In England the political schemings of Parsons were no small factors in the odium which fell on the Society at large; and his determination to capture the English Catholics as an apanage of the Society, to the exclusion of all else, was an object lesson to the rest of Europe of a restless ambition and lust of domination which were to find many imitators.
So striking an object lesson was not lost on the Prussian regent, and he entered on a vigorous policy of reforming and strengthen ing the army, General von Roon being appointed minister of war for this purpose.
Meanwhile, among the German people the object lesson of the Italian war had greatly stimulated the sentiment of national unity.
Since, in spite of this object-lesson, the Polish nobles still continued their offers, the peasants consulted the local Austrian authorities as to what course they should take; and the local authorities, unaccustomed to arriving at any decision without consulting Vienna, practically gave them carte blanche to do as they liked.
But the great object lesson was furnished by the events in Prague, where the quarrel between Czechs and Germans, radicals and conservatives, issued on the 12th of June in a rising of the Czech students and populace.
