The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-24 00:00:00

T 1123 StINLI4ONDON, FRIDAY :0 V. M 141146

PUBLIC COMPATITIVE EXAMINATIONS

merely better mathematicians or better classic!' than
those of lower degree, but that they are men of greater
intelligence and higher capabilities, and that in habits of
accuracy, punctuality, and industry, and in all that dis-
tinguiehes the man who does as: much as he can from
the men who does as little as he can, they are as a class
greatly superior. He equally maintains their superiority
in moral qualifications. It will therefora admit of little
doubt that, white private indivaluals have got prizes,
the public and the civil service in India have got twizei.
There will, on consideration, be feundewhen looked at
with a will and a practicable. desire. to render them
available, as little cause fordeubt that the same princi-
ples are as applicable to appointments to inferior posi-
tions, for which your institutions are adapted, to pro-
mote qualifications, and thiit- in respect to them the pub-
lic would gain as well by wbat open competitive ex-
aminations would exclude as by what they would
admit.
thie of the delegates wished to know whether Mr.
Chadwick could express any opinion as-to the course the
present Government might be prepared to take on the
question ?
Mr CHADWICK—No ; I can only refer you to the
public expressions which the heads of private parties have
given of adhesion to the principle of appointments for
merit, whatsoever hostility is 'manifested by their tails
to the only proved and undoubted means by which merit
for the pubic service can be tested. But I can express
a confident opinisn that' whilst you are inquiring as to
the probable intentions Of the Government, the particu-
lar Minister who may have the subject in charge will in
ail probability he looking out and inquiring, with a
view to his own course, what are the intentions
of yourselves as censtituents. The patronage secretary,
it is known, declares that the patronage is indispensable
t.+ his supporters. His supporters; the borough mem-
h -re may of them, declare that they would be glad to
he rid of it ; hut that they require it to meet the pres-
sure fram their supporters, their constituents. I say
the borough members, because it is a mistake to assume
that. the body of the patronage which would be appli-
cable to general educational instructions such as those
now under consideration, or those classes of appoint-
ments in r-spect to which the question of open compe-
tition has been raised, are of an ari-tecratical character.
Very little, indeed, of the patronage is given to the
county members—the mass of it goes to the borough
members. I say, therefore, it is for you, Mr. Mayor
—not you, perhaps, individually, but those whom
you represent, who ire responsible for the continuance
of the evils in question, and it is for you, the c,nsti-
tuencies of boronehs Erich as this, to adopt a self-denying
orlinance against those' foul abominations. Of the
patron age maintained by you, it might be said that it
is, like party, the occasion of the madness of the many
for the gain of the tem ;—usually the supposed gain, fer
frequently it is as injurious to the receiver as it certainly
is to the supposed giver, the state. Your borough
would gain its share of- prizes to its schools and educa-
tional institutions and their pnrifying influence, in sub-
stitution far the natronage and the corrupting influence
which you would give up. - I ask you to consider whe-
ther it would not be a gain in moral influence at least,
that the Queen's uniform worn by your postmen were
to denote that it hail been on by merit by the ,wearer,
as a prize scholar of a village or a diocesan school, in-
stead of his being a hanger on to one of your election-
eerine committees ? Do you conceive that the amenities
of the Customs officers in your port, or that the
despatch of business there would suffer, it the
appointments to the Customs were given as prizes
to the most attentive and successful students, in-
stead of to the prosecutors of your party con-
tests ? In the Government deckyarda there are fore-
maliships, surveyorships, and places for artisans requiring
the qualifications of practical mechanical science, which
we are trying to promote. Would not the navy and the
public he better served by appeintments given for prze
scholarships in mechanics than by appointments made
as bribes for votes in the way displayed before the com-
mittee aed the country, in the Dockyard Committees ?
