Part 27

The reaction was first felt at Berlin. There the return of General Wrangel's troops from Denmark was followed by friction between the soldiers and the democratic agitators in the streets. A resolution was passed in the popular Parliament of Prussia that all officers out of sympathy with democratic government should be encouraged to leave the army. The failure of the Minister of War to act on this suggestion was followed by his downfall. Having succeeded in this, the parliamentary majority next passed a vote to eliminate the words "by the grace of God" from the titles of the King. Toward the end of October a national convention of democrats met at Berlin, and held its sessions amid tumultuous scenes in the streets. In exasperation, the King dissolved the Cabinet that had been forced upon him, and commissioned Count Brandenburg, a natural son of Frederick William II., to form another. It included Major-General von Strotha, Minister of War, and Otto von Manteuffel, Minister of the Interior. The Parliament sent a deputation to remonstrate with the King. One of the delegates, Jacoby, as the King terminated the audience, called after him: "Behold the chief misfortune of kings, that they will not listen to the truth!" Immediately after this King Frederick William IV. prorogued the Parliament to the town of Brandenburg. The majority of the delegates declined to adjourn. The Cabinet Ministers, followed by the members that had been outvoted, left the hall. On November 15, the remaining Parliament issued a proclamation to the people to withhold all further payment of taxes. General Wrangel posted his troops throughout Berlin. The Municipal Guards of Berlin were dissolved. An attempt on the part of the Parliament to meet again was easily frustrated. The taxes were collected as before. When the Parliamentary minority came to order at Brandenburg their sessions were dissolved by royal order. On his own initiative, King Frederick William IV. now proclaimed a constitution. The Chambers, provisions for which were contained in this royal constitution, were to meet at Berlin on February 24, 1849. Such was the end of the People's Parliament in Prussia.

About the same time Robert Blum, one of the radical Parliamentarians of Frankfort, was shot in Austria. Together with Froebel, he had been despatched to Vienna by the Parliamentary minority in Frankfort with messages of sympathy for the popular cause in Austria. To offset this, the majority sent two delegates to the Emperor to offer the Parliament's good services for mediation with his rebellious subjects. They were coolly received.

All Austria was in a state of civil war. After the example of the Slavs in Servia and Croatia, the Czechs of Bohemia rose at Prague. Austrian-German authority there collapsed. A National Guard was organized, and a popular Assembly convened. In midsummer a Congress of Slavs from all parts of Austria met at Prague. Popular excitement rose to a threatening pitch. On the day that the Panslavistic Congress broke up, barricades were erected and fighting began in the streets of Prague. The wife of Count Windischgrätz, the military commandant, was killed by a bullet. Windischgrätz, after withdrawing his troops, threatened to bombard the city unless the barricades were removed. This was not done. Windischgrätz then took the city by storm. Military law was proclaimed. This success, like that of Radetzky's arms in Italy, gave new hope to the Austrian Emperor. He pronounced his veto on Hungary's military measures against Croatia. A hundred delegates from the Magyar Diet at Pesth posted to Vienna to exact from the Emperor the fulfilment of his promises to Hungary. On September 9, the Emperor received them at his palace with renewed assurances that he would keep his plighted word. A few hours afterward the official "Gazette" published a letter over the Emperor's signature, expressing his full approval of Jellacic's measures in Croatia. This was all Jellacic had been waiting for. On September 11, he crossed the Drave with his Croatians and marched upon Pesth. Archduke Stephen, the Hungarian Palatine, took command of the Magyar army and went to the front. At Lake Balaton he requested a conference with Jellacic. The Ban paid no attention to it. Realizing the secret support given to Jellacic by the Crown, Archduke Stephen resigned his command in Hungary. The Emperor now appointed General Lamberg at Vienna to the supreme command over the military forces of Hungary as well as Croatia. At the same time the Austrian Cabinet submitted a memorial suggesting that the laws establishing Hungarian autonomy be declared null and void. On the publication of this memorial in Pesth, Batthyany's Ministry resigned. Kossuth openly proposed war with Austria. When Lamberg arrived at Pesth, Kossuth prevailed upon the Diet to withhold its ratification of Lamberg's appointment. Should Lamberg attempt to resume his military command Kossuth demanded that he should be outlawed as a traitor. As General Lamberg crossed the bridge at Budapesth he was recognized by the populace. A cry was raised that he meant to seize the citadel and bombard the town. He was dragged from his carriage and torn to pieces by the mob. His body was dragged through the streets, and finally strung up before one of the government buildings. A few days later, Count Zichy, one of the Magyar magnates, was court-martialled by order of Arthur Goergey, the Hungarian Honved leader, for entering into a correspondence with Jellacic, and was shot.

