CHAPTER VIII.

THE STRUGGLE OF THE RACES--APRIL TO JUNE, 1848.

Apparent unanimity between races of Austrian Empire in the March

risings.--Unreality of this appearance.--Local aspirations.--The

Serbs of Buda-Pesth.--The Magyar politics in Pesth.--The first

Hungarian Ministry.--Szemere's Press Law and its failure.--The

answer of the Ministry to the Serb petition.--Position and History

of the Serbs in Hungary.--Treatment by Magyars and Austrian

Kings.--Growth of Serb literature.--The deputations from Neusatz

and Carlowitz.--Velika-Kikinda.--Position and character of

Rajacic.--Of Stratimirovic.--The summoning of the Serb

Assembly.--Croatian movement revived.--The Croats and the "twelve

points."--Joseph Jellacic.--Pillersdorf and the Bohemian

deputation.--The meeting at the Sophien-Insel.--The second

petition.--The Germans of Bohemia and Moravia.--Opening of the

Vor-Parlament at Frankfort.--Blum's influence.--Struve's proposals

and their effect.--The Slavonic question at Frankfort.--The Polish

phase of it.--The Bohemian question evaded by the

Vor-Parlament.--The Committee of Fifty and Palacky.--The discussion

between the National Committees in Prague.--Schilling's

insults.--The appeal to the Austrian Government and its

failure.--The summons of the Slavonic Congress.--The difficulties

in Vienna.--The April Constitution.--The Galician movement.--The

rising of May 15 and the flight of the Emperor.--Effect of the May

movement on Bohemian feeling--on Hungarian feeling.--The Serb

meeting of May 13.--The Roumanian meeting of May 15.--The Saxon

opposition to the Union.--The alliance between the Magyars and the

Szekler.--The fall of Transylvanian independence.--The first

collision with the Roumanians.--Their position, and character of

their rising.--Alliance between Croats and Serbs.--The attack on

Carlowitz of June 11.--The Slavonic Congress at Prague.--The

difficulties in Prague.--Windischgraetz and the Town Council.--The

quarrel between the students of Prague and the students of

Vienna.--The Slavonic petition.--The rising of June 12.--The fall

of Prague and its consequences.

Few points were more remarkable in the March Risings of 1848 than the

apparent reconciliation between those champions of freedom who had

been separated from each other by antagonism of race. Gaj and his

friends had hastened to Vienna to join in the general congratulations

to that city on its newly won freedom. The Slavonic students of Prague

had been equally sympathetic; and members of the different races of

Hungary had expressed their satisfaction in the successes of Kossuth.

But this sudden union was necessarily short-lived; for it sprang from

a hope which could not be realized; the hope, namely, that the Germans

and Magyars would join in extending to each of the Slavonic races of

the Empire those separate national freedoms which those two great

ruling races had secured for themselves. Thus proposals soon began to

be made for the formation of a district which was to be called

Slovenia, after the Slovenes who inhabited the province of Krain, and

other south-western provinces of the Austrian Empire. At the same

time, the Slovaks of North Hungary desired to be formed into a

separate province, in which they could freely use the Slovak language

and profess the Lutheran creed, undisturbed by Magyar language or

Magyar Calvinism. Lastly, on March 15, Ivan Kukuljevic, who, next to

Gaj, was the most distinguished of the Croatian patriots, carried, in

the Agram Assembly, an address to the Emperor, asking him to summon

the old parliament of the three kingdoms of Croatia, Slavonia, and

Dalmatia. But, though all these demands contained within them the

seeds of future quarrels, the first actual outbreak was not to come

either from Slovenes, Slovaks, or Croats. The first token of the "rift

within the lute," which, if it could not "make the music" of Liberty

"mute," would at least weaken its sound and introduce discord into its

harmony, showed itself in connexion with a branch of the Slavonic race

to which little allusion has yet been made.

Those who have visited Buda-Pesth will remember how, when they had left

the modern magnificence of Pesth and crossed the suspension-bridge which

joins it with Buda, they have come to a pause at the foot of the steep

rock which confronts them. Then, if, instead of ascending to the

fortress of Buda, they turned southwards along the shores of the Danube,

in a short time they would have found themselves in a district in

complete contrast with the rest of the capital, where an air of poverty,

hardly found elsewhere in the town, is combined with an originality and

picturesqueness of decoration which is neither German nor Magyar. Little

cottages, coloured yellow, blue, or white, are built up against the rock

in all kinds of irregular ways; in some places the rooms are below the

street, and the gay appearance is increased by signs outside the shops,

showing what articles can be procured there. The bright handkerchiefs on

the heads of the women, and the gay colours worn by both sexes, give a

somewhat Eastern aspect to the streets and market-place. Such is the

Raitzenstadt, the quarter of the Serbs, long looked down upon by their

Magyar countrymen. There, on March 17, the representatives of about a

hundred districts of the neighbourhood gathered to prepare a petition

for leave to use their national language in national affairs. This

roused the fierce opposition of the Magyar youth of Pesth; and the

Committee of Safety which had just been formed found itself unable to

protect the Serbs from violence. If, indeed, the spirit of Kossuth's

speech of March 3 had been still triumphant, compromises might have been

found which would have hindered the claims of the Serbs from provoking

actual war. But the sudden outburst of statesmanlike feeling which

produced that speech was not of long duration; and, even if Kossuth had

desired to conciliate the subject-races of Hungary, there were those at

his back who would never have consented to such tolerance.

The fiery youth of Pesth supplied an element to the Magyar revolution

very different from that which generally found expression in the Diet

at Presburg; and this element had been so necessary to Kossuth's

purposes that it was impossible to disregard its influence. Three days

before the Serb meeting a great gathering had been held in a cafe at

Pesth, which had been followed on the 15th by a march of the Hungarian

students, headed by the poet Petoefy, to the Town Council, to demand

the concession of twelve points. Some of these points were being

secured on that very day by the deputation which had gone to Vienna;

others were already conceded in principle by the Diet at Presburg; one

of them, the proposal for the union of Transylvania with Hungary, was

to be the seed of future mischief, but was, at present, acceptable to

all parties of the Magyars. It was not so much, then, by political

theories that the youth of Pesth were distinguished from the quieter

spirits of Presburg; it was rather the fiery manner in which they made

their demands, and the dogmatic intolerance with which they insisted

on particular formulas.

Moreover, the Presburg policy, if one may so call it, was weakened in

its effect by that attempt to reconcile hopeless opposites which is

the great difficulty of all moderate parties. Count Louis Batthyanyi,

when he was appointed as the first responsible Minister of Hungary,

thought himself bound to form his Ministry, so far as possible, by a

combination of the different representatives of the rival parties; and

he not only hoped to find a basis for common action between the

growing Conservatism of Szechenyi and the growing Radicalism of

Kossuth, but he even gave a place in his Ministry to Count Esterhazy,

who sympathized to some extent with the Camarilla at Vienna. Baron

Eoetvoes, who had been the champion of centralization when Kossuth was

arguing for County Government, was also a member of this Ministry;

while Meszaros, the War Minister, might be supposed to combine

opposite principles in his own person; for, while he had contributed

to Kossuth's paper, the "Pesti Hirlap," his last public action had

been to serve under Radetzky in his attempt to suppress the liberties

of Milan. Batthyanyi, indeed, hoped that, by introducing Deak into the

Ministry, he should secure an influence which should reconcile these

various incongruous elements; but such a task was beyond even Deak's

powers. By his honourable abstention from the Diet of 1843, he had

deprived himself of his former influence; and, though he accepted the

place offered him by Batthyanyi, and honestly tried to work with his

different colleagues, yet, as the movement became more and more

revolutionary, he fell further into the background.

The weakness of this Coalition Ministry was first brought into

prominence by Bartholomaus Szemere, a cold, hard man, who had had

little previous influence on politics. He was appointed to draw up the

new regulations with regard to freedom of the Press; and produced a

law which was of so reactionary a character that the students of the

Pesth University burnt it publicly in front of the Town Hall, and sent

a deputation to the Diet to entreat them to repeal the law and to

change the seat of government to Pesth. Batthyanyi consented to the

repeal of the law; but rejected, for a time, the other proposal of the

students; and the Ministry remained at Presburg, weakened by the sense

that the strongest element of Magyar feeling was centred in Kossuth

and the Pesth party, and that this feeling would eventually overpower

the more moderate patriots. Under these circumstances it was natural

that the weak Ministry at Presburg should sacrifice to their fiery

opponents the claims of those races with which neither party had any

deep sympathy; and when, on March 24, the Serb petition came before

the Ministry, they answered that the Hungarians would not endure that

any nationality except the Hungarian should exist in Hungary.

But the Serbs of the Raitzenstadt were but the feeble representatives

of a much more powerful body, which was scattered over various parts

of Hungary and found its chief centre in the province of Slavonia. It

was during the sixteenth century that the great immigration of the

Serbs into Hungary had taken place. All the important history of this

race had been connected with their struggle against the Turks; and it

was as fugitives from Turkish tyranny that they took refuge in

Hungary. They arrived just about the time when Hungary had accepted

the rule of the House of Austria, and, finding that Ferdinand I. was

more zealous than his Magyar subjects in resistance to the Turks, and

that some of the Magyars were even willing to call in the Turks to

their assistance, the Serbs naturally became the champions of the

House of Austria against the Magyars. As a reward for this loyalty,

the Austrian rulers granted various privileges to their new subjects;

and, in 1690, Leopold I. gave special invitation to the Serbs to come

over from the Turkish provinces and to settle in the district assigned

to them. To those who lived in that district was granted the right of

choosing the Patriarch of their own Church, their own Voyvode, or

military leader, and their own magistrates; while those living

actually on the frontier were placed under a special military

government which was administered from Vienna, and were rewarded for

their military services by freedom from taxation. The Magyars, indeed,

did not abandon the hope of drawing the Serbs to their side; and when,

in the beginning of the eighteenth century, Rakoczi[11] attempted to

set up an independent principality in Transylvania, he appealed to the

Serbs to assist him in his attempt. But their gratitude to the House

of Austria, strengthened in this instance by a dislike to the

Calvinism of Rakoczi, kept them firm in their championship of the

Austrian cause.