At no great distance you have the new forests, and
I some extensive public lands. If the appointments to
offices, for their management, were given upon compe-
tive examinations, for special qualifications in the science
of botany or in arboriculture, might we not expect a
fairer display of produce, and better economical results
and examples than were displayed before successive
Parliamentary committees of inquiry ? I believe that
there are some sixteen thousand public places, of various
israles, the majerity of which are applicable, both to the
improvement of almost all grades of educational institu-
tions, and a most defective civil service, as several civil
servants of extensive exoeriencs represented, before any
defects were made manifest in extraordinary public disas-
ter. It might be shown that for all which you of the bo
rough constituencies gain in occasional patronage, you,
yourself, are made to pay severely in general taxation. In
con-equence mainly of this patronage, for the continuance
of which you are chiefly responsible, you pay. in many
in-tances, mere for dou: le the nuinberef badly appointed
officer: than would suffice under a purer system for the
Meter despatch of the public business. The mainte-
nance of patronage appointments by popular constituen-
cies I must declare is in violation of individual popular
rights ; for that which we are talking of as a new mo-
iality is an old statutory right, snil a right at corn non
law, declared by L. ri Coke in his institutes, that the
in at fit individual liaa a right to fitting office, whil-t the
State has a right to his services There are those
here who, I know, have had experience of the benefits
derivable from the ad nation of better practice in respect
to local appointments. The general poor-rates were
once Bs. 6d. per head on the population, and increasing.
They are now lis. 61., and the care of pauper children,
the medical relief, and the general administration of
relief is improved. The first step to this improvement,
by which two millions per annum, and more, has
been gained, was the abolition of your local patronage
in appointments, your appointments of officers for such
causes asihat they had failed in trade, or had a large
family, with small means of supporting it, and the pa-
tronage was nearly put an end to by taking practical
securities for the improved securities for the qualifica-
tions of officers, chiefly by competitive examinations.
The,like results would. follow-, the application of similar
means to the general' public. administration. It seems
that the present meeting is understood to be for a
conference simply, and that it is not understood
that resolutions are to be proposed in a formal manner.
I think sufficient fscts have been brought before the
meeting to enable those present to judge of the cour- e
which they ought to take at once, as constituents, and
as heads of families, and hereafter as members of
educational institutions. (Npplause.)
air. FALVEY said there was certainly a general agree-
ment gaining strength in society of the importance of
the views represested that day by Mr. 'C ladvvick. The
main difficulty felt at present upon the subject was in
the appointment of examiners sufficiently responsible.
Whet seceritiee could be propped in respect to them ?
Mr CHADWICK said that the difficulty WAS, he appre-
hended, in great part. and indeed sufficiently, met by
making the examinations competitive. It was in truth
the chief ground of the importance attached to competi•
tive examination by the official supporters of the mea-
sure, that the competition we, a strung security ageinat,
misdecision on the part of the examiners. In private
and departmental examinations the "leaping bar" might
he, and it was not 'infrequently, lowered to favour the
passage of a particu'ar candidate. In the public and
competitive examinations this could not be safely done
the rival candidates and their friends• if not the general
public's, would be enabled to detect atty unfairness, and
the deci-ions. involving comparisons of relative merits,
were necessarily of a jedicial character involving judicial
securities. The evidence of astnal experience would he
omitted to mention that the competitive examinations
found complete and satisfactory on that point. He had
for medical appointments in India, of which no account
hal vet appeared before the 'lnnen; had aff wiled the
most valuable, complete, and decisive experience of the
deneera of the common " pass examinations" fordegrees,
which filly justified the apprehensions expres-ed. The
competitive examinations proved that under the common
pass examination.' men obtainedelegrees to practise as
surgeons and degrees of doctors of medicine who were
imerence of the cern.
in a state of the most da.nger oes
men requisites for the gale practise of their profession.
Several dectors of malicine had been plucked for scan-
lalous ignorance. The only prwectionau of the public
,seinal he found in the institution of new competitive
examinations.
Mr. Sraristaro (the optician), of Southampton, said
that he had no doubt whatever that the borough corpo-
ration 'night he got to give up their political patronage.
He would undertake to say that in Southampton there
would he little difficulty in the matter. (Applause.) In-
deed it was now very generally felt to be a nuisance.
Professor TYNDALL, of the Royal Institution, made an
eloquent appeal on the claims of science and for the aboli-
tion of mere patronage.
