Manin's petition alarmed the timid spirits of the Congregation; and one of them named Moncenigo sent it to Governor Palffy. Manin had already protested against the appointment of this Moncenigo on the sham Commission of Enquiry which the Viceroy had granted; and no doubt personal irritation combined with political cowardice to prompt Moncenigo's breach of confidence. But, whatever its motives, this act of servility produced a protest from another lawyer, who, while denouncing Moncenigo's act as unworthy of the dignity of a commissioner, alluded to the period of Napoleon's rule as one of greater freedom than had ever been allowed by Austria. The police had in the meantime been preparing a report for the criminal tribunal; and on January 19, 1848, Manin was suddenly seized and carried off to prison on the charge of disturbing the public peace.
In the meantime the Milanese movement had been assuming a more serious character. Demonstrations at the theatre, or abstentions from it, songs and other public expressions of opinion, were continually alarming the authorities. That separation, too, between the altar and the throne, to which Tommaseo had called attention, was even more marked in Milan than in Venice; and Radetzky a little later ordered his soldiers not to attend the sermons or the confessional of the Milanese clergy, "since they are our enemies." But this ferocious commander was resolved at all hazards to drive the Milanese to extremities; and he soon found an opportunity for carrying out his plans. One of the most universal forms of protest against the Government in Lombardy was the determined abstention from tobacco on the ground that it was a Government monopoly. This protest began on January 1, 1848, and it seemed at first as if it would be allowed to pass without remark. But Radetzky, in spite of the advice of Torresani, ordered his soldiers to appear in public, smoking. This order was carried out on January 2, 1848. In some parts of the town this demonstration provoked nothing but a few hisses from the crowd; but in one part, where the police and soldiers had collected in large numbers and many citizens had gathered to watch the smokers, the soldiers suddenly turned upon the crowd with their bayonets and charged them. Casati remonstrated with Torresani, but could get no redress, and was even himself assaulted by the police when he appealed to them.
This, however, was merely the preliminary of Radetzky's proceedings. The following afternoon a much larger force of soldiers appeared in Milan, and every one of them was smoking. The crowd gathered as before, and was, as usual, largely composed of boys. Suddenly two of the sergeants gave a signal, and the soldiers, drawing their swords, rushed upon the crowd, wounding many boys seriously and killing an old man of seventy-four. The crowd fled at the attack; but the soldiers followed them, breaking into the shops in which they took refuge, destroying what they found there, and killing or wounding those whom they came across. In one place they broke into an inn, gave the hostess several severe wounds in the head, besides beating violently a little girl of four years old.
Throughout the city these scenes of barbarity continued during the greater part of the day, and naturally aroused the most tremendous indignation. Similar smoking demonstrations took place in Brescia, Cremona, and Mantua; but in these places they seem to have passed off without a riot. In Pavia and Padua, on the other hand, the smokers came into collision with the students, who fought with their bare fists against the soldiers' swords. In Milan the indignation was not confined to the opponents of Austria. Monsignore Oppizzoni, who was on the whole a supporter of the Government, headed a deputation to the Viceroy in which he used these words:—"Your Highness, I am old, and have seen many things. I saw the profanation of the Jacobins and the cruelty of the Russians; but I never saw nor heard of before such atrocious acts as have happened in the days just past."
Companies of ladies met at the Casa Borromeo to collect funds for the wounded. In all the principal cities of Lombardy funeral rites were performed for those who had died in the riots; and the people refused to walk in the Corso Francesco, which had been the scene of the principal massacre, and went instead to another street, which they renamed the Corso Pio Nono. Even some of those who had served the Austrian Government raised a protest against these atrocities. Count Guicciardini, for such a protest, was deprived of his office; while the Councillor, Angelo Decio, declared that he would resign if the Government would not put a restraint on the undisciplined soldiers. The Viceroy, taken aback at this sudden outburst of indignation, promised reforms and dismissed some of the troops from Milan.
But the saner members of the Austrian Government had completely lost hold of affairs, and Radetzky had become the sole ruler of Milan. He harangued his troops in one of those bombastic addresses whose absurdity seemed to take even a deeper root in men's minds than the atrocity of his acts. "Let us not," he said, "be forced to open the wings of the Austrian eagle which have never yet been clipped." This calm ignoring of Austerlitz and Marengo specially tickled the fancy of the Milanese; more particularly as Radetzky was credited, whether justly or unjustly, with having played a somewhat ignominious part in the latter battle. A few utterly inadequate and trivial reforms were won from Metternich by the spectacle of the Sicilian revolution, the growing popularity of the Pope, and the Neapolitan Constitution. On January 18 it was proposed that the Viceroy should transfer himself from Milan to Verona; that he should be surrounded by persons better informed than his subordinates were; that the Government of Milan should be made more strong; and that some of the members of the Central Congregation of Milan should be summoned to Vienna. How absurdly unlike these concessions were to the real wishes and needs of the Lombard people it is scarcely necessary to point out; but, had the concessions been far more important, they would have been utterly worthless while they were accompanied by the closing of the clubs, the arrest of suspected persons, and, above all, while Radetzky still ruled Milan.
