The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

770 For many years past a large portion of our society has drawn its chief mental inspiration from "hero-worship." Faith in the omnipo tence of British heroism was blindly enter tained, and the deeds of WELLINGTON and NELSON were served up to the public in every' variety of form, until it became a sort of taint creed, when another crisis should come, that more men of exactly the same stamp would issue forth to astonish mankind by their deeds. There was not a little folly in such ex pectations ; but, what is of greater importance, there was also much injustice to existing indi viduals in both services. Great captains or wonderful admirals can no more be made ac cording to order than epic poets or grand historical artists. The anticipations of the country, from constantly contemplating the actions of mighty chiefs, were wound up to a most romantic standard ; and there is danger even now that the public mind may be mis guided by too ardent a worship of mighty memories, whose gigantic fame is altogether of an exceptional character. The danger arising from " hero-worship " in relation to the public service is of a twofold character. Firstly, it is calculated to make people expect their deliverance front indi viduals of mighty genius, rather than from a sound official system, well organised, and honestly administered; and, secondly, by ex citing romantic expectations, it is apt to damp rather than encourage the efforts of individual officers by sea and land. The first of these evils is of a most serious kind. It is not by single individuals, but by many able men act ing harmoniously together, that nations can permanently be ruled. Public spirit, well kept up, is a surer stay than hopes of mighty geniuses, who are to come nobody knows whence. This retrospective hero-worship is apt to generate a sort of national Fetish—a superstition of glory from which miracles are to be expected. " The right man "is to settle everything. He is to cure the faction of statesmen, extinguish the jobbery of officials, fight 'wonderful battles against fearful odds, and perform exploits which shall strike the world with admiration. In case that this wonderful person should not appear, then we are only to abuse " the system , anathematise "routine," and explode volleys of indignation on the mediocrities of the age, and cynically expatiate on the superiority of the days of yore, with illustrative anecdotes of CaomwELL and CHATHAM, and NELSON and WELLINGTON. In such mood of the public mind the memo ries of the mighty dead are invoked to depre ciate the living, rather than to inspirit and exalt them. The impractical character of this extrava gant " hero-worship " is conclusively shown in the undeniable facts that both NELSON and WELLINGTON, at various periods of their careers, suffered themselves from its over-strained expectations. Previous to the battle of the Nile, Sir HORATIO NELSON was repeatedly vilified in the journals and pamphlets of the time for his " dilatoriness,' and, after Sir ARTHUR WELLESLEY fought the battle of Talavera and commenced a retreat in presence of overbearing numbers, Opposition Whigs talked of " impeachment being better deserved " than a title," and his conduct even then was most injuriously contrasted with the exploits of MARLBOROUGH. It is unfair, also, to naval and military men to try them by too extravagant a standard. It is still more unfair, if neither our allies nor adversaries can be said to have exhibited any decided superior military genius above our own. We have seen a leading organ, within the last few days, assert that we " lost prestige " during the last war; and, unhappily, there is so denying the fact that the country was sorely disappointed in many things during the war. But, would a "hero " have cured the evils to be anticipated from plunging into * war with a divided Coalition Cabinet ? Would a " Wellesley" have remedied the infects of a War Administration, in which the baxperienced Duke of NEWCASTLE was allowed by the chiefs of the Whig oligarchy to gratify his "commendable ambition"? It ix something like folly to expect " heaven -44 barn Ministers," or " heroes," to appear when vs wart them. What we should certainly *Toot and insist upon is that the best ad- THE PRESS. ministrative system should be organised, and that a thoroughly professional spirit should pervade the services. We fear that one of its cold fits is now upon the British public, and that " administrative Reform " is not likely to be promoted, though It is more wanted now than when Mr. Dis*AILI first directed the attention of the country towards it. Tho Ministry throws cold water on projects of official improvement, sad thinks that tiding over difficulties from session to session is doing enough for the public welfare. Such is not the case. Administrative Reform well pursued, and intelligibly conducted, would work more marvels than " heroes." Great empires have always been sustained by their INSTITUTIONS, and England must rely upon them in the hour of difficulty. The shallow Liberal, compromising and conventional, looks to public " opinion" (regardless of its caprices) as the source of power, but the thoughtful and intelligent Conservative knows well that countries can be governed success fully, in the long run, only by national insti tutions which incorporate the spirit and con centrate the intellect of the people. To in vigorate the Executive would be doing the work of a band of " heroes," and a political rather than a melodramatic standard should be employed for measuring the wants of our public services by sea and shore. NELSON'S famous signal was singularly practical, be cause it pointed to " every man" doing his proper work, and not to the exploits of any one champion, however great. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS. WHEN first Mr. MACAULAY'S scheme for the Indian Civil Service examinations was pro pounded, we were favorable to it only in one sense. Inasmuch as it destroyed the nepo tism of the Directors, in as far as this service was concerned, with all its concomitant evils, we looked upon it as a vast improvement on the former state of things. But at the same time it was unnecessarily cumbersome ; the cumber of marks apportioned to the different branches of knowledge was badly propor tioned, and the having to submit to a second ordeal before one's fate was decided was cal culated to keep competitors away. The sim plest arrangement undoubtedly would have been to divide the appointments as prizes among the principal educational establish ments in the three kingdoms, and leave them to be contended for by the students in those establishments in the usual way. The latter cause of objection, however, has been now re moved; the first examination has been made decisive, and the second one, after the lapse of a twelvemonth, is no longer required. The fate of the competitors is thus decided at once, and a man can go up for examination without detriment to his other prospects in case he should not succeed. As regards the other ob jection, that regarding the apportionment of the marks, there is little doubt that it will in turn be obviated, and then there will be nothing left of which to complain. There are many, however, who object to the system in toto, and would gladly see it abo lished if they could. These are chiefly the Directors and their friends, who, of course, would find it greatly to their advantage to re cover the monopoly of this patronage which they held before. They are constantly pro claiming that the new plan will be a failure, and no doubt they will do everything to make it so that in them lies. To listen to these people the Service will be inundated with per sons not possessing the habits and feelings of gentlemen, or, at best, we are to have mere bookworms, utterly unfitted for governing men. But the true cause of the shoe pinch ing is, that we shall have no more incompe tent sons, and nephews, and nominees of Directors ; for, of course, under the examina tion system there will be for them no chance. As for the rest, we only wonder that any one can venture to put forward such objections in the face of well-known facts. For if any one will glance his eye over the Indian calendar, he will find nothing in it so remarkable as the SATURDAY, lalmost total absence of high-born names. Even of the few such that are there, the holders, in more than one instance, are known to be illegitimate, and therefor, they count for nothing in the present ease. The fact is, th a t the majority of the Company'S servants are the sons or relatives of Directors (many of whom have been very humbly connected indeed), or of second-rate City merchants, insolvent bankers, stockbrokers, outfitters, members of the City companies, solicitors to them, part ners in Indian agency-houses, and people of a like stamp. Of course there are many others, a few being of the highest birth, but the majority are the above. It would be very foreign to our feelings to declaim against such an origin, embracing so much of what is respectable in English middle life. But when we see offensive comparisons instituted between what the Seriice is, and what under the new system it is likely to be, we think it our duty to rebuke such presump tion by pointing out plainly how matters stand. Having done so, it will be seen how utterly absurd it is to suppose that a candidate giving evidence of such an education as suc cess must imply, is likely to be at all worse born or worse bred than a lad taken from any of the various classes we have described. Why, SHORE said that the Directors of his time, about twenty years ago, used to pay with appointments their tailors' and outfitters' bills; and though this may be a libel, there is no doubt that many Indian civilians and officers are, and have been, the sons of tailors, outfitters, saddlers, and other tradesmen of a similar description in town. It does seem, therefore, the height of impudence to sneer at successful candidates from our colleges as likely to be too low for a service which has been hitherto filled by the Directors with people so inconsiderable as these. The remaining ground of fear that we shall obtain mere bookworms is equally opposed to well-known facts. The engineer and artillery nominations, for instance, are the result of a competitive examination among the cadets, and a more manly set of officers cannot anywhere be found. Men better informed as a body, or bolder riders, or more accomplished shots, are nowhere to be seen. Then, too, Mr. CHARLES WYNN, when President of the Indian Board, used to give some of his appointments always as prizes to public schools ; so did Sir RICHARD JENKINS; and so does Sir HENRY WILCOCK, very greatly to his honour, now. Of the winners of these we have been personally acquainted with three, . and they were all three men who attained the highest possible distinction in their re spective careers. We have no doubt that we should be able to say the same of the majority of the others if only in a posi tion to trace them out. Indeed, so generally in England is success in the schools accompanied by a manly and healthy development both of body and mind, that there are few who have succeeded in them who have not afterwards retained their pre eminence when thrown into public life. It is not to be supposed that the candidates for Indian appointments will prove exceptions to the rule, and we anticipate, therefore, from the new system of nomination the most beneficial results. Unless, however, the Directors be closely watched, they will take steps to strangle it if possible at its birth ; their whole hope being now turned to making it a failure, so as to recover this golden patronage for them selves. ENCROACHMENT OF LEGAL M.P.'S. THE entertainment this week at West Grin. stead of that venerable Conservative, Sir CHARLES BURRELL, was an interesting event, and calculated to set people thinking. It was something to see a fine old English gentle. man who remembers public life as long as our Premier himself. Fifty years have elapsed since Sir CHARLES BURRELL entered the House of Commons. The worthy Baronet recollects the days iu 1806, when Viscount PALMFRSTON, on the Tory side, contested Cambridge Uni versity unsuccessfully; when the poll.stood— Lord HENRY PETTY, 331; Lord ALTHOBPZ, 145;