moral character, most of us know how easily that is obtained, and when obtained, what it is worth. We could wish that the reporters had stated whether Americans and other foreigners are to be admitted; there is, at any rate, nothing in the report to exclude them.

There may, perhaps, be a rational doubt as to the extreme anxiety which Sir Charles thinks will be evinced by the most promising young men of the age to attend these examinations; but there can, we think, be no doubt that, under such circumstances as these, crowds of candidates would attend upon the examiners. Quantity would be there, though quality might be wanting; and Mr. Jowett would revel in his multiplicity of question-papers, and in the rapidity of his curt viva voce examinations.

Allusion is then made to the nature of the subjects on which examination is to be had. Much in this matter is to be left to the examiners, but the reporters suggest that the subjects should be as numerous as possible, to try the different aptitudes of the dif ferent candidates. They do not commit themselves by recommending any particular syllabus, any list of indispensable attainments, any arrangement of questions; but merely hint that proficiency in history, jurispru dence, political economy, modern languages, political and physical geography, and other matters, besides the staple of classics and mathematics, will be useful! Useful! Can Sir Charles find no higher epithet by which to honour such a list of accomplishments? Useful! and this, be it remembered, in a boy just past seventeen. Does Sir Charles consider that at that age the majority of even welleducated lads do not know the correct meaning of such terms as political economy and physical geography?— that a staple of mathematics at that age is a very rare attainment, indicating precocious genius, and that a proficiency in modern languages, at an early age, must be a peculiar gift of nature, which he cannot expect to find in many of even these most promising and most gifted lads, who are to crowd to his examinations? After reading the above list of preliminary accomplishments, as given by Sir Charles Trevelyan, who can doubt his title to be governor of Utopia?

VOL. XLVI.-NO. CCLXXIV.

Having completed their proposals as to the mode to be adopted for filling vacancies in the public service, the reporters go on to suggest some regulations for using the energy, talent, and educated skill, which they shall have collected together by their examinations. In the first place, intellectual and mechanical labour is to be separated. Much, they say, has already been done by the appointment of a class of supplementary clerks, who it seems are to be shifted about from office to office, to do the copying and drudgery, and who are never to rise to the receipt of higher pay than what may be considered remunerative for mechanical labour.

It seems to us to be useless to make two classes of office-clerks, both of which are to be filled by men chosen in early youth by a system of competitive examinations. In offices in which purely mechanical labour can be separated from the higher duties, it would appear expedient to employ in such labour persons of a wholly different class, at weekly wages. Such men would never look to rise into the class of clerks-they would have their rewards in their own class; and the very fact of their being paid by weekly wages instead of yearly salaries, would confine the service to the class of men who would be desired for such work. Whatever method may be ultimately decided on for filling the ranks of clerks, the class of servants to which we now allude should, we think, not be included in the arrangement. It will be alleged that secrecy would be endangered by entrusting copies to uneducated men, or, to use the term most intelligible to the world, if others than gentlemen be employed. cannot quite agree to this messengers in public offices are already most confidentially entrusted with the care of public papers. The generality, also, of copies required is not of such a nature as to imperil national interests by being made public, nor are they of sufficient interest to excite curiosity. Copies of important state papers might still be made by confidential clerks; and while we are on the subject of copying, we must also protest against the general use of manual labour for a kind of work, which can be nearly equally well done by a machine.

We

We have no further suggestion from

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the reporters as to the division of labour, though, as we have seen, attention is somewhat ostentatiously drawn to the matter. The fact is, that the subject is felt to be one on which it is very difficult to suggest any general rule. Practically, there is not much difficulty in any individual office; the higher class of duties gra. dually fall into the hands of the most competent men, who do, we believe, usually reap some, though perhaps an inadequate, reward for the exertion of their energies. The reporters are too anxious to lay down absolute laws for the governance of the public service, which laws, when they come to the wording of them, slip through their fingers like water.

The question of promotion is then. considered. By promotion, we mean all increase of salary, either by length of service, or by transference from one class to another; and on this subject we are inclined to think that the ob servations of the reporters are on the whole judicious. It is preposterous that either a stupid or an idle man should rise to the highest pay of his office by the mere vis inertia of long servitude, while the true labourer is kept on low wages by the number of men above him of this description!

