57° Readings in European History While Lombardy and Venetia were trying vainly, with the help of the king of Sardinia, to free themselves from the yoke of Austria, the Germans were busy draw- ing up a new constitution, which they trusted would at last make a nation out of the various German states so loosely united by the union of 1815. On the occasion of the opening of the National Assembly at Frankfort, the Diet of the old Confederation sent to the new Assembly the following graceful, if rather forced, mes- sage of congratulation. 477. Mes- The force of extraordinary events, the ardent desire which sage of the j ias i udly manifested itself throughout our whole fatherland, Diett0 1-11 1 r, , ^ the new together with the summons on the part of the several German National governments which these have called forth, have combined F sse Pl y a to bring into being in this momentous hour an Assembly (May 18, such as has never before been seen in all our history. 1848). Our old political life has been stirred to its very depths and, greeted by the acclamations and confidence of the entire German people, the German parliament, new and grand, emerges into life. The German governments and their common organ, the Diet, united with the German people in a common love for our great fatherland, and gladly yielding to the spirit of the time, extend a hand of welcome to the representatives of the nation and wish them happiness and prosperity. But while the members of the Frankfort Assembly laboriously worked out a constitution, conditions became more and more unfavorable to their hopes of a political regeneration of Germany. Austria once more regained its former influence and when, a year later, the Assembly offered the imperial crown to the timid Frederick William of Prussia, he naturally declined it. He proposed, never- theless, that Prussia should join the other German states
