Page:A history of Bohemian literature.pdf/411

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

394

A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

under discussion. Hungary claimed almost complete independence, and Palacky rightly maintained that the establishing new small states was contrary to the tendency to union that then prevailed in Europe. Palack^^ advised the Hungarians, as well as the Bohemians, to make considerable concessions to the Central Government of Vienna. He seems already to have foreseen, what actually occurred six years later, that Hungary would be granted almost complete independence, and Bohemia considered a mere Austrian province. Though Palacky, always favourable to the preservation of the Austrian empire, was prepared to concede to the Central Government in Vienna far more extensive powers than the Hungarians were, he yet claimed for Bohemia and the Parliament of Prague a very extensive autonomy, on lines similar, though not identical, with those of the ancient Bohemian constitution, which perished on the When PalackiJday of the battle of the White Mountain. found that the Padiament of Vienna was discussing matters that he considered beyond its competency, and encroaching on the rights of the Bohemian representative body, he left Vienna on September 30, 1861, and never again took his seat in the Austrian Upper House. Of the Bohemian Parliament Palacky was a member from the time that it first met in 1861. He attended its meetings whenever the National or Bohemian party took part in its deliberations, which they, From 1861 from political reasons, often refused to do. to his death in 1876, Palacky was the recognised leader of the National party in Bohemia. A detailed account of his life during that time would be a record of the political struggles of Bohemia during those years, and would be out of place here. The admiration and venera-