The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-23 00:00:00

which he has cast down. His challenge has been

accepted; the combat must take place a routrance.
He would be for ever dishonoured and held
"nidering"—it is a good old Saxon phrase—if
lie now cries craven. We shall not, however, so
far wrong him as to suppose that he will now
Mold back or evade the obligations he has volun-

wily assumed. _
To-morrower Friday, then, the vitally impor-
ant question will be decided. We cannot doubt
the result. There must be a new Ministry. The
Family Party must surrender to more competent
hands the power they have so grossly abused.
We must have a firm Government, whose " say-
ings and doings" will alike bear investigation, and
who will not permit Great Britain to be any
longer bamboozled. Our Imperial Ally only
requires unflinching resolution on the part of the
:3'nglish Cabinet to carry out his views in such a
nanner as will speedily alter the feeling both of
Russiaand Austria, and compel the former humbly
to sue for far more onerous terms than those she
has already so contumeliously rejected, and the
latter to declare herself without hesitation.
No true-hearted Etiglishman can remain neutral
under such circumstances. The several consti-
tuencies will know whether their feelings and
wishes are properly represented, and woe to those
who run counter thereto, who at the time of trial
are found wanting !
Mr. LAYARD has once more entitled himself to
the thanks and gratitude of the community for
io gracefully yielding priority to Mr. DISRAELI.
Although the country feels the deepest interest in
everything relating to Administrative Reform, the
" War policy" is, par excellence, the question of

the day. All others are comparatively of secon-
dary importance to that in which the national
honour is involved. All distinctions of party
tire now merged in the one grand point—
tll other considerations are of minor weight. That
there will be a hard fight is certain. Ministers
viii have not only the assistance of the waiters on
Providence, and of their late colleagues, the Peel-
ites, but also of the Peace party, of those who
think with Mr. M. GIBSON and his associates
-hat England should submit to any insult, should
')atiently witness any injustice, provided there be
io interference with s" trade." Sir F. BARING
las already given notice of an amendment almost
Antamount to the dropped resolution of the Right
Eton. Member for Manchester, although couched
n less decisive terms. No one can, however, be
.aken in by the phraseology. Vague languaze
gill not now answer, and the amendment will,
we 'hope and believe, be rejected by a decided
najoriLy. The moment for action has arrived,
Lnd England indeed expects that every ;true-
-warted citizen will' faithfully discharge his duty.

The prophecy of that eminently popular his-
%orian, Sir A. ALIsoN, last evening, at the Anni-
versary of the Literary Fund, is likely to meet
with but little scepticism throughout the country,
and will go far ultimately to dissipate what there
may be of that. Possessing a deep personal in-
erest in the mighty struggle now going on, the
learned Baronet brought to bear on it the vast
store of knowledge with which a long course of
reading and much observation and reflection had
enriched him ; and, ater a careful examination of
historical parallels and facts, felt justified in don-
ning the mantle of the prophet, and declaring that;
" as long as England and France remained united,
there was no danger but that Western Civilisation
would conquer Eastern Despotism." So be it. It
is too late in the day for us to insist that England
and France are the leaders of civilisation ; nor
is it necessary to adduce such of the facts
and parallels referred to by Sir ARCHIBALD
as may have occurred to our recollection. The
higher intelligence and nobler ideas of the two
Western Powers, aided by the superiority of their
material resources, really tell their own tale.
Everywhere, hitherto, barbarism has in the long
run receded or succumbed before advancing civi-
lisation ; and by the operation of the same law
we confidently look for the ultimate defeat of
Russia. It is impossible for her to combat long
with success against ideas as well as swords. Her
armies cannot ultimately triumph over freemen
and those entrusted with the standards of liberty.
Sir ARCHIBALD is right. Russia must succumb,
and it is more Lhan probable that nothing could
happen more advantageous to her slave population
than her defeat. That population cannot long
remain as they are. Thus, as the gallant soldiers
of England and France join shoulder to shoulder
in the conflict, they should be encouraged with the
idea that not only by the success of their arms do
they stay the irruption of barbarism, but alsb
aid in conferring on barbarians the blessings of
civilisation.