It was to a population excited by this state of things that there came the news of the Neapolitan Constitution. The Milanese at once flocked to the Cathedral to return thanks, and on the walls of Milan were written up the words, "Viva il sangue Palermitano! Seguiamo l'esempio di Sicilia! Il pomo e maturo." And near these inscriptions was drawn the picture of a house in ruins, and over it, "Casa d'Austria." New riots followed, and the Universities of Pavia and Padua were closed by authority. But it was felt that the electric current had now spread right through Italy from Palermo to Milan; and, on the very day before the University of Pavia was closed, a secret circular was issued by the friends of Italy at Milan urging that further demonstrations should be abandoned for the present on the ground that "the cause of Italy is now secure."
And though Metternich was still disposed to dispute that view, though he still held to the opinion which he had uttered in August, 1847, that "Italy was a mere geographical expression," he yet felt the shock of the Sicilian insurrection, and was willing to secure friends in other parts of the Austrian dominions by more important concessions than those which he had made to Lombardy and Venetia. The most important, or at least the most obvious, of these popular victories had been gained in Hungary. There, indeed, Metternich had ingeniously contrived to defeat his own purpose, to weaken that division which had been gradually growing between the different sections of his opponents in Hungary, and to throw into the hands of Kossuth far more power than he had previously possessed. At the close of the Diet which had met in 1843 these elements of division were more various and more prominent than at any other period of the struggle. Besides the quarrel between Magyar and Slav, there had grown up a difference of opinion between the Magyar champions of reform. For while Kossuth was advocating the strengthening of the county governments as the great hope for Hungarian liberty, Baron Eötvös was urging the necessity for making the central parliament stronger at the expense of the local bodies. But Metternich, as if determined to consolidate the various elements of opposition against him, shortly after the dissolution of the Diet, took a step which, while it seemed to justify Kossuth's belief in the importance of county governments, silenced at the same time all those who were opposed to Kossuth, whether on grounds of race or party, and roused the dislike to Metternich's system to a height not previously known in Hungary. Mailath, the popular Chancellor of Hungary, was removed, and his successor, Apponyi, was directed to supersede the Hungarian County Assemblies by administrators appointed by himself.
No step could possibly have been taken more likely to defeat Metternich's own objects; for if there was one institution round which all the peoples of Hungary rallied, it was their County Governments. Kossuth felt the strength of his position, and tried to remove the causes of division. For the moment he seemed even disposed to abandon his extreme anti-Slavonic policy, and opposed a proposal for compelling the use of the Hungarian language in elementary schools. The opposition to the Administrator system in the counties seemed to Kossuth an opportunity for bringing forward the whole body of reforms which he had long desired. The movement for relieving the peasants of their burdens had naturally widened the circle of those who took interest in political affairs; and a famine which was quickening the political feeling of the Silesian peasants and of the artizans of Berlin had also spread to Hungary, and was making the ordinary grievances of the peasant doubly grievous to him. Along with the demands for the relief of the peasantry from their burdens, Kossuth and his friends now put forward proposals for Constitutional reforms. Deak, though no longer a member of the Assembly, gave his assistance in putting their plans into shape, and for the first time there was formed, in 1847, a complete programme of the Hungarian Liberals. Their demands were: Publicity of parliamentary debates; a parliamentary journal in which speeches were to be published in full; triennial elections and regular yearly meetings of the Diet; improvement of the government of the towns and enlargement of their right of election to the Diet; universal taxation of all classes; the abolition of forced labour of the peasant, and of other restrictions on his mode of life.
But while it was of importance that the reformers should thus be able to put into shape their programme of reform, it was round the "Administrator" question that the real fight gathered, and Metternich was urged to make at least some concessions on this point. When, then, the Diet met in 1847, Kossuth found himself supported by many who might have shrunk back from parts of his policy before. Count Batthyanyi had formerly acted with Szechenyi; but he now arrived at the conclusion that the opposition of that nobleman to Kossuth was unwise, and he drifted more and more into the position of the Leader of Opposition in the House of Magnates. Eötvös, too, however much he may have retained his belief in the importance of a centralizing line of policy, yet could not refuse to stand by his countrymen in defence of County Government against the Administrators of Metternich. Batthyanyi and Eötvös were thus willing to suspend their special grounds of opposition to Kossuth; but it was still impossible for them to carry with them the House of Magnates; and Kossuth's great influence in the country was increased by the fact that the centre of reform was rather to be found in the class of professional men to which he belonged than in the nobles who had been previously looked to as the leaders of the country. The Diet of 1847, therefore, saw a repetition of the struggle of the two Houses which had formed so prominent a part of the parliamentary history of 1839. In the Lower House Kossuth carried a measure for enforcing municipal taxes on nobles, and it was thrown out by the House of Magnates, who called upon the Lower House to limit themselves to votes of thanks or to express their grievances in general terms.
