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

322 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
to the Presidency for life, as that would have been of
little value without the previous consent of the Powers,
but he had obtained an Act of the Assembly declaring
that the decisions of the Conference of London
should not be held to be binding on Greece,
without the ratification of the Greek legislature.
He was, moreover, in negotiating the settlement
of the Greek question with the Powers, given a
free hand in the matter of the suzerainty and the
tribute.
On the 19th of August the Congress was dissolved;
and the position of Capodistrias seemed more firmly
assured than ever. But the constitutional opposition
which had been so long suppressed was beginning to
make headway. The decisions of an assembly so
notoriously packed could carry no moral weight; it
was known that it had merely registered the decrees
of the President; and the discontented spirits expressed
their sense of the situation by saying sarcastically
' John poured out : John drank !
A new senate had been created by the Assembly,
of which the constitution overthrew all the democratic
principles enunciated by former congresses. Sixty
names were presented to the President, and out of
these he selected twenty-one, adding six more on his
own nomination. It was in connection with this that
'