The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-11 00:00:00

candida tee should have no qualification, I propose that the
best qualified candidates should be elected. (Hear, hoar.)
The ' CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—Accord.
ing tot he hon, am/ learned gentleman's plan, a person
might • without qu• alification propose himself as a candidate,
leaving the quay &cation to be subsequently ascertained,
but no prelimi
_nary qualification is necessary to con-
stitute him a candidate. The second point is that every
person should be admitted to become a candidate for ad-
mission to tb a civil service; and, last of all, after the ex-
amination le ad taken place, the abject should be, not to
ascertain w/ nether the candidates came up to a certain
standard, s .nd satisfied certain prescribed qualifications
laid down' oeforehand, but to ascertain which was the best
out of agi yen number of persons. (Hear.) That is to say,
that the fa xamination should be strictly competitive, and
be a race between a certain number of competing candi-
dates. rf he necessary effect of the adoption of the plan
would big that all these civil servants—a thousand in num-
ber—la( ng servants of the Crown, acting in the employ-
ment of: departments and under the control of persons hold-
ing offi n 33 from the Crown, should be appointed without
any ref rence to the power of the Crown, or to the persons
appoin by the Crown, on their own proposal of them-
selves as 3 candEtates, and by the choice of a body of exa-
miners, to be 'Appointed, I presume, in the ordinary man-
ner by • the C-town. A certificate from the Board of Exa-
miners' woetld constitute them members of the civil ser-
vice, egad, as I collect from the motion of the honourable
and Learned member, it would be incumbent on
the Cr %awn, or on the representative of the Crown, to re-
cogni P 43 flat certificate as the title of admission to the civil
servir se, th ere being no veto on the part of the Crown to
the 7 eppoieitment of any person who had received the cer-
tifi, ate from the Board of Examiners. I have troubled
th( I home with this explanation in order that we might he
certain that we fully understood the proposition of the
lieve and learned member, and I will now, with the per-
re fission of the house, examine the different points of the
'lareposal. In the first place, there is a question of pub-
licity, Now, the examinations are conducted at present
I principally, or, I believe, exclusively, in writing. Certain
questions are proposed to the candidates to answer. Those
qu,;stions are in writing. They are given a paper to copy
or a letter to write, to ascertain their efficiency in writ-
in g. Similar questions are put with reference to arith-
metic, and I believe the whole of the examination is
c anducted in writing, and no part of it by oral ques-
tion or answer. (Hear, hear.) I need scarcely remark
flat the admission of the public would be wholly
nugatory. There would be no advantage in seeing a number
of gentlemen sitting round a table copying answers to
questions put to them. I presume that the hon. and learned
gentleman wishes that the mode of examination should be
altered, and that oral examination should be substituted.
I am not sufficiently acquainted with the details of these
examinations to offer any opinion as to the advantage of
oral examination in comparison with written examination,
but I have no reason to suppose that the practice that has
now been followed up for several years in the different de-
partments has been the result of accident ; I believe it has
been the result of experience, and that it has been found to
be the most convenient and efficient mode of conducting
these examinations. I therefore doubt that we would
confer a benefit on the, public by substituting oral for
written examination, for the purpose of attaining what
the hon. and learned gentleman calls publicity of exa-
mination, (Hear, hear.) The lion, and learned mem-
ber stated that in all the university examinations the
public
was admitted, and an opportunity was afforded of
judging of the manner in which those examinations are
conducted ; but my experience leads me to believe that a
very large number of university examinations are not con-
ducted orally, but exclusively in writing. I believe that
in Cambridge all university examinations areconducted by
written questions and written answers, and therefore I do
not know how the public or any member of the university
not concerned in the examination are admitted, but if so, I
'oust think their presence is totally unimportant. I !nu-t
say as regards the examinations at Oxford—at which I had
the honour of being present as an examiner—that the exa-
minations are in writing, and that no member of the uni-
versity is permitted to be present. lamat a loss to con-
ceive what advantage would be derived from publicity,
nor did I ever hear it said that the smallest inconvenience
arose from the exclusion of the public. The public would be
an annoyance to the persons writing • their attention would
be distracted—nervous persons would say they had not a
fair chance—that they were disturbed by the intrusion of
strangers ; and I really conceive that with reference to the
interests of candidates themselves, as well as of the public,
the adoption of the principle of publicity is altogether objec-
