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

316 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
Capodistrias had, indeed, no intention of submitting
to the terms of the protocol. On the question
of the Ottoman suzerainty he was prepared to
an open mind;
keep
but he resented the article which deprived
the Greeks of the right to elect their own
prince. In spite of the suggestion he had thrown out
to the commission at Poros, that the crown should be
offered to Prince Leopold of Coburg,
he had never
surrendered the hope that he himself might ultimately
be the ruler selected; and this was the end to which
all his efforts were directed, and to which the re-establishment
of order and prosperity in Greece were means.
It seemed to him intolerable that, after he had borne
all the burden and heat of the day, and had turned the
ungoverned
wilderness which he had found into a
strong and well-ordered state,
at the eleventh hour
another should step in and enjoy
all the fruits of his
toil. His prospects of being selected by the Powers
were remote. If the choice were left to the Greek
nation itself, his popularity among
people
the mass of the
and the measures he had taken to assure his
influence would probably be sufficient to secure his
appointment.
On the 18th of May the British Eesident requested
the President, as the Ottoman Government had agreed
to an armistice, to cease hostilities on his part, and to