Prince Windischgratz struggled to the last to induce the emperor to be firm. The mind of his majesty had, however, been shaken, and his nerves shattered by the clamour and the bloodshed of the day before, and by the fires which glared around Vienna during the preceding night. Both requests were granted, and in the evening two proclamations appeared, the first announcing the institution of a national guard for the protection of life and property in Vienna, and also stating that Field-marshal Hoyos had been named commander-in-chief; the second stating that the censorship of the press had been abolished, and that a law for regulating the press would be published as speedily as possible. These proclamations were followed by the announcement that Count Apponi, and the president of the police, Count Sedlnitzky, had resigned.

Within Vienna itself peace was preserved on the night of the 14th, and in the outer city and the suburbs it was secured by the students, who, now that they had obtained arms, made use of them, and wounded or shot down the robbers they encountered. More persons were slain and maimed by the students than by the soldiers, even when the uproar in Vienna was at its height.*

On the morning of the 15th of March, a proclamation appeared, summoning a meeting of all the states of the empire, of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, as well as of the Germans and Sclavonians, and fixing the place and time of their assembling to be in Vienna of the 3rd of July.

At twelve o'clock on the same day, the emperor, accompanied by the Archduke Francis Charles, and his son, the Archduke Francis Joseph, and unattended even by a single dragoon, appeared in the streets of Vienna. He was received with demonstrations of the most enthusiastic joy. The emperor, unarmed and unprotected, thus appealed to the loyalty of an armed and an excited multitude. They appeared for the moment to be worthy of such a proof of confidence. They wished to remove the horses from his majesty's carriage, and thus draw him in triumph through the city; and they only abandoned that intention at the special request of the emperor himself.

The emperor had yielded all that had been asked. He

* Oestreich's Befreiungstage, p. 54.

now added to these a boon which no one had formerly demanded from him; for, in a proclamation that appeared at five o'clock the same evening, and which was read in the streets of Vienna by the heralds of the emperor, it was declared that the states were to be summoned from all parts of his empire, for the purpose of bestowing "a Constitution" upon Austria.

We must borrow from an eye-witness and an Austrian, a description of the manner in which the reading of this proclamation by the heralds of the emperor was received:

"It would," says the writer, "be impossible to depict the impression produced upon the public by the bestowal of this completely unexpected gift from the emperor. It is not for the pen to pourtray it, to describe it, to specify it-it was a thing to be felt it was worth a whole life to experience it.

"Scarcely had the word Constitution fallen from the lips of the herald, than, like a spark which had fallen on inflammable matter, it kindled up a fire which blazed around on every side. Heralds on horseback and on foot, in one hand bearing a white banner, and in the other the beneficent proclamation, and crying out with an untiring voice the words, "Freedom of the press," "a Constitution," rushed through all the streets, through the suburbs, and far and away beyond the outermost lines of Vienna. That single word "Constitution," gave on the instant an impulse to the billows of time, which will be felt over the entire surface of the world, and that will come dashing with an oceanic force against many a rock of despotism, foaming against, shattering, and submerging it.

"As soon as the intelligence reach the University, its bearer was immediately surrounded by the students. They at once gathered together in the square of the University; there the proclamation was read by them; the signal for prayer was beaten by the drums, and in an instant all fell on their knees, raised high their hands in air, and with tear-bedewed eyes gave expression to their gratitude. Oh! it was a glorious moment. Enjoy it! fully enjoy your happy freedom! Give full vent to your feelings, generous youths; for if a victory has been gained, you have had no slight share in the combat.

"Never, never can be forgotten that hitherto unknown feelingthat which was excited upon beholding an entire people made happy, as if by some heaven-bestowed blessing. Then was what might be called an universal embrace; then were hands shaken which never before had touched each other; then were beheld the cordial kindly salutes of mutual enemies, as if they ever had been friends. Italians and Hungarians clasped Germans to their hearts then the first, the most lovely fruit of young freedom, was the commingling of all adverse national prejudices into one feeling.

and that was the love, and with the love the happiness of one common father-land."*

Under such auspices commenced the new order of things in Austria. There was henceforward to be nothing but peace, law, order; a Constitutional Emperor; a responsible government; an united empire; liberty of the press; freedom of speech; freedom of conscience. How long were those promises kept? Not even for a single hour; for at the very moment that the proclamation of the emperor was diffusing the joy which is depicted in the preceding paragraphs, there had arrived in Vienna a deputation of one hundred and fifty magnates and Jurats of Hungary, headed by the eloquent Kussuth, who came to demand, under the name of a distinct administrative government for the country, a separation from the crown of Austria. "The liberty of the press" was interpreted in a week to be an unlimited license to publish in pamphlets or by placards whatever malevolence, slander, infidelity, or disloyalty might dictate: the "freedom of speech" was supposed to confer a right upon the ventilation of slander, or of visiting with the indignation of the rabble, by means of a Charivari, (cats' music), those remarkable for their dignity or their piety; whilst "freedom of conscience" exhibited itself in the persecution, and even the spoliation of property, of those who had abandoned all things for conscience' sake. Instead of peace, there was discontent; instead of law, there was violence; instead of order, there was tumult.