On the receipt of this news, Emperor Ferdinand declared the Hungarian Parliament dissolved, and pronounced all its acts null and void. Jellacic was appointed representative of Austria in Hungary with command of all the forces. The Magyar Diet repudiated the Emperor's manifesto as a breach of the constitution, and pronounced Jellacic a traitor. Jellacic's forces were checked by the Hungarian army in their advance upon Pesth. General Latour, the Austrian Minister of War, ordered a division of troops at Vienna to go to the support of Jellacic. The Magyar sympathizers at Vienna raised a fearful uproar. As the troops were marching out of the city several battalions were prevailed upon to mutiny. The Hungarian flag was hoisted above the Cathedral of St. Stephen. The National Guard joined the mutiny. Other battalions of the line were driven out of the city. The guards at the arsenal capitulated. Vienna was at the mercy of the insurgents. The Emperor, who had sought refuge at Schoenbrunn, left his palace at four on the morning of October 1, and fled to Olmütz.

As soon as the news of these events reached Jellacic he evacuated his threatened positions on the banks of the Raab and marched for Vienna. Windischgrätz, with his garrison, set out from Prague. Revolutionists of all races flocked into Vienna. Among them were the German delegates Froebel and Blum, and the Polish general, Bem. The Hungarians pursued Jellacic no further than their frontier. The regiments expelled from Vienna, under the command of Count Auersperg, joined forces with Jellacic. The insurgents at Vienna manned their fortifications as well as they could, and called upon the people throughout Austria to take up arms. Emperor Ferdinand, at Olmütz, offset this by an imperial proclamation to his people in which he guaranteed all peasant rights. Prince Windischgrätz was created a field marshal, with full command over all the forces in the empire, except those under Radetzky in Italy. Windischgrätz took immediate steps to effect a junction with Jellacic by seizing the bridges at Krems and Stein. In vain did the delegates from Frankfort, who now appeared upon the scene, present their offer of intervention. Windischgrätz would not listen to them. On October 23, the Austrian army, 80,000 strong, appeared before Vienna. The defence of the city had been intrusted to Captain Messenhauser, an officer of the regular army, and to General Bem. Robert Blum, the German Parliamentarian, fought in the ranks. While Windischgrätz was wasting his time in parleys, an army of 18,000 Hungarians crossed the frontier and threatened Jellacic's rear. On October 28, twenty-four hours after the time fixed in Windischgrätz's last ultimatum, he began his assault on the city. In the course of an all-day fight the troops succeeded in taking the suburbs. The scenes of that night were frightful. The troops bivouacked on the ramparts. The following Sunday was spent in further parleys. Already the terms of capitulation had been settled, when Messenhauser, from the top of the church of St. Stephen, made out the approaching columns of the Hungarians. The news of their arrival was signalled to the city by a column of smoke rising from the top of the tower. All negotiations for surrender were dropped. The Hungarians attacked Jellacic on the banks of the Schwechat, within a few leagues of the capital. The boom of their artillery could be plainly heard in Vienna. In a frenzy of enthusiasm the Viennese resumed the struggle. A corps of students attempted a sortie. Unfortunately for them, the engagement on the banks of the Schwechat turned against the Hungarians. Shortly after noon they gave way all along the line and fell back toward Hungary. On the ramparts of Vienna the hopeless fight of a few thousand civilians against an army of 90,000 men was continued until nightfall. At six in the evening the troops broke into the city.

On the following day, November 1, Prince Windischgrätz declared Vienna under military law. All arms had to be delivered within forty-eight hours. Arrests and courts-martial followed in profusion. Robert Blum was one of the first to be shot. His colleague, Froebel, owed his life to a political pamphlet signed with his name, in which he had defended the interests of Austria against those of a united Germany. A new Ministry was installed, under the leadership of the notorious Prince Felix Schwarzenberg and Count Stadion. They announced their programme to be the maintenance of a strong central government and the integrity of the Austrian Empire, with quick suppression of the civil war in Hungary. A new Reichsrath was convoked at the village of Kremsier, near Olmütz. On December 2, it was announced that Emperor Ferdinand had resolved to abdicate his throne. His brother, Archduke Francis Charles, renounced the succession. The Archduke's son, Francis Joseph, a youth of eighteen, was declared by a family council to have attained his majority. In virtue of this he ascended the throne as Emperor.

