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34 under the hegemony of Prussia caused the Austrian government to reflect, and ask itself if it would not be better to modify its policy and shape it differently. In 1871 Francis Joseph opened negotialions with the Czechs and solemnly promised to satisfy their demands. A new era seemed on the point of dawning in Austria.

But the inveterate enemies of the Slavs, the Germans and the Magyars, energetically opposed this policy.

Berlin intervened, and the Magyars openly declared that they would never tolerate an autonomous Bohemia, dangerous to their domination of the Slovaks.

The Habsburgs betrayed us once more, and as a punishment for daring to show our dissatisfaction, General Koller was on two occasions despatched to Bohemia with full power to subdue us by massacres, imprisonments, and every persecution possible.

During the last thirty years the Czechs adopted new political tactics; instead of open rebellion, they prepared in silence for more propitious days. They worked at their economic development, at the enlargement of their political influence; by degrees they occupied important posts in the administration, and succeeded in obtaining new rights for the use of their language and their schools; they strengthened the local autonomy