A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 44

[Sidenote: Fighting in the street]

[Sidenote: Imperial palace invaded]

[Sidenote: Downfall of Metternich]

On March 13, the Provincial Diet met. Dense crowds surged about the Diet Hall. The students marched around in procession. Street orators harangued the crowds. The tumult was at its height when a slip of paper was let down from one of the windows of the hall, stating that the Diet was inclining to half measures. An announcement to this effect was received with a roar of fury. The mob overran the guards and burst into the Diet Hall. All debate was stopped, and the leading members of the Estates were forced to head a deputation to the Emperor's palace to exact a hearing. All the approaches to the palace were choked with people. Street fighting had already begun.

Detachments of soldiers were hurried to the palace and to the Diet Hall.

From the roof and windows of the Diet Hall missiles were hurled upon the soldiery. The interior of the Hall was demolished. The soldiers now fired a volley and cleared the Hall with their bayonets. Blood flowed freely and many were killed. The sound of the shots was received by the crowds around the palace with howls of rage. The whole city was in an uproar. Barricades were thrown up and the gunsmith shops were sacked. At the palace, where the Emperor himself remained invisible, Metternich and his a.s.sembled Council received the deputation in state. The Council urged the aged Prime Minister to grant the demanded concession. At length he withdrew into an adjoining chamber to draft an order annulling the censorship of the press. While he was thus engaged the cry was raised, "Down with Metternich!" The deputies in the Council Chamber peremptorily demanded his dismissal. When the old statesman returned he found himself abandoned even by his colleagues.

Metternich realized that the end had come. He made a brief farewell speech, marked by all the dignity and self-possession of his greatest days, and left the Council Chamber to announce his resignation to the Emperor.

[Sidenote: Quiet restored]

[Sidenote: Hungarian demands]

[Sidenote: Kossuth in Vienna]

[Sidenote: Demonstrations of enthusiasm]

The news of Metternich's downfall was received with deafening cheers. His personality was so closely identified with all that was most hateful in Austrian politics that the mere announcement of his resignation sufficed to quell the popular tumult. On the night of March 14, Metternich contrived to escape from Vienna un.o.bserved, and fled across the frontier. On the same day a National Guard was established in Vienna, and was supplied with arms taken from the government a.r.s.enal. The Viennese outbreak gave irresistible force to the national movement in Hungary. Now the Chamber of Magnates, which had hitherto opposed the demands of the Lower House, adopted the same by a unanimous vote. On March 15, a deputation was despatched to Vienna to demand from the Emperor not only a liberal const.i.tution, but a separate Ministry, absolute freedom of the press, trial by jury, equality of religion, and a free public-school system. The Hungarians, with Kossuth in the lead, were received in triumph in Vienna. They paraded through the streets, and were greeted by Emperor Ferdinand in person. He consented to everything and issued an imperial rescript, promising a liberal const.i.tution to the rest of Austria as well. The light-hearted Viennese indulged in indescribable jubilations. On March 18, the Emperor drove through the city. Somebody put a revolutionary banner into his hands. The black, red and gold ensign of united Germany was hoisted over the tower of St. Stephen. In an intoxication of joy the people took the horses from the imperial carriage and drew it triumphantly through the streets. The regular troops around the imperial palace were superseded by the new National Guards.

[Sidenote: Germany in a ferment]

[Sidenote: Prussian a.s.sembly convoked]

[Sidenote: King of Prussia cowed]

[Sidenote: Revolt in Berlin]

[Sidenote: Prince William's part]

[Sidenote: King of Prussia submissive]

[Sidenote: Royal promises]

[Sidenote: Rising of Schleswig-Holstein]

[Sidenote: Reverse at Bau]

By this time the same storm of revolution was sweeping over Germany.

