The Express.
London, England, 1857-09-04 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 4, 1857.

esti main be oollected; sod we will have to do thin
at a time when famine and inssbrdinatioe' make
government more than usually easily in Isidiar and
while the derangement of Indiail trade presses hard
upon many English eserobants and manujeetnrers,
and upon all employed by them-. Such is the news
which we must expect from India for many mails
to come.

This is not a crisis out of which we can hope to
emerge in gaiety by shutting our eyes to the danger-
India is not to be re-conquered by eloquent declama-
tion about waves and torrents of sparkling bayonets,
such as the Tinges has recently been indulging in ;
nor are peace and prosperity to be restored to India
by ignoring the peril to which our empire there is
exposed, as is the tone of the evening ministerial
Journal. Such servile echoes of the more stolid and
frivolous members of the Government and of the
Direction of the East India Company, if they can at
all influence the national mind, can only tempt to
procrastination and inaction when prompt and
resolute action is indispensable. Woe to England if
she listens to t►e Syren song!

Few experiments are watched with more interest
at present than that of Competitive Examination
lately introduced into the public service. Twenty-
Bra yam ago Mr. EDWIN CHADWICK advocated
this system in the London lierirte, and a few
days ■go the same gentleman read a paper on
the subject before the British Association at Dub-
Ira. Things have vastly changed in the hut quarter
of • century. And though Mr. CHADWICK insists
that the system is only half carried into effect—
because, instead of an absolutely open competition,
the candidates are confined to those who arc nomi-
nated—etill the first step has been taken towards
the final consummation. Certainly, valuable evi-
dence is being gradually collected which must
sheens those who predicted that this system of
Examination would prove a failure. It is
well that this discussion took place in Dub—
hn. As Mr. NAPIER said, there is no country
which has a deeper interest in the success
of this Competitive System than Ireland. Nor is the
sudden conversion of Mr. WHITESIDE to this system
without its value. It shows that Competitive FA-
ataination is no party question, and that its
advecates will receive the support of all parties
lin the House of Commons. Only a few years
Ego it was the common belief that of all jobbers
Irishmen were the worst ; and no applica-
tions were so math dreaded by the SECRETARY of
the Tee t SCRY as those from Irish members. But
now things are changed. Irishmen are not only ea-
I tisfied to have their nominees tested by Examiners,
but the opinion of the Examiners seems to be ae-
quieseed in. This is of vast consequence, and Mr.
WHITE•IDE gave a remarkable illustration of the

correctness of the Examiners judgments: " Tbe
" first gentleman who got • prize in the Indian
" service last year was the son of an Enniskillen
" friend of mine. That young gentleman entered
" the University of Dublin as a eizar, and got •
" scholarship • year before his time ; and I have
" learned from Dr. ORMIAN, the Muster of the
" Royal School at Enniskillen, that from the first
" be was remarkable for high ability and extreme
assiduity, morality, and propriety of conduct.
" Having been examined by impartial gentlemen, be
" found the reward of merit." Thus the sound judg-
ment of the Examiners is vindicat.d, and the public
are disposed to acquiesce in their judgments. It is
indeed of vital importance that the public should be
thoroughly convinced of the ability, and, above all,
of the honesty of the Examiners. Such au instance
as that which we have just given proves both.
But we believe that the principle of competition
casts an additional security round the public, and
especially round the Examiners. It is a much
more difficult thing to reject a candidate than to
determine the comparative merits of several
candidates, who arc probably most of them
above the pees-standard. In pass-examinatMns there
is always a tendency to lower the standard; and
when the place is valuable, and the person who
nominates powerful, it requires both ability and
stern independence to act justly and to exclude in-
competence. Confidence in the Examiners is so
essential, that any measure which will tend to in-
cream that ought to be adopted. And since the
extension of the Competitive Principle would proba-
bly have this effect, we are inclined to urge the
adoption of such a measure.