The House of Austria, on the other hand, showed as little gratitude to

the Serbs in the early part of the eighteenth century as they did to

the Magyars in the nineteenth; and Joseph I. and Charles VI. steadily

violated the promises which had been made by Leopold. The concession

of religious liberty was found to be not inconsistent with a vigorous

Jesuit propaganda for the crushing out of the Greek faith. A small

emeute in a Serb town gave excuse for further interferences with

liberty; and, as the Magyars gained in strength, Charles VI. resorted

to the mean device of submitting to the Diet of Presburg the list of

privileges which he had granted to the Serbs, and asking if the Diet

would be pleased to approve them; and, on receiving the refusal which

he had expected, he declared that he could not uphold these privileges

against the wish of the Hungarian Diet. The Serbs in Hungary were, in

many cases, reduced to the position of serfs; the districts of the

Banat and Batschka, which had formed part of the Serb settlement, were

given up to Hungary in 1741 by Maria Theresa; the Voyvodeschaft was

abolished, and so, at a later period, was the Patriarchate also. Maria

Theresa, indeed, would have desired to redress some of the grievances

of the Serbs; but the need which she felt for the help of the Magyars,

first in the War of Succession, and afterwards in the Seven Years'

War, compelled her to disregard the interests of the subject-races

when they clashed with those of her more powerful allies. In spite,

therefore, of several insurrections and continual meetings of

Congresses, the Serbs failed to recover their former privileges; and a

few concessions which were made to them by Leopold II. were speedily

withdrawn by Francis.

During the latter part of the eighteenth century a new hope came to

the Serbs in the growing development of their national literature. A

school was founded at Carlowitz by the Patriarch of the Serbs;

printing-presses were set up, and writers were gradually produced by

this education, one of whom, named Obradovic, composed the first essay

in the Serb dialect: while Karadzic, another writer, gathered up the

old songs, proverbs, and stories of the country and tried to reduce

the dialect into grammatical forms. The movement of Szaffarik and

Kollar in North Hungary gave new hopes to the Serbs and other Slavs in

the development of their literature; and it was whilst this feeling

was growing that Gaj put forward his plan for the Illyrian language.

Gaj's movement was, to some extent, an apple of discord among the Serb

national party; for, while some of them were eager to join in any

union of the Slavs, many of the more powerful of the clergy objected

altogether to the abandonment of the old Cyrillic alphabet which had

been introduced by the Bishops Cyril and Methodius, who converted the

Slavs to Christianity. And while, as was mentioned in a former

chapter, Gaj was suspected by the Roman Catholics of wishing to swamp

them in a union with the members of the Greek Church, the Greek

clergy among the Serbs, on the other hand, feared a movement which

seemed likely to have its centre in the Roman Catholic province of

Croatia. Thus there had grown up two centres of the Serb movement in

two towns situated within a few miles of each other. Neusatz, or Novi

Sad, the most important town of Slavonia, was the centre of the

literary and trading part of the Serb community; and Carlowitz, or

Karlovci, was the head-quarters of the Metropolitan, and the centre of

the clerical section of the Serb national party.

It was from Neusatz, then, that, on April 8, 1848, a deputation arrived

at Presburg and declared that, while they were in sympathy with the

March movement, and had no desire to separate from Hungary, they yet

wished for protection for their national language and customs. They

therefore demanded the re-establishment of the Patriarchal dignity and

of the office of Voyvode; requesting, further, that the power of the

latter officer should be extended over the territories which the Serbs

had reconquered from the Turks. Kossuth answered that the Magyars would

do their best to respect national feeling, and to give the Serbs a

share in the freedom which the Magyars had won; but that only the

Magyar language could bind the different nationalities together.

Batthyanyi echoed the words of Kossuth in an even stronger form.

"Then," the Serbs answered, "we must look for recognition elsewhere

than at Presburg." "In that case," answered Kossuth, "the sword must

decide." "The Serbs," retorted one of the deputation, "were never

afraid of that." And so the glove was thrown down. A few days later

came a deputation from Carlowitz with the same object; for the clergy,

however little sympathy they might feel with Gaj's movement, feared,

as heartily as the citizens of Neusatz could do, the interference

of the Magyars with Serb independence. The Magyars seem to have

learned already the tyrannical arts of Metternich; for they met the

petition of the clergy with the threat that they would extend to the

Roumanians the liberties granted to the Serbs; and they were, no doubt,

proportionately disappointed when the deputation answered that they

were perfectly ready to share their rights with the Roumanians.

The quarrel thus begun soon led to an actual outbreak. In the town

of Velika-Kikinda, in the Banat, there had arisen one of those

disturbances which are the natural marks of a revolutionary period.

The peasantry, excited by the changes in their position, had begun to

expect still further advantages. A worthless adventurer had become a

candidate for one of the village judgeships, and had promised that, if

elected, he would recover for the peasantry, without compensation to

the present possessors, all the lands that their lords had taken from

them. He was elected, but was, of course, unable to carry out his

promises; and the disappointed peasantry rose in indignation and made

a riot. The soldiers were called out to suppress the movement, but

were repelled and disarmed; the magistrates' houses were broken open,

and two of them were killed. Thereupon the Magyars sent down a

Commissioner to inquire into the riot; the people were ready to

surrender the murderers to justice; but the Commissioners seized the

opportunity to declare that all the Serb villages in the neighbourhood

were concerned in a communistic rising; and, in consequence, they

placed them under martial law.

The Serbs now despaired of getting any justice from the Magyars, and

determined to appeal from them to the Emperor. They desired, however,

still to act legally; and they therefore resolved that the petition to

the Emperor should be drawn up by an Assembly which had been convoked

in a legal manner. The only official leader to whom they could appeal

was their Metropolitan, Rajacic. He was an old man, and unwilling to

bestir himself in politics. He hesitated, therefore, to comply

with the request of his countrymen; but a man of more determined

spirit was ready to take the lead among the Serbs. This was George

Stratimirovic, one of those erratic characters who add picturesqueness

to a revolutionary movement. He came from a Serb family which had

settled in Albania; but he had been brought up in Vienna in a military

school, and had entered the Austrian Army, which he had been compelled

to leave on account of an elopement. Since that time he had started a

popular journal, and had joined in the Serb deputation to the Hungarian

Diet. His fiery and determined character had attracted the more

vigorous politicians among the Serbs; and, though only twenty-six years

of age, he was chosen President of the National Serb Committee

which was now being formed. The impulse given to the movement by

Stratimirovic was further quickened by the alarm which was roused among

the Serbs by the appointment of a new Governor to the fortress of

Peterwardein, which overlooked Neusatz. This decided the National

Committee to act at once; and, gathering together the Serbs from those

other provinces of Hungary which had once been under their rule, they

organized in Neusatz a deputation which was to rouse Rajacic to a sense

of his duty. Along the road to Carlowitz they marched with banners and

flags, singing the old national airs, and telling of the exploits of

Voyvodes and Patriarchs who had saved their country in former times.

Rajacic was greatly impressed by this deputation; and, after notifying

his decision to the Count Palatine, as the legal ruler of Hungary, he

summoned the Assembly to meet on the 13th of May.

In the meantime, the attitude of the Croatians was alarming the

Hungarian Diet. As mentioned above, they had determined from the first

to claim a separate Assembly for Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, and

also a separate national guard. Kossuth and some of his friends seemed

more disposed, at this time, to make concessions to the Croats than to

the Serbs. But the bitter struggles of 1843 to 1846 had destroyed the

hope of smoothing over the breach with soft words; and, even while

Kossuth was promising to sanction the use of the Croatian language in

Croatian affairs and to protect their nationality, he was at the same

time denouncing their separatist tendencies as shown in their desire

for a separate Assembly. The Croatians, on their part, resented

fiercely the visit of certain youths from Pesth, who came to demand

their acceptance of the "twelve points." The growing sympathy between

the different subject-races of Hungary had led the Croats to protest

against the proposal to absorb Transylvania in Hungary. The question

of the abolition of the forced labour of the peasants, and of the

introduction of peasant proprietorship, was complicated in Croatia by

the existence of village communities which managed the land on the old

tribal system; and therefore the Croats maintained that it was

impossible to pass the same land laws for Hungary and for Croatia.

The question of religious equality was connected in the minds of

the Croats with the fear of an invasion by Magyar Protestants to

denationalize Croatia. But the great cause of the Croatian dislike to

the "twelve points" lay not so much in their objection to any

particular reform as in their resentment at the arrogant attempt to

thrust upon them whole-sale formulas concocted at Buda-Pesth. On the

other hand, the Magyars considered that they had a special grievance,

both against the Croats and against the Emperor, in the sanction which

Ferdinand had given on March 23, without waiting for Magyar approval,

to the election of Joseph Jellacic as Ban of Croatia. Jellacic was

colonel in one of the regiments stationed on that military frontier

which was specially under the control of Vienna; and he was chiefly

known for his share in a not very successful campaign in Bosnia; while

rumour connected his appointment with the favour of the Archduchess

Sophia. This appointment, therefore, was doubly distasteful to the

Hungarian Diet, as being at once an exercise of court influence and an

assertion of the independence of Croatia against the power of the

Magyars.

But while these various causes were working together to undo the

harmony which had been established in the beginning of March, another

race struggle was coming to a head, in a different part of the

Austrian Empire, which was to have as vital an effect on the history

of that Empire as any produced by the struggle between the Magyars and

the subject-races of Hungary. We left the Bohemian deputation enjoying

their welcome from Ferdinand and Kolowrat in Vienna, and sending

happy messages to their fellow citizens in Prague; and on March 24

Pillersdorf, who was now the most important Minister at Vienna,

announced the concession by the Emperor of most of the demands of the

people of Prague. There were, however, three exceptions on very vital

points. The Emperor declared that the equalization of nationalities

was already secured by a previous ordinance, and therefore needed no

new legislation; that the special law court for Bohemia, which the

petitioners wished to see established in Prague, must be left to the

consideration of the Minister of Justice; and that the proposal to

reunite Moravia and Silesia to Bohemia must be decided by the local

Assemblies of the respective provinces.

