[218] This statement was true.
[219] At the time of the violent reaction which proceeded after 1849 in several European States, following the suppression of the revolutionary movement, thousands of proscribed Germans, Italians, and French, took refuge in Swiss territory. Their presence provided certain governments with a pretext for presenting claims to the Federal Government, which produced diplomatic difficulties.
[220] On February 4, numerous meetings took place to prevent the proposal to overthrow the tree of liberty planted in the Rue du Carré-Saint-Martin at Paris. It was necessary to send troops to secure the performance of the order given by the prefect of police. Some people were killed and wounded. General de Lamoricière, who happened to be upon the spot, was in great danger and was only saved by escaping through an attic window on to the roof of a house, where some citizens had dragged him to protect him from the fury of the people.
[221] The case of Pacifico had then reached its most critical point. This Portuguese Jew, who was under Prussian protection, claimed a considerable sum from the Greek Government in compensation for the pillage of a house on April 4, 1847, during a demonstration in the streets of Athens, at the time of a procession. The sum also included compensation for personal outrage. In order to obtain this indemnity Lord Palmerston blockaded the ports and coasts of Greece in 1850; on the intervention of France and the payment of the sum in question the blockade was raised. The French ambassador at London, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, left England, and this trivial incident nearly led to a general war.
[222] Benningsen had been sent to Vienna to conciliate federal and individual instincts by a proposed Constitution which the four kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, Würtemberg, and Hanover were thought to have devised in concert with Austria. The attempt proved a failure.
[223] Herr von Stockhausen.
[224] Serious disorders had broken out in the Grand Duchy of Baden, where the Government of the Grand Duke Leopold I. had been strongly opposed by the Liberals, and had been struggling against unpopularity for years. This insurrection, which broke out in May 1849, was led by Mieroslawski. Leopold was obliged to leave Carlsruhe and his States, and was unable to return to them for a month, by which time the Prussians had intervened: their occupation of the country continued until 1850.
[225] In Mecklenburg.
[226] An allusion to the union between Prussia, Hanover, and Saxony, who had been ready to sign the Constitution in May 1849. The proposal came to nothing, as Hanover refused her adherence at the last moment under the influence of Austria.
[227] This Congress had been convoked by Prussia upon the dissolution of the alliance of the Three Kings, from which Hanover and afterwards Saxony had withdrawn. The King of Prussia, asserting his desire to work for the unity of the German nation with all his power, convoked this Congress to oppose the ambitious ideas of Austria. The Princes answered the appeal, and the Congress was opened at Berlin on May 12.