CHAPTER 1.2.IV.
Maurepas.
But now, among French hopes, is not that of old M.de Maurepas one of the best-grounded; who hopes that he, by dexterity, shall contrive to continue Minister?
Nimble old man, who for all emergencies has his light jest; and ever in the worst confusion will emerge, cork-like, unsunk! Small care to him is Perfectibility, Progress of the Species, and Astraea Redux: good only, that a man of light wit, verging towards fourscore, can in the seat of authority feel himself important among men.

Shall we call him, as haughty Chateauroux was wont of old, 'M.
Faquinet (Diminutive of Scoundrel)'?
In courtier dialect, he is now named 'the Nestor of France;' such governing Nestor as France has.
At bottom, nevertheless, it might puzzle one to say where the Government of France, in these days, specially is.

In that Chateau of Versailles, we have Nestor, King, Queen, ministers and clerks, with paper-bundles tied in tape: but the Government?
For Government is a thing that governs, that guides; and if need be, compels.

Visible in France there is not such a thing.

Invisible, inorganic, on the other hand, there is: in Philosophe saloons, in Oeil-de-Boeuf galleries; in the tongue of the babbler, in the pen of the pamphleteer.