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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: Diard brought up, monopolized, and sold sugars; he sold offices; he
had the glory of inventing the "man of straw" for lucrative posts
which it was necessary to keep in his own hands for a short time; he
bought votes, receiving, on one occasion, so much per cent on the
purchase of fifteen parliamentary votes which all passed on one
division from the benches of the Left to the benches of the Right.
Such actions are no longer crimes or thefts,--they are called
governing, developing industry, becoming a financial power. Diard was
placed by public opinion on the bench of infamy where many an able man
was already seated. On that bench is the aristocracy of evil. It is
the upper Chamber of scoundrels of high life. Diard was, therefore,
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