THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

122 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
Government, and the attempt to oust Kolokotrones
from his dangerous predominance.
It was, indeed, the feud between the military and
the civilian elements which had rendered all efforts at
legislation impossible. The soldiers, less skilled with
the tongue than with the sword, withdrew in dudgeon
from the war of words, and formed a sort of Upper
Chamber of their own. The measures which survived
the strife of tongues in the civilian Assembly were
invariably rejected with contempt by this novel House
of Lords, which, in its turn, originated nothing. That
legislation was thus rendered impossible would have
mattered little, where a strong administration was so
much more needed, if a strong administration could
have been formed. But it was just here that the battle
of the factions raged most violently, and with the
most fatal effect.
The Government was to consist, as before,
of two
councils or committees, one legislative, to represent
the Assembly when not in session, the other executive.
It became the object of the civilian party to
exclude the military element from these committees;
and this, as far as their influence in the Assembly was
concerned, they were strong enough
to effect. The
executive council, as constituted by the Assembly, consisted
of Petrobey as president, and three continental