But neither the land question nor the question of parliamentary liberty were felt by the Hungarian leaders to be as important at this crisis as the rescue of the counties from the tyranny of Metternich's Administrators; and it was the struggle on this point which was brought to a crisis by the news of the Sicilian Revolution and of the growing discontents in Milan. Again Metternich was disposed to make concessions, and again his concessions were so framed as to be utterly inadequate to the occasion. He declared that the Administrators should only be appointed under exceptional circumstances; and that the present Administrators should be withdrawn when the exceptional circumstances in the counties were removed. This proposal was unwelcome to all parties; and so much force did the discontent of the country gain that on February 29 a motion in favour of reform in the representation was carried in the House of Magnates. When this resolution had passed the House of Representatives Szechenyi entered in his diary the words, "Tout est perdu."
In the meantime the Hungarian movement had been keeping alive hopes which in late years had begun to show themselves in Vienna. In that centre of the Metternich system it was not wonderful that political death had been more complete and unmistakeable than in any other part of Europe. While in other parts of Europe the press was interfered with, here Count Sedlnitzky, the head of the police, had it completely under his control. In other parts of the Empire national feeling was discouraged. Here, for even reminding the Austrians of the popular efforts against Napoleon, Hormayr was driven from the Archduchy of Austria. In other parts of the Empire local affairs might sometimes be interfered with, but were often passed over as unimportant; in Vienna officials were thrust into the place of the elected Town Council. Nor was there any assembly at all fitted to be the mouthpiece of Austrian discontent in communications between the people and the Government. The only assembly which met at Vienna, except the Town Council, was that of the Estates of Lower Austria. This assembly represented mainly the aristocracy, even the richer burghers not possessing more than a nominal voice in their councils. Therefore, even if this body had possessed as much freedom as was allowed to the Hungarian Diet, they could not have rallied the people round them, because they did not understand their wants and had no sympathy with them. Indeed, the barrier between rich and poor, noble and serf, seems to have been more marked, or at any rate more painfully felt, in the province of Lower Austria than in any part of the Empire, except, perhaps, Bohemia. For in Vienna there was rapidly growing up all the miseries of a city proletariate. The protectionist tariff made dear the articles of food, while the absolute suppression of public discussion, and the obstacles thrown in the way of any voluntary organization, prevented even the benevolent men among the wealthier classes from understanding anything of the wants of the poor.
So far were the Government from interfering to correct this evil that, when, in 1816, the citizens of Salzburg petitioned for a reduction of taxes, on the ground that people were dying of hunger in the streets, Francis rebuked the citizens for the arrogance of this appeal, and marked Salzburg out for special disfavour in consequence. But the crushing out of genuine education was so complete that the poorer classes in Vienna were for a long time unable to see how their misery was increased by the arrangements of the Government. They saw that no leader in the well-to-do classes seemed to concern himself in their affairs. For while healthy political and intellectual life was repressed in Vienna, that town was not, after all, an unpleasant abode for those who gave themselves up to mere self-indulgence. Menz's precedent of the Roman circus was followed here also; and Vienna became known as the "Capua der Geister." Thus, deprived alike of sympathy and power of self-help, the poor could only show their bitterness in occasional bread-riots, the reports of which were carefully excluded from the papers of the Government. One result of this utter depression was that the Viennese eagerly caught at any signs of moderation, or the most superficial tendency to Liberalism, in any of their rulers; and, being at the centre of affairs, they were naturally able to get hints of differences among the official people which were unknown to the citizens of other towns. Thus they knew that the Government, which to outsiders seemed wholly concentrated in Metternich, was, at least nominally, divided between three persons—Metternich, the Archduke Louis, and a Bohemian nobleman named Kolowrat. The third of this trio was credited with the desire for a certain amount of liberty; and it was supposed to be by his encouragement that the National Bohemian Museum was founded in Prague and became a centre of Slavonic culture. Kolowrat's Liberal sympathies would not have counted for much in any other place or time. But the fact that he was an opponent of Metternich was enough to gain him some sympathy from the Viennese; and when, after the death of Francis, Metternich tried to get rid of Kolowrat, he only increased the general sympathy for one who was thus marked as his opponent.
