The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 25, 1857.

ing the casual reader, but can have no effect
upon persons familiar with the subject. All,
indeed, that the first-mentioned class need do
to escape from the frail meshes of Mr.
WILSON'S oratory is to fix their eyes steadily
upon the broad features of the case, and bear
in mind the simple nature of the remedy pro-
posed by Lord NAAS. At present the Civil
servants contribute to a superannuation fund,
which confers only an inadequate advantage
upon only a fraction of their number. None
receive what they ought, and many receive
nothing. The first grievance results from the
fact that all theireontributions are thrown into a

common exchequer fund, by which means the
interest of the money contributed is lost to the
Civil Service and pocketed by the Govern-
ment of the day ; the second from the fact that
nobody can receive any benefit from the fund
at all unless he reaches the age of superannua-
tion. To those who die before this time the
money contributed for perhaps thirty years is
a dead loss, and the economy practised during
life bears no fruit after death for any of the
bereaved family. Now, it is simply proposed
by Lord NAAS to cut down the grievance at a
single stroke by abolishing superannuation
deductions altogether. That this decisive
measure might leave some minor inconve-
niences to be dealt with hereafter is very
possible. Inequalities might still exist, and
grumblers might still flourish. But the axe
would have been laid to the root of the tree—a
broad and glaring injustice which the whole
country hates would have been removed—and
the various details of the system, if dis-
arranged for the moment, would naturally
right themselves in time without Parlia-
mentary interference.

We do not like the tone of Mr. WILSON'S
speech. It is offensive as well as indistinct.
The business of investigating every detail of a
question affecting so large, so meritorious, arid
so important a body, should not be spoken of
as " trouble incommensurate with the subject."
The Cabinet, no doubt, have enough upon
their hands. The dogged hostility of insulted
China, and the. disastrous glar e of Oriental
rebellion, " with fear of change perplexing
Ministries," monopolise the attention of a
divided Government. But it would have been
more decorous and gentlemanlike to have
expressed this circumstance by one of those
adroit paraphrases in which the pupils of
PALMERSTON should be adepts.
The argument of Sir FRANCIS BARING, that
because a good class of candidates still con-
tinue to press for employment in the Civil
Service, therefore the Civil Service must be
itself unexceptionable, shows to what extre-
mities the opponents of this measure must be
driven. Employment in a Government office
holds out such peculiar advantages to a large
class of young men, wholly irrespective of
pecuniary profit, that we have no doubt the
dispensers of patronage would continue to be
besieged with applicants were the conditions
even still more unfavourable than they are.

We look forward with interest to the re-
sumption of the debate on Wednesday next.
On the one hand is a grievance so patent
that not even the Government journals can
be found to defend it—an injustice so crying
that the most submissive body of men in the
country have become the most obstreperous;
on the other, a Government which takes refuge
in the labyrinth of official details to avoid
the performance of imperial obligations.
Here is a question on which the new House
of Commons has a fair opportunity of proving
its common sense and its candour. How will
they abide the test?