We believe, however, that the system of selection by merit is more widely used already in our public offices than Sir Charles is aware of; we believe also that the duty of selecting has been found to be most onerous and disagreeable. In such selection the selector, even though actuated by the fairest intentions, can hardly avoid a bias of unconscious favouritism; and we think, therefore, for the sake of both parties, the clerks from whom the selection is to be made and the officer who is to make it, every possible precaution should be used to prevent undue promotion.

It is suggested that on every occasion of promotion, the officer immediately in authority should furnish to the secretary of the department the names of a certain number of efficient men, from whom the latter should choose, and that a report on the services of each should accompany the name when so handed in. The secretary would then again report to the head of the office, who, so guided, would make his selection. Even all this precaution will not prevent the

operation of favouritism, but we do not see that any other method would more effectually do so; and, without doubt, the operation of this system would in effect bring the good men into the good places. B. and C., being both bright and equally so, C., the better beloved, may possibly be unnecessarily exalted over the head of B.; but no amount of love will, under such a system, enable the mediocre D. to mount up above them both, or will prevent the whole three from rising over the head of the useless and incorrigible A. We may also express an opinion that the moderate use of goodservice additional pay would not only do much towards inducing valuable energy, but would give great assistance to the heads of offices in selecting men for permanent promotion. The clerk, when promoted, would of course not take his good-service pay with him into the higher class, but would have again to earn in it in his new position.

Complaint is made by the reporters of the "fragmentary character of the service." This expression hardly explains itself, but it is meant to imply that a youth appointed to the War Office learns nothing of the duties of the Admiralty; that a Custom-House landing-surveyor is unable to do the work of a provincial Post-office, or a clerk in the Poor- Law office that of a clerk in the Treasury. We cannot look upon this as a defect, any more than we do on the ignorance of a butcher in the haberdashery business, or the inaptitude of a shoemaker to make sponge cakes. The reporters would change the clerks about from office to office, and would, we presume, if they had the power, force the butcher to measure tape and the shoemaker to whip cream, They have very high authority against them, and, in advocating a system so diametrically opposed to that now received as to the division of labour, give proof at any rate of their courage.

Such are the recommendations made to the Government by Sir Charles Trevelyan and Sir Stafford Northcote, for the amelioration of the civil service; and to this, as we have said before, is appended a letter from the Rev. Mr. Jowett, Fellow and Tutor of Baliol College, Oxford, in which that gentleman gives much advice on the subject of the proposed examina tions.

He first insists on the propriety of obtaining due reference and certificates with all the candidates. Certificates, both of birth and baptism, are to be forthcoming, and reference is to be made to a clergyman or minister. This, by the way, gives much umbrage to free-thinking Mr. Mill, who remarks that clergymen would of course give their recommendations to none but their own congregation, and that thus severe penalties would be attached to the non-attendance at some place of worship. We do not ourselves see the injustice of such a penalty, in a country where so great a majority of the population do worship God under some Christian denomination, but we cannot acknowledge the utility of Mr. Jowett's references. If a young man's career before the age of twenty has been scandalously immoral, he will not be apt to present himself before the examiners with any chance of passing a successful examination; if he can do so, his proficiency should be allowed to give him at that carly age this chance of redeeming his character. Any young man, not scandalously im. moral, would find no difficulty in obtaining such certificates as those required. Indeed we look on such eertificates as all but useless, and would venture to recommend that they should not needlessly be multiplied. We think that a simple certificate as to the date of birth should be alone required. If it be thought necessary to have evidence of physical capacity, that may be best obtained from a medical examination, under the hands of a Government surgeon or physician, as is the practice on the entrance of cadets into the Indian service.

Having disposed of this question, Mr. Jowett rushes joyously in among his examination-papers, and here he is quite at home. "Let us estimate," says he, "the amount of vacancies of the superior class at 250, and the number of candidates at 2,000. The last is somewhat alarming. The best way to disperse the crowd will be by holding examinations continually [what a glorious prospect for Mr. Jowett!]"say five in each yearthree in London, one in Edinburgh, and one in Dublin. Thus the number is reduced to 400 for each examination a number which may easily be managed."

