The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-07 00:00:00

LORD RAGLAN.

DEATH, with its stern mandate, has hushed all
harsh criticism upon Lord RAGLAN. It is not
too much to say that if the gallant FITZROT
SOMERSET (from associations we like to recal
his old name) had been a Napoleon, or Wel-
lington, he would have been, under the
circumstances of the Crimean expedition, ex-
posed to unjust aspersions. Never before did
a military man bear so heavy a load of Minis
terial sins ; but our respectful regret for the
dead prevents us now from enlarging on
the peculiar difficulties of the post which the
late British Commander had to fill. We
prefer, at present, to touch upon some of the

In his personal courage, as in most of his
characteristics, Lord RAGLAN was emphatically
English. He disliked ostentation and parade,
though he was sensitive to the value of rightly-
earned popularity. Laborious; quick in appre-
hension, cautious in decision;; and proverbial
for his courtesy, the deceased General had
many of the qualities necessary to the success-
ful administration of an official system. After
the war ceased in 1815, an immense quantity
of military detail of different kind fell upon
the War-office Department ; and in the various
reductions, consolidations, &c., of that tim•
Lord RAGLAN was a leading instrument, and
his services as an " Administrative Reformer,"
were frankly acknowledged by the sturdiest
advocates of Radical changes.

Of his bravery in the- field it would be
superfluous to speak. His calm courage had
a certain " classical repose " which distin
guished it from the fiery and precipitate ardour
of men who burned to display their hardihood
of spirit. But, as was well observed by Mr.
DISRAELI, it was the union of finished cour-
tesy with first• rate personal spirit, that pre-
eminently characterised Lord RAGLAN. Pro-
bably in our age no public character was so
marked by such charming manners. No
Ensign could be casually presented to the
late General of the British Army witho .t
being struck by those winning encomiums,
that beaming smile, and cordiality of
voice. These are not " small things," as some
persons would affirm. Manner, combined
with experience and knowledge, go a long
way in ruling mankind. Lord RAGLAN could
encourage the timid, and quietly repel the
familiar and obtrusive, without ever losing his
dignity.
It has been repeatedly asserted by some
ultra-Liberal organs that Lord RAGLAN had no
desire to be placed at the head of the expedi.
tion. Such points cannot now be discussed,
but we think it right to observe that nothing
has transpired in the recent. debates to
warrant such an assertion. Enough, however,
is known to show that Government placed
great reliance on the temper and manners of
Lord RAGLAN in smoothing over the difficulties
of a joint command He was, to a great extent,
a negotiator as well as a general, and his
services were unquestionably of great value in
promoting good humour between the staffs of
the two armies.

We know of no other instance of late years
in which the vote of a pension for a new
peerage has been let pass without snarls from
the Radical Members of the House of Com-
mons. The proposal to enable Her Majesty
to provide for the family of Lord RAGLAN
encountered no one hostile censor from " the
" guardians of the public purse "—a noble
tribute in itself to the memory of the departed
commander.

PUBLICITY FOR OFTSS-91‹.---73 • ES.
Oun readers will recollek
that all Administrative her
sidered with reference kn
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630

itself and each of its members.

It is obvious

that before making any proposition for amend-

ing the connection between the State and

the Civil Service, we should first endeavour

to understand the ties /Allah join the sepal*,
members of the Civil Corps to tho official

system as it now exists.