Some of the quieter citizens of Prague were willing to accept this

answer; but the more determined patriots called upon their friends to

attend a meeting on the Sophien-Insel, a green island which lies just

below the Franzensbruecke in Prague, and which is used by the citizens

as a great place for holiday gatherings. Here the more vigorous

spirits of Prague uttered their complaints against the Emperor's

answer. They pointed out that the local Estates, to which Ferdinand

wished to refer some of the questions submitted to him, were mediaeval

bodies, having no real representative character; and that only an

assembly freely elected by the whole people would be competent to

decide on these questions; that, as to the ordinance to which the

Emperor referred for securing equality between Bohemians and Germans,

that ordinance had ceased for two hundred years to have any effect;

and that a law passed in a formal manner was therefore necessary as a

guarantee for the desired equality; while with regard to the question

of the union between Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, the claim for

that union rested on the historical, national, and geographical

connections between those lands. The petitioners, accompanied by the

national guard, then marched to the house of the Governor of Bohemia,

and induced him to sign their new petition. On April 8 Ferdinand

answered this petition in a letter, promising complete equality

between the German and Bohemian languages in all questions of State

Administration and public instruction. He further promised that a

Bohemian Assembly should be shortly elected on the broadest basis of

electoral qualifications, and should have the power of deciding on all

the internal affairs of Bohemia. Responsible central boards were to be

set up; and the new Assembly was to consider the question of the

establishment of independent district law courts, and the abolition of

the old privileged tribunals; while the question of the union between

Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia was to be decided by a general Assembly,

in which all three provinces would be represented. Public offices and

legal boards in Bohemia were to be filled exclusively by men who knew

both the German and Bohemian languages; and the Minister of Public

Instruction was to make provision for the thorough education of

Bohemian and German teachers.

There seemed to be nothing in these concessions which was likely to

irritate either the German or the Bohemian party; but the work of

Germanizing Bohemia, so ruthlessly inaugurated by Ferdinand II. after

the Battle of the White Hill in 1620, could not be entirely undone by

the March insurrection of 1848. Several towns in Bohemia had been

completely Germanized, and they looked with the greatest suspicion on

the movement for restoring the Bohemian language to its natural place

as an educational and literary power; while they regarded, with hardly

less suspicion, any attempt to weaken the hold of Vienna on Prague, or

to restore in any degree a Bohemian national life. The towns of Saatz

and Reichenberg, particularly, seem to have retained the German impress

most thoroughly, and were extremely jealous of the claim of Prague to

take the lead in a Bohemian movement. In Moravia the German party were

able to appeal to some feeling of provincial independence against the

absorption of that province in Bohemia; while the Germans who had been

born in Bohemia, but who had subsequently settled in Vienna, naturally

caught the infection of that intense German feeling which connected

itself with the March movement in Lower Austria. It must not be

supposed, however, that this division of feeling ran strictly parallel

with the lines of hereditary descent. Men of undoubtedly German name

and German origin had accepted heartily the language and traditions of

the conquered people; while names that were as certainly Slavonic were

found among the leaders of the German party. Another element of

confusion of the party lines arose from the change which had come over

the religious feelings of the two races respectively. In Prague at any

rate, especially among the aristocracy, the championship of that cause

of Bohemian independence which had been dear to the followers of John

Huss, and to the subjects of the Winter King, was often connected in

1848 with strong Roman Catholic sympathies. This irregularity in the

division of parties might have been expected to soften the bitterness

of the growing antagonisms; and, if the discussion of the question at

issue had been confined to the Germans and Bohemians of the Austrian

Empire, there seems some reason to hope that, under freer institutions,

the bitterness of local and national divisions might have been

weakened, and a satisfactory solution of the claims of the different

races might have been arrived at.

But a new element of discord was now to be introduced into the

struggle; and the great movement for the unity and freedom of Germany

became for a time a source of tyranny, and a new and more fatal cause

of division between the races of the Western half of the Austrian

Empire. This collision is the more to be regretted because, until its

occurrence, the leaders of the German movement had exhibited the same

dignity and moderation of temper which had been shown in the early

phases of the Bohemian movement. On March 31, the very day of the

meeting in the Sophien-Insel, the representatives of the German nation

arrived in Frankfort, to open that Preparatory Parliament which was to

be the first step towards German unity. One who saw this opening scene

has thus described it:--"Under a wavy sea of German flags, through a

crowd of green trees of freedom, covered with flowers and crowns,

walked the members of the Preparatory Parliament. They were surrounded

and accompanied by thousands of excited women, as they went from the

Imperial Hall of the Roman Emperors to their work in that Church of

St. Paul, which from thenceforth for nearly a year would contain the

best men of Germany, the holiest hopes of the nation."

Nor were their early efforts unworthy of the nation whom they

represented; for it seemed likely that the wisest men would be able to

get their due influence in the Assembly. And this was the more

remarkable, because the ease with which they had accomplished the

first steps of their work seems to have led many of the Assembly to

fear that there was some deeper plot in the background; and both in

the city and among the members of the Assembly a rumour spread that

troops were on the march to put down their meeting. A panic seized the

Deputies, and bitter reproaches were interchanged. Violence seemed

likely to follow, when Robert Blum came forward to reconcile the

opposing factions. "Gentlemen," said he, "from whence shall we get

freedom, if we do not maintain it in our dealings with each other, in

our most intimate circle?" He went on then to point out, that the

immediate causes of quarrel were mere matters of form and not of

principle; and that it was the duty of the Assembly to maintain the

reputation of the German people for calm decision. For any tumults

that were made in that Parliament would be settled out of doors not by

shouts, but by fists, and perhaps by other weapons. "We will first,"

he continued, "reverence the law which we ourselves have made, to

which we voluntarily submit. If we do that, gentlemen, then not only

will the hearts of our people beat in response to us, but other

nations too will stretch out their arms in brotherly love to the

hitherto scorned and despised Germans, and will greet in the first

representative body, which has come here, the full-grown true men,

who are as capable of obtaining freedom as they have shown themselves

worthy of it." The influence of his clear voice, powerful figure, and

determined manner added to the natural effect of his eloquence in

bringing the Assembly to a wiser state of mind.[12] Another sign of

the power which these men showed, of responding to appeals which were

addressed to their higher instincts, was given in answer to one of

the Baden representatives, who called on them to accept as their

fundamental maxim that "Where the Lord does not build with us, there

we build in vain." At these words all the Assembly rose to their feet.

The same triumph of gentle and moderating influences was shown in

their reception of a programme presented to them by Struve on

behalf of the Committee of Seven. This programme contained fifteen

propositions, in which the desire for liberty and national life which

animated all sections of the Assembly was combined with Republican

aspirations, so strong among the Baden leaders, and with those

Socialistic proposals which were as yet entirely in the background of

German politics. Thus, for instance, the list begins with a proposal

for the amalgamation of the army with the Civic Guard, in order to

give a really national character to the army; while another clause

proposes equality of faiths, freedom of association, and the right of

communities to choose their own clergy and their own burgomasters. On

the other hand, the 12th clause aims at the settlement of the

misunderstandings between labour and capital by a special Ministry of

Labour, which should check usury, protect workmen, and secure them a

share in the profits of their work; while the 15th clause proposes the

abolition of hereditary monarchies, and the introduction into Germany

of a Federal Republic on the model of the United States of America.

This medley of various ideas which Hecker and Struve desired to force

upon the Assembly was finally referred to a Committee, which in the

end would sift out what was practicable and embody it in a law. Even

in the burning question of the relations between the Frankfort

Parliament and their antiquated rival the Bundestag, Blum's influence

was used in moderating the violence of the disputes between those who

wished to drive the older institution to extremities and those who

wished to make for it a golden bridge by which it could pass naturally

into greater harmony with modern ideas.

So far, then, the German national movement had, on the whole, been

guided wisely and moderately; but when the discussions began about the

basis of the election of the future Assembly there quickly appeared

that German national arrogance which was destined to inflame to so

intolerable an extent the antagonism of feeling between the rival

races in Bohemia. It was, indeed, unavoidable that the German movement

in Austria should be met by some expression of friendliness and some

attempt at common action on the part of the Frankfort Parliament; but

the desire to welcome all Germans into the bosom of the newly-united

Germany became at once complicated with the question of the best

way of dealing with those districts where Slavs and Germans were

so closely mixed together. This question, indeed, would in all

probability have been summarily answered by the German Parliament in

favour of absolute German supremacy and of the absorption of Bohemia

in Germany; but the Slavonic question in the South could not be

considered apart from that other phase of it, which was concerned with

the mutual relation between Poles and Germans in the Polish districts

of the Kingdom of Prussia. Even the most extreme champions of German

supremacy were influenced in their decision of this _North_ Slavonic

question by their desire to restore an independent Poland as a bulwark

against Russian oppression; and they could not deny that the claims of

the Poles to the possession of Posen, at any rate, were as justifiable

morally and historically as their claims to that part of their country

which had been absorbed by Russia. They were desirous, therefore, of

making concessions to Slavonic feeling in Posen; and this desire was

increased by the connection which Mieroslawsky had established between

the struggle for Polish freedom in Posen and that for German freedom

in other parts of Prussia. Under these circumstances they could not

wholly disregard in Bohemia the feeling which they humoured in Posen;

and thus it came to pass that the Preparatory Parliament, unwilling

either to abandon German supremacy or to violate directly the

principle of unity and autonomy of race, came to the conclusion so

common to men under similar difficulties, to throw the burden of the

decision on others. They therefore passed a vague resolution which

might be differently interpreted by different readers, while they left

the practical decision of the question to the Committee of Fifty

which was to govern Germany from the dissolution of the Preparatory

Parliament on April 4 till the meeting of the Constituent Assembly on

May 8.

It was this Committee, therefore, which undertook the decision of the

relations to be established between Bohemia and the new free Germany.

The new body proved bolder than the Preparatory Parliament; for it

took a step which, though it may have been intended in a conciliatory

spirit, yet involved the distinct assertion of the claim to treat

Bohemia as part of Germany. They invited the Bohemian historian

Palacky to join with them in their deliberations, and thus to sanction

the proposal that Bohemia should send representatives to the German

Parliament. Palacky answered by a courteous but firm refusal of the

proposal, based partly on the grounds of previous history, partly on

the needs of Bohemia, and partly on the necessity of an independent

Austrian Empire to the safety and freedom of Europe. He pointed out

that the supposed union between Bohemia and Germany had been merely an

alliance of princes, never of peoples, and that even the Bohemian

Estates had never recognized it. He urged that Bohemia had the same

right to independence which was claimed by Germany; but that both

would suffer if extraneous elements were introduced into Germany. He

urged that an independent Austria was necessary as a barrier against

Russia, but that Germany could be united only by a Republican

Government; and, therefore, Austria, which must necessarily remain an

Empire, could not consent to a close union with Germany without

breaking to pieces.

