s a source
neither of embarrassment to the Government nor of benefit to the
people. "I also have my Estates," declared the Emperor upon one
occasion. "I have maintained their constitution, and do not worry
them; but if they go too far I snap my fingers at them or send them
home." The Diet of Hungary was not once convened during the years
1812-1825. On the side of administration Metternich did propose that
the various executive departments, hitherto gathered under no common
management nor correlated in any degree whatsoever, should be brought
under the supervision of a single minister. But not even this project
was carried out effectively. Throughout the period the central
government continued cumbersome, disjointed, and inefficient.

With every passing decade the difficulties of the Government were
augmented. Despite a most extraordinary censorship of education and of
the press, western liberalism crept slowly into the Empire and the
spirit of disaffection laid hold of increasing numbers of people. The
revolutions of 1820 passed without eliciting response; those of 1830
occasioned but a ripple. But during the decade 1830-1840, and
especially after 1840, the growth of liberalism was rapid. In 1835 the
aged Francis I. was succeeded by Ferdinand I., but as the new
sovereign was mentally incapacitated the dominance of Metternich
continued unimpaired.[651] In Bohemia, Hungary, and elsewhere there
were revivals of racial enthusiasm and of nationalistic aspirations
which grew increasingly ominous. The Hungarian diet of 1844
substituted as the official language of the chambers Magyar for Latin,
and during the forties there was built up, under the leadership of
Louis Kossuth and Francis Deak, a flourishing Liberal party, whose aim
was the re-establishment of the autonomy of the kingdom and the
thoroughgoing reform of the government. By 1847-1848 this party was
insisting strenuously upon the adoption of its "Ten Points," in which
were included a responsible ministry, the abolition of serfdom,
equality of citizens before the law, complete religious liberty,
fuller representation in the Diet, taxation of the nobles, and (p. 453)
control by the Diet of all public expenditures.[652]

[Footnote 651: Technically the control of the
government was vested in a small group of
dignitaries known as the Staatskonferenz, or State
Conference. The nominal president