Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire as inter and intra confessional hostility momentarily subsided as much of the continent rejoiced in the liberal victories. Mass political organizations and public participation in government became widespread. However, liberal ministers were unable to establish central authority. Provisional governments in Venice and Milan quickly expressed a desire to be part of an Italian confederacy of states; but for the Venetian government this lasted only five days, after the 1848 armistice between Austria and Piedmont. A new Hungarian government in Pest announced its intentions to break away from the Empire and elect Ferdinand its King, and a Polish National Committee announced
The Gate of the Year The Gate of the Year "The Gate of the Year" is the popular name given to a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins. The title given to it by the author was "God Knows". She studied and then taught at the London School of Economics in the first half of the twentieth century. The poem, written in 1908 and privately published in 1912, was part of a collection titled "The Desert". It caught the public attention and the popular imagination when King George VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British Empire. The poem was brought to his