Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/392

 380 THE MODERN NATIONS Hanover, Saxony, and Bavaria, the rulers were forced to grant or to promise the popular demands. Nevertheless, before the end of the year the tables had been turned both in Austria and in Prussia, and the monarchists were in the ascendent. But if the popular movement met with a partial success, the attendant movement for German unity collapsed completely. An assembly of depu- ties from all German states was called at Frankfort which appointed an administration and set about formulating a German constitution. But there was utter disagreement between the democrats, the reactionaries, and the constitutional theorists, and between those who wanted to include Austria and those who wanted Prussia to be the head and to exclude Austria. The final result was the collapse of the entire movement, accompanied in Austria by the revocation of the recently granted constitution. In every other quarter the movement, nationalist or demo- cratic or a mixture of the two, broke down, after some initial The Austrian success. Hungary, roused by the eloquence of Empire. Kossuth, demanded independence ; Bohemia de- manded self-government. But there was antagonism instead of co-operation between the two. Austrian troops were able almost at once to secure Prague, the Bohemian centre, and the defiance of Hungary was crushed with aid from the Tsar. Hungary was deprived of the degree of self-government which had been granted before the insurrection. In Italy, Pius ix., who became pope in 1846, had at first acquired immense popularity by his liberal attitude. The February Revolution and the first disturbance at Vienna kindled the spark in Italy ; in one city after another the populace rose against the Austrian Dominion, and Charles Albert, the Sardinian king, declared war on Austria. But the skill of the Austrian general, Radetsky, triumphed ; the pope took alarm, when he found himself threatened with an Austrian war, and deserted the popular cause ; and the Austrians not only forced a humiliating peace on Victor Emmanuel, in whose favour Charles Albert abdicated, but also, besides crushing revolt in her own provinces with an iron hand, gave her aid in stamping out the revolutionary move- ments in the rest of Italy.