In spite, however, of this rebuff, the German leaders at Frankfort

were so eager to secure their purpose in this matter that they sent

down messengers to Prague to confer with the Bohemian National

Committee. A long discussion ensued, turning partly on the independence

of the Austrian State, partly on the nationality of Bohemia. The

Bohemians urged that the Germans were endeavouring to force upon

them traditions which they had rejected for themselves; that the

Frankfort Parliament had repudiated the old Bund on account of its

unrepresentative character; and yet they demanded that Bohemia should

recognise a union which rested on the arrangements which had been

destroyed, a union about which the Bohemians had never been consulted

as a nation. The Germans, on their side, attempted to advance certain

arguments of expediency in favour of a closer union between Bohemia and

Germany. But a certain Dr. Schilling, who does not seem to have been

one of the original messengers from Frankfort, declared, with brutal

frankness, the real grounds of the German proposal. If Austria did not

become German, he said, the Germans of Austria would not remain

Austrian. The five million Germans in Austria would not stay to be

oppressed by the twelve million Slavs. The freedom and culture of

Bohemia was, he declared, entirely German. The idea of freedom could

not be found among the Slavs; and it was therefore necessary, in the

general interests of freedom, that Bohemia should be absorbed in

Germany.

Palacky bitterly thanked Schilling for the frankness of his speech;

and expressed his regret at hearing that the Germans would not stay

where they could not rule, and where they were obliged to be on an

equality with others; while another of the Bohemians exclaimed that

the Bohemians had shown their love of liberty by their resistance to

the attempts to Germanize them. But Schilling seemed entirely unable

to appreciate the feelings of his opponents; and, with a naive

contempt for logic, he declared that, _because_ Nationality was just

now the leading idea of the Peoples, _therefore_ all the Slavs who

belonged to the German Bund must be absorbed in Germany! Kuranda, the

former champion of Viennese liberty, tried to soften the effect of

Schilling's insults. He abandoned any claim based on the old German

Bund, and declared that the Assembly at Frankfort was not so much a

German Parliament as a Congress of Peoples, a beginning of the union

of humanity. But this ingenious change of front could not destroy the

effect of Schilling's words; and perhaps the Bohemians could not

understand why a Congress of the Peoples should find its centre at

Frankfort any more than at Prague.

But though the Bohemians had failed to convince the German Committee

that Bohemia had as much right as Germany to a separate existence,

they still hoped that the Austrian Government would protect them from

an attack which seemed directed both against their national rights and

against the integrity of the Austrian Empire. So they despatched to

the Minister of the Interior a protest against the proposal to hold

elections for the Frankfort Parliament in Bohemia. Such elections,

they declared, would lead to a breach of the peace of the country, to

Communistic and Republican agitations, and to attempts to break up the

Austrian Empire. The Bohemian Assembly, they urged, would disavow the

legal right of such representatives when they were elected; and thus

any really satisfactory alliance between Austria and Germany would be

hindered by this attempt. The Ministers in Vienna were, no doubt,

troubled in their mind about this question of the relations between

Germans and Bohemians. On the one hand, they desired to conciliate a

people whose national interests led them to seek protection in a union

with the rest of the Austrian Empire. But, on the other hand, they

felt it difficult to disregard the intense German feeling which was

growing in Vienna, and which was shared by important towns in Bohemia.

Therefore, after, no doubt, considerable deliberation, the Ministry

resolved to announce to the Bohemians that they might either vote for

the representatives in the Frankfort Parliament or abstain from

voting, as seemed best to them. This seems, of all conclusions, the

most unreasonable which could have been arrived at. The union with

Germany might or might not be defensible; but it was obviously a step

which must be taken by the whole nation or by none. Of all possible

political arrangements, none could be more intolerable than the

permission to certain citizens of a country to retain their civil

rights and residence in that country, and at the same time to be free

to claim, _according to their own fancy_, the special protection

secured by citizenship in another State.

The National Committee of Prague, finding that the Government at

Vienna were unable or unwilling to protect them, resolved on stronger

measures of self protection; and on May 1 they issued an appeal to all

the Slavs of Austria to meet on the 31st of the same month in Prague,

to protest against the desire of the Frankfort Parliament to absorb

Austria in Germany. This appeal was signed by Count Joseph Matthias

Thun, whose relative, Count Leo Thun, had taken an active part in

forming the National Committee; by Count Deym, who had headed the

first deputation to Vienna; by Palacky and his son-in-law Dr. Rieger;

by the philologer Szaffarik, and by less well known men. But at the

same time the Bohemian leaders were most anxious to try to maintain

the connection with Austria and to observe a strictly deferential

attitude towards the Emperor. They therefore appealed again to the

Emperor and his Ministers to withdraw the indirect sanction which they

had given to the proposed Bohemian elections to the Frankfort

Parliament. They pointed out that Austria had never belonged, in

regard to most of her provinces, to the German Bund; and that the

question of whether or no Bohemia should join herself to Germany was

clearly one of those internal questions with reference to which she

had been promised the right of decision. They further urged that the

Emperor had acted on a different line with regard to the union between

Moravia and Bohemia; and although the claim for this latter union

rested on old treaties and laws, he had decided that it should only be

restored by a vote of the respective provincial Assemblies, and the

Bohemians had been perfectly willing to accept a compromise on the

subject. How much more reasonable then was it that the Bohemians

should claim the right of deciding on the question of an entirely new

relation between their country and Germany? Again they warned him of

the violence which might be the consequence of such elections; and

they entreated him to consider also that any attempt on the part of

the Frankfort Parliament to make a Constitution for all the lands of

the Bund, would be a violation of the independence of the Emperor of

Austria and of all his subjects. This last argument might, at an

earlier stage, have produced an effect on some at least of the

Ministers to whom it was addressed; for they had already announced

that Austria could not be bound by the decisions of the Frankfort

Parliament. But affairs in Vienna were at this time hastening towards

a change, which was materially to affect the relations of that city

with the other parts of the Empire.

The Ministry, which had been formed after the fall of Metternich, was

little likely to satisfy the hopes of the reformers. Kolowrat and

Kuebeck, who had been supposed to be rather less illiberal than

Metternich, but who had worked with him in most of his schemes,

were prominent in this Ministry; and another member of it was

that Ficquelmont who had hoped to pacify Milan by help of dancers

and actresses. Only one member of the Ministry, the Freiherr von

Pillersdorf, had any real reputation for Liberalism; and even he had

been a colleague of Metternich, and had done little in that position to

counteract Metternich's policy. Finding it impossible, therefore, to

put any confidence in the official rulers of their country, the

Viennese naturally turned their attention to the formation of some

Government in which they could trust. On March 20 a special legion had

been formed composed of the students of the University; and a Committee

was soon after chosen from those professors and students who had played

a leading part in the Revolution. This Committee, which was at once the

outcome and the guide of the Students' Legion, became the centre of

popular confidence and admiration. Thus then there arose, in the very

first days of the Revolution, a marked division of interest and feeling

between the real and nominal rulers of Vienna. Some such antagonism is

perhaps the scarcely avoidable result of a revolution achieved by

violence, especially when the change of persons and forms produced by

that revolution is so incomplete as it was in Vienna. Those who, by

mere official position, are allowed to retain the leadership of

followers with whom they have no sympathy, are constantly expecting

that reforms which were begun in violence must be necessarily continued

by the same method; while the actual revolutionary leaders can hardly

believe in their own success, and are constantly suspecting that those

who have apparently accepted the new state of things, are really

plotting a reaction.

In Vienna these mutual suspicions had probably stronger justification

than they have in most cases of this kind. The courtiers, who had

plotted against Metternich, had as little desire for free government

as the Jacobins who overthrew Robespierre; and Windischgraetz was

gradually gathering round him a secret council, who were eventually to

establish a system as despotic as that of Metternich. On the other

hand, it cannot be denied that the gallant lads who had marched in

procession to the Landhaus on March 13, and who had defied the guns of

Archduke Albert, were unwisely disposed to prefer violent methods of

enforcing their opinions. Thus, when, on March 31, a law regulating

the freedom of the Press was issued, as distasteful to the Viennese as

Szemere's had been to the Hungarians, the Viennese students at once

proposed to follow the example of the students of Pesth, and burn the

law publicly. Hye persuaded them to abandon this attempt; and he,

with Fischhof, Kuranda, Schuselka and other trusted leaders, went on a

deputation to Pillersdorf, to entreat him to withdraw the law.

Pillersdorf assured them that this law was only a provisional one, and

that amendments would soon be introduced into it; but, a few days

later, Count Taaffe, another member of the Ministry, publicly

contradicted Pillersdorf's statement, and spoke of the Press law as

being a permanent one, though he promised that it should be mildly

administered. Perhaps the students may be excused if they felt no

great respect for such a Ministry. Nor were their feelings conciliated

by what they considered a growing tendency on the part of the Ministry

to make concessions of local liberties to the provinces.

After the first enthusiasm for Kossuth had a little subsided, the

Viennese began to reflect that the concession of a separate ministry

to Hungary might be a dangerous source of weakness to the central

Government; while the growing demands of the Bohemians seemed likely

to injure both the position of Vienna, and the cause of German unity.

But the Viennese were in many cases aiming at the two incompatible

objects of maintaining the position of Vienna as the capital of the

Austrian Empire, and gaining for it a new position as the second

or third town of United Germany. But a more reasonable cause of

discontent arose from the fact that, while parliaments were conceded

to Hungary and Bohemia, the Constitution which had been promised in

March to the Austrian Empire was as yet unrealized.

