and the bloody defeat of Austrian forces at the 1859 Battle of Solferino. To calm the domestic front and to gain the support of wealthy Bourgeoisie, Franz Joseph issued the October Diploma in 1860. An "Imperial Diet", still meant as a conciliatory body, was supposed to have 100 delegates elected by provincial diets that were to be established for each Austrian crown land. This electoral system, however, satisfied neither the bourgeois liberals nor the Hungarian nobility, who refused to accept any authority higher than the Hungarian Diet. For this reason, the Diploma was discarded and replaced by the February Patent of 1861, which was drafted by liberal minister-president Anton von Schmerling. This established a bicameral Imperial Council: the upper house was the House of Lords (), and the lower house was the House of Deputies (). House of Lords The House of Lords was convened for the first time on 29 April 1861. It was similar in form to the present day House of Lords of the United Kingdom. It met in the Palais Niederösterreich in Vienna until the Parliament Building was completed in 1883. The House of Lords was composed of: Archdukes of the Imperial House Lords spiritual – influential Roman Catholic Church archbishops and bishops of various cities, some in the Latin Church and others in one of the Eastern Catholic Churches Hereditary peers – selected from certain families among the hereditary landowning nobility Life peers – citizens of Austria appointed to the House for life by the Emperor, for services to the state, the church, science, or art The last meeting of the House of Lords was held on 30 October 1918. The meeting was adjourned within five minutes. The House of Lords chamber of the Parliament Building was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. It was rebuilt in a contemporary style, and serves as the chamber of the now democratically elected National Council of the Republic of Austria. House of Deputies Upon establishment of the Imperial Council by the February Patent, elections to the House of Deputies were conducted through a system of "curiae". In this system, there were 343 deputies elected by the diets of the crown lands. The diets themselves were elected by four curiae. The curiae were essentially assemblies of certain social classes. There was one curia for the landowning class,one curia for the chambers of commerce , one curia for