.lle had acted as an examiner on
some of the recent comeetitive examinations, and he
ile•cribed the very seriola ignorance which but for them
night have. passed undetected into the public service.
The CHAIRMAN expressed his satisfaction at the una-
nimity which prevailed amongst all parties on the
subject. He referred to the report on industrial
instruction, adopted
by the Society of Arts, to re.
impress them with the dreary position of the mid-
dle class not intended for the universities, whose
motives to exertion were as few as they were
feeble. The youth of that cleric knows that he must re-
main at school for a certain pd, and then proceed to
business ; but he cannot discover how his diligence
points of resemblance
there can have any perceptible effect upen his future
a s prospects,
science
havwinitghsocoleitlerce, ignorant of the
in
nr
matters
literature atters
fact that success in each is achieved by the same instru-
ment. Now, were he certain that, in leaving school, he
must eo before an impartial tribunal, and there be sub-
jected to a most searching examination, and cemperel
with boys front other schools, what a powerful motive
to exertion would he at once supplied ? Baron
Liebig, in a communication to the &moiety of Arts,
said, " Without examinations all efforts are useless, and
nn scheme of instruction has any perceptible effect. I
am supported in my assertion by an experience of 27
years, and I can assure you that even amongst our me-
dical students, the study of natural philosophy, of
chemistry, and of geelogy was utterly neglected until
we determined to divide the examination of the students
into tare, namely, a previous examination in the natural
sciences, and a second examination in them proper to
the medical department. When I assure you that for
20 years no medical student at Giessen visited the labo-
ratory this is a full and sufficient proof of what I say.
Bet immediately after the examination was introduced
the students pursued their studies with zeal and ardour.
In the magnificent halls of Oxford and Cambridge, men
the most eminent, in the various departments of law,
political econotny, history, arid natural science, lecture,
too often, almost to empty benches. It is not that the
pupils are ignorant of the great value of the subjects lec-
ture I upon ; quite the reverse. Yet they must not
attend to them, because they will not tell upon their de-
gree. A brighter d y fer educational labours was open
ing upon them if the members duly supported the views
displayed at the meeting. (Applause.) A desnitory

FOR THE PUBLIC SE,VICE.

SOUTHAMPTON, AuG. 22.
A meeting was held to day in the Town-hall, of the
representatives of the district educational institutions
belonging to the Hants and Wilts Educational Society
in union with the Society of Arts, Manutactures, and
Commerce, Louder. The chair was taken by the Rev.
James Booth, F.R.S., as chairman of the council of the
Society of Arts. He was supported by the Mayor of
Southampton, by the Venerable Archdeacon Wigram,
the Hon. and Rev. S. Best, from Andover, Edwin
Chadwick, Esq.. C. 13., the Rev. Thos. Bacon, from Win-
chester, Wyndham Portal, Esq., from Winchester, and
by a much larger number of secretaries and delegates
from other towns a. d local institutions than on any
similar occasion. The object of the meeting was to
confer on the means of promoting the instruction of the
industrial classes, the extension of local associations, and
the furtherance by united exertions of those already
instituted.
'rue CHAIRMAN opened the business of the day by re-
ferring to the general feeling which he said pervaded all
society as to the position in which the country was now
nlaced, which rendered the exercise of practical science
and skill, sound intruction, and pure social feeling in all
branches of the cemmunity more than ever necessary for
its safety, arid for the maintenance of its position in the
civilised world, as well as for the continuance of its ma-
terial prosperity. He referred more especially to the
sul,jsct of lectorial instruction, and to the instruc-
tion of examinations for certificates of compe-
tency proposed by the Society of Arts as
a means of rendering that instruction efficient. The di-
reetien of the thoughts and action of the educated mem-
bers of the societies in union, on the question of public
exesnieaiions and emeloyments as determined by sure
to-ts of competency, was at this time the really import-
ant topic for their consideration, and the exercise of their
united influence. When the formation of an union of
the local institutions in connection with the Society of
Arts was first proposed the advantages of united action
were only dimly perceived, and only 35 joined ; now the
affiliated institutions numbered 400, and the members in
connection with them 70.000. In the present position of
the country it alipearel t be necessary that they should
exercise the influence of that union protectively for the
hest interests of the country. Since the passing of the
Reform: Bill we had no longer, in the old sense, a Govern-
ment taking up measures awl executing them on its own
judgment of their' importance ; we now bad what might
he more correctly called an administration, acting on the
predominant views, wishes, and representations of the
community. Now was this the time—when the leaders
in education, those Who had the direction and the for-
mation of the industrial and scientific education and
power of the most numerous classes of the community,
their intellectual and moral force—to exert themselves
to secure the evident public administrative means by
which those powers might be augmented for the public
good ? (Applause )
The Hon. and Rev. Mr. BEST briefly opened the sub-
.jqct of examinations for certificates of competency as
proposed by the Society of Arts, and expressed his con-
viction of the importance of their adoption, as a mean'
of advancing the instruction of the labouring classes.