Dr. Schuette, a Westphalian by birth, organized a demonstration in

favour of a mass petition. Schuette was arrested by the police, and

banished from Vienna as a foreign agitator; and, while this irritated

the students still further, the Ministry on their side were alarmed at

finding that they had failed to secure the one advantage which they

had hoped to reap from the power of the students. The men who had

succeeded in retaining office after the March Rising, had trusted that

the intellectual youths, who had fought for freedom of the Press and

freedom of teaching, would have discouraged the coarse socialistic

agitations of the workmen, and have separated themselves altogether

from their movements. But, though the extremer forms of Socialism

found little favour among the leaders of the University, the sympathy

between the students and the workmen grew ever closer. If the workmen

complained of an employer, the students went to him and warned him to

behave better; if any poor man needed money, the students organized

the collection; if the cause of a workman was suffering by the undue

length of a trial, the students called upon the judges to do their

duty; if the workmen wished to state some special grievance in the

form of a petition, the students composed the petition for them, or

found a lawyer who would do it gratuitously. Reductions of the hours

of labour and higher wages frequently resulted from these efforts.

This combination naturally alarmed the authorities, and they showed

their fears both by coercion and concession. On the one hand they

arrested Schuette and other agitators; on the other hand they consented

on April 25 to issue the long promised Constitution. The Constitution,

however, at once disappointed the petitioners. The proposed Parliament

was to consist of two Chambers; the Upper Chamber to be composed of

Princes of the royal House, of nominees of the Emperor, and of 150

landlords chosen by the landlords; and the assent of both Chambers and

of the Emperor was to be necessary before the passing of a law. This

Constitution was objected to both by the students and the workmen; the

former condemning it on the ground of its aristocratic character, the

latter becoming discontented when they found that the issue of this

document did not free them from the payment of rent.

The revolutionary enthusiasm of the students was further whetted by

the events which were taking place in Galicia. That unfortunate

province had been so hampered by the effects of the abortive movement

of 1846, that it had not been able to join in the March insurrection

of the rest of Southern Europe. But by the beginning of April even the

Galicians had taken heart; and they sent a deputation to the Emperor

asking for a State recognition of the Polish language, a separate army

for Galicia, and the concession of the different liberties which were

then being demanded throughout the Empire. Even the Preparatory

Parliament of Frankfort had passed a resolution in favour of the

reconstitution of Poland; and the students of Vienna were prepared to

be far more generous in their recognition of Galicia's claim to a

share in Polish independence, than the Frankfort Parliament had been

in its attitude towards Posen. So alarming did the movement appear to

the Austrian Governor of Galicia, that he forbade any emigrants to

return to his province unless they could prove that they had been born

there. The Galicians rose in indignation, and imprisoned the Governor;

but he was set free, and, after a sharp struggle, the insurrection

was suppressed.

But, if their Polish sympathies tended to rouse the revolutionary

fervour of the Viennese students, their anger, on the other hand, was

kindled by the growing tendency of the rich merchants to abandon the

position which they had taken up in March, to accept the April

Constitution, and to fall into more peaceable methods of action. Even

the Reading and Debating Club, which had been the first centre of the

Liberal movement, was now the object of hostile demonstrations on the

part of the students. The Students' Committee had been strengthened by

the adhesion of many of the National Guard, and had received the name

of the Central Committee; Hoyos, the commander of the National Guard,

was alarmed at this sign of revolutionary feeling, and forbade his

subordinates to take part in any political movement. The Central

Committee entreated him to withdraw this prohibition, to which Hoyos

answered that he would withdraw his prohibition if the Central

Committee would dissolve itself. The Committee met to consider this

proposal; but, while they were still sitting, a report arrived that

the soldiers and the National Guard had been called out to put them

down by force. The truth appeared to be, that the soldiers had been

called out to suppress a supposed attack by the workmen; but that,

finding that no such attack was intended, the military leaders seemed

disposed to turn their hostility against the University. Thereupon the

students at once rose and marched to the Castle. It seems that their

exact object was at first uncertain; but on someone demanding of them

their intentions, Dr. Giskra, one of their leaders, answered with, a

shout, "Wir wollen eine Kammer" (we want a single Chamber.) The cry

was taken up by the students; Pillersdorf advised the Emperor to

yield, and on May 16 Ferdinand issued a proclamation granting a one

Chamber Constitution. But whether the shock had been too much for his

feeble health, and had struck him with a panic, or whether he yielded

to the advice of his courtiers, Ferdinand suddenly resolved to leave

Vienna, and on May 17 he fled secretly to Innspruck.

These events produced a somewhat peculiar effect on opinion in various

parts of the Empire. In Bohemia the extreme national feeling had been

hitherto represented by the Swornost, a body corresponding almost

exactly to the Students' Legion in Vienna; and they had been held

somewhat in check by the noblemen and citizens, who had organized the

March movement. But the Vienna rising of May 15, and the flight of the

Emperor, roused the indignation of men like Count Thun and Count Deym;

and they decided to take the important step of breaking loose

altogether from the Viennese Ministry, summoning a special Bohemian

assembly in June, and inviting the Emperor to take refuge in Prague.

The Swornost, on their part, felt some reluctance to take any steps

which seemed to condemn the abolition of the Upper Chamber by the

Viennese; but the bitter hostility, which the Germans of Vienna had so

repeatedly shown against the Bohemians during the months of April and

May, prevented the possibility of any understanding between the

Democrats of Prague and those of Vienna; and thus the students of

Prague were ready to approve, not only the assertion of Bohemian

independence, but even the proposed deputation to the Emperor.

Kossuth, on his part, saw in these events an opportunity for

increasing the growing friendliness between the Magyars and the

Emperor; and he induced the Hungarian Ministry to invite Ferdinand to

Pesth. This attitude of the Magyar leaders was due to one or two

causes. In the first place the Viennese, as mentioned above, had been

growing alarmed at the separate position granted to Hungary, and had

feared that they would lose their hold over that kingdom altogether.

This naturally produced an attitude of hostility on their part, which

provoked a counter-feeling of antagonism in the Magyars; and thus the

latter became more friendly to Ferdinand as the representative of the

anti-democratic principle, and therefore the opponent of the ruling

spirits of Vienna. There was also a second reason of a stranger kind,

which placed the leaders of the Magyar movement in hostility to the

Democratic party in Vienna. In spite of the strong German feeling

which prevailed among the leading Democrats of Vienna, it was the

opinion of some of those Hungarians who were best acquainted with that

city, that the change from indirect to direct elections, which was one

of the results of the May rising, would tend to increase the power of

the large Slavonic population of Vienna.

But the great cause of the growing sympathy between the Magyars and

the Emperor was the attitude taken up by the latter in the questions

at issue between Hungary and Croatia. Although the appointment of

Jellacic, as Ban of Croatia, had been considered as an undue exertion

of the power of the Court to the disadvantage of the Magyars, yet the

independent tone which Jellacic had adopted since his appointment,

seemed to alarm the Emperor as much as it did Batthyanyi or Kossuth.

Immediately after his appointment, Jellacic announced that "the

Revolution has changed our relations to our old ally, Hungary"; and

that "we must take care that the new relation shall be consistent with

independence and equality"; and he had then proceeded to summon the

Assembly of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia to meet at Agram in June.

This independent attitude had brought rebukes upon Jellacic from

Ferdinand and the Hungarian Ministry alike; and the Croatian Council,

while appealing to the Emperor to strengthen the hands of the Ban, had

threatened that, if pressed too hard by the Magyars, they would take

measures to defend themselves. It was not unnatural, therefore, that

at this moment the Croats should be more disposed to sympathise with

the Democrats of Vienna; and that Kossuth should try to draw closer

the bond between the Emperor and the Magyars.

It might indeed seem that the appeal of the Bohemians to the Emperor

under these circumstances would have brought them out of sympathy with

the Slavs of Croatia and Slavonia; but not only did the Emperor refuse

to go to Prague, but the Tyrolese followed up that refusal by a sharp

rebuke to the Bohemians for their proposal of a Slavonic Congress in

Prague. Though, however, the Slavs of Hungary looked forward to the

Slavonic Congress, and were willing to accept Prague as the centre of

their political deliberations, it was in the Hungarian provinces

themselves that the most vigorous action in defence of their rights

was at present to be found. For while the Croatian Council were

protesting against the Emperor's rebuke to Jellacic, the Serbs were

gathering for their Conference of May 13 in Carlowitz, and resolving

to send deputies to the Croatian Assembly, and to the Emperor himself,

and also to choose representatives for the Prague Congress. Crnojevic,

who had been sent by the Magyars to enforce martial law on the Serbs

of the Banat and Bacska, after the riot at Kikinda, denounced the

meeting, and called on Rajacic to prevent it. Rajacic would have

hesitated about further action, but Stratimirovic and his more fiery

friends answered the threat by burning Crnojevic's letter publicly;

and the meeting took place in defiance of his warning.

From every district where the Serb language was spoken, there came to

Carlowitz representatives wearing the old national costume. Carlowitz

is little more than a village; and it would have required a large city

to provide for the crowds who arrived on this occasion. Hundreds,

therefore, lay out by night in the streets, to wait for the meeting in

the morning. In the garden which lies between the Archbishop's library

and the small room where the archives of Carlowitz are kept, there met

on May 13 the Assembly of the newly-roused Serb people. Rajacic

appeared, accompanied by some of the clergy, and presented to the

Assembly the old charters which had been granted by the Emperor in

1690 and 1691, and on which the liberties of the Serbs were based.

Physicians, lawyers, and young students denounced the abolition of

their Voyvodeschaft, claimed back the provinces which Maria Theresa had

abandoned to Hungary, and demanded the removal of all hindrances to

the development of their life, language, and history. They then

proceeded to revive the old dignity of Patriarch in the person of

Rajacic and to choose as their Voyvode a man named Suplikac, who was

then serving in the army in Italy. Finally they appointed a committee

to prepare rules, and gave it the power to call the Assembly together

when circumstances required it. Hrabowsky, the commander of the

fortress of Peterwardein, had been uncertain what attitude he should

assume towards this movement. Sometimes he seemed to be personally

friendly to the Serbs; but, in his official position, he felt doubtful

whether to support the extreme Magyar authority, or to wait for orders

from Ferdinand; and this confusion of mind led him to give doubtful

and contradictory answers to the Serb deputations which waited on him.