Three weeks had not passed away from the accomplishment of the revolution in Vienna, until the LombardoVenetian kingdom was in open insurrection, and Austrian soldiers were expelled from Milan, and from Venice, whilst Vienna was crowded with the representatives of the different people which compose the Austrian empire, and each demanding a separate nationality for itself, or the power of dominating over some other nationality. Each was dissatisfied with its immediate neighbour; all discontented with Austria Proper; and Austria Proper itself, agitated, querulous, seeking for change, and demanding each day some novelty which it supposed might be an improvement. Vienna seemed to be afflicted with a

* Oestreich's Befreiungstage, pp. 39, 40.

complicated epidemic, the fever of an exciting commotion, and a famine for great, sudden, and incessant changes. It is in the following manner that the editor of the Vienna newspaper remonstrated with his fellow citizens on their unreasonable course of proceeding:,

"That of which we stand most in need is, patience. There are many persons who fancy that all their wishes can at once be gratified, and all their private interests attended to. Many calculate on seeing each day new laws decreed, which may affect, in a greater or a less degree, our system of taxation, the press, education, and trade; and there are even many who are impatient for the appearance at once of a complete constitution. An ancient edifice has been cast down, and a new building is to be erected in its place. We cannot hew out stone in a particular form-we cannot begin to frame doors and windows until the plan of the entire building is completed. We require a strong, habitable, healthily-situated mansion, such as may suit our condition, open to the sun and the air, protected against all assaults, and able to resist every storm. That, then, of which we stand most in need is patience, and with it an unreserved, unconditional confidence in our honest constitutional emperor."*

The people of Vienna did not, however, long restrict themselves to the mere asking for changes; they determined themselves upon enforcing them, and they commenced with attacking those who had, since the reign of Joseph II., been respected in Austria-the Catholic clergy, and the monastic orders. They compelled the Pope's nuncio to remove from the front of his palace the insignia of his office; they insulted the archbishop of Vienna in his mansion, and forced him to do that for a mob, which, as a prelate, he had previously expressed his disinclination to do; and lastly, they assailed, in a most brutal manner, the holy members of the pious order of the Redemptorists. The writer of this article was in Vienna at the time the outrage was perpetrated on the Redemptorists-when their place in the city was taken possession of by the mob, and they were obliged to appeal to the more respectable members of their persecutors-the National Guard-to save them from personal violence, and not improbably from assassination. We endeavoured to ascertain what charges could be alleged against the Redemptorists. "They were," said their enemies, "Jesuits; that Redemptorist

* Wiener Zeitung, April 1st. 1848.

was only a nickname or cloak for a Jesuit; and next, that they devoted themselves to the instruction of the poorer classes-to servants particularly; that they induced those servants, especially females, to be constant in their attendance at the confessional." "But why," we asked, "object to them on the latter ground?" The answer given to us, and we regret to say it was by a Viennese Catholic, was, "that through the confessional the Redemptorist gained influence over rich families; that the piety of the servant corrupted the mistress, and made her often have a greater respect for the priest than for her own relations."

The gentleman who gave us this answer, admitted that though he called himself a Roman Catholic, he did not go to confession; and we add with much pain, that the same answer was given to us by other nominal Catholics in different parts of Germany. The hatred, we believe, felt to the Redemptorists, arose from their success in purifying the morals of the lower classes, and because their labours imposed a complete check upon the infamies previously practised in private houses. What we mean may be surmised without further explanation. We asked for a single, well-authenticated instance in which it could be shown that the labours of the Redemptorists had not been devoted to the promotion of purity, charity, and domestic peace. We asked in vain. No such instance could be mentioned; but then it was said that they ought to be driven out of Vienna, "because they were Jesuits."

*

With such sentiments as these infecting the minds, not merely of an irreligious mob, but of a sensual middle class, we cannot be surprised to find that the moment the press was let loose from all restraint, that libellous attacks should be not only made upon the Catholicity and the celibacy of the priesthood, but that even the most beloved and most venerated living being in the world-Pope Pius the Ninth-should not be spared. We have given the title of an infamous brochure addressed to his holiness, and we extract, as a specimen of the manner in which "the liberty of the press" is exercised in Austria, a single extract from it; but we will not contaminate our pen by its translation:

* See Spencer's Germany and the Germans, vol. ii. pp. 170, 171. VOL. XXV.-NO. XLIX.

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