The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-18 00:00:00

Now ready at all the Booksellers,

OHEAP EDITION of PEPYS' DIARY and
I,_,J CORRESPONDENCE. Comprising all the recent additional
Notes and Emendations, printed uniformly with the last edition of
Evelyn's Diary, in 4 vols. post Bvo., with Portraits, &c., price only
6s. each, bound.

Published for H. Colburn, by his succcssors, Hurst and Blackett.

GUILDHALL, 11th June, 1855.—The Com-
mittee for Letting the City's L tads will meet at uildha'd, on
IVr.DNESDA.Y, the 11th June, instant, at One o'clock precisely, to
receive Proposals for Leases of a Mouse. No. 3, ou the east side of
Broad-s,reet Buildings; a House, No. 23. on the south side of New
Broad-street ; a House, No. 2, on the north side of South-place ;
Four Houses, Nos. 58, 59, 60, and 61, on the south side of Banner-
square; and a How, No. 7, on the west side of Milton-street, Fins-
bury.
Further particulars and plans may be seen, and forms of tender
obtained, at the Architect's Office, Guildhall.
FERDINAND BRAND, Comptroller.

The Administrative Reform AsSociation wisely holds
that the country can afford to pension off incapacity and
to pay the full price for capacity, but that it is not rich
enough to afford to pay for what it does not get in re-
turn, and so to lose both the money and the service re-
quired. The true economy is to have nothing that is
not wanted, but to have everything that is wanted good
of its kind, and at the f'tir price. The most thriftless of
errors is to-mistake low price for cheapness. Cheapnees
is a compound of quality and price, but as price is too
often looked to in tha figure only, without reference to
the worth of the thing to be had in exchange, the
Spaniards have a proverbial saying, that cheap things
are dear.

The tendency for many years past has been to make
the public service rather a low-priced than a cheap
service, and paradoxical as it may appear, the conse-
quence has necessarily been to throw it very much
into the hands of the aristoeracy, and the affluent
classes. A young man cannot enter the army
without some means besides his scanty pay. Arid
few are the youths who enter the civil service upon
clerkships of 901. a year without some kind of essistance
from their families, or independent resources, immediate
or in prospect. There may be exceptions here and there,
but they are painful examples, and to ,make the matter
worse, the persons who have to live solely on such insuf-
ficient pittances often owe their appointments to merit
(being either friendless er of poor friends destitute of
interest or influence), and are wholly deviged to the
duties for which they are so poorly requited. This small
class of public servants work for the reason assigned for
the growth of trees, because they have nothing else ,to
do. Their narrow means deny them 'any, indulgences,
any pursuits that might draw them from Lheir occupa-
tion. But we repeat, they are but a feweeand their lot
does no honour to-the service, and would dieter all in the
same circumstances from entering it who could find bread
elsewhere. And it is notorious that private companies
pay better than Government, taking care: to get better
served for the better pay. Yet we may be told that
the pay of the English service in all branches is
higher than any other nation, and at the opposite ex-
treme of the scale is Russia, with salaries and wages
hardly more than nominal, but what is the consequence ?
Universal peculation. The emp oyed pay themselves by
hook or by crook. And this is a result which is un-
avoidable in some shape or other in cases of bad pay.
Corruption is unknown here, but if a public servant is
csnscions that the appointed price of his day's work is
short of its fair value, he will contrive to adjust his
work to its pay, as he despairs of getting his pay al-
- to his work. And this is a consequence which in
our system cannot be grappled with. It is easy to say
the superintendent should • correct it, as the officer in
the army or navy takes his measures against skulking,
or any misperformance of duty. But in the army anal
navy there are two motive powers, rewards and punish.
meats, while in the civil service there are no rewards,
and but one punishment, dismissal. As recourse to
this extreme expedient is necessarily rare, there is
no way of dealing with short-comings detrimental
to the service, init. not amounting to a neglect
of duty for which it would be warrantable to take away
a man's bread. As coercion cannot be applied, as there
arc no blackholes, or drill, or cats in public offices,. the
next expedient is the creation of some motive to exertion.
Zeal cannot exist in the breastwof men who have neither
reason to be satisfied with their present condition, nor to
look for anything better in the future ; and who know
that whether they do well, or ill, or indifferently, their
treatment is precisely the same, or that if there be any
difference it is merely this, that more work is thrown
upon them in proportion to their proofs of efficiency.
As welhave before stated, if the establishments of our
great departments were taken by contract, the first step
of the contractor would be to reduce the number, cutting
off the inefficient, lopping away the dead wood as it were;
and his next proceeding would be to put the situations
of those retained on a fair footing of emolument, and to
hold out the prospect of advancement to those who
showed themselves worthy of it. In the present system
no deviation can be made from dreary sleepy routine
without the consent of the Treasury ; but bow can the
Treasury, without the attribute of' omniscience, be a
judge of the deserts of persons in the different public de-
partments, some of them having very special functions,
and, moreover, the tendency of the Treasury is naturally
to look jealously at the claims for money, having at best
only very hazily in its view the =responding claims of
merit.

We are very glad to see, by the report of the last
meeting of the Administrative Reform Association, that
Mr. Layard hits the right nail on the head in noting one
of the radical faults in the system of the civil service, and
condemning the keeping of so many steeds upon mighty
scanty provendpr

" ot;e of the first objects of the society ought to be to
assist in getting effective men placed in every branch of
the civil service. At present, he believed that the num-
berof civilw were
iservants d
. employedhey oughtw ttooo
b e large,paia and many
of them
liberally,
and he believed that it was a great mistake to press too
much for a reduction of salaries, because the enormous
salaries of great men were left untouched while the small
salaries of the really hard-working and deserving men
were cut down. (Hear, hear.) At present there were
about 60,000 persons connected with the civil service,
and the appointments of these men were influenced more
or less by political motives. A sort of current of elec-
tricity ran between Mr. Hayter and the representatives
of various constituencies. The Secretary to the Trea-
sury bad only to touch the electric wire, and it ran
through the whole of the country. That, however, was
a system which must be put a stop to ; and in consider-
ing what means ought to be adopted to put a stop to it,
he came to what he conceived to be one of the chief ob-
jects of the meeting. He bad been told that he had
made a great mistake in the terms of the motion which
he was about to bring before the House of Commons,
and that instead of having said, The house views with
deep concern the state of the nation,' he ought to have
said, The nation views with deep concern the state of
the house.' (Laughter and cheers.) Upon the whole,
he believed that such a motion would have better, ex-
pressed the feeling of the country, for the people of the
country were beginning to lose faith iu the [louse of
Commons."

The public would be rather surprised if it saw the
small number of salaries of 1,0001. a-year in, the Civil
Service compared with the number of the same amount
in the Law and the Church. And we do not refer to
the professional incomes in the law, but, to the salaries
of appointments. 'The same comparison might, be pur-
sued with the same result with regard to the Bank, the
India House, and the great compauiea, all of which
eschew a penny-wise and pound-foolish parAimony, and
pay well for-efficient services and probity. The slop sys-
tem illustrates the opposite fault, bad wages for bid work
to produce a bad article.—Examiner. •