To-day there appears the copy of a Commission
which May appear to be of great importance, as
an instalment of concession to the principle of Ad-
ministrative Reform. It appoints a board to
regulate the examination of young men who may
from time to time be proposed to be appointed to
the junior situations in any of her Majesty's civil

establilhments. The appointments of the com-
missioners are decidedly exceptionable. The &at
Commissional., Mr. JoaN LEFEYRE, is a very estim-
able man, who has been described as a person who
would not harm a fly, but would leave mischief to
work itself out in a kingdom. He would be the
last man to do an act of injustice himself, or to
interfere, with any risk to himself, to exercise
stern duties in preventing acts of injustice to
others. He was one of the first Po,)r-law Com-

oration': The present plan of leaving ttie nominations
universally in the hands of Government is certainly not
Wete Government ever so willing to be just, it
cannot select the best men, Lecinge l is not omniscient.
If ever so itril,artiel, it could only select the best men
within is range of vision ; and these might be fel' Crone
being the best men attainable. Government might set
fairly in nominating a young roan living in Duke-street,
St. James's, to a vacant post ; and yet at that very mo-
ment these might be a superior young man who would
have taken the office living in the High-street of 'sling-
ten, or in the wilds of Cumberland or Perthshire. Ob-
viously, is short, if we are really to act on the principle
of selecting the m ,st fit, an opportunity mud he given
to all who think themiselves fit to come forward. In
other worts, instead of leaving Government to select
the fittest of those ceseaily presented to them, there
ought to be a public notification to the whole country,
that such aid such men are wanted, and that the fittest
of those wile present themselves will be selected. The
answer to sech a summons clears away one portion of the
duty, for, w3eu the summons has been answered, there is
no doubt as to who are the attainable men. They lie col-
lected, so to speak, into a mass ; and the only remaining
task is that of selection of the fittest. This selection,
however, is, l.n reality, a work of the examination oi evi-
dence. To, all intents and purpases the man of whose
fitness the cutest evidence can be obtained is to be ac-
cepted as the fittest. Government may itself, if it
chooses, conduct the work of examining the evidence ;
or the working heads of departments may individually
do so. Consilering the moral influence:, at work, how-
ever, to incapicitate Ministers, or even the heads of de-
partments for the impartial discharge of this duty, and
ccnsiderina also that, in the proposed circumstances,
the work ofp examination would in itself be aibusiness of
large dimensions requiring time and care, it is certainly
better, if, indeed, it is not absolutely necessary, that,
in the majority of casee, the work should be deputed to
a board exriresely charged with this class of duties."
"The plan ofappointmcnt by competitive examination
to all initial posts in the service, that is to say, through-
out all that portion of the civil service on which it is
deemed desirable that the offices should be filled by
young men destined to be trained in the service—has,
therefore, our full approtation. We think the proposal
to this effect made in the report one of the greatest re-
forms ever offered to the country. We think it a great
reform as regards the service itself, promising a vast in-
crease of efficiency, a great saving of the national wealth,
and an enhancement of the national power and comfort.
But its indirect effects seem to us its greatest recommen-
dation. The purification of political mo-als and cf the
legislative which it would effect, by removing causes of
corruption, seems to us worth any sacrifice. Then again
its effects, as a stimulus to all the educational institutions
of the country, and as an influence tending to bring them
into unison, seem incalculable. Schools and colleges all
over the country would have their powers tested in a new
manner ; there would be a premium upon educational
inapriovements ; the Scottish system would vie with the
English system and take hints from it, and vice versa;
and lagging localities, sterile in officials, would have to
hang their heads in shame,, or justify their sterility in
such products, by pointing to products of another kind.
Finally, the present intensity of that miserable polarising
influence which divides British society iito the two fac-
tions' of Whigs and Tories, and, penetrating into the
thoughts and characters df individuals, obliges them un-
censciously to make the distinction between Whiegisre
and Toryism an a priori la .v of their lives and firm of
their entire mental activity, would be sensibly dimin-
ished ; Whiggism and Toryism would assume snore
nearly their true limits as inductive expressions of facts ;
aed in lien of the alter, ative of Whiggisin or Toryi-m as
an ever-pre-ent, term of thought, these would be substi-
tute;], to some extent, the far more ennobling influence
of unlimited emulation with others in general and on-
ward culture."