Under these circumstances, the Serbs were compelled to rely, even more

markedly than before, on the support of their own countrymen, and of

those races whom a common oppression had driven into sympathy with

them. It was not only to the Croatians and Bohemians that they now

appealed; even the Germans of the Bacska were expected to look with

friendly eyes on the Serb movement, and Stratimirovic believed that

beyond the old Serb provinces there were races to whom they might look

for alliance.

For while the Serbs were still discussing their grievances and the

remedies for them, the Roumanians were meeting in their village of

Blasendorf to make their protest against Magyar rule. They, like the

other Peoples of the Empire, had been disposed to sympathise with the

March movement; but when it became known that the Magyars at Pesth had

put forward as one of their twelve points the union of Transylvania

with Hungary, the Roumanians became alarmed. Had the Transylvanian

Diet met under the extended suffrage now granted in Hungary, the

Roumanians would have had a majority in the Diet; and the influence of

this majority would have been far more important under the new

parliamentary system than in the old days of centralised officialism.

If, on the other hand, they were to be absorbed in Hungary, they

naturally feared that the fanaticism of the Magyars in enforcing the

use of the Magyar language, would be directed with even greater vigour

against the despised Roumanians, than it had been against Serbs and

Croats; and that the Greek Church to which the Roumanians belonged,

and which had always been at a disadvantage in Transylvania, would be

crushed, or, at any rate, discouraged. The tradition of their Roman

descent recorded in the Libellus Wallachorum, had given some of them

hopes for leadership in Transylvania, and had strengthened, even in

the less ambitious, the desire for a dignified equality. Animated by

these motives, they met on May 15 at Blasendorf.

This little capital of the Roumanian race lies in one of the large

open plains of Transylvania. It is still little more than a straggling

village of low huts; but it is apparently as important to the

Roumanians as Carlowitz is to the Serbs and Hermannstadt to the

Saxons. Crowds of the strange figures, whom one may still see in the

villages of Transylvania, flocked in to this meeting, covered with

their rough sheep-skins and dark, flowing hair, and showing in their

handsome faces at once the consciousness of the new life that was

awakening, and their pride in those dim traditions of the past, which

were supposed to unite them with the glories of ancient Rome. Even

here, too, there were found some of the ruling race, who were

prepared to make common cause with this, the most despised and

oppressed of the races of Hungary; for a Magyar noble named Nopcsa was

prominent in the meeting. But now, as ever, the chief hope for the

Roumanians was in their clergy, and specially in their bishops; and

Lemenyi, the bishop of the United Greeks,[13] appeared side by side

with the more popular and influential Schaguna. Speaker after speaker

dwelt on the great traditions of the Roumanian nation, and their

determination to obtain an equality with the Magyar, Szekler, and

Saxon. They avowed their loyalty to Ferdinand, and declared that they

had no desire to oppress any other nation; but that they would not

suffer any other nation to oppress them; that they would work for the

emancipation of industry and trade, for the removal of the feudal

burdens, for the securing of legal justice, and for the welfare of

humanity, of the Roumanian nation, and of the common fatherland. They

then proceeded to ask for a separate national organization, for

the use of the Roumanian language in all national affairs, and for

representation in the Assembly in proportion to their numbers. They

further demanded a Roumanian national guard to be commanded by

Roumanian officers. They claimed to be called by the name of Roumanian,

instead of the less dignified epithet of Wallach. They also asked for

an independent position for their Church; for the foundation of a

Roumanian University; for equality with the other races of Hungary in

the endowment of their clergy and schools. These were the chief points

of their petition; but along with these came the demands for the

ordinary freedoms of the time, and for the redress of special local

grievances. At the close of the petition, came the prayer which

specially explained the urgency of their meeting at that time. They

entreated that the Diet of Transylvania should not discuss the question

of the proposed union with Hungary until the Roumanians were fully

represented in the Diet. This petition Schaguna carried to Vienna on

behalf of the meeting.

In the meantime the Saxons were preparing to express their opposition

to the proposed union with Hungary in a separate protest of their own.

The peculiar organization which the Saxons had enjoyed had become very

dear to them; and they had hoped to retain their old institutions

under the new Government. But when they appealed to the Hungarian

Ministry, Deak told them that they had no right to make conditions;

and it soon became evident that, in the larger matter of the union of

Transylvania with Hungary, they would have as little chance of a fair

hearing as in the smaller question of their own race organization.

Count Teleki, the Governor of Transylvania, had announced, on May 2,

that the union was practically settled already; and that only

questions of detail had now to be arranged. This direct attack on the

legal power of the Transylvanian Diet naturally alarmed the Saxons,

and Count Salmen, the Comes der Sachsen or Chief Magistrate of the

Saxon colony, organized the opposition to the proposed union. Hitherto

the Saxons, with the exception of a few generous-minded men like Roth,

had been as bitterly scornful of the Roumanians as any Magyar or

Szekler could be; but now the sense of a common danger drew these

races together; and the Saxons offered to allow the Roumanians to hold

office in the Saxon towns and villages, and to be admitted to

apprenticeships by the tradesmen of those towns. The opposition of the

Saxons to the Magyars was, no doubt, strengthened by the sympathy

of the former with that German feeling which would lead to the

strengthening of the influence of Vienna; and they declared that they

would rather send representatives to a Viennese Assembly than to a

Diet at Presburg.

And while, on the one hand, common danger to their liberties was

drawing together the Saxons and the Roumanians, the sympathies of race

and a common antipathy to aliens was drawing together the Magyar and

the Szekler. As early as May 10 Wesselenyi issued an appeal to the

Szekler to arm themselves as guardians of the frontiers, and to be

prepared to suppress any rising of the Roumanians; and on May 19

Batthyanyi appealed to them to march to Szegedin. But it was not to the

Szekler alone that the Magyars trusted to enforce their will on the

Transylvanian Diet. The fiery young students of Pesth hastened down, on

May 30, to Klausenburg, where the deputies were gathering for the final

meeting of the Diet. A Roumanian deputation, coming to entreat

the Parliament not to decide till the Roumanians were adequately

represented in it, were contemptuously refused a hearing, and one of

their leaders was roughly pushed back. Banners were displayed bearing

the words, "Union or Death!" and the young lawyers from Pesth filled

the galleries of the Assembly, and even crowded into the Hall. The

Saxon representatives, more used to quiet discussion, or to commercial

transactions, than to the fiery quarrels in which the Magyar and

Szekler delighted, tremblingly entered the Hall; and, unable to gain

courage for their duties, they gave way to the storm, and voted for the

union. Thus ended the local independence of Transylvania, which was to

be revived twelve years later by the Germanizing Liberalism of

Schmerling, and then to be finally swept away in the successful

movement for Hungarian Independence.

The bitterness roused by the passing of the Act of Union was not long

in leading to actual bloodshed. The immediate quarrel, however, arose

out of a matter connected, not with the race contest, but with the new

land laws of the country. The Hungarian Diet had decided that the

peasant should not only be freed from his dependence on the landlord,

but should be also considered by his previous payment of dues to have

earned the land on which he had worked. Naturally, disputes arose as

to the extent of the land so acquired; and in more than one case the

peasants were found to be claiming more than their own share. It was

to redress a blunder of this kind that, on June 2, a party of National

Guards, composed partly of Szeklers and partly of Magyars, entered the

Roumanian village of Mihalzi (Magyar, Mihacsfalva). The exact

circumstances of such a collision as that which followed will always

be told differently by the most honest narrators; but it seems

probable that the Roumanians, in some confused way, connected this

visit with the recent struggle about the Union; and it is certain that

the race-hatred between the Szekler and the Roumanians soon became

inflamed. The National Guard fired, and several of the Roumanians

fell. The others fled; but their previous resistance soon produced a

rumour of a general Roumanian insurrection. The Magyars were seized

with a panic; the Roumanian National Committee was dissolved, and

several of their clergy and other leaders were imprisoned. Had the

Roumanians been now organized by Austrian officers it is possible that

less might have been heard of the savagery of the new warfare. Had

some of their own leaders, who afterwards tried to control them, been

ready at this time to take the lead, many of the actual cruelties

might never have taken place. But just at this time the Emperor

answered the deputation of May 15 by referring the Roumanians to the

Magyar Ministry for the redress of their grievances, and declaring

that equality could only be carried out by enforcing the Act of Union.

This rebuff was accompanied by a letter from Schaguna written somewhat

in the same sense; and thus, finding that some of their leaders had

deserted them; that others were imprisoned; that the Emperor was

discouraging their complaints; that the Magyars were denouncing them

as rebels, and the Szekler making raids on their territory, the

Roumanians began to defend themselves by a warfare which rapidly

became exceptionally barbarous and savage.

In the meantime the other subject races of Hungary were preparing in

their own way for resistance to the Magyars. The Croatian Assembly at

Agram, finding themselves discouraged by the Emperor, were disposed to

strengthen their union with the Serbs of Slavonia; and, on June 6, Gaj

and Jellacic both supported proposals at Agram for uniting the Serbs

and Croats under one rule. Rajacic, who happened to be passing through

Agram, heartily responded to these proposals; and it was resolved that

the relations between the Ban of Croatia and the Voyvode of the Serbs

should be left to be settled at a later period. But the Serbs, though

heartily desiring sympathy with the Croats, were not disposed to trust

to alliances, however welcome, or to Constitutional arrangements,

however ingenious, for the settlement of their grievances against

the Magyars; for they, too, had been forced to abandon peaceable

discussions for actual warfare. Crnojevic, not having been found

sufficiently stern in the Magyar service, was being driven into more

violent courses by the addition of a fiercer subordinate; and the

cruelties inflicted on the Serbs of the Bacska had so roused their

kinsmen in other parts of Hungary that an old officer of the military

frontier had crossed the Danube at the head of his followers and

seized the town of Titel.

At the same time the Serbs sent a deputation to Hrabowsky, the

Governor of Peterwardein, to complain of the cruelties of the Magyar

bands. Hitherto Hrabowsky had seemed to hesitate between the two

parties; but he now grew angry in the conference with the Serb

deputation, and disputed the right of the Serbs to stay in Hungary.

