Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/494

 were held, the election for the Bohemian Diet being indefinitely postponed. There was, therefore, nothing left to the National party but to send as able men as possible to Vienna, who should do what they could to secure for their nation some of the promised reforms.

The General Diet met in Vienna, July 18th. In the sessions, the Bohemian delegates held firmly to the principle, Equality to all nations in the Austrian monarchy, and the inviolability of the unity of the empire. The German delegates, finally becoming convinced that the policy advocated by the friends of the Frankfort Parliament would lead to the complete dissolution of the Austrian Empire, adopted the policy of the Bohemians, and also voted measures to prevent the secession of Hungary from the monarchy.

The progress made by the Diet in the working out of the needed reforms was very slow; but by the end of August the law relative to the abolition of socage was completed, and Ferdinand, returning to Vienna at this time, signed it, September 7th.

The party favoring the Frankfort Parliament, seeing that it was baffled in its designs, attempted to win its object by violence. Uniting with the Magyars in the city, they commenced a bloody revolution. Holding a special grudge against the ministry, they seized Latour, the Minister of War, and hanged him, and Bach escaped a similar fate by flight. Ferdinand again left the city, and the Imperial Diet, hindered in its proceedings by the angry mob, was soon obliged to adjourn, the delegates leaving the city and returning to their homes.

In this crisis, when Vienna was entirely in the power of a mob that favored Germany, the Austrian empire