Faidherbe's success was in part due to his ability to control what his superiors knew. Briere's problems show that it became increasingly difficult to do that. Steamships stopped at Dakar. Travelers, missionaries and politicians regularly passed through. Furthermore, Senegal participated in French parliamentary democracy. The General Council discussed and controlled a large part of the colonial budget. Governors regularly clashed with councillors. Municipal councils controlled local affairs and a deputy represented them in Paris. The deputy was usually linked to one or more of the political blocs on the General Council and could bring pressure to bear on the administration. Senegal was also being converted from a colonial backwater to the center of a colonial empire. This meant a demand for literate functionaries in both administration and commerce. Literacy in turn meant that people could write letters, frame grievances and make them known. Senegal was thus a modern legal state. Arbitrariness'was restricted by the existence of a corps of citizens with rights, by an independent court system, by a free press, by institutions before which the administration was responsible.