Moravia, and Silesia. In Vienna the enthusiasm for a united Germany was so great that the students, gathering in crowds before the royal palace, succeeded in forcing the German flag into the hands of the emperor. The Frankfort delegates invited Francis Palacký, the Bohemian historian, to represent his nation in the coming Parliament; but he declined the honor, regarding the movement dangerous both to Austria and Bohemia.
The Prime Minister Pillensdorf, carried away by every new excitement, and hardly able to withstand the pressure brought to bear upon him by the students and other visionaries, ordered elections to be held in all the Austrian provinces to choose delegates to the Frankfort Parliament.
This action put an end to the good feeling between the Germans and Bohemians in Prague. The former, incited by emissaries, began to suspect every movement that the Bohemians made in regard to their nationality as an act of hostility against themselves. There was a strong party in Prague in favor of the Frankfort Parliament, and when the St. Václav’s Committee, now called the National, declared against it, the German members resigned, and formed another committee, styled the Constitutional Union. Messengers from Frankfort came to Prague, with the demand that the National Committee should adopt different views; and when it refused to do so, they went so far in their audacity as to threaten to compel them to do so at the point of the sword. This so roused the indignation of the people that the Bohemian students broke up the meeting of the Constitutional Union, which after that did not venture to hold its sittings publicly.
From this time on, Prague became the scene of