He instanced their use as accredited passports to em-
ployment.
Mr. CITADWICK—I attend here upon an invitation
arising from a knowledge of the consideration I have
given to the hearing of examinations for the public ser-
vice on educational institutions ; but in taking part in
this discussion I am only returning to what is to me an
old field, for some 30 years ago, before I entered into
the public service, the first part I ever took in public
maeters was in lending humble aid to my late friend Dr,
Blrkbeck, in the formation of mechanics' institutions,
and was a vice-president of two of the first that were
formed after the chief institution in the metropolis. In
entering upon the enlject, of public examinations, as tests
of educational merit for the public service, I do not think
we are obnoxious to the charge of any serious infringe-
ment of the understanding not to enter into party poli-
tics, for appointment for merit is an admitted principle by
the heads of the chief political parties, Len!. Derby, Sir E.
Lytton, and Lord Stanley on the one side, and Mr. Glad-
eeene and Sir Stafford Northcote and a large body on the
Tither, having expressed concurrence in the principle.
Tire-main question is, however, by what means can the
principle he best tested and its application be enforced ?
-There.are few of us who may not as readers have exer-
cised the faculty of reading on one subject to an audi-
ence, and having the thinghts directed to another ;
whilst pupils hearing lectures, having the semblance
of close attention, have nevertheless their thoughts
elsewhere. The cure of this inattention, the remedy
for the failure of lectorial instruction, my friend, the
ch:iirman, pointed out in a pamphlet—entitled "Exam-
ination the Duty of the State "—in which he antici-
pates much of mar present thoughts on the subject. His
view as to the nocessity and importance of public exa-
minations has been recognised by all the affiliated insti-
tu ions, and by the parent instit ition as means to insure
sound instruction. The commissioners of inquiry into
the meal's of improving the education at the University
of Oxford have givon a definition of the qualities required
for efficient examination., which I beg leave to quote
trim the report of toe Society of Arts on industrial in-
structien. as showing the progress of concurrent
mit independent opinions en this subject. Those
commis-inners say that " to seeder a system
of examination effeettnil, it is indispensable that there
should be danger of rsjection of inferior candi ates,
ouretile rewards and distinctions for the able and dili-
gent, with examiners of high character, acting 'under
immediate responsibility to public opinion." Now
. whilst the chairman tenders educational institutions,
Oxford inquiry commissioners, and combatants against
ignorance were saying these things, Sir Charles Trevel-
yan, and Sir Stafford Northcote, myself, Mr. John
Wood, of the Customs, and others of the largest ex-
oerience in office, remonstrants against the evils of igno-
rance and incompetency prevalent in the public service,
wereitelependently saying much the same things as to the
nature of the examinations requisite, in the first instance,
for the correction of those deplorable evils. Whilst we
were contending for open and competitive examinations
as the only safe test of educational qualification,: for the
public service, others out of doors, promoters of educes
tional were looking to more than honorary
di~tincitni
islntist,u tai osn sr
real rewards to the diligent, and neces-
eery inducements to attention, and to undergo the re-
quisite ordeal of examinations, and were regarding the
ajj.pointmemt to poblic offices as prizes necessary for the
'aeltnincement of general education. Here, then, form
different starting points, we, with a large body of think-
ing per 'One who have hitherto taken no part in public
qneetions of any sort ; but we, moved to the like con-
Ousions by it opreseiOns derived from the extraordinary
events of the times, are brought to a common field, for a
concurrence or opinion, and, it is to be hoped, a union
of forces. (Applause.) The attention of all leaders :if
educational institutions has recently been arrested by
the first cenepic emit., example which we have gained of
Public competitive examinatiene for appeintments I
mean for the wri terThipe in the Indian service—which,
he it noted, are appointments leading to eventual emolu-
