the rest. The cure
thus begun would go on until it had wrought out its accomplishment. In
due time a Constituent Assembly would be elected to revise the
Constitution so as to place beyond peradventure the sovereignty of the
people. Meanwhile, the national system had been singularly enfeebled
and corrupted by the late autocratic regime: the public services did
not do their work as they ought; impurities had crept into the blood;
the body politic needed purging. He would put all this right. He
would restore the system to vigorous activity. Every impurity would be
cleansed from it, and pure, refreshed blood would circulate all over
the body politic, giving health to every fibre of the State. As to
matters external, he thought it needless to say that the place of
Greece was by the side of the Powers who fought for democracy.[15]

The next two days saw this programme at work.

A rupture of relations with the Central Empires, to be followed by a
mobilization, marked the end of Greek neutrality. King Alexander, as
yet a novice in statecraft, expressed surprise at the inconsistency
between these acts and the repeated assurances given to the Greek
people. He was told that the accession of M. Venizelos could mean
nothing else but war: his Majesty knew it: having accepted Venizelos,
he must accept his foreign policy.[16]

Not less was the young king's shock at another act of the new
Government--the suspension, by a Royal Decree, of the irremovability of
judges which is expressly guaranteed by the Constitution. "They
accused my father of {206} violating the Constitution," he said to M.
Jonnart, "and the first thing they ask me to do is to violate it." So
acute an interpreter of Constitutional Law could have small difficulty
in disposing of these scruples. He explained to the young monarch that
he could sign the decree without any compunction: the Constituent
Assembly which would be elected by and by to revise the Constitution
would legitimatize everything. He went on to give him a little, simple
lecture on the elements of Constitutional Verity, its theory and its
practice: "In a short time," he concluded suavely, "Your Majesty will
know on this subject as much as any of your Ministers,"--whenever he
experienced the need of further instruction, he only had to call the
High Commissioner, who promised to come and solve his perplexities in a
trice.[17]

The soundness of the instruction might be questionable. But the