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.