who were at this period persecuted by the Austrian Government the most illustrious was Charles Havliček, whose memory is still revered by the Bohemians. He had, as already mentioned, begun before the year 1848 to edit the Pražské Noviny. When the liberal movement of that year began Havliček broke off his connection with it, thinking that its proprietors did not allow him sufficient independence. He founded a new paper entitled the Národni Noviny (National News), and very courageously continued its publication even after the bombardment of Prague. The paper was constantly confiscated, sometimes entirely suppressed for a few months, then again for a short time permitted to appear.[1] Havliček finally saw the impossibility of publishing in Prague a paper opposed to the Government. He therefore, in spite of the difficulties raised by the authorities, and contrary even to the advice of some of his friends, determined to found a new paper at Kutna Hora, a town in which the state of siege had not been proclaimed. The first number of the new paper, to which Havliček gave the name of Slovan (the "Slav") appeared on May 8, 1850. In his new paper he continued bravely to uphold the political and national demands of his countrymen. The reactionary movement in the Habsburg monarchy was by this time fully successful, and the persecution of Havliček continued relentlessly; almost every number of his paper was confiscated, and in those very numerous parts of the empire which were under martial law its sale was entirely prohibited. Though Havliček, a poor man, suffered financially also, he courageously continued the unequal struggle up to August 15, 1851, when the last number of the Slovan appeared. Havliček now determined entirely to leave political life and to seek to gain a living by farming. His sufferings were not, however, at an end. In consequence of an article contained in the last number of the Slovan, the public prosecutor brought an accusation against Havliček before the law-court of Kutna Hora. Trials by jury had, in that part of Bohemia which was not under martial law, not yet been suppressed; its suppression was, indeed, one of the consequences of the trial of Havliček. He appeared, on November 17, before the jury of Kutna Hora and was unanimously acquitted. His heroic attitude and his eloquence are still remembered by the Bohemian
- ↑ Karel Havliček Borovský, by Adolph Srb.
