Every Sunday he inaugurated busts, statues, fountains, artesian wells, hospitals, dispensaries, railways, canals, public markets, drainage systems, triumphal arches, and slaughter houses, and delivered moving speeches on each of these occasions.
His fervid activity devoured whole piles of documents; he changed the colours of the postage stamps fourteen times in one week.

Nevertheless, he gave vent to outbursts of grief and rage that drove him insane; for whole days his reason abandoned him.

If he had been in the employment of a private administration this would have been noticed immediately, but it is much more difficult to discover insanity or frenzy in the conduct of affairs of State.

At that moment the government employees were forming themselves into associations and federations amid a ferment that was giving alarm both to the Parliament and to public feeling.

The postmen were especially prominent in their enthusiasm for trade unions.
Hippolyte Ceres informed them in a circular that their action was strictly legal.