The movement still centred in the professors of the University. On March
1st Doctor Loehner had proposed, at one of the meetings of the Reading
and Debating Society, that negotiations should be opened with the
Estates, and that they should be urged to declare their Assembly
permanent, the country in danger, and Metternich a public enemy. This
proposal marked a definite step in constitutional progress. The Estates
of Lower Austria, which met in Vienna, had indeed from time to time
expressed their opinions on certain public grievances; but these
opinions had been generally disregarded by Francis and Metternich; and,
though the latter had of late talked of enlarging the powers of the
Estates, he had evidently intended such words partly as mere talk in
order to delay any efficient action, and partly as a bid against the
concessions which had been made by the King of Prussia. That the leaders
of a popular movement should suggest an appeal to the Estates of Lower
Austria was therefore an unexpected sign of a desire to find any legal
centre for action, however weak in power, and however aristocratic that
centre might be.
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