It has often been stated that they should—following the example of the Hungarians—have refused to be represented in Vienna. Yet their position was quite different from that of the Hungarians. In consequence of the arbitrary electoral ordinances of Schmerling, the government would easily have replaced the nationalists by German Bohemians, who would in Vienna have been recognized as representatives not of a German minority but of the whole Bohemian nation. It was, however, soon found impossible by the Bohemians to take part in the deliberations of the parliament of Vienna. Not only did frivolous sophists such as Giscra, afterwards a Cisleithanian minister, grossly insult the Bohemian crown and constitution, but the whole assembly—openly encouraged by Schmerling himself—trenched on matters which, as the Bohemians rightly believed, had been reserved to the competency of the Bohemian Diet by the decree of October 20, 1860. Hungary, Croatia, and Venetia—then still part of the Habsburg empire—had from the first declined to take part in the deliberations of the parliament of Vienna. Schmerling's policy proved a complete failure. Though he long clung to office, he was finally and somewhat unceremoniously dismissed on July 27, 1865.
Schmerling's successor was Count Louis Belcredi, a statesman who has probably been more grossly misrepresented than any other politician of the present day. Having always been employed in the civil service—he was governor of Bohemia when called to Vienna—he had little opportunity of studying the foreign policy of the empire. He had gathered from members of the Austrian diplomatic service, that a somewhat prolonged period of peace was probable.[1] This was a necessity for him, as he intended to carry out a complete system of re-organization of the empire—probably somewhat on the lines of the decree of October.
It is beyond the purpose of this work to refer to the causes which lead to the war between Austria and Prussia in 1866. In the German parts of Austria the war was joyfully welcomed—particularly by the citizens of Vienna and the officials of the "Ball Platz" (Foreign Office).
- ↑ Belcredi afterwards expressed himself somewhat bitterly. He writes in his memoirs: "Leider hat mich eine bittere Erfohrung gelehrt, dass niemand schlechter informirt ist als die oesterreichische Diplomatic."
