ABSTRACT
Elliot, who meanwhile had arrived on a second mission to Athens, informed the provisional government that, if the Greeks chose a constitutional king agreeable to Great Britain and respected the integrity of Turkey, Great Britain would reward them with the Ionian Islands. The eyes of the British were, of course, first cast upon the inevitable house of SaxeCoburg, which, in the phrase of a witty Frenchman, "has candidates for all thrones of all religions." Two Coburgers were suggested-the former King-Consort Ferdinand of Portugal and Duke Ernest II ~f Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Both of them fulfilled Russell's requirement that the choice should fall not upon "a prince under 20 years of age, but rather a prince of mature years and of some experience." But there were objections to both; for the former was a Catholic, and the latter childless. As Duke Ernest's heir was Prince Alfred, the British government had to find another successor. A close study of the Almanach de Gotha revealed the existence of another Coburger in Austria. But eventually all three Coburg candidatures collapsed. The ex-King-Consort of Portugal
XII] 273 declined to renew his kingship in Greece. The reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg discovered that his people would not let hinl leave his Duchy and that he could not promise to be al\vays sound on the integrity of Turkey; he wanted larger boundaries, while retaining his position as a Gerlnan prince. The Austrian held that it was better to lose Otho's crown than omit the jilioque clause. Mean\vhile, the National Assembly was even more distracted than the British government. Personal factions took the place of parties ,vith well·defined policies; and, in imitation of the French Revolution, the followers of Kanares and Demetrios GrIvas were styled "men of the mountain," those of Bot11gares "men of the plain." The military took sides, for discipline was at an end; the 6th battalion under Leotsakos, brother of one of the victims of Kythnos, was for Bot1lgares, the rest of the army supported the "mountaineers." Local chiefs, who had seats in the Assembly, were accompanied by bands of armed retainers who occupied the lobbies or the courtyard of the house where it met. \Vith so much inflammable material about, it did not require much to produce civil war. Four ministers and the triumvir Kanares resigned; the formation of a ne,v Ministry by his two colleagues was branded by the "mountain" as unconstitutional; their adherents outside fortified a strong position in the to\vn; a collision occurred, and, in proper ~"rench fashion, the October revolution was follo\ved by the "days of February." Pending a definite decision, the Assembly assumed the executive power, which it exercised through its vice-president, Moraltines. His first act was to call out the recently-created national guard; a committee of leading politicians interposed its good offices between the combatants; the Assembly elected a ne\v Ministry under Balbes; and the army, drawn up in the appropriately-named Concord Square, swore before the Assembly to obey its orders.
