,
named Pasquale Sottocorni, came halting up on his crutch and set fire
to the gate; then the defenders, unable to hold out any longer,
surrendered to the people. This day was also memorable for the capture
of Radetzky's palace, and in it of the wonderful sword with which he
had threatened to exterminate the Milanese.
In the meantime the other towns of Lombardy had been hastening to send
help to their capital. At Como, immediately on the arrival of the news
of the Viennese success, bands had collected with lighted torches,
crying, "Long live Italy! Long live independence!" The guards were
redoubled, but refused to act. The people surrounded the Town Council
House, demanding a Civic Guard, which was quickly granted; in a short
time Como was free, and the soldiers of Como were on their march to
Milan. It was on March 18 that the news of the Milanese rising reached
Bergamo; and the people at once rose, crying, "Long live Milan!" and
"Death to the Germans!" The Archduke Sigismund, who was in the town,
was compelled by the people to hold back his troops, while a Capuchin
monk led the citizens to Milan. In Brescia the rising seems to have
been almost simultaneous with that of Milan. The first attack was made
on the Jesuits; but religious hostility was quickly merged in a desire
for national independence, and the cry soon rose for a civic guard.
Prince Schwarzenberg, who was in command of the terrible fortress
which frowns upon Brescia, hoped easily to overawe the city. But the
people gathered in the Piazza Vecchia, and after a fierce struggle,
drove back the soldiers. Schwarzenberg was compelled to yield to the
demands of the people; the municipal authorities in vain endeavoured
to hinder the movement; and in a short time many of the Brescians had
united with the country folk of the neighbouring district and were
marching to Milan. At Cremona about 4,000 soldiers had laid down their
arms before the citizens had attacked them.
In the meantime Augusto Anfossi had been dangerously wounded, and was
obliged to abandon the defence; but his place was taken by Luciano
Manara, a youth of twenty-four, who led the attack on the Porta Tosa,
on the east side of Milan. Arms had now been freely distributed
among the insurgents, and a professor of mathematics from Pavia
superintended the fortifications and assisted Manara in the attack.
For five hours the assault continued, Manara rushing forward at the
head of his forces and effecting wonders with his own hand. Recruits
from the country districts co-operated from outside the city with the
Milanese insurgents within. At last the gate was set on fire, the
position was captured, and the name of Porta Tosa was soon afterwards
changed to that of Porta Vittoria. The Austrian soldiers had now
become heartily tired of the struggle. Radetzky had arranged his
troops in so careless a manner that he was unable to supply them
properly with food, and sixty Croats surrendered from hunger. Radetzky
was now convinced of the uselessness of continuing the struggle; and,
though he had just before been threatening to bombard the city, he now
decided to abandon it. So, on the evening of the 22nd of March, the
glorious Five Days of Milan were brought to an end by the retreat of
the Austrians from the city.
This rising had for the time being freed the greater part of Lombardy;
but there was yet another Italian city under the Austrian rule, which
was achieving its own independence in a somewhat different way. The
risings in Vienna, Berlin, Prague, and Milan, though they produced
many acts of heroism, and some of wise forethought, did not call to
the front any man of first-rate political capacity, nor could they be
said to centre in any one commanding figure. In Venice, on the other
hand, the movement centred from first to last in one man. The
imprisonment of Daniel Manin had been the point of interest to
Venetians, the typical instance of their grievances; and more than one
circumstance tended to strengthen this feeling. Manin's sister had
died from the shock of hearing of her brother's arrest; and his wife
had organized a petition for his release which had been signed by the
Podesta of Venice and ninety-nine other persons of well-known
character. His own legal ability had enabled Manin to dwell more
forcibly on the points of illegality in his arrest. But when he and
his friends urged his claim to be either tried or set free, the
authorities pleaded that they could not release him until they heard
from Vienna. This answer must have tended still more to mark him out
as a victim of that centralizing force which was endeavouring to crush
out Italian feeling; while the fact of his descent from the last Doge
of Venice added a touch of historic sentiment to the other points of
interest in his case. Manin's arrest had been quickly followed by that
of Tommaseo, and in any talk among the patriots of Venice the
discussion of these arrests was sure to arise.
In Venice, too, the same kinds of demonstrations of popular feeling
took place during January and February which had shown themselves in
Milan. Whenever German music was performed in public all the Italians
left the place. Men went about in black gloves; women refused to
appear in gala costume at public ceremonies; and even those who went
to the theatre attended there not so much for the sake of the
performance as to applaud passages about a betrayed country, or to get
up cheers for the Neapolitan Constitution.
