prisoners were to
be returned, the Schleswig-Holstein army was to be disbanded, while a
temporary government of the duchies was to be administered by
representatives of Denmark and Prussia. All Germany was in an uproar. The
Frankfort Parliament repudiated the armistice by 238 against 221 votes. The
new-formed German Ministry resigned. Prof. Dahlmann, one of the
protagonists of the Schleswig-Holstein movement, was commissioned to form a
new Ministry. His efforts resulted only in failure. The conviction grew
that the German Parliament was powerless. Presently the Parliament revoked
its own decision, approving the armistice by 258 over 236 votes. After all,
it was plain that the most momentous German question of the day had been
settled independently of united Germany by Prussia standing alone. In South
Germany the revolutionists were once more called to arms.

[Sidenote: The French Republic]

[Sidenote: National workshops]

[Sidenote: Fyffe's judgment]

The new republican government of France had been kept far too busy by the
logical consequences of its revolutionary measures to take any active part
in the international settlement of the Schleswig-Holstein question. The
majority of the provisional government were moderate republicans,
representing the _bourgeoisie_, or middle class, rather than the workmen,
but associated with them were such radicals as Louis Blanc, Ledru-Rollin
and Albert, a locksmith. During the first few days of the installation they
undertook to guarantee employment to every citizen. It proved a gigantic
engagement. The mere distribution of idle workmen among the various
industries in which they were employed called for a new branch of the
administration. The task outgrew all expectations. Within four weeks the
number of applicants for government work rose from 140 to 65,000. Under the
stimulus of government competition, a series of labor strikes were declared
against private factories and establishments. The scheme, as then
attempted, grew utterly unmanageable. As Fyffe has said in his chapter on
this subject: "If, instead of a group of benevolent theorists, the
experiment of 1848 had had for its authors a company of millionaires
anxious to dispel all hope that mankind might ever rise to a higher order
than that of unrestricted competition of man against man, it could not have
been conducted under more fatal conditions."

[Sidenote: Radicals outvoted]

[Sidenote: Another attempted revolution]