The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-06 00:00:00

TRANSPORT SERVICE.

Mr. LINDSAY moved for a select committee to inquire
into the organization and management of those branches of
the Admiralty, War Office, India Office, and Emigra-
tion Board, by which th 6 business of transporting,
by menus of shipping, troops, convicts, emigrants,
materials of war, stores, and any other similar ser-
vices, is now performed, with a view of adopting
some uniform system by which such services may be
economically and efficiently conducted under the authority
or one consolidated and, responsible .dePttrtment,
lio said he understood there would beno opposition to his
motion, By the present system they had different depart-
ments of Government con'eting for ship/, and when there
were rumours f war with Russia there Ns as no responsible
departMent of Government to attend to the important ques-
tion of the transport of troops. The trattsport of soldiers to
the Crimea it. one year cost £5,003,000, and the whole cost
no lees than £15,000,000. (El ear, hear.) The
Duke of .Newcastle suggested LIDA the Minister
of War should be responsible for lion transport of troops,
and in 1851 a transport board was orgu rased ; but that board
Was not established permanently. In. consequmee of want
of proper organisation, at the breaking out of the
war, our
men were dying for want of food. IVb an the transport
board came into operationf the expens e of vessels
em.
ployed in the transport service washe fitofproper
a matter of considerably re-
duced, which Showed the
eiganieatien in bane
el
is description.
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Having referred to the present-defective mode that prevailed
in reference to procuring vessels for the conveyance of I
troops, the hon. member said that the sending
out to India and bringing home of e ich soldier
cost the country £46 18s. Mr. Wood a gentle-
man of considerable knowledge in respect to his subject,
asserted that the cost could be reduced t ) £2.5 per head.
Other competent authorities had stated th . the cost could
be considerably diminished. An organi4 'on that would
effect that object wou'd be of advantage at the present time,
when the number of troops it would be necessary to send to
India would be so much larger than preTiously. He con-
tended that the most practical means of dealing with the
subject would be to revive the emigration office, which
.. .

would discharge their functions so effectually, and the ma-
chinery, of which was still in existence. That board might
be presided over by the Minister of War or by the First
Lord of the Admiralty, as might be arranged by Govern-

ment.
Lord C. PAGET said it was not the intention of the
Government to offer any opposition to the motion, but
he thought the hon. member would find difficulties
in the working of the Emigration board which he proposed
to revise. He believed that at the present time
there was a proper understanding between the War-
office and the Admiralty on the subject, at least he had
heard no complaints at the latter with respect to the for-
mer. He suggested that the hon. member should leave
out the words from " performed" to the end of the motion.
After a few words from Mr. Baillie, Sir H. Willoughby,
Sir C. Napier, Sir J. Elphinstone, and other hon. members,