The death of Francis, an event hardly felt in the rest of Europe, was of considerable importance to Vienna; not so much from any actual changes which it produced as from the new hope which it aroused. A dull flame of a sort of loyalty to the House of Hapsburg still lingered in the breasts of the Viennese; and the sole consolation which reconciled them to their abject condition was the belief that they were at least carrying out the wishes of the Head of that House. Such a consideration, if, from one point of view, it may be described as a consolation, yet increased the sense of despair of any redress of grievances. But the accession of the Emperor Ferdinand changed this feeling. He at least was credited with the desire for a milder policy; while the fact that he had suffered for years from epileptic fits made it easier to believe that he was not responsible for the failure to carry out his own plans; and thus a heavier burden of hatred was thrown upon Metternich. It was not, indeed, confined to his political opponents. The Archduchess Sophia, the wife of the Heir Apparent, had reasons of her own for disliking him; and his own arrogance, backed by the arrogance of his wife, roused against him the opposition of that aristocratic part of the community which was inclined to favour his general policy. On the other hand, the admission of the Archduke Francis Charles, the heir to the throne, to the Council of the Emperor, tended to increase the belief in the Liberal tendencies of Ferdinand. But the concession in 1842 of the permission to establish a Reading and Debating Society was considered by the Viennese the greatest triumph of Liberal principles.
The formation of this Society was sanctioned by Ferdinand, while Metternich was temporarily absent on a journey for his health. Ferdinand was induced to consent to it, by his respect for his former tutor Sommaruga, who had taken a part in its formation. This Society speedily became a centre of all kinds of discussion; and Sedlnitzky, the head of the police, soon began to suspect and hamper it, and thereby to point out to the rising reformers their natural leaders. Professor Hye, a man, as it afterwards appeared, of no very great strength of purpose, praised this Society as a power in the State which had been gained by the spirit of Association. A police spy at once hastened to the Court; the Council was called together; and a proposal was made to deprive Hye of his professorship. Archduke Louis had the good sense to oppose this proposal; but the fact that it had been made speedily got wind, and attracted a certain amount of sympathy to Hye. Newspapers and pamphlets, too, somehow gained ground under the new régime; and three writers especially acquired an influence in stirring up public feeling not unlike that which had been exercised by Balbo, Gioberti, and others in Italy.
A writer named Andrian took up the question of reform from the aristocratic side, stirred up the Landtag in Bohemia to assert the Constitutional rights of which they had never been entirely deprived, and also influenced the Estates of Lower Austria to strengthen their body by admitting a more complete representation of the citizens. Schuselka, on the other hand, called upon the Emperor to turn from the nobles as untrustworthy, and rely for his help on the citizens. But the man who seems to have drawn most support and attention to his opinions was Ignatz Kuranda. He did not venture to propound his ideas in Austria, but started a paper in Leipzig called the Grenz Boten. To this all Austrians who desired reform, whether from the aristocratic or democratic point of view, hastened to contribute. And the Government soon became so much alarmed at these writings that they demanded that both Kuranda and Schuselka should be expelled from all the States of Germany. It was a sign, perhaps, that Metternich's power was beginning, even at that time, to wane, that he was unable to obtain this concession; and then the paid writers of the Government set themselves to answer the reformers. This attempt, of course, only produced new writers on the side of Kuranda; and so the movement gathered additional force.
But however excellent the awakening of intellectual freedom might be, no steady movement of reform could be inaugurated at this period which did not sooner or later gather round the national principle. Neither Vienna nor the Archduchy had any traditions of national life; while the Austrian Empire, which, in its separate form, was not half a century old, was the very negation of the national principle. While, therefore, the Viennese looked for lessons in Constitutional freedom to the neighbouring State of Hungary, their only hope of sharing in a national life seemed to rest on their chance of absorption in Germany. Hence arose a movement in many ways hopeless and illogical, and the cause of much injustice to other races; but which, nevertheless, supplied a strength and vigour to the reformers of Vienna which they would otherwise have lacked. They have been denounced for wishing to sacrifice the position of their city as the capital of a great Empire by consenting to its absorption in another nation, in which it would play, at best, only a secondary part. Yet the desire to take a share in the common struggles, common traditions, and common hopes of men of the same language and race is surely a nobler aspiration than the ambition to be the centre of a large number of jarring races, held together by military force or diplomatic intrigue. Circumstances and History had made the desire of the Viennese impossible of execution; but this desire had none the less an element of nobility in it, which should not be disregarded. The first to give prominent utterance to the new aspiration was the Archduke John, who, at a banquet in Cologne, proposed a toast which he afterwards to some extent tried to explain away, but which was long remembered by the Germans. "No Prussia! No Austria! One great united Germany, firm as its hills!" At that period, the most satisfactory bond between Austria and Germany would have been found in the Zollverein which had been established by Prussia. A German named List came to Vienna in 1844 for the purpose of encouraging this union; and a banquet was held in the Hoher Markt at Vienna at which List gave the toast of "German Unity," which was welcomed with loud cheers, while the health of Metternich, proposed by the American Consul, was received in dead silence.
