(JKKMANV 



183 



the nation, and noon became a mere political tool 

 in the hands of the princes, who simply made it- 

 decrees subservient to their own cHoris for tin- 

 suppression <if every progressive movement. The 

 1 1 MI \ul of the Wart uurg, and the assassination 

 of Kot/ehw, were seized as additional excuses for 

 reaction ; and though tin- Fri-ndi revolution of 

 1830 HO influenced .some few of the German states 

 as to compel their rulers to grant written con 

 atitutions to their subjects, tin- eHect was tran- 

 sient, and it \\;i- not till 1S4H that the German 

 nation gave expression, by open insurrectionary 

 movements, to the discontent and the sense of 

 oppression which had long possessed the minds of 

 the people. The princes endeavoured by hasty 

 concessions to arrest the progress of republican 

 principles, and, fully recognising the inefficiency of 

 the diet, they gave their sanction to the convo- 

 cation, by a provisional self-constituted assembly, 

 of a national congress of representatives of the 

 people. Archduke John of Austria was elected 

 Vicar of the newly-organised national government ; 

 but he soon disappointed the hopes of the assembly 

 by his evident attempts to frustrate all energetic 

 action on the side of the parliament, while the 

 speedy success of the anti-republican party in 

 Austria and Prussia damped the hopes of the pro- 

 gressionists. The refusal of the king of Prussia 

 to accept the imperial crown which the parliament 

 offered him in 1849 was followed by the election 

 of a provisional regency of the empire ; but as 

 nearly half the members had declined taking part 

 in these proceedings, or in a previous measure, by 

 which Austria had been excluded, by a single vote, 

 from the German Confederation, the assembly soon 

 lapsed into a state of anarchy and impotence, 

 which terminated in its dissolution. The sangui- 

 nary manner in which insurrectionary movements 

 had in the meanwhile been suppressed by Prussian 

 troops both in Prussia and Saxony put an effectual 

 nd to republican demonstrations ; and in 1850 

 Austria and Prussia, after exhibiting mutual 

 jealousy and ill-will which more than once seemed 

 likely to end in war, combined to restore the 

 diet, whose first acts were the intervention in 

 Sleswick-Holstein in favour of Denmark, and the 

 alwlition of the free constitutions of several of the 

 lesser states. From that period the diet became 

 the arena in which Austria and Prussia strove to 

 secure the supremacy and championship of Ger- 

 many ; every measure of public interest was made 

 subservient to the views of one or other of these 

 rival powers ; and the Sleswick-Holstein difficulties 

 were the principal questions under discussion in the 

 federal parliament, down to the rupture between 

 Prussia and Austria, and the dissolution of the 

 Bund in 1866. 



The immediate occasion of the war of 1866 was 

 the difference that arose between Prussia and 

 Austria, after the convention of Gastein (1865), 

 as to the occupation and disposal of the territory 

 taken from Denmark in the snort war of 1864 (see 

 SLESWICK). But the real grounds lay in that 

 rivalry between the two states for the leadership 

 of Germany, the germ of which is as old as the 

 time of the Great Elector (see FREDERICK- 

 WILLIAM), and which has shown itself at many 

 epochs of their history. There can lie little donbf 

 that the feeling of the German people, as distin- 

 guished from the princes and bureaucracy, had, 

 in recent times at least, been in favour of the 

 purely German Prussia as their leader, rather than 

 Austria. And when the parliament of Frankfort 

 in 1849 offered the imperial crown to the king of 

 Prussia, the unity of Germany might have leen 

 secured without bloodshed, had the monarch been 

 less scrupulous, or had he had a Bismarck for his 

 adviser. But that opportunity being let slip, and 



the incubus of the ' Band ' being restored, it 

 IM-C-HMH- apparent that the knot niuiit be cut by the 

 wocvL 



By the treaty of Gastein Austria and Pnuwut 

 agreed to a joint occupation of the Elbe duchiea ; 

 but to prevent collision it was judged prudent 

 that Austria should occupy HolHtein, and Prumia 

 Sleswick. Already a difference of jiolicy had begun 

 to show itself: Prussia was l>elieved to have the 

 intention of annexing the duchies ; while Austria 

 began to favour the claims of Prince Frederick of 

 Augustenburg. In the meantime, both nations 

 were making ready for the struggle ; and Italy, 

 looking upon the quarrel as a precious opportunity 

 to strike a blow for the lil>eration of Venetia, hod 

 secretlv entered into an alliance with Prussia. 



In tne sitting of the German diet, June 1, 1866, 

 Austria, disregarding the convention of Gastein, 

 placed the whole matter at the disposal of the 

 Bund, and then proceeded to convoke the states 

 of Holstein 'to assist in the settlement of the 

 future destination of the duchy.' Prussia pro- 

 tested against this as an insult and a violation of 

 treaty ; demanded the re-establishment of the joint 

 occupation ; and, while inviting Austria to send 

 troops into Sleswick, marched troops of her own into 

 Holstein. Instead of responding to this invitation, 

 Austria withdrew her forces altogether from Hol- 

 stein, under protest ; and then, calling attention to 

 this ' act of violence ' on the part of Prussia, pro- 

 posed that the diet should -decree * federal execu- 

 tion ' against the enemy of the empire. This event- 

 ful resolution was carried by a great majority on 

 the 14th June 1866 ; Hanover, Saxony, Hesse- 

 Cassel, and Hesse-Darmstadt voting for it. The 

 resolution having passed, the Prussian plenipo- 

 tentiary, in the name of his government, declared 

 the German Confederation dissolved for ever, and 

 immediately withdrew. 



Thereupon identical notes were sent by Prussia 

 to the courts of Saxony, Hanover, and Hesse-CasseL 

 The terms were not accepted, arid the Prussian 

 troops at once took military possession of the three 

 kingdoms without resistance. War was now de- 

 clared against Austria ; the Prussian host, num- 

 bering in all 225,400 men, with 774 guns, invaded 

 Bohemia at three several points. The Austrians, 

 who had been surprised in a state of ill-organised 

 unreadiness, had assembled an army of 262,400 

 men and 716 guns ; and the greater portion of 

 these were stationed, under General Benedek, 

 behind the Riesengebirge, expecting the attack 

 from Silesia. The Prussian armies meanwhile 

 crossed the Erzgebirge without opposition, drove 

 the Austrian army steadily ana quickly back 

 with heavy losses, and, after effecting a junction, 

 moved steadily forward to meet the Austrian array, 

 now concentrated between Sadowa and Konig- 



K'itz. Here, on July 3, was fought the decisive 

 ttle. The Austrian cavalry made heroic efforts 

 to turn the tide of victory ; but the stern trained 

 valour of the Prussians, armed with the till then 

 little known breech -load ing 'needle-gun,' was 

 invincible, and the Austrian arm v was broken and 

 dissolved in precipitate flight. The Prussians lost 

 upwards of 9000 killed and wounded ; the Austrian 

 loss was 16,235 killed and wounded, and 22,684 

 prisoners. After this decisive defeat, which is 

 known as the battle of Ko'niggriitz or Sadowa, 

 all hope of staying the advance of the Prussians 

 with tne armv of Benedek was at an end ; a truce 

 was asked for, but refused ; and not till the 

 victorious Prussians had pushed forward towards 

 Vienna, whither Benedek had drawn his beaten 

 forces, was a truce obtained through the agency of 

 the emperor of the French, the peace of Prague 

 (August 20). Italy (q.v.), though more than half- 

 inclined to stand out for the cession by Austria of 



