The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany / With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three Years

by C. Edmund Maurice

But while the movements for German freedom and unity were strengthening the cause of the Viennese and destroying the hopes of Metternich, two other movements for freedom, which might have helped to produce a newer and freer life in Europe, were preparing the way, against the wishes of their leaders, for that collision of interests between the different races of Europe which was to be the chief cause of the failure of the Revolution of 1848. Of these movements the one least known and understood in England is that which took place in Bohemia. In order to understand it we must recall some of the events of earlier Bohemian history.

Bohemia, like Hungary, had, in the sixteenth century, freely elected Ferdinand I. of Austria as her King. Nor had the Bohemians, at that time, the slightest desire for closer union with any of those other Kingdoms which happened to be under the rule of the same Prince; nay, they would have avoided such union, even in matters where common action seemed the natural result of common interests. Ferdinand I., indeed, and some of his successors, did undoubtedly desire a closer bond between the different territories subject to the House of Austria; but, during the sixteenth century, their efforts in this direction were, in the main, defeated. The continual wars against the Turks, indeed, did necessitate common military action; and, to that extent, they paved the way for a closer union; but, in spite of this ground for fellow feeling, no public recognition of any common bond between Bohemia, Austria, and Hungary could be obtained at that period from the Estates of Bohemia.

The seventeenth century, however, had produced a great change in the relations between Bohemia and the House of Austria. The ill-fated and ill-organized struggle for liberty and Protestantism, which was crushed out in 1620 at the Battle of the White Hill, was followed by a change in the objects aimed at by the House of Austria in their government of Bohemia. Considering his military successes, it must be admitted that Ferdinand II. was even generous in his action towards Bohemia, so far as the forms of Constitutional Government were concerned. For in 1623 he restored its old Constitution, re-established its independent law-courts, and declared that he had "no intention of destroying or diminishing the rights of our faithful subjects of this Kingdom."

But, alongside of the restoration of Constitutional forms, there went on an organized system of oppression by which Ferdinand II. was endeavouring to crush out the Protestant faith and the Bohemian language. While, on the one hand, the old Bohemian nobles were banished or executed, the German Dominicans and members of other Roman Catholic orders were at the same time destroying all the Bohemian literature on which they could lay their hands; and some Bohemians tried to save these relics of the past by carrying them to Stockholm, where, it is said, the remains of their early literature can still be found. Without any direct change in the law, German officials were gradually introduced into the chief offices of State in Bohemia; and German became the language of ordinary business relations. Thus, by a natural process, the Bohemian language underwent the same change of position which the English language experienced in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; that is, it ceased to be a literary language, and became merely a popular dialect of peasants and workmen.

But Ferdinand II. soon found that he could not carry out completely his purpose of Romanizing and Germanizing Bohemia without departing from that Constitutional line which he had attempted to follow in 1623. He could not trust a Bohemian Assembly to carry out his plans; and in 1627 he issued an ordinance which remained in force till 1848. By this edict the King claimed the right to add to, alter, or improve the Government of the country at his own pleasure. Yet even this he claimed to do in virtue of a previously existing royal right; the judges took advantage of this admission to interpret the new ordinance in the light of Ferdinand's previous promises to respect the Bohemian Constitution; and this interpretation was justified by the fact that Ferdinand, in the very same year in which he issued the ordinance, reiterated the Constitutional promises which he had made in 1623. The explanation of this apparent contradiction is that Ferdinand II. cared more for the unity of the Roman Catholic Church than for centralizing the Government of the Austrian dominions; and the same might be said of his successor, Ferdinand III. Nevertheless, from motives of convenience, both these Princes resided very little in Prague and much in Vienna; and thus those court officials who give the tone in these matters to the Government gradually gathered together, rather in the Archduchy of Austria than in the Kingdom of Bohemia; while the process of centralization was still further encouraged by that denationalizing movement which dated from the Battle of the White Hill.