The Hungarian Diet, on learning of this transfer of the crown, refused to acknowledge Francis Joseph as King of Hungary. The whole nation was summoned to arms. The command of the army was given to Goergey. His first serious problem was a rising of the Roumanians in Transylvania against Magyar rule. The Roumanian peasants committed all conceivable atrocities. When they raised the standard of the Empire, the Austrian commander, General Puchner, espoused their cause. Transylvania was lost to Hungary. The Roumanians led by Puchner co-operated with Jellacic's forces in Croatia, and moved on Hungary from that quarter. On December 15, the main Austrian army, under Windischgrätz, crossed over the River Leitha and invaded Hungary. Goergey declared from the first that Pesth would have to be abandoned. Kossuth's frantic efforts to prevent this only served to hamper Goergey's able campaign. One line after another had to be abandoned. At last, toward the close of the year, Kossuth and his Magyar Diet were compelled to evacuate Pesth. The Hungarian army fell back over the River Theiss, upon the fortress of Comorn, and the mountainous regions of northern Hungary. Kossuth's government was established at Debreczin.

1849

On January 5, Windischgrätz and Jellacic made their triumphant entry into Budapesth. The Vienna "Gazette" announced "the glorious end of the Hungarian campaign." Prince Windischgrätz rested on his arms. During this interval the Polish general, Bem, who had escaped from Vienna, aroused his countrymen in Siebenbürgen and carried the war into that region. The Austrian troops under General Puchner were beaten in a series of engagements. Goergey, aided by another Pole, Dembinsky, repulsed the Austrian troops under General Schlik in the north. While Windischgrätz remained idle at Pesth, Klapkah, the new Hungarian Minister of War, organized the Magyar forces and created new defences for his country.

Prince Metternich, whiling away his idle hours among other notable refugees at London and Brighton, now had the satisfaction of seeing the dangers of revolt brought home to the people of England. The tidings of a disaster in Afghanistan provoked an outburst of alarm and indignation in England. On January 13, Lord Gough had advanced on Sher Singh's intrenchments at Chilian Wallah. They were held by 30,000 Sikhs with sixty guns, screened by a thick jungle. As the British imprudently exposed themselves the Sikhs opened fire. Lord Gough ordered a general charge. The drawn battle that followed proved the bloodiest affair in the history of British India. Driven from their first line of defences, the Sikhs stood their ground in another stronger position, and repulsed the British attack. Nearly 2,500 British officers and men fell in the fight. In the face of the Afghan rejoicings Lord Gough claimed a victory. The British War Office, however, hastily despatched Sir Charles Napier to India to supersede Lord Gough. There was still time for that commander to retrieve himself. General Whish captured the town of Multan, and by terrible bombardment of the citadel brought Mulraj to surrender. General Whish then joined forces with Lord Gough in his final struggle with Sher Singh. At Guzerat, on February 22, Lord Gough achieved the crowning victory known as "the battle of the guns." For two hours a terrific artillery duel was maintained, the Sikhs firing with all their sixty pieces. Finally the British stormed their batteries in a combined charge of bayonets and cavalry. The Sikh forces were scattered, and their camp, with most of their standards and guns, were captured by the British. Dost Muhammad Khan and his Afghans were driven out of Peshawar and narrowly escaped to Kabul. Mulraj was imprisoned for life. The whole of the Punjab was annexed to British India. A successful administration of this hostile province was Lord Dalhousie's first great triumph.

About the same time, General Taylor, the conqueror of Buena Vista, was inaugurated as President of the United States. One sentence in his inaugural address provoked derision: "We are at peace with all the world and the rest of mankind." The old Spanish missions in the conquered territory were deprived of their wealth and influence. The name of San Francisco was adopted in place of Yerba Buena. Besides California, the new territory included the subsequently admitted States of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas. The Apache and Navajo Indians in those regions gave immediate trouble. The gold seekers tracking across the plains were the first to suffer from the Indians. Still the stream of immigrants poured into California. Their halfway stations on the Missouri River developed into the two thriving towns of Omaha and Council Bluffs. The Bay of San Francisco was soon surrounded by a settlement of tents and sheds. A Vigilance Committee took affairs into its own hands, and administered justice without fear or favor. Six times the new city was destroyed by fire. Within two months all traces of the disaster would be lost. California soon had a population entitling it to Statehood. President Taylor eagerly seconded the wishes of the people for a government of their own. The first Constitutional Convention of California declared against slavery. More than $40,000,000 worth of gold was produced in the new State, and the first gold dollars were coined.

