Karel Havlíček Borovský (1821 to 1856) was a free-thinking writer and journalist whose liberal views were strongly influential in the debate regarding Czech independence in the mid-nineteenth century. A critic equally of the Austrian regime and of Russian-advocated Pan-Slavism, he founded the newspaper Národni noviny ('National News') as a platform for his own views on constitutional reform and universal suffrage. In the years following the failed revolution of 1848, Havlíček was tried several times for his dissenting opinion and ultimately exiled for four years to Austria. He died of tuberculosis aged only 34, but two decades later this natural critic of authority became the inspiration for the progressive Young Czech Party, who fought for independence based on the historical and