With the growth of an alien aristocracy there naturally grew up that union of class bitterness with race bitterness which intensifies both; and the difference of faith between the conquerors and conquered added another element of division. An attempt of the peasants to shake off the yoke of their conquerors led to the destruction of privileges which they had hitherto possessed; and thus the Estates of Bohemia became even more aristocratic than those of the neighbouring countries. Under such circumstances the gradual absorption of the Government of Bohemia in that of the other lands of the House of Austria seemed the natural consequence of the Austrian policy in the seventeenth century; and Maria Theresa propounded a plan for a Central Assembly in which Bohemia, Hungary, and Galicia were to share a common representation with the Archduchy of Austria. These schemes, like all measures for moderate unification in the Austrian dominions, received a fatal shock from the impetuous policy of Joseph II. The claim to Germanize Bohemia by force awoke in that country, as it had done in Hungary, a desire for new national life and a zeal for the old national literature. The opposition to Joseph did not, indeed, take so fierce a form in Bohemia as it assumed in Hungary and the Netherlands; but it was strong enough to induce Joseph's successor, Leopold II., to restore the old Constitution of Bohemia.

In Bohemia, as in Hungary, the spirit of national independence had now embodied itself in the desire to preserve and revive the national language; and in 1809 a new impulse was given to this desire by the discovery of a parchment which had been wrapped round the pillars of a hall, and which was found to contain some old Bohemian poems. These poems were believed to belong to the thirteenth or fourteenth century; and the Bohemians held them to be superior to anything which had been produced by the Germans at that period. As a matter of course, German scholars at once came forward to try to disprove the authenticity of these poems; and the fight raged hotly. The expulsion of the Bohemian language from its literary position seemed to many to have deprived this struggle of any living interest. But writers were arising who were determined to show that that language could still be made a vehicle of literary expression; and they even hoped to make it the centre of a Slavonic movement. For the Bohemian language had a kind of offshoot in the North of Hungary among the race of the Slovaks; and the interest which the poet Kollar and the philologer Szaffarik were stirring up in the Slovak dialect was adding new force to the Bohemian movement. The historian Palacky increased the effect which was produced by these writers; and, what is more remarkable, men whose names showed an evidently German origin became fascinated by this new movement. Count Leo Thun entered into a controversy with Pulszky about the worth of the Slavonic languages; and one may still see in Prague the statue of Joseph Jungmann, who was one of the first founders of unions for reviving the national language. A struggle of the Bohemian Estates in 1837 to maintain their control over taxation was sufficient, though unsuccessful, to increase considerably the interest felt by their nation in their political life. And thus it came to pass that, when, in March, 1848, the news of the French Revolution came to Prague, it found the Bohemians ready for the emergency.

A young man named Gabler, who had been in Paris in 1846, was requested by some friends who were gathered in a café to read the account of the French rising and explain its details. On the following day more people came to the café to hear the news; discussion began, and suggestions were made as to the best way of adapting the French movement to the needs of Bohemia. German was still the language of intercourse between educated people in Prague; and the discussions were at first carried on in that language. But among those who came to the meetings was a publican named Peter Faster; and, while the discussion on various questions of reform was going on, Faster broke out suddenly into a speech in Bohemian. Instantly, the whole assembly joined in the national cry of "Slawa." Other speeches followed in the same language; the fashion quickly spread; and soon all adherents of the new movement began speaking the national language. A committee was now formed for the preparation of a petition; and a unanimous summons was circulated, calling on the Bohemians to meet at the Wenzel's-bad on March 11.

This bath-house stands in a garden at some little distance from the main streets of Prague, and it was overlooked by barracks. One picquet of cavalry was seen in the streets, the rest remained in the barracks. Slowly the streets near the bath-house filled; at about half-past seven the doors opened; and half an hour later appeared Peter Faster, a lawyer named Trojan, and others. They announced that they had called the meeting for the purpose of proposing a petition to the Emperor. The petition[10] was adopted with little trouble, and a committee of twenty-five was appointed to present it. The petition was as follows: "A great event in the West of Europe is shedding its light, like a threatening meteor, over to us. It has scarcely begun; but this great movement which we guessed afar off is carrying away Germany's allied States with it. There is much excitement near the frontiers of Austria; but Your Majesty and the allied Princes have controlled the movement, while you have magnanimously placed yourselves at the head of it, to warn it from a dangerous abyss and from bad ways. The time has become new and different; it has brought the people nearer the Princes, and lays on the people the duty of rallying round their Princes, offering confidence and entreating for confidence in the days of danger.

"Prague's faithful people, touched by the universal movement, ruled by the impulse to go before the monarchy in loyalty and truth, lays at the feet of Your Majesty its most heartfelt thanks for being allowed to speak from their full heart to their beloved King and Master. May their words find echo and just appreciation. Our confidence in God and our conscience leads us to hope that it will.