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A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN

LITERATURE

not last long, and his literary work was not likely to afford him much pecuniary gain. One advantage which Palack;^ obtained by his appointment as archivist to Count Sternberg will surprise English readers, but his Bohemian biographers lay great stress on it. Palack^'s post secured him against all molestation on the part of the police. The Austrian police authorities in the earlier part of the present century were empowered to expel from any town " strangers of no profession," and they were particularly likely to do so in the case of a man known to be favourable to the Bohemian national movement. In other ways, also, the modest appointment was a turning-point in Palack^'s career. Through the favour of Francis Count Sternberg, and of his brother. Count Kaspar, president of the Bohemian Museum — which the two brothers had, jointly with Count Kolovrat, founded in 1818 — Palack^ became acquainted with many of the He succeeded in obtaining from Bohemian nobles. many of them the then quite exceptional permission Had to study the archives contained in their castles. it not been for the researches which he was allowed to make in these archives — particularly in those of Prince Schwarzenberg at Trebon or Wittingau — Palacky would have been unable to write his History of Bohemia. The impulse to wjite the work, indeed, also came from the Bohemian nobles. The Diet in 1829 conferred on him " but the title of " Historian of the Estates of Bohemia ; their legislative authority was very limited, and ten years passed before the title conferred on Palacky was confirmed by the authorities of Vienna. It was on the suggestion of Palacky that it was decided that the newly-founded society of the Bohemian Museum should publish an annual journal, which was to