Popular demonstrations occurred at Mannheim, Ca.s.sel, Breslau, Koenigsberg and along the Rhine region in Cologne, Dusseldorf and Aix-la-Chapelle. A popular convention at Heidelberg, on March 5, had resolved upon a national a.s.sembly to be held at Frankfort-on-the-Main by the end of March. Elections for this a.s.sembly were being held throughout Germany. The long-desired union of Germany was at last to be accomplished. On March 14, King Frederick William of Prussia convoked the Prussian a.s.sembly for April 27, to deliberate upon Prussia's part in the proposed German union. Then came the news of the events in Vienna. Crowds gathered in the streets excitedly discussing the events of the day. Attempts on the part of the police to disperse them led to threatening encounters. Under the stress of alarming bulletins from Vienna, the King issued a rescript on March 18, in which he not only convoked the Prussian a.s.sembly for the earlier date of April 2, but himself proposed such reforms as const.i.tutional government, liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and the reconst.i.tution of the Germanic Federation as a national union of states--a realization in brief of all the most ardent ideals of the German Liberals. Now the popular agitators proposed a monster demonstration to thank the King for his concessions.

Shortly after noon, on March 18, the processions converged upon the palace.

Immense crowds filled the streets. The appearance of the King upon the balcony was greeted with cheers. King Frederick William tried to speak but could not make himself heard. The troops set out to clear the palace grounds. Angry shouts arose for the withdrawal of the soldiery. In the confusion two shots were fired. A panic ensued: "We are betrayed," cried the leaders, and called the people to arms. The troops of the garrison charged into the rioters. Barricades were thrown up, and here and there church bells rang the tocsin. From three in the afternoon until early the next morning, fighting continued in the streets. The entire garrison of Berlin was called out and with the help of the bright moonlight succeeded in clearing one street after another. Prince William, the future German Emperor, gained unenviable notoriety by his zeal. At two in the morning the King gave orders to stop firing. He issued a proclamation: "To my dear people of Berlin," the mild tone of which only betrayed his weakness. On the following day all the troops were withdrawn and ordered out of the city. Prince William likewise left Berlin in deep chagrin and departed for England. His palace had to be protected from the fury of the people by placards p.r.o.nouncing it the property of the nation. Once more the rioters appeared before the royal palace with the bodies of some of their slain.

The King convoked a new Ministry and consented to subst.i.tute armed citizens and students for his royal guards. A general amnesty was proclaimed. On March 21, the King agreed to adopt "the sacred colors of the German Empire"

for those of Prussia. After the manner of the weak Emperor of Austria, he rode through the streets of Berlin wearing a tricolor sash. Not satisfied with this, the revolutionists, on March 22, paraded before the palace with the open biers of 187 men that had been killed during the riots. Standing on his balcony with bared head, King Frederick William reviewed the ghastly procession. In a manifesto published at the close of the day he declared: "Germany is in ferment within and exposed from without to danger from more than one side. Deliverance from this danger can come only from the most intimate union of the German princes and people under a single leadership.

I take this leadership upon me for the hour of peril. I have to-day a.s.sumed the old German colors, and placed myself and my people under the venerable banner of the German Empire. Prussia is henceforth merged into Germany."

Thus Frederick William, by word and acts, which he afterward described as a comedy, directly encouraged the imperial aspirations of liberal Germany.

The pa.s.sage of his address in which he spoke of external dangers threatening Germany came true sooner than was expected. King Christian VIII. of Denmark had died early in the year. The fear of revolution at Copenhagen drove his son Frederick VII., the last of the Oldenburg line, to p.r.i.c.k the war bubble blown by his father. On March 22, he called the leaders of the Eider-Dane party--the party which regarded the Eider as the boundary of the Danish dominions, thus converting Schleswig into a Danish province--to take the reins of government. The people of Schleswig and Holstein protested. The King was checkmated at Kiel by the appointment of a provisional government. The troops joined the people, and the insurrection spread over the whole province. The struggle then began. Volunteers from all parts of Germany rushed to the northern frontier. The German Bundestag admitted a representative of the threatened Duchies, and intrusted Prussia with their defence. An attempt was made to organize a German fleet. General Wrangel was placed in command of the Prussian forces despatched toward Denmark. Before he could arrive, the untrained volunteer army of Schleswig-Holsteiners suffered defeat at Bau. A corps of students from the University of Kiel was all but annihilated.

