The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-17 00:00:00

IMPORTANT QUESTION UNDER THE
VACCINATION ACT.

On Saturday, in the Court of Queen's Bench, the ques-
tion arose, in the case of Allen v. Worthy, whether a per-
son having been once convicted under the Vaccination Act
of 1867, for disobeying the vaccination order, is liable to
be convicted a second time, or any numier of times there-
after. The complainant was summoned before'two Jus-
tices of the county of Huntingdon, at St. Neot's, on the
30th March, for disobeying the order of the justices, in not
having a child, Eliza Allen, twelve years, old vaccinated, and
lie was convicted of the offence. He was again convicted
on the Bth of May, 1869 : and it is against this second con-
viction that the complainant now appealed, a special case
being sent up by the magistrates for the opinion of the
Court of Queen's Bench. On both occasions when the
appellant was convicted there was a medical certificate
given by Dr. W. J. Collins, stating that Eliza Allen was
unfit to be vaccinated ; and it was contended on behalf of
the appellant that this certificate was a sufficient answer
to the summons. The magistrates did not accept this cer-
tificate, because, on examining it, they found it was the
same certificate as had been used on the first order; and
farther, that Dr. Collins being opposed to vaccination alto-
gether, had expressed an opinion that Eliza Allen would
never be in a fit state for vaccination. They, however,
relied on their power to convict any number of times
until their order was obeyed. On the conclusion of the
arguments the Lord Chief Justice delivered final judg-
ment. It was quite clear that the legislature intended to
give additional powers to the officers appointed for the pur-
pose of ensuring vaccination, and enforcing the performance
of that operation. The former Act only gave power up to
the age of four months, but this Act extended it to four-
teen years. Though the Act of 1867 did not in express
tams say that a person could be summoned and con-
victed from time to time, yet the Act was
a remedial one, and they must give it a reme-
dial construction. It was quite idle to discuss
the construction of the Acts of Parliament, because the
question was agitating the public mind as to whether vac-
cination was a blessing or an evil ; for it was clear that the
- -1",•••••• nnn AVAIL the Pranrein MAYA of AT a Pr; nn.ti
to the age of 14 years was of great public moment
and importance; and the enactments were not to be void-
able on a man paying a penalty once. The conviction of
the magistrates was, therefore, right; and judgment must
be given for the respondents, upholding their decision.—Mr.
Justice Mellor and Mr. Justice Hannen concurred.

OPEN COMPETITION IN TIIE CIVIL
SERVICE.

The Economist believes it to be quite true that a pro-
posal to throw the Civil Service open to competition is
before the Government, but its form has not
been exactly comprehended by the public. The
project, or rather the idea, for it is scarcely a
project, now under consideration, is nothing less than a
reform in the whole Civil Service—a reform'which would
materially affect its entire organisation. The Treasury
has for some time past been much impressed with
the embarrassment which the existing arrangement
of that service entails upon the State—embarrass-
ment that constantly impedes its action. Every
department requires, in order to its perfect effi-
ciency, three classes of employes—one or at most two parlia-
mentary officers who act as links between it and the repre-
sentatives of the country, who direct its general policy,
and who are changed with every change of Ministry; a
certain number of capable men able to comprehend the
Parliamentary chiefs, and carry out their wishes in all de-
tails; and a much greater number of subordinates
to get through the enormous mass of desk
work. Under the present system both these latter
classes, different as their work is and their responsibilities
are, are selected by the same means, are paid on the same
principles, and are invested with a kind of freehold in their
offices which makes reductions very difficult and additions
very burdensome to the Exchequer. Young men of good
education and fair position are tempted by a few prizes to
enter a service where for years they are employed as mere
clerks, where their attainments are thrown away, and
where they become infected with a spirit at once of
routine and of discontent. At the same time
their claims aro so great that it is next to im-
possible to reduce their numbers or to intro-
duce outsiders into special appointments, or to pay
the competent members salaries adequate to the
work they were called upon to perform, salaries which
in private occupation they would obtain. It has oc-
curred therefore, it is said, to Mr. Lowe to ask
whether it might not be possible to introduce a sys-
tem more or less resembling the remarkable one
which has grown up in India—to divide the Civil
service into two parts. One, which would be the
Civil Service, would be filled with men selected by open
competition of the severest kind, would perform brain
work only—would commence in posts of between £3OO and
£5OO a year—and would be entitled, as in Prussia and India,
to compensation whenever removed without specific charge.
The other would consist of clerks only, who would be
employed when wanted at the rates current in open mar-
ket—who would be as liable to dismissal as if employed
in merchants' offices without either pension or compensa-
tion—and who might therefore be accepted without ex-
amination. If they could not do the work they would go,
as they do in all private offices.

The case of ill-treating pauper lunatics at Lan
caster, the particulars of which we gave some time ago,
has been dealt with by the magistrates, and one of
the prisoners, the man Wood, is committed for trial for

murder.
CLERICAL MARRIAGES.—WhiIst parents of the
superior classes allow their daughters to marryclergymen,
in consideration of the value and attainableness of eccle-
siastical preferments, parents of the inferior classes are
ambitious of clerical alliances for their girls, out of regard
for the distinction which attaches, in the humbler of the
middle grades, to a clergyman's wife. The amount of wealth
that steadily flows to the clerical order through the action
of this particular ambition is enormous. In our large
cities this tendency of newly acquired riches is very ob-
servable. The prosperous tradesman or small merchant,
who would regard his daughter's marriage with a
thriving man of business as no affair for exults
tion, and who would refuse his consent to her
marriage with a struggling doctor unable to make a
settlement upon her, is well pleased to give his only girl,
with her fortune of ten or twenty thousand pounds, to a
clerical incumbent whose private fortune would not
furnish his bride's drawing-room, and whose professional
income does not exceed an average curate's stipend. The
girl, he argues, bac enough for herself and children;
and, though she won't have a rich husband, she will be
a rector's wife. Setting aside the fortunes made by
our great bankers and merchant princes, I am disposed to
think, that of the wealth realised and accumulated during
the last two generations in this country by enterprise in
commerce and the industrial arts, at least one-third has
flowed to the clerical order through the wedding-ring—
"Jeafferon'i 4.4 Ain( Vie Cler9o