y upon the attitude of the
peasant class. In this lies the main significance of the rising in Galicia
in 1846. This was in its origin a Polish nationalist movement, hatched in
the little independent republic of Cracow. As such it had little
importance; though, owing to the incompetence of the Austrian commander,
the Poles gained some initial successes. More fateful was the attitude of
the Orthodox Ruthenian peasantry, who were divided from their Catholic
Polish over-lords by centuries of religious and feudal oppression. The
Poles had sought, by lavish promises, to draw them into their ranks; their
reply was to rise in support of the Austrian government. In the fight at
Gdow (February 26th), where Benedek laid the foundations of the military
reputation that was to end so tragically at Koeniggraetz, flail and scythe
wrought more havoc in the rebel ranks than the Austrian musketry. Since, in
spite of this object-lesson, the Polish nobles still continued their
offers, the peasants consulted the local Austrian authorities as to what
course they should take; and the local authorities, unaccustomed to
arriving at any decision without consulting Vienna, practically gave them
_carte blanche_ to do as they liked. A hideous _jacquerie_ followed for
three or four days; during which cartloads of dead were carried into
Tarnow, where the peasants received a reward for every "rebel" brought in.

This affair was not only a scandal for which the Austrian government,
through its agents, was responsible; but it placed the authorities at
Vienna in a serious dilemma. For the Ruthenians, elated by their victory,
refused to return to work, and demanded the abolition of all feudal
obligations as the reward of their loyalty. To refuse this claim would have
meant the indefinite prolongation of the crisis; to concede it would have
been to invite the peasantry of the whole empire to put forth similar
demands on pain of a general rising. On the 13th of April 1846 an imperial
decree abolished some of the more burdensome feudal obligations; but this
concession was greeted with so fierce an outcry, as an authoritative
endorsement of the atrocities, that it was again revoked, and Count Franz
von Stadion was sent to restore order in Galicia. The result was, that the
peasants saw that though their wrongs were admitted, their sole hope of
redress lay in a change of government, and added the dead weight of their
resentment to the forces making for revolution.