Once again Austria was surrounded. France under Napoleon III continued to push for Italian unification, Russia wanted to reverse her defeats in the Crimea, at Austria's expense, and the German Confederation was coming under the influence of Prussia - no friend of Austria. Francis Joseph, feeling the chill of isolation, wanted to strengthen himself diplomatically and militarily. He could only do this if he felt stronger at home, and had, at least a majority of his countrymen behind him. So began an experiment in more liberal government.

The unpopular ministry of Bach was dismissed (Bach became ambassador to the Vatican) and the Emperor turned to his tame Reichsrat or Imperial Council for advice. The one group he never asked were the people themselves, who were thought of as tiresome and troublesome children that had to be amused and kept happy so they would continue to pay their taxes and be conscripted into the army without argument.

Francis Joseph received two kinds of advice; one said, concentrate power in the central government - these were the centralists. Others said, to keep the people happy, let there be more local government in the provinces - these were the fedralists. Those giving centralist advice were the German bureaucrats left over from the Bach period of neoabsolutism. Vaguely liberal, their experience was in running the empire from the center and if the people had to be involved at all, it would be through a central parliament. However, Francis Joseph feared any suggestion of a 'constitution' that would formalize the people's role in their own government and take any of his autocratic power away.

Giving the opposite advice were the large landowners and landowning nobility. The Bach ministry with it's centralized power had taken away a lot of the rights and priviledges of these nobles, and prevented them from doing what ever they wanted in their own provinces. The Hungarians had never given up the idea of some limited autonomy, and continually pushed for it's own local Diet or assembly.

With obstinate slowness Francis Joseph dragged himself to a fraudulent decission. In March 1860 the Reichsrat was "expanded" to include members of the provincial Diets. Since there were no provincial Diets, the Emperor nominated 38 new members of the Reichsrat himself. This body submitted a report recommending along fedralist lines, which Francis Joseph ignored for over a year, then demanded a settled constitution within a week. It was said that the general principles were the result of a single conversation, in a train, while he was going to Salzburg and Vienna. This was typical of Francis Joseph; long delays followed by impulsive decissions.

What he got was the "October Diploma", which attempted a form of phoney fedralism. Laws from now on had to be passed with the "co-operation" of the provincial Diets and the Reichsrat. Since no Diets existed, they were created and packed with landed aristocracy, and the Reichsrat was expanded to 100 members. The Hungarians were not amused, and everyone realized that the "Diploma" was the worst of all possible outcomes; it weakened the Empire, made the German middle class upset, and did nothing to satisfy the Hungarians.

A period of organized anarchy ensued. The Hungarians continued to insist on their "ancestral rights" and refused to hold the necessary town meetings to appoint Diets, and generally reverted to the methods used in 1848. Bohemian conservatives cut themselves off from the Austrian liberals and the new Minister of State (a new title), Goluchowski, was hated by everyone. He did not last long.

Schmerling took over, a long standing centerist, his feeling was that the German middle class should be given a junior role in running the country, and all the blame if anything went wrong. So, in February of 1861, he succeeded in restoring a centralized state with the "February Patent". In theory this Patent only modified the October Diploma, but in reality the only part it kept was it's name. The Reichsrat grew to become an Imperial parliament, and the provincial Diets shrank into little more than electoral committees. However, they were given some powers of local administration and more or less permanent status and existence.

The Reichsrat gained legislative power over all the empire's subjects, had a House of Lords, and a House of Representatives with a membership of 343. But, two days after being issued, Francis Joseph was demanding that the Patent not allow the Diets any further concessions, the Reichsrat not change anything, could not interfere in foreign affairs, the army or the high command. It was clear what the Emperor thought of democracy.

While pleasing the centralists, the February Patent rubbed salt into the wounds of the federalists, a large group now led vociferously by the Hungarians. The Magyar nobles refused to send representatives to the Reischsrat, where they knew that their 85 deputies would always be in a minority, so direct elections were threatened which would undercut the Magyars and appeal directly to the subject nationalities of Hungary.

After the failure of neoabsolutism and his favorite minister, Bach, Francis Joseph never fully trusted any Minster of State again. He allowed Schmerling to try anything he wanted, including a sham of constitutional government, but always left himself a way out if the attempt failed. This was not a good way of running an empire of 70 million people, but it was where Mendel lived and carried out his best work.