December, 1851, and interned without a trial in Tyrol where he contracted
an incurable illness to which he succumbed in 1856. Even as late as 1859
the Czechs were not allowed to publish a political newspaper.

3. After the defeats at Magenta and Solferino in 1859, Austria began to see
the impossibility of a continued rule of terrorism and absolutism. Bach was
obliged to resign, and on March 5, 1860, a state council was summoned to
Vienna. Bohemia was represented only by the nobility who had no sympathy
with the Czech national cause, and on September 24 the Rumanian delegate,
Mosconyi, openly deplored the fact that "the brotherly Czech nation was not
represented."

The era of absolutism was theoretically ended by the so-called "October
Diploma" of 1860, conferring on Austria a constitution which in many
respects granted self-government to Hungary, but ignored Bohemia, although
formally admitting her historical rights. This "lasting and irrevocable
Constitution of the Empire" was revoked on February 26, 1861, when
Schmerling succeeded Goluchowski, and the so-called "February Constitution"
was introduced by an arbitrary decree which in essence was still more
dualistic than the October Diploma and gave undue representation to the
nobility. The Czechs strongly opposed it and sent a delegation on April 14
to the emperor, who assured them on his royal honour of his desire to be
crowned King of Bohemia.

In the meantime Dr. Gregr founded the _Narodni Listy_ in Prague in
November, 1860, to support the policy of Rieger, and in January, 1861, the
latter, with the knowledge of Palacky, concluded an agreement with
Clam-Martinic on behalf of the Bohemian nobility, by which the latter,
recognising the rights of the Bohemian State to independence, undertook to
support the Czech policy directed against the centralism of Vienna. The