The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-27 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

tractive, the competition will,be na uch less form id able.
If, ho wever, it should be thought inexpedient to allow
the probationers to choose their own presidencies
in the manner which we have suggested, it seems to
us that the best course would be to make the dis-
tribution by lot. We are satisfied that, if the dis-
tribution be made arbitrarily, either by the direc-
' tors, or by her Majesty's Minister for Indian
Affairs, it will be viewed with much suspicion and
will excite much murmuring. At present nobody
complains of the distribution. A gentleman who
has obtained a Bombay writership for his son is
delighted and thankful. It may not be quite so
acceptable as a Bengal writership would have bee.,
but it is a free gift, it is a most valuable favour-
and it would be the most odious ingratitude to re-
pine because it is not more valuable still. Hence,
forth, an appointment to the Civil Service of the
Company will not be a matter of favour, but
matter of right. He who obtains such an appoint-
ment will owe it solely to his own abilities and in-
dustry. If, therefore, the Court of Directors or
the Board of Control should send him to Bombay
when he wishes to be sent to Bengal, and should
send to Bengal young men who in the examination
stood far below him, he will naturally think him-
self injured. His family and friends will espouse
his quarrel. A cry will be raised that one man is
favoured because he is related to the chairman, and
another because he is befriended by a member of
Parliament who votes with the Government. It
seems to us, therefore, advisable that the distribu-
tion of the civil servants among the presidencies, if
it cannot be made the means of rewarding merit,
should-be left to chance. After the allotment, of
course, any two probationers should be at liberty
to make an exchange by consent.
But, in whatever manner the distribution may
be made, it ought to be made as soon as the issue of
the first examination is decided, for, till the distri-
bution is made, it will be impossible for any proba-
tioner to know what vernacular language of India it
would be most expedient for him to study. The Hin-
dostanee, indeed, will be valuable to him wherever
he may be stationed, but no other living language
is spoken over one-third of India. Tamul would
be as useless in Bengal, and Bengalee would be as
useless at Agra as Welsh in Portugal.
We should recommend that every probationer,
for whatever presidency he may be destined, should
be permitted to choose Hindostanee as the lan-
guage in which he will pass. A probationer who
is to reside in the lower provinces of the Bengal
presidency should be allowed to choose either Hin-
dostanee or Bengalee. A probationer who is to go
to the upper provinces should be allowed to choose
among Hindostanee, Hindee, and Persian. A pro-
bationer who is to go to Madras should be allowed
to choose among Hindostanee, Telugu, and Tamul.
A probationer who is to go to Bombay should be
allowed to choose among Hindostanee, Mahratta,
and Guzeratee.

