The revolutions of 1848 have sometimes been dismissed by historians as half-hearted, timid affairs, but the violence of the crowds, the lynching of hated royal officers, ministers and bureaucrats, and the storming of palaces and offices all over Europe, showed little evidence of reluctance to use force. Yet the ruthlessness and lack of inhibition shown by the armed forces of the old order far outweighed the violence of the crowds, in the face of which moderate liberals in most parts of Europe, with the notable exception of Hungary, gravitated towards the traditional forces of order.
