The Press.
London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

THE CIVIL-SERVICE REPORT.

Tug report of Sir STAFFORD NORTH COTE and the
übiquitous Sir C. TREVELYAN on the organisa-
tion of the permanent civil service is to bear
fruit after all. It has been generally pooh-
poohed by the press, and very expeditiously
" damned" in the public offices, where people
can't be persuaded that the whole affair is not
a prelude to the " organisation of the perma-
nent" influence of Sir CHARLES himself,—the
stoker presumptive of the new political en-
gine. But the public may reason or ridicule
ad libitum; the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
has a weakness for mountainous parturitions ;
so testimonials in favour of the scheme are
paraded in the Ministerial organs ; an Ox-
ford Tutor, a junior Dean, and a head School-
master, have each said a good word ( valeat
quantulum ); Her Majesty's inspectors of
schools chime in as in duty bound ; all con-
tributions are thankfully received, and a bill
is in preparation on the subject, as we were
informed on Tuesday night.

SATURDAY,

At present we have only the Commissioners'
Report before us. We premise that, when offi-
cial demonstrators are called in to " report "
upon any incident of our sublunary state, we
may expect to find some exaggeration of its
defects : they must make it out to be more or
less a eafput mortuum, if only to show their
right to dissect it. But we scarcely expected,
ever in a report, such a highly-wrought and
appalling.picture of our official destitution—
such an illustration, in short, of OxErismax's
reflection, " With how little wisdom you may
contrive to govern the world."
We are informed that, so far from the civil
service proving attractive to the able and
ambitious, by a singular misdirection of their
tastes and aptitudes it is chiefly sought after
by " the indolent or incapable." Those whose
abilities are below the average, or " whom
" indolence of temperament or physical in-
" firmities unfit for active exertions," are in
the habit of regarding the civil establishment,
at least it is so implied, as a sort of hospitium
for inherent feebleness or premature decrepi-
tude. The Downing-street which we have
been wont to consider the centre of active life
iu England is represented to our imagination
as a superior almshouse, a locality which, if it
were favourable to the growth of peaches,
THOBISON might have selected as the site for
his " Castle of Indolence." The popular im-
pression that the candidates for a Government
clerkship are aspirants for hard work, with
inadequate pay, evaporates in the light of this
poetic conception. They are not on a par with
the Lazzaroni of Naples, because the latter
are ordinarily in robust health ; uor are they
as respectable as the Lotus-eaters, on account
of " the numerous instances" in which un-
worthy considerations have led to the appoint-
ment of " men of questionable character. To
give specific point to this general representa-
tion, without relieving any of her Majesty's
servants from suspicion, the Commissioners
say :
We have before us the testimony of an eminent public
' officer, who was for many years connected with one of
the chief departments of the State. He writes thus :
" During my long acquaintance with the office, I
remember four, and only four, instances of young men
being introduced into it on the ground of well-ascertained
fitness."

When the Commissioners add their persua-
sion that, however incompetent the men, the
system is worse, it is an unlooked-for consola-
tion to find, on their testimony, that the official
corps is better than anybody could have ex-
pected under the circumstances, and to know
further they have taken their fair share in the
government of the world.
The fact is, this report a little overshoots
the mark at which it is aimed. The con-
fessions of a candid friend are not gene-
rally deficient in unction; and if the Com-
missioners had been Scotch preachers
they could not have " improved the opportu-
nity " more pungently than they have. For
ourselves, we have no particular call just at
present to defend the state of things in Down-
ing-street. Whatever it is, it is the result of
five-and-twenty years' " Liberal " manipulation
(Peelite and other). How different it was in
CANNING'S time and the " Duke's," the inquir-
ing reader may learn in Mr. ROEBUCK'S " His-
tory of the Whig Ministry." We much regret
to hear of its rapid deterioration under the
Lord JOHNS, Lord ABERDEENS, Sir JAMES
STEPHENS, Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTHS, et
Id genus omne. Even now we hardly
think so badly of it as its reporting friends.
At all events, Sir S. NORTHCOTE'S own expe-
rience must have satisfied him that a man of
capacity and attainments in a Government
office is not yet as great a rarity as a tortoise-
shell tom-cat ; and his brother Commissioner,
though obliged to testify " yuceque ipse miser-
rims vidi," ought in fairness to continue the
quotation to " quorum pars ?myna Jul." We,
for our parts, do not believe that the public
offices generally answer to any such descrip-
tion as the above. As ncords of personal
experience, courtesy forbids our doubting their
correctness. But we cannot allow political
' (any more than ordinary) " Topsys" to confess
"how awful wicked I be" of anybody but them
selves. We don't believe that Lord PALMERS-
TON'S office, for instance, was ever in the con-
dition which Sir C. TREVELYAN has described.

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