Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/500

 its war with Sardinia, by the defeat at Magenta and Solferino, it lost the beautiful province of Lombardy.

Finally Francis Joseph realized that the State policy pursued was the real cause of the misfortunes that had overtaken the empire, and consequently he determined to pursue a new policy. In 1859 he issued a manifesto to his nations, promising to work radical reforms, both in the administrative and judicial departments of the government, and the following year he dismissed the obnoxious Bach from the ministry. A new Reichsrath was called, the number of delegates being increased. The chief work of the Reichsrath was to consider the financial state of the empire, and to propose some remedy. In July of the same year the emperor agreed, out of his own free-will, not to raise the taxes nor impose any loans, except with the consent of the Reichsrath. In the fall of 1860 he issued an unrepealable diploma, agreeing that henceforth all the nations composing the Austrian empire shall be duly represented in the general government.

It seemed now that the government had really initiated a policy that would lead to the liberty and prosperity of all the nations in the Austrian dominions. But reforms move slowly. Bohemia to this day is struggling to secure the rights and privileges which are included under the State law that it had been ruled by in former times—a law guaranteed it by the coronation oath of all the rulers of the house Hapsburg, but also violated by most of them. The Bohemian nation desires liberty, equality, and nationality, and does not mean to give up the struggle until these demands are secured.