The Serbs, alarmed at these threats, began once more to gather

at Carlowitz; and they now tried to draw recruits from friendly

neighbours. Stratimirovic had succeeded in persuading some of the

regiments from the frontier to take up the Serb cause; but he perhaps

relied still more on the help of those Serbs from the principality of

Servia, who were now flocking in across the border to defend their

kinsmen against the Magyars. Of the leaders of these new allies the

most important was General Knicsanin, who helped to organize the

forces in Carlowitz. The Serbs of Carlowitz had, however, not yet

entered upon actual hostilities, when, on June 11, during one of the

meetings of their Assembly, Hrabowsky suddenly marched out of Neusatz,

dispersed a congregation who were coming out of a chapel half way on

the road between Neusatz and Carlowitz, and reached the latter town

before the Serbs were aware of his intention. The Serbs, though taken

by surprise, rushed out to defend their town, with a Montenegrin

leader at their head. The contest continued for several hours; but at

last Hrabowsky and his soldiers were driven back into Neusatz. Two

days later ten thousand men were in arms in Carlowitz to defend their

town and their race.

But while the Slavs in Hungary were girding themselves for this fierce

war, they had not forgotten the more peaceable union proposed to them

by the Bohemians; and on May 30 representatives from the different

Slavonic races of the Empire had been welcomed in Prague by Peter

Faster and other Bohemian leaders. On June 1 the National Committee of

Prague, while deliberating on the future Constitution of Bohemia, were

joined by several of their Slavonic visitors; and out of this

combination the Congress was formed. It was speedily divided into three

sections: one representing Poles and Ruthenians, one the Southern Slavs

(that is not only the Serbs and Croats, but also the Slovenes of Krain

and the adjoining provinces), and the third the Bohemians, Moravians,

Silesians, and the Slovaks of North Hungary. Many of the members of the

Congress appeared in old Bohemian costumes, and from the windows of

the town waved the flags of all the different Slavonic races. At 8 a.m.

on June 2 the members of the Congress went in solemn procession through

the great square called the Grosser Ring, so soon to be the scene of a

bloody conflict, to the Teynkirche, the church in which Huss preached,

and where his pulpit still stands. In front of the procession went the

Students' Legion, singing patriotic songs; two young men followed, one

in the Polish dress, the other bearing a white, blue, and red flag,

which was supposed to symbolize the union of the Slavonic peoples. A

division of the Swornost corps followed these; then came the

Provisional Committee, and then the representatives of the three

sections of the Congress. The Poles were led by Libelt, a leader in the

recent rising in Posen, and the Bohemians by the philologist Szaffarik.

At the altar, which was sacred to the bishops Cyril and Methodius, the

presiding priest offered thanks to God for having put unity and

brotherly love into the hearts of the Slavs; and he prayed that the

Lord of Hosts would bless the work to the salvation of the nation, as

well as of the whole fatherland. From the church they proceeded to the

hall in the Sophien-Insel. That hall had been decked with the arms of

the different Slavonic races. At the upper end of it was a table

covered with red and white, the Bohemian colours; and the choir began

the proceedings with an old national song. The Vice-President, after

formally opening the Assembly, resigned his seat to Palacky, who had

been chosen President.

Palacky then rose and addressed the meeting. He spoke of the gathering

as the realisation of the dreams of their youth, which a month ago

they could hardly have hoped for. "The Slavs had gathered from all

sides to declare their eternal love and brotherhood to each other.

Freedom," he continued, "which we now desire, is no gift of the

foreigner, but of native growth, the inheritance of our fathers. The

Slavs of old time were all equal before the law, and never aimed at

the conquest of other nations. They understood freedom much better

than some of our neighbours, who cannot comprehend the idea of aiming

at freedom without also aiming at lordship. Let them learn from us the

idea of equality between nations. The chief duty of our future is to

carry out the principle of 'What thou wouldst not that men should do

unto thee, that do not thou to another.' Our great nation would never

have lost its freedom if it had not been broken up, and if each part

had not gone its own separate way, and followed its own policy. The

feeling of brotherly love and freedom could secure freedom to us. It

is this feeling and Ferdinand that we thank for our freedom." For

himself, Palacky continued, he could say, "Lord now lettest Thou thy

servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen the salvation which

Thou hast prepared for us before the face of the whole world. A light

for the enlightenment of the peoples, and the glory of the Slavonic

race." Then, addressing the Assembly, he concluded with these words:

"Gentlemen, in virtue of the office entrusted to me by you, I announce

and declare that this Slavonic Assembly is open; and I insist on its

right and duty to deliberate about the welfare of the fatherland, and

the nation, in the spirit of freedom, in the spirit of unity and

peace; in the name of our old, renowned Prague, which protects us in

its bosom; in the name of the Czech nation, which follows our

proceedings with hearty sympathy; in the name of the great Slavonic

race, which expects from our deliberations its strengthening and

eternal regeneration. So help us God." Other speeches followed from

representatives of the different Slavonic races; and petitions to the

Emperor were prepared in favour of the demands made by the Serbs at

Carlowitz, and of the rights of the Poles and Ruthenians; while plans

were drawn up for the equalization of the rival languages in the

schools.

But while these peaceable discussions were proceeding in the Slavonic

Congress, more fiery elements were at work in other parts of the city.

During the months of April and May there had been signs of various

kinds of discontent among different sections of the population.

Workmen's demonstrations about wages had attracted some attention;

while one public gathering, approaching to a riot, had secured the

release of an editor, supposed to have been unjustly arrested, and had

hastened the resignation of Strobach, the Mayor of Prague. But the

most fiery agitations were those which had been stirred up among the

students by a man named Sladkowsky, with the object of weakening as

far as possible the German element in Prague. So alarming did these

demonstrations become that Count Deym resigned his seat on the

National Committee; and Count Leo Thun, the Governor of Prague,

threatened to dissolve the Swornost in order to hinder further

disorder; but the opposition to this proposal was so strong that he

was obliged to abandon it.

The great cause of the students alarm was the appointment of

Windischgraetz to take the command of the forces in Bohemia. His

proceedings during the March movement in Vienna were well known; and

the fear caused by his arrival was still further increased by the

threatening position that he had taken up; for he had mounted his

cannon on two sides of the city; namely, on the commanding fortress of

the Wissehrad, on the South, from which he could have swept a poor

and crowded part of Prague; and in the Joseph's barrack, on the

North-East. The members of the Town Council tried to check the

demonstrations of the students, and to persuade them to appeal to

Windischgraetz in a more orderly manner. In order to give dignity to

the proceedings, the Burgomaster consented to accompany the students

on the proposed deputation. Windischgraetz, however, answered that he

was responsible to the King, and not to the Council; though, when

Count Leo Thun appealed to him, he consented to withdraw the cannon

from the Joseph's barrack, declaring that there was no need for its

presence there; but that he had been determined not to yield to the

students.

While the students succeeded in further irritating against them a man

whose haughty and overbearing spirit was naturally disposed to

opposition, they were still more rash and unfortunate in their

relations with some whom they had had greater hopes of conciliating.

The aristocratic leaders of the Bohemians, while asserting the

independence of Bohemia, and the need for protecting Slavonic

liberties, were most anxious to make as many concessions to German

feeling as could be made consistently with these objects. One of the

noblemen, who had been fiercest in his denunciations of the rising of

May 15th, even thought it well to send to Vienna a long explanation

and modification of his protest; while Palacky and other leading

nationalists inaugurated a feast of reconciliation in which many of

the German Bohemians took part. So successful had this policy appeared

to be that the town of Saatz, which had been the first to express

alarm at the Bohemian attitude towards the Germans, declared on May 20

its sympathy with the Prague address to the Emperor, and its desire

for union between the German and Bohemian elements in Bohemia. But the

students seemed doomed to weaken the effect produced by their more

moderate countrymen. They combined a strong Czech feeling with a great

desire for democratic government; and while they thought they could

enlist the sympathies of the Vienna students by the latter part of

their creed, they seemed to be unaware that Germanism was to the

students of Vienna what Czechism was to them. On June 5th, the very

same day on which the Slavonic Congress was deciding to send its

petition to the Emperor, more than a hundred students of Prague

started on a deputation to their comrades in Vienna. But on their way,

they thought it necessary to attack and insult the German flag,

wherever it was displayed. They arrived in Vienna to find the Viennese

students suspicious even towards those who had been their champions,

and still smarting from the recollection of a struggle between their

Legion, and the National Guard, who had attempted to suppress them. It

was while they were in this state of irritation, that the Czech

students appeared in the Hall of the University; and, unfortunately,

at the same time, there arrived from Prague the representatives of two

German Bohemian Clubs. Schuselka, Goldmark, and other Viennese

leaders, urged a reconciliation between the two races; but the news of

the insults to the German flag so infuriated the Viennese students,

that they drove the Czechs from the Hall, and ordered them to leave

Vienna within twenty-four hours.

The unfortunate deputation returned to Prague to find that the

Slavonic Congress was approaching its final acts, and was preparing

two appeals, one to the Emperor, and one to the Peoples of Europe. The

latter appeal was based on a general complaint of the oppressions from

which the Slavs suffered. It demanded the restoration of Poland, and

called for a European Congress to settle international questions;

"since free Peoples will understand each other better than paid

diplomatists." In the appeal to the Emperor, the Congress went into

greater detail, as to the special demands of the different Slavonic

races of Austria. The Bohemians, indeed, mainly expressed their thanks

for the independence which now seemed legally secured. The Moravians

suggested an arrangement which would combine the common action of

Moravia and Bohemia with a provision for Moravian local independence.

The Galicians pointed out how much they had been left behind by the

other Austrian provinces in the struggle for freedom, and proposed an

arrangement for securing equality between the Polish and Ruthenian

languages in Galicia, and for granting to Galicia the same provincial

freedom that had already been secured to Bohemia. The Slovaks of North

Hungary demanded protection for their language against the Magyar

attempt to crush it out; equal representation in the Hungarian

Assembly; official equality between the Slovak, Ruthenian, and Magyar

languages; and freedom for those Slovaks who had recently been arrested

and imprisoned by the Magyars, for defence of their national rights.

The Serbs, of course, demanded the acceptance of the programme put

forward at Carlowitz; and the Croats the recognition of the legality of

the acts of Jellacic, and of the municipal independence of the Assembly

of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia. Lastly, the Slovenes desired that

the provinces of Steiermark, Krain, Carinthia, and some neighbouring

districts, should be formed into a separate kingdom, in which the

Slovenian language should be the official one. All the Slavs combined

in the desire that Austria should be a federal State, and in the

protest against that absorption in Germany, the fear of which had led

to the calling of the Congress.

