the "legitimate" Austrian power; whereupon the
Hungarians, seeking in vain for allies, were overcome by the weight of
the odds against them, and by the middle of August, 1849, the war was
ended.

*504. Restoration of Autocracy.*--In Austria and Hungary alike the
reaction was complete. In the Empire there had been promulgated, March
4, 1849, a revised constitution; but at no time had it been intended
by the sovereign or by those who surrounded him that constitutionalism
should be established upon a permanent basis, and during 1850-1851 one
step after another was taken in the direction of the revival of
autocracy. December 31, 1851, "in the name of the unity of the Empire
and of monarchical principles," the constitution was revoked by
Imperial patent. At a stroke all of the peoples of the Empire were
deprived of their representative rights. Yet so incompletely had the
liberal regime struck root that its passing occasioned scarcely a
murmur. Except that the abolition of feudal obligations was permanent,
the Empire settled back into a status which was almost precisely that
of the age of Metternich. Vienna became once more the seat of a
government whose fundamental objects may be summarized as (1) to
Germanize the Magyars and Slavs, (2) to restrain all agitation in
behalf of constitutionalism; and (3) to prevent freedom of thought and
the establishment of a free press. Hungary, by reason of her (p. 456)
rebellion, was considered to have forfeited utterly the fundamental
rights which for centuries had been more or less grudgingly conceded
her. She not only lost every vestige of her constitutional system, her
diet, her county assemblies, her local self-government; large
territories were stripped from her, and she was herself cut into five
districts, each to be administered separately, largely by German
officials from Vienna. So far as possible, all traces of her historic
nationality were obliterated.[653]

[Footnote 653: Brief accounts of the revolution of
1848-1849 in Austria-Hungary will be found in
Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chaps. 6-7
(bibliography, pp. 887-893), and Lavisse et
Rambaud, Histoire Generale, XI., Chap. 4. The most
important treatise is H. Friedjung, Oesterreich von
1848 bis 1860 (2d ed., Stuttgart and Berlin, 1908),
the first volume of which covers