Slavonic nations. A resolution was adopted claiming freedom for the citizens and independence for every nationality. The bayonets of the Austrian soldiers who dispersed the Congress were Germany's answer to these aspirations; but, notwithstanding the ruthless persecution and oppression which followed, the nation pursued the task to which it had set itself, and at the present day it is stronger and more vital than ever before.
The utter impossibility of suppressing the Czech genius with the aid of bayonets, the only force which the German-speaking world could oppose to this national upheaval, is best shown by the tenacity with which the Czech people through centuries of German influence have preserved their artistic tastes. The peasants' huts, the peasants' furniture, the peasants' dress, all bear the mark of national genius.
With touching fidelity this people has preserved from ancient times its poetry, its songs, and up to our own time it still preserves the style of national dress worn by its ancestors. In "The Czech Peasant" Renata Tyrsova and Henry Hantich reproduce a fine specimen of the Czech peasant art, which proves more than any words can do the high culture attained by the Bohemian people at a time when the art of the conglomeration of nations which now call themselves Germans and Austrians were still in their infancy.
There is no doubt that Czech art suffered a good deal from the Germanisation of the country. In the centuries following the battle of the White Mountain, Czech national art only sur-