In the meantime, the discussions on public affairs were growing more and more keen; and, as the news arrived of the various rebuffs to Metternich mentioned in the last chapter, the reformers gained heart. Yet it still seemed doubtful whether they could enlist the sympathy of the poorer classes on the side of Constitutional liberty. The Estates of Lower Austria, however willing to make certain concessions to popular feeling, showed none of that care for the improvement of the condition of the poor which had been prominent in the Hungarian Diet, and also in the Lombard petition. The horrible contrast between wealth and poverty, during the distress of 1846 and 1847, is illustrated by the following facts:—In the year 1846 a widow in Vienna killed one of her children and set it before the others for food. About the same time, a Viennese banker gave a dinner at which strawberries were produced costing in our money about a pound a-piece!
This awful contrast would naturally prevent the poor from feeling any keen sympathy for reform movements inaugurated by the wealthier classes; yet, in this very year 1846, some of the poorest citizens of Vienna began, for the first time, to show a strong desire for the removal of Metternich from office. The ground of this new outburst of feeling was the belief that Metternich's championship of the Sonderbund arose from his strong sympathy with the Jesuits. It is difficult to discern the exact ground of the bitter feeling of the poor of Vienna against this Order. The Emperor Francis had disliked and discouraged the Jesuits as much as their bitterest opponents could wish; nor had Ferdinand been able to secure them any prominent position in the State; while Metternich's real feeling towards them was, as before remarked, by no means so friendly as the Liberals supposed. The citizens of Vienna could therefore hardly believe that these men were the pampered favourites of fortune; and the only explanation of the universal hatred towards them must be that their air of mystery and power made them natural objects of suspicion to men who had been driven desperate by poverty, and who were not able to discover the causes of their misery. Whatever the reason may be, there is little doubt that Metternich's supposed sympathy with the Jesuits on this occasion roused bitterness against him in the hearts of many whose poverty had hitherto made them callous about questions of government.
But a more reasonable bond between the poorer classes and the reforming leaders was soon to be established. The discussions of the Viennese Reading and Debating Club had been concerned during these terrible years with the condition of the poor; and, on April 10, 1847, the leaders of the Club held a meeting to prepare for the organization of a soup-kitchen. They soon formed a Committee, under the leadership of the future Minister Bach, and issued an appeal for help. For issuing this appeal without the previous sanction of the censorship the Committee received a stern rebuke from Sedlnitzky; and though, after some discussion, the police allowed the appeal to appear, the officials complained continually of the independent action of this Committee, and tried to hamper it in every way.
It was not merely, however, as the centre of efforts for the relief of the poor that the Debating Club and those who supported it attracted the sympathy of the reformers. Both there and in the University there were ever-growing signs of political life. Professor Hye had fiercely denounced the annexation of Cracow, and had encouraged his pupils to debate the subject of the freedom of the Press; and Professor Kudler had promoted the study of political economy. The books of both these professors were prohibited by the Government, and, in consequence, were widely read. More prominent still, as champions of University Reform, were the leaders of the medical profession. The Court physicians had succeeded, for a time, in bringing the Medical Faculty under the complete supervision of the Government; but in 1844 the students undertook to draw up new rules which should emancipate their course of study from this subservient position; and, after three years' struggle, in September, 1847, they won the day, and established a government for their Faculty which was independent of Metternich. This new institution attracted the sympathies of the freest spirits of Vienna, and the growth of clubs was favoured by the leading medical professors.
It was obvious that the great movements which were stirring in Italy would affect the feeling of the Viennese; but the result was perhaps less in Vienna than in other parts of Europe, because of the dislike felt for the Germans by the Italians. And, in spite of the growing desire for a German national life, the Viennese could not throw off the coarse Imperialism which naturally connected itself with the position of their city; nor could they get rid entirely of the old theory of Joseph II., that enlightenment and culture must necessarily come to all races from the Germans. But the desire to reconcile the love of liberty with the instinct of domination showed itself curiously enough in a pamphlet which appeared in 1848 called "Die Sibyllinische Bücher," by Karl Möring, an officer in the army. Möring, like Schuselka, called on the Emperor to become a citizen king, and to break down all monopolies and oligarchical distinctions. But, while this writer wished to let the Italians go as being unnaturally connected with the Empire, he desired to compensate the Emperor for this loss by the annexation of the Balkan provinces; and he uttered the warning that, unless freedom were granted, the Austrian Empire would break up, and Magyars and Czechs on the East and West would found separate kingdoms. "The Empire," says Möring, "can reckon thirty-eight million subjects, but not one political citizen; not one man who, on moral and political grounds, can be proved to be an Austrian.... The Austrian has no Fatherland."
