Then a time of darkness which could be felt, and which apparently was as hopeless as ever, followed in Germany. Parliaments were dispersed. Many who had shared in the struggle were put to death or imprisoned. In 1849 Switzerland counted within her borders as many as 11,000 German refugees, most of whom eventually found a home in America. It appeared as if only one failure the more had been made in the toilsome march of human progress. But it was not an entire failure. The revolutionary disturbances had at least proved that many of the old institutions were untenable, and must in whole or in part be removed. It was found necessary to make some concessions to Liberalism. Much of the old feudalism was set aside. Above all, both in the middle and working class there had arisen a new spirit which only awaited the opportunity that was sure to come. The opportunity arrived a few years afterwards, when the forces which have made the Germany of to-day came into action. In the new circumstances it was an interesting question how far the _bourgeoisie_ and the working class could march together. It is a standing charge brought against German Liberalism by the Social Democrats, that it has never led the progressive forces against the reaction with any degree of courage or resolution. They maintain that in the revolutionary struggles of 1848 the German Liberals never trusted the working class, that when the choice came to be made between the reaction and a strenuous democratic policy supported by the proletariat, they preferred to transact with the reaction, and so committed treason on the sacred cause of progress. On this question largely turns the history of recent German politics. It is a wide and complicated question which can be rightly answered only by due consideration of the facts of the historical situation. The middle class had triumphed both in France and England. But the industrial revolution which naturally brings with it the rule of the middle class, was in Germany much later than in France and England. In 1848 the German middle class was still in its infancy, and had neither the insight nor the material means to lead the democracy against the reaction with any prospect of success; nor was it reasonable to expect that it should.