Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/499

 the imperial courts of justice, and often sent to long years of imprisonment, where they either died or broke down in health as a result of cruel treatment. Among the most illustrious victims was Charles Havliček, a patriot and statesman, who for some satire written against the government, was sent to a fortress in Tyrol, where he died. This oppressive policy for a while arrested the progress the Bohemian people had been making in their national awakening. The patriots, seeing all their earnest labors brought to naught, became disheartened, and for a while it seemed that the country would again relapse into Germanism. But the nation roused itself from this lethargy even before the fall of the ministry whose unfriendly policy was the chief cause of it.

The government of Bach fell, because its principles were contrary to the real state of affairs in the monarchy. To keep up such a system of military and bureaucratic rule required an enormous expenditure of money, which Austria could by no means furnish, the burdens of taxation having become almost unbearable. And, notwithstanding all this, the military policy of the government was by no means successful. In