It is probable that some probationers who have
a peculiar talent for learning languages will study
more than one of the dialects among which they
are allowed to make their choice. Indeed, it is
not improbable that some who take aia interest in
philology will apply themselves voluntarily to the
Sauscrit and the Arabic. It will hereafter be seen
that, though we require as the indispensalle condi-
tion of passing only an elementary knoledge of
one of the vernacular tongues of India, We propose
to giv,e encouragement to those students who aspire
to be :eminent orientalists.
The four studies, then, to which, in our opinion,
the probationers ought to devote themselves dur-
ing the period of probation, are, first, Indian his-
tory • secondly, the science of jurisprudence ;
thirdly, commercial and financial science ; and,
fourthly, the oriental tongues.
The time of probation ought not, we think, to
be less than one year, nor more than two years.
There
,should be periodical examinations, at
which a probationer of a year's standing may pass,
if he can, and at which every probatianec of two
years' standing must pass, on pain of forfeiting his
appointment. This examination should, of course,
be in the four branches of knowledge already men-
tioned as those to which the attention of the pro-
bationers ought to be specially directed. ItliFks
should be assigned to the different subjects, as at
the first examination, and it seems to us reason-
able that au equal number of marks should be
assigved to all the four subjects, on the supposi-
tion that each probationer is examined -in only one
of the: vernacular languages of India. , Sometimes,
however, as we have said, a probationer may study
more , than one of these vernacular languages of
India among which he is at liberty to make his
choice, or may, in addition to one or more of the
vernacular languages of India, learn Sanscrit or
Arabic. We think it reasonable that to every
language in which he offers himself for examina-
tion an equal number of marks should be assigned.
When the marks have been cast up, the proba-
tioners who have been examined should be arranged
in order of merit. All those who have been two
years probationers, and who have, in the opinion
of the examiners, used their time well, and made
a respectable proficiency, should be declared civil
servants of the company. Every probationer who,
having been a probationer only one year, has ob-
tained a higher place than some of the two-year
men who have passed, should also be declared a civil
servant of the Company. All the civil servants
who pass in one year should take rank in the service
according to their places in the final examination.
Thus a salutary emulation will be kept up to the
last moment. It ought to be observed, that the
precedency which we propose to give to merit will
not be merely honorary, but will be attended by
very solid advantages. It is iu order of seniority
that the members of the civil service succeed to
those annuities to which they are all looking for-
ward, and it may depend on the manner in which
a young man acquits himself at his final exami-
netion, whether he shall remain in India till he
is past 50, or shall be able to return to England
at 47 or 48.
The instances in which persons who havebeeia suc-
cessful in the first examination will fail in the
final examination, will, we hope and believe, he
very few. We hope and believe, also, that it will
very rarely be necessary to expel any probationer

from the service on account of grossly profligate
habits, or of any action unbecoming a man of
honour. The probationers will be young men su-
perior to their fellows in science and literature ;
and it is not among young 'men superior to their
fellows in science and literature that scandalous
immorality is generally found to prevail. It is
notoriously not once in twenty years :that a stu-
dent who has attained high academical distinction
is expelled from Oxford or Cambridge. Indeed,
early superiority in scienea and literature generally
indicates the existence of some qualities which are
securities against vico—industry,self-drnial, a taste
for pleasures not sensual, a laudable desire of
honourable distinction, a still more laudable desire
to obtain the approbation of friends and relations.
We therefore believe that the intellectual test
which is about to be establilhed wilt be found in
practice to be also the best moral test, that can
be devised.
Ono important question still remains to be con-
sidered. Where are the probationers to study ?
Are they all to study at Haileybury ? Is it to be
left to themselves to decide whether they will study
at Haileybury or elsewhere ? Or will the Board of
Control reserve to itself the power of determining
which of them will studyat Haileybury, and which
of them shall be at liberty to study elsewhere ?
That the college of Hadoybury is to be kept up is
clearly implied in the terms of the 37th and 39th
Clauses of the India Act. That the Board of
Control may make regulations which would admit
into the civil service persons who have not studied
at Haileybury, is as clearly implied in the terms of
the 40th and 41st Clauses. Whether the law
ought to be altered is a question on which we do
not presume to give an opinion. On the supposi-
tion that the law is to remain unaltered, we ven-
ture to offer some suggestions which appear to us
to be important.
There must be, wo apprehend, a complete change
in the discipline of the College. Almost all the
present students are under 20 •, almost all tall the
students will be above 21. The present students
have gone to Haileybury from schools where they
have been treated as boys. The new students will
generally go thither from universities, where they
have been accustomed to enjoy the liberty of men.
It will therefore be absolutely necessary that the
regulations of the College should be altered, and
that the probationers should be subject to no more
severe restraint than is imposed on a Bachelor of
Arts at Cambridge or Oxford.
There must be an extensive change in the build
ings of the College. At present each student has a
single small chamber, which is at once his parlour
and bedroom. It will be impossible to expect men
of 22 or 23, who have long been accustomed to be
lodged in a very different manner, to be content
with such accommodation.
There must be a great change in the system of
study. At present the students generally go to
Haileybury before they have completed their ge-
neral education. Their general education and
their special education, therefore, go on togethpr.