Softly, Mr. Jowett! Supposing you

to be right as to the 250 vacancies for the superior class (for which supposition, by-the-bye, we do not see any evidence adduced, but, on the contrary, a great diversity of opinion among those who ought to be the best acquainted with the subject Mr. Murdock, of the Emigration Board, reckons the annual vacancies in the first and second-class offices at thirty-seven a-year), but supposing you to be right as to the 250 vacancies, by what earthly system of calculation have you arrived at the 2,000 candidates? This number, we agree with Mr. Jowett, is rather alarming, even though it shall be subdivided into five; but why are we so to limit the ambitious youth of this country? Why are we to suppose that 400 only will appear at each of the five national examinations, as desirous of being enrolled among the most gifted and most promising young men of the age? Does Mr. Jowett suppose that the applicants for places to men in power are not more numerous than these? and such applicants are only those who think that circumstances have given them some chance of favour. Under the new regime, any man may be an applicant. We wish that we may see Mr. Jowett when first addressing his crowded audience in the examination - hall in Dublin Four hundred candidates for the civil service of the nation! Why, the whole of Young Ireland will rush undivided to the struggle. The honorable ambition of serving their country will animate the bosom of every father, mother, and sister, as well as every son. All these are promising and gifted-no doubts of rejection will prevail, and the contest for a foot of desk-accommodation in Mr. Jowett's blessed halls of examination will be awful.

Whether in truth the really gifted, the really promising, the really ambitious, youth of this country will undergo such examinations as these suggested, for such rewards, may well be doubted. It may also be matter of doubt whether it is desirable that the civil service should entice to itself any very large proportion of so rare and valuable a commodity. But there can be no doubt that such examinations would be crowded by unworthy candidates, by ill-educated lads, of whom ill-educated parents would be ignorantly hopeful, and that the task of

the examiners would be herculean. Will it be worth the while to remove in so painful a manner a mountain of chaff, to arrive at last at a basket of grain, and that not of the best quality?

Mr. Jowett goes on with his calculations. The examination on paper of each candidate should last for a week, to which should be added " an hour of mivâ vocè." This he estimates at the perusal of 4,800 long papers, and 400 hours of "vivâ vocè!!" Will he allow us to add a nought to each of these amounts? We can safely say that in doing so we have as true a base on which to build our estimates as he has had.

"The salaries of the examiners should be liberal." In this we fully agree with him; considering the nature of the task, they can hardly be too liberal. They should be irremovable as are the judges, and they should have several clerks and a secretary. At their head should be a privy-councillor. We do not object to all this proposed grandeur, but we think that none but a modern Hercules could duly fill the chair in which that privycouncillor will have to sit.

Mr. Jowett then proceeds to the subjects of examination, and begins moderately. He would confine the first day to the qualifications most universally required fast and neat handwriting, a thorough knowledge of arithmetic and book-keeping, and English composition. If he would strike out the word "thorough," and insert the word "adequate," qualify his requisition for English composition, and make this his final as well as his initiatory trial-if he would end here, and insure to us that all who enter the public service would be accomplished so far he would really confer an immense boon upon the Government. A thorough knowledge of arithmetic and book-keeping! Can Mr. Jowett recommend to us any young lads from seventeen to twenty with such a knowledge, and who have attained it, not by practice at work, but merely by educational preparation? We know of none such. English composition ! Can Mr. Jowett tell us how many pupils have passed out of his hands during the last ten years, so gifted as to be masters of English composition? We do not meet these juvenile Macaulays in our converse with the world.

We have rather been inclined to consider the science of English composition as one seldom acquired before maturity as one too often neglected through a whole life, even by the educated as the greatest ornament of those possessed of it, the greatest want with so many good and useful men, who are utterly ignorant of its rules. Will Mr. Jowett forgive us if we point out to him that he has sinned against the rules of English composition, in the very sentence in which he requires a knowledge of them as a first preliminary in his youthful candidates? Will he also allow us to call his attention to the peculiar language in which the eminent Mr. Chadwick, through nearly a hundred pages of this volume, insists on the merits of the newlyproposed plan? Is it such English composition as Mr. Chadwick's that Mr. Jowett would desire for his novices?

