The people do not brook interference in their rights.
In the days of King John of England, the people allowed the vicious king to get to a certain point, and then with their hands on their swords, ready to rebel if he resisted, they forced him to sign the great charter, Magna Charta, which has secured to Englishmen their rights from that day to this.
It was signed by King John at Runnymede, near Windsor, in 1215.
So in France, five hundred years later, when the people had stood all they could from their kings, they rose against Louis XVI., and were not satisfied until both the King and the Queen, Marie Antoinette, had paid the forfeit of their lives for their folly and arrogance. This happened in 1793.
When the anger of the people is roused, there is trouble for the Government.
In Vienna, though the Government had so far won a victory in turning the turbulent members out of the chamber, they felt there was danger in the air when the students surrounded Dr. Wolff as he was thrown out of the Reichsrath, and marched with him to his home, honoring him as a hero.
Later, matters began to grow still more serious. Masses of workingmen left their work, and began to parade the streets, crying out against the government that had usurped their rights.
Soldiers were called out to guard the principal buildings, especially the house of Count Badeni, the unpopular Prime Minister. Squads of soldiers appeared in every street, forcing the crowds to move and disperse.
It was an almost impossible task. The crowd that was driven around one corner would reappear at the next. The soldiers would disperse the mob in front of them, and it would re-form at their heels.
It seemed as if Austria were on the verge of a revolution.