The death of Edgar Allan Poe, the American poet, was as tragic as his life had been. After the death of his wife, Poe had engaged himself to marry a wealthy lady in Richmond, and the wedding day was fixed. On his way to New York to settle up affairs in anticipation of his marriage, Poe fell in with some of his companions in dissipation at Baltimore. He became drunk, wandered through the streets, and was finally taken to a hospital in an unconscious condition. Later he became delirious and finally expired, saying: "Lord, help my poor soul!" After Poe's death the simplest and sweetest of his ballads, "Annabel Lee," and the wonderful poem of "The Bells," were published. His former friend and editor, Griswold, published a scathing denunciation of the dead man in the New York "Tribune." Poe's fame as a master of the weird and fanciful in literature was already established wherever his thrilling tales and superb poem "The Raven" had penetrated. He was one of the few poets of America at that period who had succeeded in achieving an international reputation. The best of his poems were rendered in choice French by Baudelaire, while his short stories were translated into almost all European languages. As his biographer, Woodberry, has said: "On the roll of American literature Poe's name is inscribed with the few foremost, and in the world at large his genius is established as valid among all men. Much as he derived nurture from other sources, he was the son of Coleridge by the weird touch in his imagination, by the principles of his analytic criticism, and the speculative bent of his mind." Most characteristic of Poe's genius perhaps are these lines from his famous poem "The Conqueror Worm":

Lo! 'tis a gala night Within the lonesome latter years! An angel throng, bewinged, bedight In veils, and drowned in tears, Sit in a theatre, to see A play of hopes and fears, While the orchestra breathes fitfully The music of the spheres.

* * * * *

That motley drama--oh, be sure It shall not be forgot! With its Phantom chased for evermore By a crowd that seize it not, Through a circle that ever returneth in To the self-same spot, And much of Madness, and more of Sin, And Horror the soul of the plot.

* * * * *

Out--out are the lights--out all! And over each quivering form The curtain, a funeral pall, Comes down with the rush of a storm, And the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy "Man," And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

In Europe, the startling upheavals of the previous year were followed by an aftermath no less startling. Even in Spain, where a first attempt at revolution had easily been crushed at Madrid, Don Carlos deemed the time ripe to join Cabrera's revolutionary rising in Catalonia. On his way there he was arrested at the French frontier. Deprived of his support, Cabrera himself had to remove his forces to French soil. In Italy, the revolutionary movement spread. On February 7, Duke Leopold of Florence was driven out of Tuscany. A republican government was established at Florence under the triumvirate of Guerazzi, Montanelli and Manzoni. Taking refuge on a British man-of-war, the Duke of Tuscany fled to Gaeta to share the Pope's exile there. On the same day that the new republic was proclaimed at Florence a popular assembly at Rome formally deposed the Pope from temporal power and proclaimed the Republic of Rome. The armistice in Sicily was about to expire. King Ferdinand's final concessions to his rebellious subjects were repudiated. Lord Palmerston, who had vainly offered British mediation to Ferdinand, on the floor of Parliament openly defended the uncompromising attitude of the Sicilians. In preparation for the inevitable conflict, Filangieri gathered an army of 20,000 Neapolitans, while Mierolavsky, a Pole, took command of the Sicilian insurgents.