tionable. (Hear.) But perhaps, after all, the publicity of
the examination is not the most important part of the
question. The really important past of the proposition is
the permission to all persons to constitute themselves can-
didates, and render the examination a competitive exami-
nation. The first objection that must occur to everybody
who considers the proposal is, that if you introduce the
principle of competitive examination, and if you allow an
unlimited number of candidates, and impose upon a body
of examiners the duty, and confer upon them the power of
selecting the persons they may consider the best—that is to
say, the fittest—for the offices that are vacant, you entirely
get rid of the principle of personal responsibility in the
choice of persons for the civil service. At present every
person appointed to a public office is appointed upon
the responsibility of somebody; but under the system
proposed by the honourable and learned member
no responsible appointment would be made, and
I presume he will not go the length of saying that his
system would work with infallible regularity. The board
of examiners will propose certain questions in arithmetic,
English history, or any other subject which the candidate
chooses, and after reading over the answers will, without
knowing their names, make a decision in favour of those
who have the greatest number of marks. (Hear.) By that
system, however, as I have already said, all personal re-
sponsibility is lost, and that is one great objection to the
plan of the hon. and learned gentleman. But there is an-
other objection, and it is this, that though by this system
you may to a considerable extent get a person of intellec-
tual qualities, you have no means of ascertaining his
moral qualities. What yon want in!a public officer is often,
not a man of ambitious, eager disposition, who seeks to
advance himself rapidly in the world, but a man who is
trustworthy, industrious, and attentive, and who will per-
form the duties assigned to him by his superiors in office.
How can we obtain these qualities by a merely literary
examination ? It is clear that no examination of that sort
can have the effect which it is desirable to obtain. (Hear.)
The class of persons who would in all probability succeed
in the greatest number of cases would be schoolmasters and
ushers of schools, and persons employed in the practical
business of education. You must expect to see persons of
this class to a great extent, without much reference to
their moral character or previous conduct in the world, ob-
taining employment in the civil service. I hope I shall
not he understood to cast the smallest reflection upon that
most respectable and useful class of the community, whose
employment I honour as much as any member of this
house, but I would suggest for the consideration of the
house whether, in establishing a general system for the
introduction of candidates into the civil service, it would
be advisable to give an advantage to that class of the
community beyond other persons. Besides the class of
superior officers, there were others in the revenue depart-
ment whose occupation could scarcely bear the name of
intellectual, and what means were to be taken by which
the appointment of persons of that class—boatmen, tide-
waiters, weighers of customs, post-office messengers—could
be made to depend upon a literary examination. I admit
'it is right that we should have a standard examination for
officers of every class—no person would be more disposed
to enforce a rigid test than myself, but I must express my
doubt whether we should derive any advantage from a
competitive examination among persons of that descrip-
tion, and if the competitive system is unsuited to the tide-
waiters and post-office messengers, can you apply it to a
higher class ? (Hear.) But if you adopt the proposition of
the hon. and learned member, will you stop there ? Will
you not apply the same test to persons holding higher and
more important situations ? Will you undertake to ap-
point a permanent Under-Secretary of State, or perma-
nent Secretary of the Treasury, or county court judge, or
commissioner of bankruptcy, or legal officers of different
descriptions, or judges in the superior courts, by competi-
tive examination ? (Hear.) I ask is any member of this
house willing to trust all the great appointments in this
country to competitive literary examination? ;(Hear,
hear.) If the honourable member establishes what he
seeks by an address to the Crown, he must carry out the
principle and apply it to the whole civil service of the
country. (Hear.) On examining this question of com-
petitive examination it is natural we should look back to
the general experience of mankind ; and if we look back
to history, we do not find that any country hitherto, what-
ever its form of Government, ever selected its civil ser-
vants by competitive examinations. Let us look to the
great republic of antiquity, I mean the Roman, and I ask
you, did the Romans ever think of appointing their con-
suls, or praetors, or any of the great officers, by competi,
tivo examination. (Hear.) Did Italy, under its various
forms of Government, whether republic or sovereign, do
so ? Did the Spanish Government do so, when its domi-
nion extended over the Indies, and through every part of
the world ? Did England, France, or America do so ?
