The diet of 1839 refused to proceed to business till the political prisoners had been released, and, while in the Lower Chamber the reforming majority was larger than ever, a Liberal party was now also formed in the Upper House under the brilliant leadership of Count Louis Batthyany and Baron Joseph EdtvOs.
The members of the lower chamber are elected for four years, half the number retiring at the expiration of every two years.
Numerous public meetings were held at which the Offenburg programme was adopted, and on the 4th of March, under the influence of the popular excitement, it was accepted almost unanimously by the lower chamber.
The burning questions were the publicity of legal proceedings and the freedom of the press; and on these the government sustained its first crushing defeat in the lower chamber in 1842.
It has in more than one instance already exercised its power as a checking and restraining authority with good effects - its amendments even on substantial points having been several times accepted by the Lower Chamber.
