In the French Sudan he was unable to stop the army from ignoring government instructions and pursuing a costly expansionist policy.

He tried but failed to suppress slavery, at a time when the local troops often expected a share of booty in the form of slaves.

In January 1887 Grodet was admitted the Paris Bar as a trainee advocate, but resigned after the probationary period in March 1887.

[3] In 1893 Théophile Delcassé, Under-Secretary for Colonies, appointed Grodet commandant-supérieur of French Sudan in place of Louis Archinard in the hope of regaining control of the Sudanese budget and administration.

[5] However, as a civilian Grodet had no control over his senior officers, who greeted him with "a wall of silence deliberately calculated to prevent me from taking any action."

[6] The only way he could have asserted his authority would have been to install civilians in key administrative posts, but this was impossible due to the unsettled state of the country.

[7] When Grodet reached Sudan the acting commandant-supérieur, Eugène Bonnier, had already left on an expedition against Timbuktu despite strict instructions by the government to the contrary.

The same day Bonnier left Ségou 350 miles (560 km) to the east on the Niger River bound for Timbuktu, which he expected to take without difficulty.

[11] The practice was clearly illegal under the French law of 1848, which said "the principal that the soil of France liberates the slave who touches it is applied to colonies and possessions of the Republic.

"[12] Grodet wrote in September 1894, "I cannot admit that on territory of the Republic at the headquarters of a cercle, among the articles of purchase and of sale are representatives of the human species.

[11] Grodet was anti-clerical and was disliked by the missionaries, but one of them wrote of him[14] He had a thankless task which he performed in a malicious and maladroit manner, but men of good will always be grateful to him for his courageous initiative against slavery, the great plague of the Sudan.

This praiseworthy act earned him the hostility of men who are in general upright, but warped by absolutely false ideas on this important question.

[14] Henri Gaden wrote of Grodet after dining with him on 7 February 1895 that he was "well received, polite and talkative... With the eye of a half-deranged person, he is impulsive.

[16] Grodet was blamed for the lack of economic growth in the colony and for the defeat by Samori in the Ivory Coast of Parfait-Louis Monteil's Kong column.

He became in turn a member of the committees on External Affairs of the Protectorates and Colonies, on Economies, on Octrois, on Final Accounts and on the 1914 Budget.

The text of his speech was countersigned by Louis-Albert Grodet (Guiana), Paul Bluysen (French India), Joseph Lagrosillière, Gratien Candace (Guadeloupe), Georges Boussenot (Réunion), Achille René-Boisneuf (Guadeloupe), Henry Lémery (Martinique), Lucien Gasparin (Reunion) and Ernest Outrey (Cochinchina).