months ago, formally withdrawn. Even the word Ministry is blotted out
from the Dictionary of the Austrian government! Schwarzenberg is again
House, Court, and State Chancellor, as Metternich was; only Metternich
ruled not with the iron rule of martial law over the whole empire of
Austria as Schwarzenberg does. Metternich _encroached upon_ the
constitutional rights of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slavonia.
Schwarzenberg has _abolished_ them, and young Francis-Joseph has
melted all the nations together into common bondage, where the promised
_equality of nationalities_ is carried out most literally, to be
sure, for they are all equally oppressed, and all are equally ruled by
absolutist principles and by the German language. And why was that
illusory constitution withdrawn? Because it was a lie from the
beginning; an impossibility. It was founded on the principle of
centralization. It centralized thirteen different nations, which had had
no political history in common, except to have groaned under Austrian
rule. Under such circumstances to have a common life was an absurdity
augmented by deceit.

I cannot exhaust this vast topic in one speech. We want Republican
institutions, so founded on self-government everywhere, that the people
themselves may be sovereign everywhere. This is the cause, for which I
humbly request your protecting aid. It is the cause of oppressed Europe.
It is the cause of Germany, bleeding under some thirty petty tyrants who
lean on that league of despots, the basis of which is Petersburg. It is
the cause of fair, but unfortunate Italy, which in so many respects is
now dear to our heart. We have a common enemy; so we are brothers in
arms for freedom and independence. I know how Italy is situated; and I
dare confidently to declare, there is no hope for Italy, but in that
great republican party, at the head of which Mazzini stands. It has
nothing to do with communistical schemes, or the French doctrines of