wars the Diets or meetings of the Estates again took place. These meetings had however become a mere formality. The governor ("high burgrave") stated what sums the government required and these were immediately and unanimously voted without debate. It had become proverbial to describe a dull party as having been "as quiet as a meeting of the Estates."[1] When the Emperor Ferdinand in 1835 succeeded his father Francis the meetings of the Diet took place somewhat more frequently, and were after a time less insignificant. An unimportant circumstance produced the first note of opposition. In 1845 Count Chotek, then governor, disposed of a house at Prague, the property of the Estates, without waiting for the mere formality of asking their consent. Count Frederick Deym, a strong nationalist who had begun to be known as the "Bohemian O'Connell," strongly protested against this arbitrary act. Count Chotek was recalled mainly through the influence of Count Kolovrat who, himself a Bohemian, sympathised with the Bohemians as far as his official position as Austrian minister permitted. Henceforth, however, the claim of the Bohemian Estates to exercise some control over the finances of their country became ever more pressing. At the meeting of the Diet in 1845 Count Frederick Deym proposed "that the Estates should appoint a committee which was to determine in what efficient but respectful manner they could defend their menaced rights and privileges." In 1847 the Diet again met. The committee mentioned above had drawn up a statement declaring that the constitution of 1627 had still left the Estates considerable powers. They still, it was maintained, had the right of electing their king should the Habsburg dynasty become extinct both in the male and female line. The document further asserted the exclusive right of the Estates to levy taxes in Bohemia, and declared that if the Estates voted no taxes, none could be raised in the kingdom of Bohemia. This document gave rise to a very animated debate that lasted from the 3rd to the 11th of May. The hall at the Hradčany castle in which the meetings of the Estates took place had by no means its usual somnolent appearance. Some of the members ventured to defend the absolutist policy of the government of Vienna. Among them was Joseph Müller, mayor (starosta) of Prague, who, according to the then existing regulations, was a
- ↑ Baron Helfert Die oesterreichische Revolution.