Meanwhile the tide of war set against the Hungarians. On February 4, Bem was defeated on the site of his former victory at Hermannstadt. While retreating he was defeated again at Paiski. By the middle of February the Austrians succeeded in taking the fortress of Essek from the Hungarians. Toward the close of the month a disastrous defeat was inflicted upon the Hungarians under the command of General Dembinsky at Kapolna. Kossuth had made the mistake of superseding Goergey by that commander. Now Goergey was reinstated. The Hungarians rallied. On March 5, the Magyar Csikos, or irregular cavalry, under Janos Damjanies, defeated the Austrians under General Grammont at Szolnok. A few days later the Hungarian army in Transylvania, under General Bem, retrieved their ill-fortune by another glorious victory at Hermannstadt. A Russian contingent from Wallachia, which had crossed the frontier to assist the Austrians, was defeated by Bem at Brasso. General Puchner and his Russian allies sought refuge across the border. Goergey relieved Komorn. The ablest of the Austrian generals, Schlik, was beaten at Hapvan, while Jellacic was overthrown at Isaszteg and Goedoelloe. Prince Windischgrätz had to give up Pesth, or, as he put it in his immortal thirty-fourth bulletin: "Reconcentrate the army in front of Budapesth, a movement hastily imitated by the enemy." Goergey added another touch of humor by attributing the Hungarian victory solely to the activity of Windischgrätz and Jellacic. On March 4, Emperor Francis Joseph had annulled the old Hungarian constitution. Kossuth retaliated in kind. Under his influence the Magyar Diet at Debreczin pronounced the deposition of the House of Hapsburg from the throne of Hungary and declared the independence of Hungary and the adjoining southern provinces. While the Hungarian army, instead of marching on Vienna, lost valuable time before Ofen, the Austrian Government improved the interval to perfect its long-threatened alliance with Russia.

In the interim war had broken out anew in Schleswig-Holstein and in Italy. Before the expiration of the Austrian-Italian armistice, Charles Albert of Sardinia, in a spirited address on February 1, announced his determination to renew the war. To this desperate resolve he was driven by the increasing turbulence of Italian affairs. The spread of the revolutionary movement to his dominions could be forestalled only by placing himself once more at the head of the Italian movement. In some respects the moment appeared propitious. Charles Albert's army now numbered a hundred and twenty thousand men, while Radetzky had little more than seventy thousand Austrians. A characteristic note of the times was the appointment of Poles to command the Italian troops. Prince Chrzanovsky, who had fought under Napoleon at Leipzig and Waterloo, and had subsequently commanded a Russian division at Varna, was put in supreme command, seconded by Alexander La Marmora. Another Pole, or half Pole, Ramorino, who had figured in the unfortunate rising of 1833, commanded the legion of Lombardy. On March 12, the pending termination of the truce was officially announced. At noon on March 20, hostilities were to be resumed. The campaign that followed lasted but five days. Radetzky, by his preliminary feint, made the Italians believe that he would evacuate Lombardy as heretofore; but at the last moment he quickly concentrated his five army corps at Pavia. At the stroke of noon, on March 20, he threw his army across the Tessino on three bridges. While the Italians believed that Radetzky was retreating on the Adda, the Austrians were already bivouacking on the flank of the Piedmontese army. Three bloody engagements at Mortara, Gambola and Sforzesca, on March 21, ended in a retreat of the Italians all along the line. Ramorino had received orders to move northward and to destroy the bridges behind him. Out of accord with his countryman, Chrzanovsky, he disobeyed his orders and lingered at Stradella. Radetzky flung his army in between, and cut off the Italian line of retreat upon Turin and Alessandria. It was then that Benedek, an Austrian colonel, distinguished himself by leading his troops far in advance of the Austrian army, and cutting his way through an Italian brigade, under the cover of night. At midnight of March 21, Charles Albert had to order a general retreat on Novara. There Chrzanovsky determined to make a stand with his main column of about 50,000 men. Radetzky was in doubt whether the Italians had fallen back on Novara or Vercelli. To make sure he sent his troops in either direction. He himself remained at his headquarters, so as to be ready to ride either way. The roar of artillery from Novara, on the morning of March 23, told him where the battle was to be fought. There General D'Aspre, commanding the second Austrian army corps, undertook to win some laurels on his own account by a bold attack on the superior position of the Italians. As Charles Albert rode out of the gate of Novara he received the last cheers of his devoted Bersaglieri. After a three hours' fight the scale turned against the Austrians. Count D'Aspre repented of his rashness, and sent for help to Count Thurn at Vercelli. Fortunately for him, Radetzky and Thurn had marched in that direction as soon as they heard the sound of the cannon. It was a race between the two divisions. As Radetzky, at the head of the first army corps, galloped through Nebola, the aged marshal met the retreating columns of D'Aspre's second corps. Both the first and the third Austrian corps rushed into the battle almost simultaneously. The Italian advance was checked. At last, when Thurn's fourth corps arrived at sundown, the Austrian bugles sounded for a general charge. The Italian line of battle was overthrown. The Austrian cavalry circled around the flank. While the Italians fled into Novara they suffered from the fire of their own artillery. Charles Albert was one of the last who left the Bicocca to seek refuge in Novara. The town itself was bombarded by the Austrian artillery far into the night. Standing on the ramparts of Novara, Charles Albert realized the disastrous nature of his defeat. His losses aggregated more than seven thousand, of whom three thousand had been taken captive. Of the Austrian losses of 3,158 men, five-sevenths fell to D'Aspre's corps. The other Austrian divisions were practically intact. The Italians were in confusion. Charles Albert, who throughout the day had exposed his person with the utmost gallantry, had to be dragged from the ramparts by General Durando. As the Austrian shells struck all around them he exclaimed, "Leave me, General. Let it be the last day of my life. I wish to die." At last he consented to send his Minister, Cadorna, to Radetzky's headquarters to sue for an armistice. Cadorna was received in an insulting manner. Charles Albert came to the conclusion that his own person was an obstacle in the way of peace. That night he resigned his crown. In the presence of his generals he pronounced his eldest son, Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia. Accompanied by but one attendant he left Novara, and passed unrecognized through the enemy's lines. Sending a farewell letter to his wife, he went into exile. A few months later he died at Oporto in Portugal.

