Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 28.2.3

28.2.3

Still notwithstanding all those discouragements, it happens sometimes that a man once promoted to an office, acquires in a course of years such a stock of knowledge, and such abilities, as afford hopes of his continuing in it, and of his ruling according to those abilities of his which he has been at so much pains to hoard up; when straight there comes upon him a group of two or three men from Europe, who know nothing of business, but are superior to him in rank, or seniority, or influence; and these take possession of his post, while the man of abilities and merit, disgusted and discontented at his being deprived of what he deserved, thinks of going home, and of leaving the field to the disposal of the ignorant new-comers, who now sit in his stead, and in their ignorance of men and things, are immediately surrounded and hooked in by a set of wary, artificious fellows, who, by hanging out false lights, and shewing them pretended flowery paths, and false gardens evergreen, find means to lead them by the nose, and to become meanwhile the centre and hinges of every matter of importance, to the utter ruin of all the good which their predecessor had done, and to the disturbance of all the regulations which he had been at so much pains to establish; and years elapse and come to pass, before these new-comers become qualified enough to hear of the practices of these their dependants.