But great as was the alarm caused by the South German risings, and great
as were the hopes which they kindled in the Viennese, the word that was
to give definiteness and importance to the impulses that were stirring
in Vienna could not come from Bavaria or Saxony. Much as they might wish
to connect themselves with a German movement, the Viennese could not get
rid of the fact that they were, for the present, bound up with a
different political system. Nor was it wholly clear that the German
movement was as yet completely successful. The King of Prussia seemed to
be meditating a reactionary policy and had even threatened to despatch
troops to put down the Saxon Liberals; and the King of Hanover also was
disposed to resist the movement for a German Parliament. It was from a
country more closely bound up with the Viennese Government, and yet
enjoying traditions of more deeply rooted liberty, that the utterance
was to come which was eventually to rouse the Viennese to action.
The readiness of the nobles to accept the purely verbal concession
offered by Metternich in the matter of the "Administrators" had shown
Kossuth [Footnote: Louis Kossuth, the famous leader of the Hungarian
insurrection of 1848, was at this time about forty-six years of age.
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