As Fyffe has said of this unfortunate Prince: "Nothing in his reign became him like the ending of it. He proved that there was one sovereign in Italy who was willing to stake his throne, his life, the whole sum of his personal interests, for the national cause.... The man who, beaten and outnumbered, had for hours sat immovable in front of the Austrian cannon in Novara, had, in the depth of his misfortune, given to his son not the crown of Piedmont only, but the crown of Italy."

On the day after the battle of Novara, King Victor Emmanuel sought out Marshal Radetzky and came to terms. Venice and the Italian duchies had to be relinquished to the Austrians. Austrian troops, in conjunction with those of Piedmont, occupied Alessandria. Piedmont was to reduce its army to a peace footing, to disperse all volunteers, and to pay a war indemnity of 75,000,000 francs. The Austrian demand that Victor Emmanuel should annul the liberal constitution granted by his father was unconditionally refused. For this Piedmont had to suffer a prolonged military occupation by Austrian troops, but Victor Emmanuel, by the same token, retained his father's claim to the leadership of the national cause of Italy. The victory of Austrian arms was speedily followed by the return of the princes of northern Italy to their petty thrones. Radetzky's troops undertook the reconquest of Venice. To forestall an Austrian movement against Rome, France undertook to reinstate Pio Nono in the Holy Chair of St. Peter. A French expedition under Oudinot, a son of the famous marshal, disembarked at Civita Vecchia. Mazzini and Garibaldi alone rallied their men to the defence of the republic.

In Sicily, hostilities had been likewise renewed on March 29. The Sicilians were discouraged by the report of the Italian defeats in the north. Filangieri succeeded in capturing Taormina, the Sicilian base of supplies. In the defence of Catania the Polish general commanding the Sicilian troops, Mierolavsky, was severely wounded. At the foot of Mount Etna, the Sicilians were again defeated on April 6, Good Friday. Catania was taken. Syracuse surrendered to the Neapolitan fleet. Filangieri's army penetrated into the interior. In vain did the English and Austrian Ambassadors offer mediation. Ruggiero Settimo resigned his Presidency of the Sicilian Republic. The heads of the insurrection fled the country. Palermo surrendered. The customary courts-martial and military executions followed. Until the accession of King Ferdinand's eldest son to the throne, Filangieri ruled as military governor. In commemoration of one of the cities he had laid in ashes, he was created Duke of Taormina. When England tried to exact the promised recognition of the Constitution of 1812, King Ferdinand rejected the proposal with the sardonic statement that peace had been re-established in Sicily, and everybody was content.