A gleam of light was thrown on a dark corner
of the present system in a short but important
debate in the House of Commons on Friday night,
when Mr. NAPIER called attention to the injury
done to the public service, and to the great injus-
tice done to the Dublin University and to indivi-
dual members, by the rPjectioa at Woolwich of
advanced mathematical students, whose merits for
the Engineering department were proved upon
competitive eiulm:nat'ons at the University, and
to the appointment of others, not for merit, but
for patronage. This ccmplaint was met by the
bold avowal by Mr. MONSELL that merit was not
recognised by the Board of Ordname. " The
Right Hon. and Learned Gentleman," Mr. NAPIER,
said the Clerk, " had fairly stated that he did not
accuse any of the authorities of acting unfairly,
because it was admitted that those authorities
made the nomination not on the ground of merit,
but merely in accordance with a system long esta-
blished." Of those nominated, "It was not pre-
tended that they were selected because they were
'the fittest persons ;" but a promise was given that
care should be taken to make them fit ; and so
these abominable outrages on the public service
in the provision of capacity for future direction of
the War, and ou individual rights, passed in the
patronage-fed House. But it is to be hoped that
it will not now so pass with the public.
One Irish member declared that there would
be no justice for Ireland but in public examina-
tions, nor, it may be added, for Scotland, nor
England either ! The Rev. CHARLES GRAVES,
the Professor of Mathematics in Trinity College,
Dublin, in a letter to Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN,
thus adverts to the morality and Imperial policy
involved in this seemingly subordinate question of
open competitive examinations :
"It is in Ireland that we may hope to see the bes
fruits produced by an improved system of appointment
in the public offices, as there that patronage has
caused some of the worst social evils. The practice o
governing with a regard to existing parties and religions
has been carried to a far greater •excess in Ireland than
in England ; so that the Irishman of the present day is
in a great measure the product of a system that has been
operating for centuries. Something also must be as-
cribed to the ,native character of the Celt, which, though
it may have more genius and versatility, is not as rich
in the elements of industry and resolution as that of the
Saxon. To these causes it is owing that our country-
men are exposed to the cbarge of wanting self-reliance.
I am convinced that the occasion fcr this reproach would
cease if patient labour and steadiness of conduct were
better encouraged, as they would be if the plan of throw-
ingopen to competition were ear-
ri ed intop If the the Irishman saw that the path
übli
execution. e acPuPt2 t.
me
to fortune was open to merit only ; that, on the one
hand, no hindrances arose from political or religious dis-
qualifications ; and, on the other, that no help was to be
obtained by jobbing or favouritism ; instead of writing
memorials to the Castle,' and importuning members
of Parliament to do something for him, he would try to
do something for himself by a course of self-denying

"The Irishman sometimes suspects that, owing to his
rc.rnoteness from the head-quarters of Government, or to
the existence of a prejudice against him, he has not a
fair chance of employment in the public service. He
alleges that English and Sco'.eh men, as such, and with-
out regard to their qualifications, are generally preferred
to him. Whether his apprehensions be well or ill
founded, it would be desirable to remove all grounds for
them. But when appointments can be obtained as the
rewards of merit evinced at examinations where all are
free to compete, we shall hear no more complaints about
the unequal distribution of patronage amongst the natives
of different parts of the empire. English, Scotch, and
Irish wiil respectively obtain as many appointments as
they deserve ; neither more nor fewer. Those who are
most successful may have some reason to exult, but
none will have any just cause to complain ; and the
consequence of this would be a more real union of the
three kingdoms.
" I must notice another point in connection wiCl-4 the
working of this scheme in Ireland, which you will agree
with me in saying is an important one. We find that
the animosities which arise from religious differences
are greatly embittered by the patronage system. Every
appointment of a Roman Catholic, obtained in the usual
way by the exercise of Parliamentary influence, is doubly
vexatious to disappointed Protestants, and vice versa.
These feelings are strongest among the loWer classes,
whose bigotry is commonly proportional to their igno-
rance but they pervade Irish society at large, and do
considerable mischief—as the friction of the parts of a
machine interfere with its easy and effective working."
It might be supposed that the great principle
in question had been concocted and established
by throwing open the first-class civil offices, the
writerships of India, and the Indian medical ap-
pointments, to open competitive examinations.
Not so, however. People in high authority see
distinctions in the case—numerous members of
the House see distinctions ; and the Administra-
tive Reform Associations will now see, and enable
the public to see, this great distinction wider—
that, in the case of the Indian service, the House
was, for the most part, abolishing the patronage
of others ; and now it will be called upon (and,
in truth, it must be called upon through the
local constituencies) to pass a self-denying" ord-
nance, and abolish patronage, in reality, of its own.
The first year's competitive examinations for
the appointment of medical officers for India have
concluded, and concluded to the entire satisfac-
tion of the eminent persons engaged in them as
to the complete efficiency of the method of exa-
mination as a test for merit. It was attended
with the example—which brilliantly illustrates
the soundness of the viows enunciated by the
writer in the North BritiSib Review, and by Dr.
ro
u nforceym
GRAVES—of a native Indian, Clutterbuchy, coming
to the competition, laboriously prepared, and ob-
taining the second place out of more than twenty
competitors. Such an event was calculated to
iv confidenc ouros o
justicehis
el
andfl
wm-ocal t
rento.
gourerule with millions
It were to be hoped that the example mioll b
G e
repeated in the tests for merit by the coming
competitive examinations for vaitersb;
-Ps, Justice