In order to do so we shall consider on the
occasion one of the most grievOus defects
under which the members of the Civil Service
suffer. In no other department of intellectual
exertion connected with the State is there
such a want of " publicity " as in the Civil
Service. The stimulus of immediate public
approbation—the sense that a man's virtues
and talents are visible to the world—are most
powerful incentives to great exertions and to
brilliant enterprises. These ennobling mo-
tives are, under the present imperfect system,
almost entirely wanting in the Civil Service,
where the most laborious public duties are
performed as if behind a screen. The
drudgery, therefore, is greater when the
reward of immediate applause is entirely
withdrawn, and when the subordinate has to
toil uncheered by a genial ray of light. In this
point of view the Civil Service is drearily
distinguished from all other professional de-
partments. The official is shut up in a room,
and he performs his sedentary labour from
morning to eve, unseen and unnoticed, except
by the clerks connected with his department,
or his immediate superiors.
In the Army and Navy, the Church, the
Bar, and in the professions of medicine and
literature, all the individuals have the power
ful stimulus of direct, immediate, and palpa-
ble publicity. Is a colonel or a captain dis-
tinguished for soldiery qualities? You may
know the fact in the way he is talked of, and
even looked at, by his brother officers and the
soldiers under his command. So in the
Navy, the whole crew of the ship are of
themselves a vast public to one of the blue
jackets, whether with or without the epau-
lettes. The effect on a clergyman of his
parishioners' approbation, and the estimate of
his reverend brethren in Holy Orders, are
quickening influences upon a pastor's zeal and
readiness to distinguish himself in the most
sacred of pursuits. At the Bar• the advocate
toils in the court before the public, and his
name is bruited abroad in the journals. The
physician is seen on his daily rounds amongst
his patients, and he is brought into inter-
course with a great variety of persons; and we
need not illustrate the effect of " publicity "
upon men of letters, to many of whom it is
their principal reward.
Now, we conceive that we can render no
greater service to the cause of Administrative
Reform than by concentrating attention on the
fact that talent languishes in the Civil Service
for want of a healthy and animating publicity.
We are convinced that the statesman who
shall have the honour of laying a new basis
for the official service must take into account
the absence of " publicity " under the pre•
sent system. When Mr. DISRAELI alluded to
the necessity for more " spiritual rewards," we
surmise that the Right Honourable Gentle-
man must have had a clear perception of the
cheerless condition of many clever and labo-
rious subordinates scattered all through the
offices. For many of those meritorious per-
sons " publicity " would be a sure precursor
to promotion.
We need not dwell upon the disheartening
effects of constantly working without being
noticed. When once it is indicated, intelligent
persons will apprehend it at a glance. We
may give some detailed illustrations on this
subject at another time, but we prefer now to
offer some hints as to how these evils are to
be cured. We have no sympathy with those
visionaries who dream of perfection ; and we
have no respect for grievance-mongers who
complain much, but who suggest nothing.
We shall confine our views to what is attain-
able, and offer only what appears to us to be
practicable measures.
We at once admit that there is a large
range of petty officials whose duties are so
merely formal, and involve so little mental
exertion, and such limited individuality of
Client, that an Official Reformer need not

~.

THE PRESS.

spend much time upon the consideration of
these cases. What is wanted is some plan by

which the talent and capacity of persons em-
ployed in secretarial aasd secondary adminis-
trative Labour& 01004 be vested, and as i 4
were *Mora In ;rawly all the varinkke
branch of the civil aervice there is what Is
calledthe Se tart'' Department," existing
sometimes undoer a leas formal designation.
This 4epartment is weitekthe immediate oat
nisance of certain deputed officials, who com-
municate with its per s.nerit " head," 'and the
latter in turn transacts affairs with the
Ministerial chief whom the changes of the

Cabinet may have assigned to the post.
At present, and under the official system as
it now exists, the subordinates rise by routine
alone. There is no jumping per saltum for
men of surpassing power or masterly vigour.
The versatile are subjected to the same rule
as the dull. The mind full of resources, quick
to perceive, and rapid in execution, is offered
the same incentives as the heaviest of
plodders. Is it absolutely necessary that
such a system, so unjust to the energetic and
the brilliant, should be continued amongst
those who toil in her Majesty's service ?

We say, " Most certainly not." The public
offices might easily be conducted so as that
any Ministerial chief should be able at a short
notice to ascertain the reputation for ability
of any individual in the department over
which he presides. Rules could easily be
introduced into the Civil Service by which,
according to certain regulations, the subordi-
nate officials might receive fair chances of dis-
tinguishing themselves ; the abilities and
attainments of the servants in the secretarial
departments of the State might be tested,
from time to time, with a view to selecting
subjects for promotion. At present the
drawing up of reports in the inner workings
of a given public department falls into cer-
tain routine fingers, and the opportunities
for displaying their knowledge is not given to
the officials at large. A B and C stand by
seniority at the head of the list, and they mo-
nopolise this department, and jog on in the
same course as their predecessors. Throw
those reports, summaries of public papers,
examinations of documents, &c., open to the
twenty-three officials ranging from D to Z,
and you at once give the carriers ouverte aux
talens.
To illustrate this point still further. When
committees of the Houses of Lords and
Commons inquire into certain things, the
chiefs and vice-chiefs of various public offices
are examined. Sometimes the evidence so
given is apt, striking, and suggestive ; at other
times it is dull, flat, and formalised. Why
should not the permanent chief of the depart-
ment in such cases he called upon to name
three or more of the clerks in the departments,
and let the whole office know that each and
all of them had a chance of being examined
under the public gaze of the first men in
England? But, furthermore, when inquiry is
demanded by Parliament on certain subjects,
why should not the reports drawn up by
clerks in the offices ap hear with the names
appended? The Marquis WELLESLEY intro-
duced some such system into the Anglo-Indian
service, and the fame of that eminent states-
man rests chiefly on his proved administra-
tive abilities. Agun, from time to time " pub-
licity" (of a healthy kind) may be let into the
departments by selected papers being pub-
lished on statistics, general results, &c. The
names of the subordinate officials drawing up
these papers should be printed, and a working
clerk should not be without hope that his
talents might be made known to leading
persons.
It is enough for us, to-day, to point to one
of the directions in which Official Reformers
must strive. " More publicity," for talent will
in itself be a " spiritual reward." Physicians
tell us that light is a powerful tonic, and the
Italians have a proverb that " Where the sun
" goes not, the doctor does." So do we say
upon Official Reform. Give the cheering
light of publicity to the labours of your ser-
vants, and you will be sure to have a more
elastic and vigorous display of the faculties
which strengthen and adorn the executive of
a country. We shall again return to this im-
portant subject.

