idently intended such words partly as mere talk in
order to delay any efficient action, and partly as a bid against the
concessions which had been made by the King of Prussia. That the leaders
of a popular movement should suggest an appeal to the Estates of Lower
Austria was therefore an unexpected sign of a desire to find any legal
centre for action, however weak in power, and however aristocratic that
centre might be.

Doctor Loehner's proposal, however, does not seem to have been generally
adopted; and, instead of the suggested appeal to the Estates, a
programme of eleven points was circulated by the debating society. When
we consider that the revolution broke out in less than a fortnight after
this petition, we cannot but be struck with the extreme moderation of
the demands now made. Most of the eleven points were concerned with
proposals for the removal either of forms of corruption, or of
restraints on personal liberty, and they were directed chiefly against
those interferences with the life and teaching of the universities which
were causing so much bitterness in Vienna. Such demands for
constitutional reforms as were contained in this programme were
certainly not of an alarming character. The petitioners asked that the
right of election to the Assembly of Estates should be extended to
citizens and peasants; that the deliberative powers of the Estates
should be enlarged; and that the whole empire should be represented in
an assembly, for which, however, the petitioners asked only a
consultative power. Perhaps the three demands in this petition which
would have excited the widest sympathy were those in favor of the
universal arming of the people, the universal right of petition, and the
abolition of the censorship.

The expression of desire for reform now became much more general and
even some members of the Estates prepared an appeal to their colleagues
against the bureaucratic system. But the character and tone of the
utterances of these new reformers somewhat weakened the effect which had
been produced by the bolder complaints of the earlier leaders of the
movement, for while the students of the University and some of their
professors still showed a desire for bold and independent action, the
merchants caught eagerly at the sympathy of the Archduke Francis
Charles, while the booksellers addressed to the Emperor a petition in
which servility passes into blasphemy.

These signs of weakness were no doubt observ