[Sidenote: Russia stems revolution]

An attempted rising of the Poles, in the Prussian province of Posen and at Cracow, was quickly suppressed. As soon as the news of the revolution in Paris reached Russia, the absolute ruler of that vast empire mobilized his armies, "so that, if circ.u.mstances should demand it, the tide of Anarchy could be dammed." After the abortive revolt at Cracow, Czar Nicholas issued an imperial manifesto, closing with a quotation from Isaiah: "Listen, ye heathen, and submit, for with us is G.o.d." When the spirit of revolt spread to Moldavia and Wallachia, Emperor Nicholas without further ado despatched a Russian army corps across the Pruth. The Sultan of Turkey was prevailed upon to do the same. Russian and Turkish troops occupied Ja.s.sy and Bucharest during the summer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPENING OF THE OPERA Painted by Edouard Detaille Copyright by M. Knoedler & Co.]

[Sidenote: Frankfort Vor-Parlament]

[Sidenote: Revolution in Baden]

[Sidenote: General Gagern shot]

[Sidenote: Flight of rebels]

The German preliminary Parliament of five hundred delegates had met at Frankfort in April. It lasted but five days. The Republicans found themselves outnumbered, when they submitted their scheme for a national const.i.tution. Repulsed in this, the Liberals proposed that they should continue in session until the real National Parliament should meet, thus extending their function beyond the limits of a mere const.i.tuent a.s.sembly.

Outvoted in this, the leaders of the extreme Republicans resorted to armed revolt. a.s.sisted by Polish refugees and men from France, they raised the red flag in Baden. Friedrich Hecker, a popular orator and representative of Baden, headed the movement. George Herwegh, the poet, took charge of the refugees from Switzerland and a group of German operatives recently returned from France. A provisional government was declared in the lake district of Baden. The Parliamentary majority of Frankfort, on breaking up, left behind a committee of fifty to prepare the draft of a const.i.tution.

The Bundestag meeting at the same time called for military measures against the insurgents. From three sides troops advanced into Baden. A Bavarian detachment marched from Lindau, Swabian troops came from the Black Forest, while from the north Hessian forces were led by General von Gagern, a brother of the new Prime Minister of Hesse. On April 19, Von Gagern encountered the revolutionists under Hecker at Kandern. While haranguing the insurgents, he was shot from his horse. The troops charged the insurgents with the bayonet and dispersed them in less than an hour. Four days later the revolutionary intrenchments at Freiburg were stormed. On the 27th, Herwegh's corps of 1,000 refugees was dispersed by General Miller.

Hecker fled to America. The other leaders likewise made good their escape.

On April 29 they issued a manifesto at Strasburg: "An overwhelming number of imported b.e.s.t.i.a.l mercenaries have crushed Republican aspirations in Baden, and have once more subjected the people to the hateful tyranny of princes."

[Sidenote: The cause of Italy]

[Sidenote: Other Powers hostile]

[Sidenote: Italy isolated]

The unexpected outbreak of revolution in Vienna and Hungary had inspired the Italians to rebel against Austrian rule with new confidence. On March 30, Pio Nono at Rome issued a proclamation to the people of Italy, in which he said: "The events which have followed one another with such astounding rapidity during the last two months are not the work of man. Woe to him who, in this storm that shatters cedars as well as oaks, hears not the voice of the Lord." Under the command of General Durando, a band of Crociati, or crusaders, marched from Rome against the Austrians. Count Balbo was placed in command of the Piedmontese army. To the remonstrances of the British Amba.s.sador at Turin, King Charles Albert replied that he must either march against Austria or lose his crown. England, indeed, was emphatic in its disapproval of the Italian national movement. In the pages of the "Edinburgh Review," Sir Archibald Allison, the court historian, wrote: "It is utterly repugnant to the first principles of English policy, and to every page in English history, to lend encouragement to the separation of nationalities from other empires." The new republican government in France, on its part, had no desire to see a strong Italian national State spring up on its southern frontier. Lamartine, the French Foreign Minister, declined Charles Albert's request to sanction his military occupation of Lombardy. A strong French army of observation was concentrated on the Italian frontier in the Alps. Germany, which in later years was destined to become the strongest ally of Italy, was still so bound up with Austria that when Arnold Ruge in the Frankfort Parliament dared to express a wish for the victory of Italian arms against Austria, a great storm of indignation broke out in Germany. As a last resort, Charles Albert, on April 6, proposed an offensive and defensive alliance to Switzerland, but the little republic wisely declined to emerge from its traditional neutrality. It was then that the Italians raised the defiant cry: "Italia fara de se" (Italy will fight her own battles). When the hard beset Austrian Government, in a confidential communication of Minister Wessendberg to Count Casati, showed itself inclined to yield Lombardy upon payment of Lombardy's share in the Austrian national debt, the proposition was curtly declined.

