126 
MODERN EUROPE 
BK. II 
which he was to play the leading part. The States which 
accepted the Prussian hegemony sent representatives to a 
Federal Parliament which met at Erfürt in March 1850. 
This produced no decisive result, and a Congress of sove- 
reigns held at Berlin in May was equally fruitless. Already 
Austria had sprung its counter-mine: at the end of April 
Schwarzenberg invited the German Courts to co-operate 
in the re-establishment of the old Federal Diet. Frederick 
William protested, but was speedily abandoned by the 
Governments which had formerly accepted his leadership. 
Still the King, with the obstinacy which often characterises 
men essentially weak, refused to accept the new position, 
and Austria began to prepare for war. Schwarzenberg 
had secured the moral support of the Tsar ; Prussia, finding 
itself isolated in Germany and in Europe, was obliged to 
yield. At a humiliating interview at Olmütz,! Manteuffel 
accepted the Austrian terms, and by the middle of 1851 
the old. Federal Diet was duly reconstituted. 
A paralysing reaction spread throughout Germany and 
the Hapsburg Empire, and continued till 1859, Thousands 
of men of liberal opinions emigrated, particularly to the 
United States; those who remained were subjected to a 
regime of espionage and persecution. The old devices of 
Metternich were revived and enthusiastically applied ; once 
more Germany was subjected to an intolerable press-censor- 
ship; domiciliary visits and arbitrary arrests filled the 
prisons, The steadily increasing tide of emigration, which 
carried the best brains and hearts of the country across the 
Atlantic, was regarded with complacency, since it removed 
possible authors of discontent and disturbance. No private 
correspondence was safe; even so earnest a supporter of 
monarchy and privilege as Bismarck was obliged to warn 
* Nyvember 28, 1850.