The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-03 00:00:00

IPRICE SD.

ing altogether to 250,000 tons ; which Mr. Lindsay ob-
serves "must be admitted to be an enormous transport
fleet."

Of the "profligate extravagance, slovenliness in the
employment of vessels, and confusion and mismanage-
ment in their departure from and arrivals in port," men-
tion has been made by competent authority in the House
of Lords, and abundant evidence has been adduced in
the committee of inquiry.
Mr. Lindsay, therefore, has "no hesitation in saying
that out of the 8,000,0001. which have been voted for
the transport service, 2,000,0001. at least have been to-
tally lost through unnecessary delay."
Leaving the country to accept the apological explana-
tion of Sir James Graham on this expenditure or not, as
they see fit, we proceed to what Mr. Lindsay calls an
illustration "in a plain way" of the " administrative
system" of the Government offices. After giving an
instance in which the delay of obtaining the settlement
of a small account was so vexatious that he preferred
losing it altogether, he prodeeds with a further "illus.
tration," which is equally amusing and instructive :
" There was another account—he did not remember in
which particular department, but he thought it was in the
Admiralty—.for upwards of 2,0001. The account was
rendered, and for six weeks it was not passed. The loss
of interest on 2,0001. for six weeks was a considera-
tion, so he determined one morning, instead of coming
in early to business, to wait for Government hours,
and to get to the Admiralty by half-past ten. It
was a fine summer morning, and after a good deal
of jostling, for no one knew him—,sand if they had,
perhaps they would not have cared--he got into a
room in which were three desks, and at one of the
desks was a gentleman, seemingly very much at his ease,
for he sat on an easy chair, with his leg cocked over the
arm of another easy chair, whistling to himself the tune of
Peter Dick,' keeping time to it on the desk with a ruler.
(Laughter.) He walked up to the• gentleman and said,
Can you tell me anything of this account ?' His reply
was, `No ; I can't say. I don't know anything about it.
It has not some to me yet.' While speaking to him, in
walked anaher gentleman, who should have been the oc-
cupier of one of the empty desks, with his hat cocked on
one side and a gold headed cane in his hand. (Laughter.)
He did not object to gentlemen cocking their hats on one
side, or carrying gold headed canes, if they would attend
to their business. (Hear, hear.) Itiald.ressing the gen-
tleman who was whistling * Peter Dick,' the new ar-
rival said, 'l'm off by the eleven o'clock boat to
Gravesend. I don't suppose I shall be back before
four. You'll keep me all right.' (Loud laughter.)
The gentleman who had come in then departed, and
his whistling friend then said that, perhaps, the account
was in his charge. Upon that he replied, 'I hope, then,
when it reaches you you will not be going down to Graves-
end ;' and to that observation having received rather an
impertinent answer, with which it was not necessary to
trouble the house, he left the office ; but as he did so, he
could not help saying to himself, I hope the time may
come when I shall be able to assist in rooting out these
Peter Dicks—(a laugh)—who waste so much treasure, and
who have aided in bringing so much disgrace upon the
country.' (Hear.) But what was the original source
whence these evils had arisen ? It was the existing sys-
tem of patronage which created these Peter Dicks,
and there were too many of them, both high and low ;
but the time had arrived when such men must be
rooted out. The country wanted, and it would insist
upon having competent men employed in their places.
fie, as a man of business, felt no hesitation in saying
that there were at the present moment many men
engaged in Government offices in the receipt of salaries
varying- from 801. to 5001. a-year, who not only dig- no
real service to the country, but to pay whom, without
allowing them to go near the offices to which they were
attached, would cause a great saving of the public money."
Our own experience of the character and conduct of
Government officials entirely acc3r Is with that of Mr.
Lindsay. Peter Dick is a, " representative man," the
type of a cla's. Every one who has had the misfortune
to have had business to transact at the public offices of
the country is acquainted with Petei' Dick. We per-
fectly well remember encountering, such an official
gentleman "one fine summer morning," with his hat
on his head, white kid gloves on his hands, and a very
long official pen between his fingers, and whose
ignorant incapacity could only be exceeded by his most
offensive insolence. The end of our Peter Dick was,
that he absconded with a large sum of the public money,
and we question if the country after all did not gain by
the loss.

But what lies at the root of this evil? Mr. Lindsay
tells us " It was the existing system of patronage which
created these Peter Dicks.

Let the public remember that these civil servants
of the public are not self- elected. It is the Heads of
Departments, who, in the exercise of a system of
corruption and jobbing, fill our public offices with
incompetent officials. Like master like man. It is
thus that incompetent and incapable Heads of De-
partments have filled our Government offices with
incompetent and incapable clerks and secretaries.
The abuses of our civil service have been less looked into
than other abuses, because they have pressed less upon
the great body of the public. Merchants, contractors,
and all men of business who have had transactions with
public offices, have long groaned under the system. The
mismanagement of the war has laid bare the enormous
evils of the whole concern. The Right Honourable Peter
Dick, with all the long line of first and second cousins,
and the cousins of his political friends and partisans,
must be "rooted out.,"

The English method of reform is never to redress a
grievance till it has become intolerable. This is the case
with our civil service. We have allowed the evil to re-
main in full force, till it has eventuated in a " war mis-
management" which has sacrificed money by the million,
and human life by the thousand.