""

"When this preliminary examination has been disposed of, we come to the principal one." Mr. Jowett goes on to say how the examination must be limited. It is useless to look for what we might wish, says he-we must look for what we can actually get. Education at our schools, colleges, and inns of court, has been very limited; physical science and civil engineering have scarcely yet found their way down into education, but still they may be introduced. These circumstances are somewhat discouraging, and will not allow Mr. Jowett to expect in his class-rooms higher attainments than those mentioned below. As he has said above, "we must test a young man's ability by what he knows, and not what we wish him to know." Therefore Mr. Jowett confines himself as follows:

FOUR SCHOOLS.

1. Classical Literature.

2. Mathematics, with Practical Application, and Natural Science.

3. Political Economy and Moral Philosophy.

4. Modern Languages and Modern History, including International Law.

Each candidate is to be examined necessarily in two schools, and no candidate may be examined in more.

We will not insist on the absurdity of the requirements here held out as being necessary in a young lad just

about to enter an office at the age of eighteen, because it may be acknowledged that even all this would be useful, if it could be had; but what strikes us with surprise is, that Mr. Jowett should think that young men so educated will present themselves as candidates for such prizes. He must be aware that by far the majority of men leaving Oxford could not pass a respectable examination in two of the above schools. But men are to go into the public service at the age that they enter college, not at the age that they leave it; they are also to come from a class educated in a less costly, and, we presume, less perfect manner, than those who fill our universities; they are, in fact, to be the same men who now fill the public offices, only better instructed. That they ought to be better instructed than they are, we admit; but we cannot at present see whence such an extent of erudition is to come, as that which Mr. Jowett expects.

Mr. Jowett then goes on to the lower class of public servants, and estimates the annual vacancies at 500. According to Mr. Murdock's calculation, these will not exceed 125 a-year. We are not told what is the estimated number of candidates; but, as they are to come from the poorer classes, the examination is to be carried to them, near their own houses. Mr. Jowett is no clearer than are Sir Charles and Sir Stafford, in defining the offices which are to be so filled, but he alludes specially to excisemen and tide-waiters. We do not know whether country postmasters, lettercarriers, tax-collectors, and such like, are to be included. We would, however, suggest that it will be expedient in the Government to confine itself at first to ascertaining the best method of filling the situations of clerks in the bona fide metropolitan public offices, in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh.

Having produced their plan, and obtained the co-operation of Mr. Jowett, the reporters called upon sundry gentlemen standing high in the civil serservice, and also on various clergymen, we presume on account of their cognizance of college examinations, to give their opinion on the matter; and the bulk of the volume before us consists of these opinions. They are very equally divided as to the merits and demerits of the proposed plan. We observe

that gentlemen who have not been long in harness, such as Mr. Cole and Dr. Playfair, strongly advocate the new system; others who have passed their lives at the desk, such as Mr. Arbuthnot, for instance, Sir A. Spearman, Sir James Stephen, and Mr. Bromley, greatly doubt the adequacy of the proposed examinations. We do not insist on the objections raised by Mr. Waddington, the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, although we would counsel those interested in the matter to read what he has written. He comes forward in a spirit of pure resistance to the reporters, and with much wit, and sundry Latin and Greek quotations, fulminates at them a paper, which is, at any rate, very amusing. We presume they were bound to print the answers they received; but they do seem to have suffered under a hard lot at being made to publish and circulate a document so very little eulogistic either of their official judgment, or extra-official common sense.

We cannot but observe with how much vehemence many of those best able to express an opinion on the matter repudiate the evil character given by Sir Charles Trevelyan to the service; and it must be remembered that this is done by men whose own standing is in nowise affected by the calumny, if calumny it be. Mr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Hawes, Mr. Waddington, Mr. Murdock, Mr. Addington, Sir Thomas Freemantle, Sir Thomas Redington, Sir A. Spearman, all exclaim loudly. "I must demur," says Mr. Hawes (p. 359), "to the general character of the service given in the report.' Mr.

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Addington remarks (p. 348)-"I do not hesitate to say at once, that I cannot but regard the statements of defects presented in the report as very much overcharged." Sir T. Freemantle says (p. 319)—"I feel called upon, so far as my own experience goes, to deny the accuracy of these conclusions. I believe that the clerks and officers of the civil departments, in general, are faithful and diligent." Sir A. Spearman says (p. 397)-" My own conviction is, that the condition of the civil service is not such as is described in those parts of the report I have adverted to; I do not think that it is composed, in a large proportion, of the indolent, the incapable, and the sickly." And Mr. Arbuthnot (pp. 403,