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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: error; because it regards and treats men as that which they are not,
as things; and not as that which they are, as persons. If the
bureaucracy were a mere Briareus giant, with a hundred hands,
helping the weak throughout the length and breadth of the empire,
the system might be at least tolerable. But what if the Government
were not a Briareus with a hundred hands, but a Hydra with a hundred
heads and mouths, each far more intent on helping itself than on
helping the people? What if sub-delegates and other officials,
holding office at the will of the intendant, had to live, and even
provide against a rainy day? What if intendants, holding office at
the will of the Comptroller-General, had to do more than live, and
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