This pamphlet produced a great effect, for it appealed at once to the two great rival aspirations of the Austrian Liberals; and perhaps it attracted all the more attention from the fact that the writer was a captain in the army. Metternich, however, steadily refused to believe in the extent of the discontent, and rebuked Sedlnitzky for the warnings that he brought. It was evident that Metternich was determined to fight to the last, and, if possible, to ignore to the last the dangers that were surrounding him. Kolowrat, after a fierce struggle, succeeded in securing a new College of Censorship, which he thought would be more favourable to literature; but no sooner was it established than Sedlnitzky succeeded in turning it into a new engine of oppression, and so heavy a one that the booksellers feared that their trade would be entirely crushed out.
And, while Metternich and his followers were prepared to deal in this manner with the people of Vienna, he at least was equally determined to crush those other opponents whom he considered the most troublesome at the moment. On January 12, 1848, the Austrian Government had, in concert with France and the German Confederation, threatened Switzerland with a commercial blockade, to be followed by armed intervention, if the Swiss attempted to make any change in their Constitution without the consent of the three Great Powers; and Metternich was preparing for a conference to devise means for carrying out this threat. With his Lombard subjects he was prepared to deal still more summarily; and, on February 22, the following Edict was issued for that province. In case of riot, sentence of death was to be given in fifteen days by a Commission, without appeal to the Emperor. Everyone who wore certain distinctive badges, sung or recited certain songs, wore or exhibited certain colours, applauded or hissed certain passages in a drama or concert, joined in a crowd at a given place of meeting, whether for the purpose of raising subscriptions or of dissuading from acting with certain persons, might be imprisoned, banished, or fined to the extent of 10,000 lire. Such were the measures by which Metternich was hoping to crush out the growing freedom of Europe, when the shock of the French Revolution once more disturbed his calculations.
Character of the French Revolution of 1848.—Its unlikeness to the revolutions in the rest of Europe.—Position of South German States.—Würtemberg.—Bavaria.—Baden.—Struve and Hecker.—The Offenburg Meeting.—Bassermann's Motion.—The procession to Carlsruhe.—The risings in Würtemberg—in Bavaria—in the small States—in Saxony.—Effect of French and German risings in Vienna.—Kossuth's speech of March 3.—Its importance.—Its effect on Vienna.—Dr. Löhner's Motion.—The "Eleven Points."—Effect of the reform movement on the rulers of Austria.—The Meeting at Heidelberg.—Heinrich von Gagern.—Division between Students and Professors in Vienna.—The deputation of March 12.—The meeting of March 13.—The "first free word."—The "Estates."—The insurrection.—The workmen's movement.—Pollet.—The fall of Metternich.—Intrigues of Windischgrätz and the Camarilla.—Kossuth in Vienna.—Austria "on the path of progress."—The insurrection in Berlin.—Its character and success.—Bohemia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.—Policy of Ferdinand II. and III.—of Maria Theresa—of Joseph II.—The language question.—The March movement in Prague.—Gabler.—Peter Faster.—The language revives.—The first meeting at the Wenzel's-bad.—The two petitions.—The mission to Vienna.—Contrast of Metternich's treatment of Lombardy with that of other parts of the Empire.—The secret proclamations.—The final concessions.—Augusto Anfossi.—His programme.—The rising of the 18th of March.—The appeal to O'Donnell.—The "Five Days."—Flight of Radetzky.—Difference of Venetian movement from the other movements.—Manin's imprisonment and its effects.—His release.—The Civic Guard.—Death of Marinovich.—Magyars and Croats.—Venice free.—Palffy's treachery.—General summary of the March risings.
The reign of Louis Philippe had indirectly produced stirrings of thought in France which were at a later period to have their influence on Europe; and which, indeed, may be said to be affecting us at this moment. But the time for this influence had not yet arrived; and the immediate result of that reign had been in some measure to confirm France in the secondary position in European affairs to which the fall of Napoleon had naturally brought her. The foreign aggression, which had been favoured by the Ministers of Charles X., had given place to intrigues like those relating to the Spanish marriages; the despotic policy which had forced on the revolution of July, 1830, had made way for manipulation and corruption; and aristocratic pretensions for the arrogance of bourgeois wealth. Attempts at reform were defeated rather by fraud than by force; and, though the immediate cause of the revolution was an act of violence, it was to the cry "A bas les corrompus" that the revolutionists rushed into the parliament of Louis Philippe. The questions, therefore, with which France had to deal, vitally important as they were, were not those which were agitating Europe at that period. And, if the subjects in which France was interested were not yet ripe for handling by the other nations of Europe, still less could the watchwords of the European revolution be inscribed on the banner of France. The principle of nationality, the development, that is, of a freer life by the voluntary union of men of the same race and language, was not one which could interest the French. The first movement for distinctly national independence in Europe had been the rising of Spain against the French in 1808; the second, the rising of Germany in 1813; and, though there might be in France sentimental sympathies with Greeks and Poles, these were due rather to special classical feeling in the one case, and traditions of common wars in the other, than to any real sympathy with national independence. France, at the end of the previous century, had offered to secure to Europe the Rights of Man, and had presented them instead with the tyranny of Napoleon; the rights of nations had been asserted against her, and the national movement would be continued irrespective of her.
It may sound a paradox, but is none the less true, that this absence of French initiative in the European revolution of 1848 is most strikingly illustrated in those countries which seemed most directly to catch the revolutionary spark from France, viz., Würtemberg, Bavaria, and Baden. The States of South Germany had, ever since 1815, been a continual thorn in the side of Metternich. A desire for independence of Austria had combined with an antagonism to Prussia to keep alive in those States a spirit with which Metternich found it very hard to deal. Würtemberg had been the first to hamper his progress towards despotic rule; while the size of Bavaria and its importance in the German Confederation had enabled its rulers to maintain a tone of independence which Metternich could not rebuke with the same freedom which he used towards the princes of less important States. But it was in the smallest and apparently weakest of the three States of Southern Germany that the movement was being matured which was eventually to be so dangerous to the power both of Austria and France. The Grand Duchy of Baden had had, since 1815, a very peculiar history of its own. The Grand Duke had been one of those who had granted a Constitution to his people not long after the Congress of Vienna. A reaction had, however, soon set in; no doubt, to some extent, under the influence of Metternich. But it was not till 1825 that the opposition of the people of Baden seemed to be crushed and a servile Parliament secured. Again a Grand Duke of Liberal opinions came to the throne in 1830; but he, in his turn, was forced to bend to Metternich's power, and to submit to the Frankfort Decrees in 1832; and in 1839 Metternich succeeded in getting a Minister appointed who was entirely under his control. But these public submissions on the part of the official leaders made it easier for a few private citizens to keep alive the spirit of opposition in Baden.
In 1845 Gustav Struve had come forward, not merely to demand reform in Baden, but also to prophesy the fall of Metternich. For this offence he was imprisoned; but he continued to keep alive an element of opposition in Mannheim, where he founded gymnastic unions, and edited a journal in which he denounced the Baden Ministry. But, though Struve seems to have been one of the first to give expression to the aspirations of the Baden people, the man whom they specially delighted to honour was a leader in the Chamber of Deputies named Hecker, a lawyer of Mannheim, who had gained much popular sympathy by pleading gratuitously in the law courts. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1847; and he soon began to distinguish himself by his championship of German movements, and, more particularly, by his sympathy with the reform movement in the German Catholic Church and with the German aspirations of the people of Schleswig-Holstein. By an accidental circumstance, he and another Baden representative named Izstein attracted a large amount of attention to themselves; for, happening to stop at Berlin in the course of a journey, they were suddenly, and without any apparent reason, ordered to leave the town. This was believed to be the first occasion on which a representative of the people had been treated in this contemptuous manner; and thus the names of Hecker and Izstein became more widely known in Germany than those of the other leaders of the Baden movement.
The struggle in Switzerland naturally had its effect in Baden; and the Grand Duke began once more to assert those Constitutional principles which he had held when first he came to the throne. He did not, however, keep pace with the desires of the reformers; and so, on September 12, 1847, the Baden Liberals had met at Offenburg, and demanded freedom of the Press, trial by jury, and other reforms, amongst which should be mentioned, as a sign of Struve's opinions, the settlement of the differences between labour and capital. It was for their action at this meeting that the reformers had been threatened with the prosecution which never took place.
