themselves at their desks,--the chilly one has a wooden footstool
under his feet; the man with a bilious temperament has a metal mat;
the lymphatic being who dreads draughts constructs a fortification of
boxes on a screen. The door of the under-head-clerk's office always
stands open so that he may keep an eye to some extent on his
subordinates.

Perhaps an exact description of Monsieur de la Billardiere's division
will suffice to give foreigners and provincials an idea of the
internal manners and customs of a government office; the chief
features of which are probably much the same in the civil service of
all European governments.

In the first place, picture to yourself the man who is thus described
in the Yearly Register:--

"Chief of Division.--Monsieur la baron Flamet de la Billardiere
(Athanase-Jean-Francois-Michel) formerly provost-marshal of
the department of the Correze, gentleman in ordinary of the
bed-chamber, president of the college of the department of the
Dordogne, officer of the Legion of honor, knight of Saint Louis
and of the foreign orders of Christ, Isabella, Saint Wladimir,
etc., member of the Academy of Gers, and other learned bodies,
vice-president of the Society of Belles-lettres, member of the
Association of Saint-Joseph and of the Society of Prisons, one of
the mayors of Paris, etc."

The person who requires so much typographic space was at this time
occupying an area five feet six in length by thirty-six inches in
width in a bed, his head adorned with a cotton night-cap tied on by