taken up by members of that class which had been considered unconditionally devoted to the government of Vienna. Havliček's paper, the "Prazské Noviny" ("news of Prague") attacked the Austrian Government with great ingenuity. As the "censor-office" prohibited all allusions to the internal affairs of Bohemia, Havliček published in the form of reports on the condition of Ireland sharp criticism on the government of his own country. Thus originated the comparison between Ireland and Bohemia which has since become one of the commonplaces of political controversy.
It was also with reference to Ireland that a patrotic association in Bohemia, formed shortly before the year 1848, assumed the name of "repeal." Sometime before the beginning of the year 1848, the impressionable Bohemians believed that that year would be of great importance to their country. It was pointed out that in that year occurred the fifth centenary anniversary of the foundation of the university and of the "new town" of Prague. Even the fact that the spring of that year was an early and very fine one was interpreted in a mystical manner. The actual outbreak of the liberal movement in Prague, as elsewhere, only occurred when the news of the revolution in Paris arrived. The news reached Prague on February 29, and on March 11, a large popular meeting in the hall of the so-called "baths of St. Venceslas" took place under the direction of the "repeal" society. It was presided over by Dr. Aloysius Trojan, afterwards a well-known member of the parliaments of Prague and Vienna. The assembly resolved to elect a committee comprising members of all classes of the population, who were to present to the Emperor the demands of the Bohemian people. These were formulated in fourteen articles. The principal requests were that the national language be granted complete equality with German, that the detestable system of "censure" be abolished, that Moravia and (Austrian) Silesia be again joined to Bohemia as being lands of the Bohemian crown, and that a thorough reform of the land-laws should alleviate the distress of the Bohemian peasantry. The first deputation which presented these demands in Vienna obtained no result, as the court was then entirely absorbed by the revolutionary movement that had just broken out in Vienna. A second deputation which proceeded there somewhat later was
