František Ladislav Rieger

“ SMITH’S SONG.
No man greater than a blacksmith,
Honest, sturdy is the blacksmith;
Firm upon his feet he standeth,
Dealing heavy blow on blow.
With quick hand his axe he handeth,
Many works before him grow. ”

“ Rieger was elected to the Bohemian diet, and the diet sent him to the Vienna parliament. There he became the leader of the right, a party aiming at the federalization of Austria and the recognition of the separate place of the lands of the Bohemian crown within the Hapsburg monarchy. He had reached an agreement with the Bohemian nobiity, and as long as he remained the leader of the Czech people, he adhered to this alliance with the great landholders who according to he conservative election laws held the balance of power in the Bohemian diet and occasionally in the parliament. ”

“ To go to the Reichsrat and fight there for the rights of the Czechs seemed to imply the abandonment of the historical state rights program; to stay at home and take no part in public affairs was a policy that brought benefit only to the Germans. ”

“ Later he went to the academic gymnasium of Prague, the rector of which was Joseph Jungmann, the man who more than any other single man brought about the revival of Bohemian literature. At the early age of seventeen Rieger composed patriotic poems for the “Květy”, and coming into contact with the enthusiastic men who were full of devotion to the despised Czech race and language he determined to put all his strength into the service of his people and to do some notable deed to bring the Czech nation into something more like equality with the great nations of the west. ”

“ As might be expected from an organization bear ing the name of Rieger, the Rieger Club has lent all its weight to the movement for Bohemian independence. Its members are largely men obrn or educated in America and to the enthusiasm of the Bohemian they add American energy and push. ”

“ The most famous of his speeches was the one pronounced on January 8, 1849, in justification of Section One of the proposed fundamental laws: “All power proceeds from the people.” But while the deputies were debating, the armies of the new emperor Francis Joseph gained first a great victory in Italy, then with the help of Czar Nicholas I. crushed the Hungarian rebellion, and the first Austrian parliament was sent home. Again for more than ten years the old absolutist regime returned, and Rieger became a political suspect who was not allowed to lecture at the university or publish a newspaper. ”

“ Rieger, and with him the Old Czech party, as it now became known, comprising a great majority of the Czech deputies, consented at the request of Taaffe to enter into conferences with the German deputies from Bohemia in order to reach a compromise in local Bohemian affairs. The principal concession on the German side was consent to a change in the election laws by which the Bohemians would definitely obtain majority in the Prague diet, without being dependent on the votes of the feudal landholders. ”

“ What was more important, the emperor listened to the advice of Schmerling, a German liberal whose ideal was to make Austria a German state ruled by commercial and industrial magnates of the cities. The Bohemian deputies could accomplish nothing under those conditions, and by remaining in the parliament would have recognized its legality. In March 1863 Czech deputies left the Reichsrat not to return for 16 years. The attention of Rieger during the first year of the famous passive opposition was directed to educational work at home. ”

“ In the Bohemian diet the Czech party found itself in a minority, and so in 1867 the Czech deputies led by Rieger turned their backs on the Prague diet, as they had done four years before in the Vienna parliament. ”