The time during which the system of Competitive
Examination has been established is no doubt sheet.
But light has already been thrown upon two most
important questions. When it was about to be
introduced we were told that it would destroy the
public service ; that by throwing places open to
the world you might get some clever young men,
but that they would probably be such snobs" that
the business of the office would come to a stand.
still ; that they would prove official enjans terrible:
in Downing-street We were told--truly enough—
intellect is not all that is required for a good public
servant; the civil servants must be persons in such
a rank of life as will enable them to hold intercourse
with the heads of departments, and even with Cabinet
Ministers. In like manner we were told that officers in
the Army--teen in the Engineers and the Artillery—
were gentlemen, and therefore it would be moot un-
wise to throw such appointments open to general
competition. All this, of course, was simply the
dying cry of Patrosage. There is no danger of the
sort. It is obvious that the great mass of young
men who have had such an education as will enable
them to be successful, must have had the education
of gentlemen. And it is equally obvious that before
a young man becomes a candidate for entrance
into any body or corps, he must have a natural
liking for that particular service. One thing
at all events is clear, that the higher the appointment
the more necessity is there that the competition
should be absolutely open, because the qualiti..stion
being considerable, there are fewer men in the
world fit for the poet, and the danger of being
exposed to the presence of a man of inferior edu•
cation is proportionably diminished.

Ent as an answer to this prediction, that open com-
petition would lead to the service being filled with
under-bred men, let instate a kw facts. Commissions
in the Artillery and Engineers have been opened to
general competition ; and what does Lord
Pmeurns my on this matter " I think," he
says, " that the candidates come from all
" chases of society. We have had some from
" the higher classes, some clergymen's sons, and
" officers' eons, but not one from what might be
" called the lower class of society; but they are all
" what are called gentlemen's sons; and their con-
. duet proves that whether gentlemen's sons or
" not they have been educated fur the society of
" gentlemen."

I -
Again, the Civil Service Commissioners in Eng-
land bad four clerks to appoint for their own office-
Three were junior clerkships of 1001. a year, rising
by 101. to 2001. per annum ; and a fourth a senior
clerkship, with a salary of 2001. per annum, rising
by yearly instalments of 151. to 3001. Foe them places
there were forty-six candidates. Of these twenty-
sight were the sons of professional men and inde-
pendent gentlemen. There were seven sons of eats-
blinbsel clergymen, two of dissenting ministers, eight

ow of gentlemen, two sons of polies magistrates,
tiro pus of surgeons, two sons of lieutenants in the
foyal navy, one son of a colonial judge, one son of a
professor of a university, one son of a lieutenant-
colonel, and so on. It is obvious that these belong
to the very class of persons whose sons would have
been appointed directly under the old jobbing sys-
tem, if they had only had interest. Such evidence
is surely sufficient to silence the objections of those
who say that an extension of the Competitive System
must lower the social rank of the public service.
There is another question upon which this Com-
petitive System has important linings. It is
clear that the remain of the examinstices are eagerly
scrutinised, not only by the parents of the esedidates
but by the masters of the establishments at which
the candidates have been educated. These examine-

None are, in fact, a test of the comparative merit of
education throughout the country. A schoolmaster
whose pupils uniformly fail must infallibly lose his
school. Mr. Warrestna gives a remarkable instance
of this. He tells how the result of the Woolwich
examinations led to a change of system at Dublin.
The result seems to be that whilst on the first oc-
casion the candidates failed, on the second occasion
out of thirty candidates ten carried away prizes.
Nor is the same gentleman's comparison between the
success of the Dublin and that of the Belfast Uni-
versities leas significant. He says to Dublin, "At the
" last Indian examination you carried off only one
"prize—Belfast carried off three; this must be
" looked to." These things show clearly that this
system of open competition, by which young men
from every school in the empire are invited to con-
tend against each other, must elevate the standard
of education. The results of these contests must
operate as a test of the merit of the various &heels
and Colleges, and must have the further effect of
pointing out to parents the best places at which to
educate their children.