nominee of the government of Vienna. Count Bouquoi interrupted him by saying: "You are servile by your origin, servile by your education, servile by your official position; nothing else could be expected of you." This occurrence undoubtedly constitutes one of history's little ironies; for at the present time the liberal papers of Bohemia—perhaps generalizing rather unfairly—accuse the nobility of servility, while the present mayor of Prague is a strong upholder of the autonomy and nationality of Bohemia. The declaration proposed by the committee was finally voted by a large majority, and the members of the Diet before separating resolved that at their next meeting—which would, it was supposed, take place in 1848—they would petition the Austrian government to consent to the increase of the number of town-representatives at the Diets, to grant the Estates full control over the road-making in the kingdom, and to allow the introduction of the national language in the schools. In consequence of the events of 1848 this meeting of the estates never took place.
The beginning of the year 1848 was in Bohemia, as in almost all continental Europe, marked by a revolutionary outbreak. After the total failure of this movement it, particularly in Bohemia, for a long time became fashionable to overwhelm the idealistic and unpractical reformers with a torrent of virulent abuse and cheap derision. Now that the events of the "year of revolution" have risen from the level of contemporary controversy to the calm heights of history, the judgment of many will probably be different; they will think that these strivers who heedless of all difficulties and dangers attempted to establish "government of the people, by the people, for the people" undertook no ignoble task.
It has already been mentioned that since the year 1840, the formerly somnolent Estates had shown some tendency to opposition. This attitude at first but slightly interested the Bohemian people. The aloofness which to a great extent separates the Bohemian nobility from the other classes of the population caused the citizens—very unjustly, it must be admitted—to believe that the nobles were only endeavouring to obtain for themselves further favours from the government of Vienna. It was only the talented young journalist, Charles Havliček (or "Havel Borovsky") who drew the attention of the public to the attitude of opposition