The armistice of Malmö with Denmark expired on February 26. The German Bundestag mobilized three divisions of the allied German federation. Within a month Prussian, Bavarian and Swabian troops marched into Holstein. A Prussian general, Von Prittwitz, assumed supreme command. On April 3, the Danes opened hostilities by a bombardment of the Island of Allston. Then came the battle of Eckenfoerde, when German shore batteries blew up the Danish ship of the line, "Christian VIII.," and two smaller vessels, the crews of which surrendered. On April 13, the Bavarians and Saxons stormed the intrenchments of Dueppel. One week later, the German troops, in conjunction with the volunteers of Schleswig-Holstein, under Von Bonin, occupied Jutland, and defeated the Danes at Kolding. A Danish advance from Fridericia was repulsed after a seven hours' fight, on May 7, at Gudsoe. The Danes fell back on Fridericia, where they were invested.

Meanwhile the German Parliament had met again at Frankfort. After the resignation of the former Austrian chief of the Cabinet, Schmerling, the Parliament was split into two factions, according to their preferences for a German union with or without Austria. Early in January it had been decided to elect some German prince to assume the leadership of German affairs as Emperor of the Germans. To this plan the minor German sovereigns gave their consent. During the first week of March, when the Emperor of Austria issued his new Constitution, which declared the whole of the Austrian Empire under one indivisible constitutional monarchy, it was plain to the German delegates that Austria could no longer be reckoned on. On March 28, King Frederick IV. of Prussia was elected by 290 votes. Some 284 delegates, among whom were 100 Austrians, abstained from voting. An imperial constitution was adopted which limited the former sovereign rights of the various principalities, declared for the liberties of speech and of the press, religious worship, free public schools, and the total abolition of all feudal titles of nobility. On April 23, the great Parliamentary deputation, with President Simpson at its head, came to Berlin to notify the King of Prussia of his election. To the consternation of all, Frederick William declined the honor. He explained in private that he did not care "to accept a crown offered to him by the Revolution."

The immediate effects of his rejection were new attempts at revolution in Germany. After Frederick William's refusal to enter into the plans of the German Parliament, this body fell into utter disrepute. Its radical elements could no longer be kept in control. Armed revolts, encouraged by the radical delegates, broke out in Frankfort, Kaiserslautern and throughout Saxony. The King of Saxony, with his Ministers, Von Beust and Rabenhorst, fled from Dresden. From the barricades the provisional government was proclaimed. The garrison was at the mercy of the insurgents, great numbers of whom flocked to Dresden from Leipzig and Pirna. Prussian troops overran Saxony. The revolutionary movement spread to Hesse, Baden, the Rhine provinces, Wurtemberg and the Bavarian Palatinate. Encounters with the troops occurred at Elbafeldt, Düsseldorf and Cologne. The reserves and municipal guards sided with the insurgents. All Baden rose and declared itself a republic, forming an alliance with the revolted Palatinate. The people of Wurtemberg, in a turbulent mass-meeting, demanded coalition with both of these countries. It was then that the Parliament at Frankfort decided to hold its future sessions at Stuttgart. Those principalities which had not yet succumbed to revolution withdrew their delegates. Prussia now gave to the Parliament its coup de grace by arrogating to herself all further prosecution of the Danish war, on the ground that "the so-called central government of Frankfort had no more weight of its own to affect the balance of peace or war." The remnants of the Parliament tried to meet at Stuttgart, under the leadership of Loewe and Ludwig Uhland, the foremost living poet of Germany. When they came together at their meeting hall they found the doors blocked by troops. Attempts at protest were drowned by the roll of drums. Under the threat of a volley the delegates dispersed. Such was the end of the first German Parliament.

Prussian troops advanced into the Palatinate, Baden and Wurtemberg. After desultory encounters with ill-led bands of insurgents, the sovereigns of these principalities were reinstated on their thrones by the Prussian army. The refugees thronged into Switzerland. In the north, on the other hand, Prussia's further advance into Denmark was stopped by the threatening attitude of England, Russia and France. On July 5, the Danes made a sortie from Fridericia and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Schleswig-Holsteiners, capturing 28 guns and 1,500 prisoners. The Germans lost nearly 3,000 men in dead and wounded.

Five days after this disgrace to German arms, the Prussian Government accepted an armistice, according to which Schleswig was to be cut in two to be occupied by Swedish and Prussian troops. The provisional government of this province was intrusted to a joint commission, presided over by an Englishman. Holstein was abandoned to its fate. The final downfall of all the ideals of the German Liberals was followed by a feeling of dejection in Germany akin to despair. The number of immigrants who left Germany to seek new homes in America and elsewhere rose abruptly to 113,000 persons.