Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 18, 2025
He was silent in the presence of his seniors, and indeed they were garrulous enough to cover his silence. Their talk was mostly of politics not the politics of the country, but the politics of office of undersecretaries and candidates for place.
Sulpice, moreover, had little to say. Nothing serious. The confirmation of the favorable reports that had been made to him. Within a week he would finish his plan of prefectorial changes. He simply required the Council to deal at once with the nomination of the Undersecretaries of State. It was then that Vaudrey realized the extraordinary influence that Lucien Granet must possess.
Small states whose inhabitants were occasionally addicted to carrying off tourists and holding them for ransom now felt they could dispense with those foreign undersecretaries whose sole business it had been to write diplomatic notes of apology. But it was a crippled world and the lost leg still twitched spectrally.
The Minister who only the day before, from his seat upon one of the benches of the Opposition, sat with his head held aloft, his long body erect, with rigid dignity, as if made of triple brass, cannot now take the initiative in the appointment of a 'garde champêtre. His undersecretaries of State, his gardes champêtres, he himself, his whole environment, in fact, are only painted dummies and the meek puppets that a director of the staff, a chief of a division, or a chief of a bureau sets in motion, to the tune he grinds out of his hand-organ, or moves them about at his will like pawns upon a chess-board.
The years 1865 and 1866 had been spent in administrative experiments. At first French officers detached from the service were placed in the various departments of the government as undersecretaries, in the hope of bringing about an honest and efficient organization without giving undue umbrage to the Mexicans.
The servants were removing writing materials, maps, etc., and a cloud of clerks and undersecretaries were being swallowed up by a door in a corner of the room. At the end of the table opposite the door through which Edestone had entered, sat the King.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking