He was one of those many-faced politicians without any strong beliefs, with no great resources, no backbone and no real knowledge of anything, a coun… - Guy de Maupassant

" "

He was one of those many-faced politicians without any strong beliefs, with no great resources, no backbone and no real knowledge of anything, a country lawyer with provincial good looks, craftily walking the tight-rope between any extremist parties, a kind of republican Jesuit, a sort of dubious little mushroom such as flourish in their hundreds on the popular dunghill of universal suffrage.