SATURDAY,

A DANGEROUS ERROR REGARDING
INDIA.
A VERY prevalent but yeu dangerous error
regardipg Witt is the idea that, misgovern it
as we ‘lll,lpehave as, hedly towards the people
as we ina3p our Gevernrevet is still much
bettec end 9pr copituOintie* more humane than
that c any of the eteit,ive •;lynasties which have
preceded us. How far this is true may be
judged by a consideration of the circumstances
we are about to state. In the Presi-
dency capitals, indeed, which being under the
jurisdiction of the Crown Courts of Judicature
nothing like oppression on the part of the
Company's officials is possible. There,
of course, a man's property, whether per-
sonal or landed, is as safe from the Company's
clutches as it would be in London. If a native
Rajah die, his money and jewels lying within
the Supreme Courts' jurisdiction can only be
seized by the Company under an order of the
courts, which if heirs of any kind were living
would never be granted. Such wholesale spolia-
tion as that which lately took place in respect
to the private property of the Nagpore family
would at Calcutta be utterly impossible ; and,
in the same way, if the Company claimed to
confiscate a deceased Rajah's houses and lands
there on the plea of the ground having been
originally a fief granted by the Sovereign, the
Supreme Court would restrain the officials
attempting to make the resumption, and the
descendants of the possessor would be upheld
in their succession to the inheritance. The
point has been tried and settled. At one of
the Presidencies the Company set up a claim
to all the houses, great and small, that had at
any time been built there, on the plea of being
the owner in fee of the land they were built on,
in their capacity as Sovereign ; but the decision
was against them, and has never since been chal-
lenged, it being clear that no independent
coart of law would ever sanction the
monstrous doctrines affirmed by the Mofussil
courts, where the Company have none to curb
them but their own self-nominated judges.
But, indeed, if these were independent, instead
of the reverse, they could of themselves do
little towards the furtherance of justice in
respect to such cases, for they are bound to be
guided in all cases by the regulations, instead
of by the provisions either of the English law
or of the Hindoo or Mahomedan codes, and the
Government has the power of making and
altering the regulations to suit its purposes at
pleasure.
Now, under native Sovereigns, whether
Hindoo or Mahomedan, there was no such
absence of all legal security for property as
there exists in India at present. The Sove-
reign, equally with the subject, was bound by
the provisions of the codes existing, without
any power to vary them whatever. It is true
that right was sometimes overborne by might,
but not nearly so frequently as men ignorant
of the facts imagine. Indeed, any great con-
tinued oppression was impossible, for oppres-
sion it was felt must jeopardise the throne by
creating a rebellion. The Sovereign was rather
a primus interpares than an absolute monarch.
His vassals were ordinarily too powerful to be
wronged with impunity, and the lower orders
in the different towns and villages were mostly
under the protection of some great nobleman.
Then, again, the universal practice of holding
an open court, accessible to all without dis-
tinction, twice daily, gave every one who felt
himself aggrieved an opportunity of laying his
plaint before his Sovereign iu person ; and this
alone afforded a considerable check against
injustice. That, as a rule, the native system
was not unsuccessful may be gathered from
this, that in no parts M India, saving the Pre-
sidency capitals, are the towns and villages so
prosperous, or is agriculture so flourishing, as
in the majority of the native States and
Jaghires—a fact to which Bishop HEBER testi-
fied. And even in those native States where
the signs of prosperity are less evident the
cause will be generally found to be in the in-
terference of our Government—which seems to
be powerless for good and all-powerful for evil.
Perhaps the only real good we have effected in
those parts of India which we have annexed,
(though no doubt an important one) is the put-
ting an end to the frequent contests of come