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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: transferred to Rabourdin's, on account of Baudoyer's extreme severity
in relation to what were called "the English,"--a name given by the
government clerks to their creditors. "English day" means the day on
which the government offices are thrown open to the public. Certain
then of finding their delinquent debtors, the creditors swarm in and
torment them, asking when they intend to pay, and threatening to
attach their salaries. The implacable Baudoyer compelled the clerks to
remain at their desks and endure this torture. "It was their place not
to make debts," he said; and he considered his severity as a duty
which he owed to the public weal. Rabourdin, on the contrary,
protected the clerks against their creditors, and turned the latter
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