[Sidenote: Set-back at Naples]

[Sidenote: Neapolitan forces recalled]

[Sidenote: Pio Nono's allocution]

It was a fatal move. The course of Italy, as Dante once sang, seemed like that of "a ship without stars in a wild storm." Affairs took a wrong turn in Naples. There a new popular Parliament had just been elected, which was about to meet, when there were some final difficulties between the King and his Liberal Ministers over the exact wording of the oath of allegiance. The excitable Neapolitan populace forthwith became unmanageable. The Swiss Guards, who had long been the b.u.t.t of the people, put down the revolt without mercy. Once more King Ferdinand was master. He hastened to dismiss his Cabinet and dissolved the Parliament before it could come to order.

Orders were sent to General Pepe, who had marched to the front in northern Italy with 14,000 men, to return at once. General Pepe, who had already reached Bologna and had entered hostilities under Charles Albert's command, declined to obey the orders of his sovereign. His rank and file trooped back to Naples. Only fifteen hundred Neapolitan volunteers remained with Pepe at the front. A number of the officers who returned felt their disgrace so keenly that they committed suicide. The Neapolitan fleet, which had already succeeded in raising the Austrian blockade of Venice, was likewise ordered home. A more serious blow to the cause of Italy was Pio Nono's apparent change of front. On April 29, without previous consultation with his new Ministry, the Pope issued the famous "Allocution," in which he declared that he had despatched his troops northward only for the defence of the Papal dominions, and that it was far from his intentions to join with the other Italian princes and peoples in the war against Austria. The Papal Ministry immediately handed in its resignation. The Munic.i.p.al Council of Rome called upon the Pope to abstain from interference with his army.

General Durando, commanding the Papal troops at the front, had already yielded to their entreaties by crossing the Po. Now he threw in his lot with Charles Albert. Pio Nono sent a confidential messenger to Naples to arrange for an asylum there, in case the people should turn against him at Rome.

[Sidenote: Garibaldi]

[Sidenote: Battle of Goito]

[Sidenote: Cortatone]

[Sidenote: Surrender of Peschiera]

[Sidenote: Radetzky firm]

Charles Albert on the Mincio lost three precious weeks. His army now numbered nearly one hundred thousand men, only sixty thousand of whom were trained soldiers. About this time he was joined by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who had just returned from the revolutionary battlefields of South America, whither he had been driven an exile from Charles Albert's own dominions. He was received with honor, and was put in charge of a volunteer corps which he had raised at Milan. The Austrian commander profited by the delay of his opponents to place his army between the strong fortresses of Verona, Mantua, Legnano and Peschiera, and to draw reinforcements from the Tyrol, until the situation in Austria itself became so threatening that no further aid could be given him. In truth, the fate of the Austrian empire now rested on the aged shoulders of Radetzky. On April 8, the Sardinian army, in a sharp engagement at Goito, effected the pa.s.sage of the Mincio. The Austrians lost one thousand men. Siege was now laid to Peschiera. A Tuscan division moved on Mantua, while the bulk of Charles Albert's army cut off Verona from the roads to the Tyrol. Radetzky was driven to take the offensive. In a fight at Cortatone he defeated the Tuscans, but within twenty-four hours the Austrian garrison of Peschiera was brought to the point of capitulation. The Italians took two thousand one hundred and fifty men. On May 6, Charles Albert made an attempt to drive the Austrians out of their positions in front of Verona. Repulsed at Santa Lucia, he was forced to fall back on the Mincio. Under the influence of the peace party, the Austrian Emperor now directed Radetzky to offer an armistice to the Italians. Simultaneously with this, Austrian reinforcements cut their way through to Verona. Radetzky sent Prince Felix Schwarzenberg to Innsbruck to implore the Emperor for permission to continue the combat. This was reluctantly given. Fearing another reversal of his orders, Radetzky forthwith threw his army into Venetia. General Durando and his Papal army were shut up in Vicenza, and compelled to capitulate. The capture of Vicenza was followed by that of all the Venetian mainland east of the Adige.

[Sidenote: Custozza]