Such was the state of feeling when, on March 16, a boat arrived from
Trieste, bringing news from Vienna. The chief informant brought
with him the fragments of a portrait of Metternich which had been
torn to pieces as a symbol of his fall. Then the Venetians rose and
demanded the release of Manin and Tommaseo. The Governor referred the
petitioners to the criminal court; but the crowd resolved to take
matters into their own hands, and broke into the prison to rescue the
two leaders. Manin, however, refused to leave the prison until the
president of the tribunal had signed the order for his release. The
president readily complied with this request; and Manin and Tommaseo
were carried home on the shoulders of the people. The Venetians then
proceeded to attack the fortress; the Croat soldiers rushed out to
repel them, and succeeded in driving them back. But the next day there
was a new gathering in the streets. Palffy, the Military Governor of
Venice, appealed to Manin to preserve order; but Manin replied that he
could only do so if a civic guard were granted, and if the soldiers
were recalled to their barracks. The head of the police remonstrated
against the proposal for the Civic Guard, and asked that it should, at
any rate, be placed under his authority. Thereupon Manin seized his gun
and said that if the police interfered with the Civic Guard he would
himself head a revolt. Palffy was a Hungarian, and so was Zichy, the
Civil Governor of Venice; and neither of them were disposed to push
matters to extremities. Although, therefore, Palffy was at first
inclined to make difficulties, and to appeal to the Governor of
Lombardy for orders, he yielded at last, and the municipal authorities
began to organize the Civic Guard.
But the fears of the Venetians were not yet over. Marinovich, the
Governor of the Castle, was a hard man, who had irritated the workmen
of the arsenal against him; and the authorities had persuaded him to
resign his command and to leave Venice. But, on March 22, while Manin
and his friends were deliberating on the next step to be taken, a
messenger came to announce to them that Marinovich had suddenly
returned to the arsenal, and had there been attacked and killed by the
workmen. Thereupon Manin at once decided that the Civic Guard should
be sent to seize the arsenal. The Admiral Martini tried to offer
opposition; but Manin succeeded in entering with some of the guard,
and then rang the workmen's bell and demanded arms for the workmen of
the arsenal. It was well for the Venetians at this time that there was
so great a hostility between Magyars and Croats. On a previous day,
the Croats had desired to fire on the unarmed crowd; but a Hungarian
officer, named Winckler, had thrown himself in their way, and had
declared that they should fire first at him. When the news came of
Marinovich's death, Zichy proposed that the Croats should act with
the Civic Guard; but the Croat soldiers refused, desiring instead to
bombard the town. This latter proposition, however, was defeated, not
only by the Hungarian officers, but by many of the soldiers; for the
garrison contained many Italians, who seized this opportunity for
joining the cause of their countrymen. During the confusion that arose
from this division of opinion, the head of the Civic Guard went to
Palffy to demand that the defence of the town should be placed in the
hands of the citizens. Palffy hesitated; but, in the meantime, Manin
was proclaiming the Venetian Republic in the Piazza of San Marco.
Palffy consented to resign his authority to Zichy, and by 6.30 p.m.
Zichy had signed the evacuation of Venice by the Austrian troops.
Palffy now desired to leave Venice as soon as possible. The chief of
the Civic Guard tried to prevent his escape; but Manin trusted to
Palffy's honour, and allowed him and some of his followers to depart
in a steamer which was to stop at Pola with despatches, ordering the
recall of the Venetian fleet which was stationed there. But no sooner
was Palffy safely out of Venice than he compelled the captain to
change his course, to sail to Trieste, and to surrender to the
Austrian authorities. Of course, Manin had made a mistake in trusting
so implicitly to the honour of an enemy. Perhaps we should thank God
that there are people who are capable of those mistakes. Manin,
at least, does not seem to have changed his line of conduct in
consequence; for when, a few days later, a steamer full of Austrian
private citizens came near Venice, and the Venetians wished to go out
to attack them, Manin prevented them from doing so, saying, "Let us
leave such conduct to Metternich."
Thus, then, in this wonderful month of March, 1848, the whole system
of Metternich had crumbled to the ground. The German national feeling,
which he had hoped to crush out, was steadily ripening and embodying
itself in a definite shape. The feeling for that "Geographical
Expression" Italy had proved strong enough to drive Radetzky from
Milan and Palffy from Venice. The rivalry between the Bohemians and
Germans of the Austrian Empire seemed, for the moment, to have been
merged in a common desire for liberty; and the Hungarian opposition,
which Metternich had hoped to manipulate, had shaken him from power
and from office, and had secured liberty to Vienna and practical
independence to Hungary. Of the terrible divisions and rivalries which
were to undermine the new fabric of liberty, the story will have to be
told in the succeeding chapters. But the vigour, heroism, and
self-sacrifice which had been brought to light in this early part of
the movement will always make the March Risings of 1848 memorable in
the history of Europe.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] The word "Anschluss" seems hardly to imply so complete a union as
was afterwards aimed at by the German party in Vienna.
[10] This petition must be given at length in order that students of
the Revolution may realize the peculiar character of the Bohemian
movement, since this is the only one of the March risings in which the
claim of an oppressed people to live in peaceable equality beside
their former oppressors was, for the time, successfully established.