(Hear, hear.) None of them have ever resorted to the
principle of competitive examination in making appoint-
ments to civil service. Do we find that joint-stock
companies, railway companies, or that great corpora-
tion the dock company, or the numerous bodies or-
ganised by different commercial and mercantile parties
under special acts of Parliament, in different parts of the
kingdom, in appointing their civil servants, resort to the
Plan of competitive examination ? I think the hon. gentle-
man will see that these enlightened bodies are guided by no-
thingbut is consideration of their own interest and the in-
terest of their shareholders in appointing their secretaries,
or managers, or the other persons whom they employ. Do
they not all require to get a good character of the person
they appoint, and do they not select the person they think
they
heoreovyda
snwttoistpha
trrheeessilecctt
letvod
the fittest, preciselyin in which public
seed the
the
ev
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Stateiladms
te
her v
yam?
naßtlnslanootewfri
ftaperson
is
forward as candidate by ne-a
cierkshipin the Home.office
for the office of clerk Zo competitive examination
Crown
principle
t o, couldcfio crn aec'
guardians, or to fill any of thoseranail
rldeba.r him from being can-
didateatofwhich this country abounds? The imnsotebrraloetuelssolroodcr
wa to ohtla3scoeeacsonnsd e withd
princi,l,)ilteh adopted with respect
the motion asked why the
to India should not be adopted respect to the general
to me to constitute a great dferrencensbet
service of the Crown. I will state the whichee tap-
peareease of India and the civil service of this country, w Every-
body
after a great struggle body knows the great embarrassment which the Indiany-
patronage has created in the Government of this country,
At the end of the last century,
this house, it was the engine by which Mr. Pitt
overthrew in
the coalition Government of Mr. Fox and Lord North, the
country being alarmed lest Governnientshonld be corrupted
by the enormous bribe of the Indian patronage, It was
then supposed that Mr. Fox was attempting, by gaining
possession of the Indian patronage, to create for himself and
his party a power independent of the Crown on the one
hand, aril the country on the other. It is my firm couvic-
tion that those charges were greatly exaggerated, and that
the public laboured under an entire delusi
on as to the object
in view, but the representations made to this effect were
the overthrow re the main cause of
believed, and we
Coalition Government, and the triumphant accession of
Mr. Pitt to power.
That is an example of the great diffi-
culties which the eminent men
of that dayfound in the prac-
tical solution of Indian politics, and the influence they exer-
eised on those of this country. Thor© was always a jealousy
patronage, as to the distribution of Indian
and by the mea-
sure laid before the house, on the renewal of the Indian
charter, it was propose to to make appointments dependent
on competitive vposet
for the purpose of taking them
out of the hands examination,
of the East lian ~ a Cempany, an anomalous
body exercising )erio, on the one
heed, arid te ea' art of imperiunt tar
ors to ri:e
.xf1,11.. 1 tl,ts a. fair 1.1"""t
" 61"
()t)i,,, [t
41
"
tem ; but it hiu, K4lutiou of the di, ' ;
be vet c-nil" •
•,,Ip•lintod to i •
ncLiTua &itt t''• ''s
ta" - •
- and te . • - : ca•e-
eience from the time when e
they are selecte
d by the Go-
vernment for the performance duties.
Therefore, even under the
system some public
new Indian bill, there is an asetenlof established by r
selection and dis-
cretion exercised by the Indian Government in appointing