But sober and rational as was the tone of the Slavonic Congress, as a

whole, there were turbulent spirits in Prague, who were determined

that the matter should not end peaceably. The extremer representatives

of Polish feeling desired the separation of Poland, and disliked any

plan which would reconcile Galicia to remaining part of Austria. On

the other hand, there had appeared in Prague at this period an

adventurer named Turansky, who while professing to be a champion of

the Slovaks of North Hungary, seems undoubtedly to have acted as an

"agent provocateur." Such men as these were easily able to act upon

the excited feelings of the students; and were further aided in

stirring up violent feeling by a strike among the cotton workers which

was just then going on.

Finally, the outburst came on June 12. The Slavonic Congress at

Prague, already preparing to break up, met on that day to celebrate a

last solemn mass. Once more they all gathered in front of the statue

of S. Wenzel; but now the numbers were so great that they spread down

the whole length of the Wenzels Platz. In spite of the peaceable

intentions of the majority, a number of the workmen had come bearing

arms. The mass went off quietly enough; but several of those who had

attended it, had had their national feelings excited to the utmost;

and, as they left the Wenzels Platz, they marched back singing

Bohemian songs, and howling against Windischgraetz. As they passed

under the Pulverthurm into the narrow and busy Zeltnergasse, which

leads to the Grosser Ring, some soldiers, as ill luck would have it,

came out of the neighbouring barrack. The house of Windischgraetz was

in the street, and the crowd were hooting against him. Under these

circumstances a collision was unavoidable. The crowd were dispersed by

the soldiers; some of the students attempted to rally them, and were

arrested; the workmen then tried to rescue the students; the soldiers

charged, and drove them back under the Pulverthurm, and round into the

wider street of Am Graben, and right up to the National Museum, which

was the head-quarters of the Swornost. After a fierce struggle the

soldiers stormed the Museum, and captured many of the students; but

the panic had now spread to other parts of the town. Sladkowsky, at

the head of the workmen, broke into the depot of the Town Watch, and

seized arms; while others rushed into the country districts round

Prague, and spread the rumour that the soldiers were trying to take

away all that the Emperor had granted, and to restore the feudal dues.

In the meantime the leaders of the March movement were greatly

startled at hearing of the outbreak. Some of them had already been

alarmed at the growing tendency to disturbances in Prague; several of

them hastened out to check the riots, and some of them even fought

against the insurgents. Count Leo Thun, the Governor of Prague,

hastened down to the Grosser Ring to try to still the disturbance; but

the students seized him, and carried him off prisoner into the Jesuit

College near the Carlsbruecke. They seem to have had very little

intention of violence; but they thought to secure by this means his

promise of help in a peaceful settlement of the contest. He refused,

however, to promise anything while he was kept a prisoner. Some of the

students went to the Countess to try to get her to persuade her

husband to yield; but though she was so alarmed for his safety that

her hair turned white from fear, she firmly refused to comply.

Meanwhile, one of the more moderate men went to Windischgraetz to

entreat him to give up the students who had been taken prisoners, on

condition of the barricades being removed. But Windischgraetz demanded

that Count Leo Thun should first be set free. While the discussion was

going on, the fight was still raging in the Zeltner Gasse; and

Princess Windischgraetz coming to the windows was struck by a shot

which mortally wounded her. Windischgraetz hastened to the room where

his wife was dying, while the soldiers guarded the house against

further attacks. With all his hardness, Windischgraetz was entirely

free from the blood-thirstiness of Radetzky and Haynau; and under

this terrible provocation he seems to have exercised a wonderful

self-restraint. While the Burgomaster and some members of the Town

Council were exerting themselves to restore order, Windischgraetz

sent an offer to make peace, if Count Leo Thun were released, if

guarantees were given for the peace of the town, and if Count Leo Thun

and he were allowed to consult together about the restoration of

order; and he even promised to await the deliberations of the Town

Council on this subject.

But the fight was raging so hotly that the Town Council were unable,

for some time, to deliberate. At last, however, temporary suspension

of firing was secured, and the Burgomaster, with the assistance

of Palacky, Szaffarik and others organized a new deputation to

Windischgraetz. Windischgraetz insisted on his former terms; and at last

Count Leo Thun was set free, giving a general promise to use his

efforts for securing peace. The students, however, put forward the

conditions, that Bohemia should be under a Bohemian commander who

should be in most things independent of Vienna; that Bohemian soldiers,

alone, should be used in the defence of Bohemia; that the officers and

soldiers should take their oath to the Constitution, both of Bohemia

and of Austria; that the gates of Prague should be defended by the

citizens and students alone; and lastly that Windischgraetz should be

declared the enemy of all the Peoples of Austria, and tried by a

Bohemian tribunal. As Windischgraetz was, obviously, one of the people

to whom these conditions would be referred, it was not very likely that

the last of these requests would be complied with. He seems still,

however, to have retained some desire for concession; and on June 15 he

withdrew his soldiers from the other parts of the town to the North

side of the river. But new acts of violence followed; and Windischgraetz

began to cannonade the town. Again the Burgomaster appealed to him; and

he consented to resign in favour of Count Mensdorff, on condition that

the barricades should be instantly removed. On the 16th the town seemed

to have become quiet; but the barricades were not yet removed; the

soldiers indignantly demanded that Windischgraetz should be restored to

his command, as the conditions of his resignation had not been

fulfilled; and the first act of Windischgraetz, on reassuming power, was

to threaten to bombard the town, if it did not surrender by six o'clock

a.m. on the 17th.

The wiser students saw the uselessness of further resistance, and

began to remove the barricades; but some stray shots from the

soldiers, whether by accident or intention, hit the mill near one of

the bridges; some women in the mill raised the cry that they were

being fired on; the mill hands returned the fire, and Windischgraetz

began at once to bombard the town. The barricades were quickly thrown

up again; for four hours the bombardment continued; and, while

the students were fiercely defending the Carlsbruecke against the

soldiers of Windischgraetz, the fire, which had been lighted by the

bomb-shells, was spreading from the mill to other parts of the

town. Of such a contest there could be but one result. In the course

of the 17th several thousand people fled from Prague; and on the 18th

Windischgraetz entered the town in triumph, and proclaimed martial law.

The conspiracy had collapsed; but, except Peter Faster, who escaped

from the town during the siege, none of the leaders of the March

movement were at first suspected of any share in the Rising. Indeed,

it was well known that many of them had exerted themselves to

suppress it. But Turansky, the agitator above mentioned, suddenly gave

himself up to the authorities, and offered to reveal a plot, in which

he declared that Palacky, Rieger, and other Bohemian leaders were

implicated. The evidence broke down; but it gave excuse for the

continuance of the state of siege, for the arrest of many innocent

men, and for the refusal to summon the Bohemian Assembly, which was to

have met in that very month. This imaginary plot was used as the final

pretext for the complete suppression of Bohemian liberty. Turansky was

believed, rightly or wrongly, to have been sent by Kossuth to stir up

the insurrection; that he had desired the failure of the movement

which he stirred up was evident enough; and thus there arose an

ineffaceable bitterness between the Bohemians and the Magyars. There

also arose out of these events further cause for the bitterness

between the Bohemians and the Germans. For, while Prague was still

burning, and Windischgraetz was still enforcing martial law, a band of

Vienna students arrived in Prague, to congratulate Windischgraetz on

his victory over the liberties of Bohemia. The long-simmering hatred

between the Germans and Bohemians seems to have found its climax in

that congratulation; and from that time forth, whatever might be the

political feeling of the leaders on either side, common action between

Bohemians and Germans became less and less possible.

As for the effect of the fall of Prague on the position of the

Slavonic races in Austria, they were deprived by that event of their

last help of a free centre of national life round which their race

could gather. For Prague had supplied such a centre in a way in which

none of the other Slavonic capitals ever could supply it. Its fame

rested on a past, which was connected with struggles for freedom

against German tyranny, and the leading facts of which were clear and

undisputed; while its geographical position prevented it from coming

into collision with the other Slavonic races. Agram and Carlowitz

might at times look upon each other as rivals; but Prague had no

interest in preferring one to the other, or in destroying the

independence of either, while the connection in language between the

Bohemians and the Slovaks of North Hungary ensured the sympathy of the

former for any attempts at resistance to Magyar supremacy. Lastly,

wedged in as Bohemia is between the Germans of the Archduchy of

Austria, and that wider Germany with which so many of the Austrians

desired to unite, it could never cherish those separatist aspirations

which would have prevented Lemberg, for instance, from ever becoming

the centre of an Austrian Slavonic federation. Thus the fall of

Bohemian liberty prepared the way for a complete change in the

character of the Slavonic movement. The idea of a federation of the

different Slavonic races of the Empire might be still cherished by many

of the Slavonic leaders; and, for a short time, the struggle of the

Slavonic races against Magyar and German supremacy might retain its

original character of a struggle for freedom. But it was unavoidable

that this movement should now gradually drift into an acceptance of the

leadership of those courtiers and soldiers, who hated the Germans and

Magyars as the opponents, not of Slavonic freedom, but of Imperial

despotism.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] Rakoczi is still to a great extent a national hero among the

Magyars, as is shown by the name of the Rakoczi March, which is given

to one of the national airs; for the Magyars, in the seventeenth and

beginning of the eighteenth centuries, were willing to risk the

separation of Transylvania from Hungary if thereby they could secure an

independent background to their struggles for liberty against Austria,

much as the Venetians in 1859 were thankful for the liberation of

Lombardy from Austria, though it involved the loss to Venetia of

fellow-sufferers under Austrian oppression.

[12] English readers may be reminded by this scene of that fiery

debate on the Grand Remonstrance, when the members of the House of

Commons would "have sheathed their swords in each other's bowels, had

not the sagacity and great calmness of Mr. Hampden, by a short speech,

prevented it."

[13] Out of the various efforts of the Roman Catholics to bring back

the Greeks to the Roman Church, there had arisen a community called

the United Greeks, which acknowledged the power of the Pope while

maintaining the Greek ritual.