The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany: With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three YearsMaurice, C. Edmund (Charles Edmund)
History
The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany: With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three Years
Maurice, C. Edmund (Charles Edmund)
Europe -- History -- 1848-1849; Revolutions -- Europe
But great as was the alarm caused by the South German risings, and
great as were the hopes which they kindled in the Viennese, the word
which was to give definiteness and importance to the impulses which
were stirring in Vienna could not come from Bavaria or Saxony. Much as
they might wish to connect themselves with a German movement, the
Viennese could not get rid of the fact that they were, for the
present, bound up with a different political system. Nor was it wholly
clear that the German movement was as yet completely successful. The
King of Prussia seemed to be meditating a reactionary policy, and had
even threatened to despatch troops to put down the Saxon Liberals; and
the King of Hanover also was disposed to resist the movement for a
German parliament. It was from a country more closely bound up with
the Viennese Government, and yet enjoying traditions of more deeply
rooted liberty, that the utterance was to come which was eventually to
rouse the Viennese to action.
The readiness of the nobles to accept the purely verbal concession
offered by Metternich in the matter of the "Administrators" had shown
Kossuth that there could be no further peace. But he still knew how
and when to strike the blow; and it was not by armed insurrection so
much as by the declaration of a policy that he shook the rule of
Metternich. On March 3 a Conservative member of the Presburg Assembly
brought forward a motion for inquiry into the Austrian bank-notes.
Kossuth answered that the confusion in the affairs of Austrian
commerce produced an evil effect on Hungarian finances; and he showed
the need of an independent finance ministry for Hungary. Then he went
on to point out that this same confusion extended to other parts of
the monarchy. "The actual cause of the breaking up of peace in the
monarchy, and of all the evils which may possibly follow from it, lies
in the system of Government." He admitted that it was hard for
those who had been brought up under this system to consent to its
destruction. "But," he went on, "the People lasts for ever, and we
wish also that the Country of the People should last for ever. For
ever too should last the splendour of that Dynasty whom we reckon as
our rulers. In a few days the men of the past will descend into their
graves; but for that scion of the House of Hapsburg who excites such
great hopes, for the Archduke Francis Joseph, who at his first coming
forward earned the love of the nation,--for him there waits the
inheritance of a splendid throne which derives its strength from
freedom. Towards a Dynasty which bases itself on the freedoms of its
Peoples enthusiasm will always be roused; for it is only the freeman
who can be faithful from his heart; for a bureaucracy there can be no
enthusiasm." He then urged that the future of the Dynasty depended on
the hearty union between the nations which lived under it. "This
union," he said, "can only be brought about by respecting the
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