The  old  system  was  evidently  at  an  end.  The  policy  of  Metternich
could  restrain  the  people  no  longer.  Lawlessness  became  general,  excesses
were  committed  by  the  mob,  the  dwellings  of  those  whom  the  populace
hated  were  attacked  and  plundered,  the  authorities  were  resisted  with  arms,
and  the  danger  of  an  overthrow  of  the  government  grew  imminent.  The
press,  which  had  gained  freedom  of  utterance,  added  to  the  peril  of  the
situation  by  its  inflammatory  appeals  to  the  people,  and  by  its  violence
checked  the  progress  of  the  reforms  which  it  demanded.  Metternich,  by  his
system  of  restraint,  had  kept  the  people  in  ignorance  of  the  first  principles
of  political  affairs,  and  the  liberties  which  they  now  asked  for  showed  them
to  be  unadapted  to  a  liberal  government.  The  old  minister,  whose  system
was  falling  in  ruins  about  him,  fled  from  the  country  and  sought  a  refuge  in
England,  that  haven  of  political  failures.
In  May,  1848,  the  emperor,  alarmed  at  the   threatening  state  of  affairs,
left  his  capital  and  withdrew  to  Innsbruck.     The  tidings   of  his  withdrawal
stirred    the   people   to    passion,    and    the    outbreak    of    mob    F|ight  and  Re.
violence  which  followed  was  the  fiercest  and  most  dangerous      turn  of  the
that  had    yet  occurred.      Gradually,  however,  the  tumult  was      EmPeror
appeased,  a  constitutional  assembly  was  called  into  being  and  opened  by  the
Archduke  John,  and   the  Emperor   Ferdinand  re-entered  Vienna  amid  the
warm  acclamations  of  the  people.     The  outbreak  was  at  an  end.     Austria
had  been  converted  from  an  absolute  to  a  constitutional  monarchy.