ments of four or fi vei them:end pounds per annum, equal-
ing the pay of Cabinet Ministers. and having jurisdic-
tions, wider often :tad more important perhaps than in
,Tirter times beion 'zed to lord-lieutenants. We all know
the difficulties undttr which parents are placed to judge
ofthe positive or re lit' ive merits of particular seats of
learning. By the nisive arrangement definite tests are
preivided from year to year, which will ail their judg-
ment au to where they will send their children. Let us
-regard the new impulse which these examinations will
give to 'he heads of c. illeeee and others to be wakeful
and keep up. with .eacle- otherand with the times, under the
sure penalty of immediate desertion. Look next at the aid
and relief the examples. give tothe competent and willing
teachers, in the stimulus it gives to the attention of flal•
ging pupil., who cannot at present be got to work for
distant, indefinite, or uncertainubjects, on whom this
annual gaining and losing, not only of honours but of
large substantial prizes, must make the strongest impres-
sions. Now, this new power, gained by these competi-
tive examinations for medical appointments, as well as
by the competitions for cadetships now going on—a
power gained for the educational institutions which
are appropriated to the, wealthier classes, is of a
species which just meets the pressing wants of
parents, pupils, and teachers in respect to the
schools for the middle and lovrer pertions of our
industrial communities. I submit they meet the chief
weaknesses and failures-- in the special class of institu-
tions under your care. Competitive examinations for
certificates of competency for school teacherships in-
dusted under the auspices of the Committee of Privy
Council afford, by the tee made of them, important evi-
dence of the value of competitive examinations as au-
thentic and .-rustworthy tests of the market value of
qualifications for commercial service. The effect of those
examinations of competency for sohool teacherships, of
some seventy pounds per annum, or more, bag been to
cell forth qualifications for clerkships of one hundred,
and a hundred and fifty pounds per annum, in the corn
inercial labour market ; and as Parliament, with waste-
ful parsimony, does not choose to p ty the proper market
ialUe of tested educational qualifications, the successful
competitors have used their certi acates as a means of
obtaining more lucrative commercial clerkships, or
Clerkships to engineers and manufacturers ; and I am
assured that some of these successful candidates are
answering so well that future men of wealth and posi-
tion in commerce and manufact urea will have owed
their prosperity to these competitive examinations. The
new certificates of competency, obtained upon cempe
titive examinations cenducted at the school of practical
art at Marlborough House, I am assured are beginning
to afford similar premier) of success. There can be no
doubt that similar certificates of competency, awarded
upon competition by known and responsible examiners,
would furnish a means fir raising talents from the
lowest ranks, and would be of grefit convenience to em-
ployers whose time is valuable, and whose own means
of mutual examination are very limited. Other consi-
derations on the side of the interests of education will
be suggested by your own experience and observation.
Let me advert to the claims of the public for adminis-
trative improvement. Lord Wrottesley, the Presi-
dent of the Royal-Society, whilst agreeing in the gene-
ral principle, takes exception to what he. considers the
depreciatory manner in which I have spoken of quali-
fications in abstract science. Now, whilst lam still of
opinion that we should contend for the special
and the practical as against the general and
the abstract, and I still think the subject-
matter of the examinations for the writerships
open to objection' as being too scholastic ; yet even as
they are, I must admit and declare that the evidence is
decisive that they are yet a great gain to the public and
to India. Sir Charles Trevelyan, who himself studied at
Haileybury, attests the fact, that the same men who
were failures at the College were the same who were iii
office failures, and bad bargains for the public. Mr.
Hopkins, the late president of the Geological Society,
attests, upon 30 years observation and intimacy with
them, that thoie who gain academical honours are not