But, in the meantime, the rush of German feeling was adding a new element to the reform movement in Baden. Amand Goegg had been trying to revive the demand for a German National Assembly. The religious reforms of Ronge, which had excited so much interest in Saxony, also attracted sympathy in Baden. Struve's gymnastic unions kept alive the traditions of Jahn; and song, as usual, came to the help of patriotism. These causes so hastened the movement for German unity that, on February 12, 1848, Bassermann moved, in the Baden Chamber, that the Grand Duke should be petitioned to take steps for promoting common legislation for Germany. This motion, coming from a man who was never reckoned an advanced Liberal, naturally hastened the awakening of German feeling; and on February 27 the Baden Liberals met at Mannheim, and decided to summon a meeting at Carlsruhe, at which they intended to put forward the demand for a really representative German Parliament. Thus it was on ground already prepared that there now fell the news of the French Revolution; and when, on March 1, the leaders of the procession from Mannheim entered Carlsruhe, wearing the black, red, and gold of United Germany, the Ministry were ready to make concessions; and, on March 2, the Second Chamber of Baden demanded the repeal of the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, of the Frankfort Decrees of 1832, and of the Vienna Decrees of 1834; and they further required that the Government should take means to secure representation of the German people in the Bundestag.
While Baden was striking the keynote of German unity, the other small States of Germany were preparing to take it up. In Würtemberg the Ministers had grown, in latter days, somewhat tyrannical; and, when the citizens gathered in Stuttgart to demand freedom of the Press and a German Parliament, the President of the Council advised the King to summon troops to his aid. But the King was more Liberal than his Ministers; he consented to call to office a Liberal Ministry; and the Chamber which was now formed speedily decreed the abolition of feudal dues. In Bavaria the power exercised by Lola Montez over the King had long been distasteful to the sterner reformers. She had attempted, indeed, to pay court to the Liberals; but she had given such offence to some of the students of Munich as to provoke a riot which led to the closing of the University. The nobles and Jesuits would now have gladly sacrificed the King's favourite to the people; but the Baden rising had fired the Bavarian Liberals with a desire for much greater reforms. Their hatred of the Jesuits quickened their zeal; for that body was supposed to divide with Lola Montez the conscience of the King. Animated by these various causes of indignation, the Bavarian Liberals were ready enough for action; and on the news of the Baden movement they broke into the arsenal at Munich, provided themselves with arms, and demanded a German Parliament. The King consented to summon, at any rate, a Bavarian Parliament for the present; but, unable to fall in readily with the popular movement, and resenting the opposition to his favourite, he abdicated a few weeks later in favour of his son. The spark, once lighted in the South, spread among the smaller States of Germany. In Hesse Cassel the Elector tried to offer some opposition; but the citizens of Hanau marched upon Cassel and compelled the Elector to yield. In Hesse Darmstadt the Grand Duke yielded more readily, under the influence of his Minister, Heinrich von Gagern. In Nassau the movement received additional interest from the seizure by the victorious people of the Johannisberg, which belonged to Metternich.
But the most interesting of the struggles was that in Saxony. Robert Blum was present at a ball in Leipzig when the news arrived of the French Revolution. He at once hastened to consult his friends; and they agreed to act through the Town Council of Leipzig, and sketched out the demands which they desired should be laid before the King. These were: "A reorganization of the Constitution of the German Bund in the spirit and in accordance with the needs of the times, for which the way is to be prepared by the unfettering of the Press, and the summoning of representatives of all German peoples to the Assembly of the Bund." The Town Council adopted this address on March 1, and sent a deputation with it to Dresden; and, on the 3rd, the people gathered to meet the deputation on their return. The following is the account given by the son of Robert Blum:—
"By anonymous placards on the wall, the population of Leipzig was summoned, on the evening of March 3, to meet at the railway-station the deputation returning from Dresden. Since the space was too narrow in this place, the innumerable mass marched to the market-place, which, as well as the neighbouring streets, they completely filled. In perfect silence the thousands awaited here the arrival of the deputation, which, at last, towards nine o'clock, arrived, and was greeted with unceasing applause. Town Councillor Seeburg spoke first of the deep emotion of the King; after him spoke Biedermann. But the crowd uproariously demanded Robert Blum. At last Blum appeared on the balcony of the Town Council House. His voice alone controlled the whole market-place, and was even heard in the neighbouring streets. He, too, sought, by trying to quiet them, to turn them away from the subject of the address and of the King's answer. But the people broke in uproariously even into his speech with the demand, 'The answer! The answer!' It could no longer be concealed that the petitions of the town had received harsh rejection. Then came a loud and passionate murmur. The masses had firmly hoped that the deputation would bring with them from Dresden the news of the dismissal of the hated Ministers. But Blum continued his speech, and they renewed their attention to him. 'In Constitutional countries,' said he, 'it is not the King, but the Ministers who are responsible. They, too, bear the responsibility of the rejection of the Leipzig proposals. The people must press for their removal.' He added that he would bring forward in the next meeting of the Town Representatives the proposal that the King should dismiss the Ministry, 'which does not possess the confidence of the people.' Amidst tremendous shouts of exultation and applause, the appeased assembly dispersed."