ss the confidence of the people.' Amid
shouts of exultation and applause, the appeased assembly dispersed."

Blum was as successful with his colleagues as with the crowd; and the
Town Council now demanded from the King the dismissal of his ministers,
the meeting of the Assembly, and freedom of the press. The King tried to
resist the last of these three proposals, pleading his duty to the Bund.
But even the Bundestag had felt the spirit of the times, and on March
1st had passed a resolution giving leave to every government to abolish
the censorship of the press. The King seemed to yield, and promised to
fulfil all that was wished; but the reactionary party in Dresden had
become alarmed at the action of the men of Leipsic; and so, on March
11th, when the men of Leipsic supposed that all was granted, General von
Carlowitz entered their city at the head of a strong force, and demanded
that the Town Council should abstain from exciting speeches; that the
Elocution Union should give up all political discussion; that the
processions of people should cease; and above all, that the march from
Leipsic to Dresden, which was believed to be then intended, should be
given up.

These demands were met by Blum with an indignant protest. "Five men,"
said he, "who manage the army cannot understand that, though their
bullets may kill men, they cannot make a single hole in the idea that
rules the world." The town councillors of Leipsic were equally firm.
Carlowitz abandoned his attempt as hopeless; and on March 13th the King
summoned a Liberal Ministry which abolished press censorship, granted
publicity of legal proceedings, trial by jury, and a wider basis for the
Saxon Parliament, and promised to assist in the reform of the Bund.

In the mean time the success of the French revolution had awakened new
hopes in Vienna. Soon after the arrival of the news, a placard appeared
on one of the city gates bearing the words: "In a month Prince
Metternich will be overthrown! Long live Constitutional Austria!"
Metternich himself was greatly alarmed, and began to listen to proposals
for extending the power of the Lower Austrian Estates. Yet he still
hoped by talking over and discussing these matters to delay the
execution of reforms till a more favorable turn in affairs should render
them either harmless or unnecessary.

But great as was the alarm caused by the South German risings, and great
as were the hopes which they kindled in the Viennese, the