as, once carried out practically and adhered to
for a time, would inevitably have secured the supremacy of the middle
class. But practically the supremacy of that class was far from being
established. It is true that by the establishment of a national guard,
which gave arms to the bourgeoisie and petty tradesmen, that class
obtained both force and importance; it is true that by the
installation of a "Committee of Safety," a sort of revolutionary,
irresponsible Government in which the bourgeoisie predominated, it was
placed at the head of power. But, at the same time, the working
classes were partially armed too; they and the students had borne the
brunt of the fight, as far as fight there had been; and the students,
about 4,000 strong, well-armed, and far better disciplined than the
national guard, formed the nucleus, the real strength of the
revolutionary force, and were no ways willing to act as a mere
instrument in the hands of the Committee of Safety. Though they
recognized it, and were even its most enthusiastic supporters, they
yet formed a sort of independent and rather turbulent body,
deliberating for themselves in the "Aula," keeping an intermediate
position between the bourgeoisie and the working-classes, preventing
by constant agitation things from settling down to the old every-day
tranquillity, and very often forcing their resolutions upon the
Committee of Safety. The working men, on the other hand, almost
entirely thrown out of employment, had to be employed in public works
at the expense of the State, and the money for this purpose had, of
course, to be taken out of the purse of the tax-payers or out of the
chest of the city of Vienna. All this could not but become very
unpleasant to the tradesmen of Vienna. The manufactures of the city,
calculated for the consumption of the rich and aristocratic courts of
a large country, were as a matter of course entirely stopped by the
Revolution, by the flight of the aristocracy and Court; trade was at a
standstill, and the continuous agitation and excitement kept up by the
students and working people was certainly not the means to "restore
confidence," as the phrase went. Thus a certain coolness very soon
sprung up between the middle classes on the one side and the
turbulent students and working people on the other; and if for a long
time this coolness was not ripened into open hostility, it was because
the Ministry, and particularly the Court, in their impatience to