The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIDIES.—Each new discussion of the principle of
Competitive Examination for the• public service
shows that there is less and less desire among any

section of the public to overthrow the system that
has been deliberately adopted by the country. The
debate which took place yesterday in the House of
Commons gave an opportunity for the reiteration
of all the most plausible arguments against exami-
nation, and yet we are surprised at the moderation
of its opponents. Attacks on the principle of choos-
ing public servants from the great body of the edu-
cated class by a free examination have almost
ceased. We are no longer told that the system is
Chinese, Prussian, pedantic, fitted only to turn out

bookworms withOul strength or courage, :or suc-
cessful crammers with no other endowments than

plodding industry and a fair share of memory. Even
the most inveterate opponents of the system seem
now to direct their criticisms rather to the details

than the principle of the examinations, and to de-
mand that greater care shall be taken to attain the
proper end of such trials—the encouragement of
good men to present themselves, and the selection
of the best men who do so present themselves. The
Civil Service of India is the great battle-ground of
the examination system. This service offers the
largest prizes, and requires the highest order of men.
The well-being of more than a hundred millions of
human beings depends directly on the talents,
temper,- and moral qualities of the young men who
present themselves yearly to the examiners. The
native rulers of eighty millions more have to learn
the true principles of law and administration from
the same band of all-powerful Europeans. No rea-
sonable reward will be grudged to a service which
requires such men ; no pains will be spared to ob-
tain men worthy of it. Are the new school of Indian
Civil Servants, then,worthy of their position ? Does
examination produce fruits in accordance with the
eulogies of its defenders, or is it shown by expe-
rience that practically an inferior class of men has
been introduced into India since the establishment
of the new system ? This is the question to be
answered, and undoubtedly if it could be shown
that the new Civil Servants were less fitted for their
posts than their predecessors, and that this dege-
neracy arose from the examination system, there
would be no alternative but to return to nomina-
tion. But certainly such a result of practical ex-
perience would be most astonishing, for it would
contradict all that might be deduced from theo-
retical considerations and from the history of
education in England. That a fair field and no
favour should produce worse results than the sys-
tem by -which men put into the public service their
relatives, their dependents, their friends, or their
friends' friends, and by which these nominees were

transferred to India after tuition admitted to be in•

complete,would be something so monstrous that we
have a right to demand the strongest proof before
we can admit its truth. The proposition, in fact,
is this —that the whole of the Three Kingdoms can-
not produce as many able public servants as the
personal connexions of the old Directors, even
though the persons who would have been nominees
under the old system have an equal chance with the
rest of the world in the examinations. As there is

nothing to prevent the young men who would have
been sent to Ilaileybury in the old times from com-
peting in tha present day, we must suppose that
there is something in the nature of an examination
in classics, mathematics, science, and modern lan-
guages which inevitably places narrow-minded,
vulgar, low-born, puny, short-sighted persons, who
cannot ride rishr shoot, above spirited, gentlemanly
men of the world, who are just the people to admi-
nister justice in Eastern countries and extort the re-
spect of the natives. If it be not so, and there
really exists this much superior class from which the old
nominees came, why do not the young men who
belong,to it offer themselves for examination, and
keep their old position in the government of India ?
Looking at the matter thus in the light of common
sense, we may almost conclude a priori that the
charges against the modern competitionists must be
unfounded. They win their appointments by exactly
the same means as fellowships are won at the Univer-
sities—by the display of acquired knowledge; and they
may be expected to come from the same class as the
most eminent of the clergy and of the bar, who have
attained their position by their talents. As there is
nothing to complain of in the manners of these pro-
fessions, or any reason to suppose that their mem-
bers would be superior in any way if they were the
nominees of a certain number of men, so it is impos-
sible to believe that Indian Civil Servants who have
obtained their position by force of their talents, and
have shown themselves the best of all those who in
the whole country have thought fit to offer them-
selves, can be so conspicuous by their general in-
feriority as some of the opponents of the new system
declare. We believe the fact to be that they are no
way inferior. Sir John Lawrence and several
others among the most able and impartial of the
administrators of India have expressed themselves
highly satisfied with the order of men sent out ; and
in the great changes which have been made in India
—first by revolutions and then by the rapid pro-
gress of the country—their services have been ex-
tremely valuable. As to their inferiority in stature
and bodily strength, it is, we believe, a mere un-
founded assertion. In the last report of the Civil
Service Commissioners it was stated that the average
height of the candidates selected in 1861 was five
feet eight inches and a half, andthat of those selected
in'lB62 was a quarter of an inch more. Indeedthe
experience of the Universities is quite against the
theory that a proficiency in knowledge is incompa-
tible with bodily strength ; the probability rather is
that the energy required for success in Competitive
Examination actually demands a fair amount of
physical power. As to the parentage of the suc-
cessful candidates, it is ascertained out of 323 sent
out since 1857 nearly one-third were the sons of
clergymen ; 70 were the sons of officers, barristers,
or medical men ; between 40 and 50 were sons of
landed proprietors or other gentlemen with indepen-
dent means ; eight were sons of Indian Civilians ; 31
were sons of persons in the highest branches of trade;
and 36 sons in the lower branches of trade. There
is nothing in this that should make us believe that
the good administration of India is endangered
by the inferiority of the new'Civil Servants. The
cause of the accusations against them may probably
be found in that very esprit de corps which is said to
distinguish the older servants. The new men are of
a different connexion. They come out with no
recommendation from Indian families, and have
none of the traditions of India as it was con-
stituted before the mutiny. But their duties
we believe to be excellently performed, and
the native, who is said to be so acute
in his perception of -their want of refinement,
will probably be consoled if he finds that the
talents and assiduity which makes them gain the
first places in an examination at home enables them
to do their duty by him and the country committed
to their charge. As to the subjects of examination
we must write with diffidence, as such various opi-
nions prevail, and such plausible arguments are ad-
vanced on either side. But we confess to a belief
that the fault of all examinations hitherto has been
that they encourage the candidate to pick up a
rudimentary knowledge of a number of subjects,
and that the tendency should be not only to con-
fine each candidate to a few subjects, but also to
make success depend more on proficiency in those
which form the staple of the best education of the
country. It is true that candidates may come from
all parts of the empire, and from schools of all sorts,
and that it would be unfair to exclude physiology
or chemistry, German or Sanscrit. But the vast
majority of our best educated men, the fittest to
administer India, have been taught classics and
mathematics, and, as a general rule, these subjects
will form the best tests of comparative mental power,
both because they have been learnt so thoroughly