Sir J. PAKINGTON said he did not think this was a
proper time to enter on the discussion of this subject. The
only question really before them was whether there
was not ample ground for inquiry into the sub-
ject. As far- AS. he was concerned, he considered
there were the strongest reasons for such inquiry, and that
it would be productive of benefit, as any improvement in
the system of transport would lead to a corresponding im-
provement in the condition of the troops, who sometimes
were exposed to inconvenience and delay.
Mr. LINDSAY consented to the omission pr )posed by
the noble lord (Lord C. Paget.)
The motion was then agreed to.
CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS.
Mr. COCHRANE moved that, for the future the Civil
Service Commissioners shall publish, with their annual
report, all the examination papers submitted to candidates ;
specifying the proportion in which the maximum of
marks
assigned to -each branch of knowledge is
divided among the Questions contained in each paper.
The hon. gentlemailcontended that the only other country
where competitive examinations prevailed was China, and
he quoted the opittions of Sir John Bowring and L rd
Monteagle against tl present system. He quoted some of
the questions which caVidates were required to answer in
the examination of pons applying for Government
situations, a hich excited much amusement.
The CHANCELLOR .a.the EXCHEQUER said he
must confess that having examined this motion his col-
leagues and himself considered that there were very grave
objections to it. But if any doubt existed on that subject
it would have been removed by the speech of his hon.
friend which the house would recollect must be taken in
connection with the motion. The animus of that sneech
could not be mistaken. His hon. friend gathered what
scraps he could to show that the whole idea of a civil ser-
vice examination was mischievous and absurd. His hon.
friend said next that the examination was retrospective,
but what did his hon. friend mean? Did he mean that a
person in the civil service was required to submit to an
examination to retain his office ? If he did, such was not the
fact, and if he meant that on migrating to another depart-
ment, an examination was required in that case, he spoke
correctly. When the landing waiter from Barbadoes wished
to transfer himself to the Audit-office, no doubt he had to
submit to an examination, and his hon. friend considered
that monstrous. In his (the Chancellor of the Exchequer's)
opinion, it would be impossible to exaggerate the mischief
that must ensue from the adoption of the plan proposed by
his hon. friend. In point of fact, the question which his
hon. friend wanted to bring to an issue was whether the
system would be altogether maintained or abolished. His
hon. friend who was so much alive to the evils of examining
a landing waiter from Barbadoes, does not remember the
class of evils which the present system was intended to re-
move. He did not bear in mind what a huge jobbing power
had been at work throughout the country, through the
medium of members of the House of Commons. Of course
it was impossible that any member of the House of Com
mons could knowingly mix himself up in the'perpotration
of a job—(a laugh)—but members of great eminence,
and who now took a deep interest in the work-
ing of the examination system, had been them-
selves unwitting instruments in the perpetration
of 'jobs. These examinations were introduced
in a spirit of hostility to jobbery, and with a
view of obtaining the best men. His hon. friend said that
the public were well served under the old system. True,
in many offices it was so, but there were other offices in
which the contrary had been the case. Many offices he
knew to have been miserably filled, and they would have
continued to be so but for the examinations which had been
instituted a few years since. The motion was so narrow
that he felt almost degraded in descending from the discus-.
sion of broad principles to its restricted terms. It might
b 3 right to publish a general idea of the scope of an exami-
tion, but it would be decidedly mischievous to give every
detail. But that kind of particular examination, without
bounds and without limits, which his hon. friend sought to
secure, tended to destroy the efficiency and honesty of the
examination, and to put those young men, not upon seeking
general information and cultivating and furnishing rightly
their minds, but upon all the tricks and stratagems which
might be applied, and sometimes were successfully applied
with fatal effect, for the purpose of vitiating this process of
examination, and evading those tests which it was the ob-
ject of the examination to secure. His hon. friend with
great magnanimity, said he was not at all disposed to com-
mit an act of injustice towards the examiners, and he
would by no means quote particular questions, which
might be misunderstood, and having laid down that gene-
ral principle he immediately 1 roceeded to quote a string of
particular questions which appeared to his hon. friend ex-
tremely ridiculous.
Mr. B. COCHRANE—The questions I quoted all fol-
lowed each other.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER had said
a " string" of particular questions. (Hear, hear.) It was
not easy to find a word which would more clearly express
that the questions followed each other. (" Hear, hear,"
and laughter.) He would venture, however, to say this,
that there never was a good examination paper set which
would not give occasion probably to a titter in a mixed
assembly, before gentlemen who were not met for the pur-
pose of undergoing examinatioa, but upon matters quite
different from scholastic examination. (bear, hear.)
Having listened to these questions he (the Chancellor of
the Exchequer) must say that they appeared to him to be
extremely reasonable and proper questions, very well cal-
culated to test general knowledge and general capacity, and
to do credit to the judgment of those by whom they were
framed and put. (Hear, hear.) His hon. friend said that
the value in number of marks ought to be attached to each
of those questions. The hon. gentleman, unable to defeat
the system, v, as determined to do everything to weaken it,
by bringing the power of cram to bear upon it, and he
wished to have artificial aids given to young mon to direct.
them to what questions they were to go. So that they
might say, "If I get up this question 1i only get 3 marks,
but if I get up this I get 12 marks." In the first place, that
would be a degree of detail which it would be absurd and
ridiculous to ask the examiners to enter into, and in the
second place it would bo a thing of no manner of use what-
ever, except to encourage these young men to cram for par •
titular questions. (Hear, hear.) The question was
whether the examiners had given to those who were to be
examined that sort of general information as to the
character of the examination which was fair and just. And
what had the examiners done in their first report ? For
once, they did publish the whole mass of the examination
papers that they had set for the year. For once they did that,
in order that there might be laid out before the candidates
fair means and opportunities of becoming acquainted with
our system. But to pursue that year after year, by pub-
lishing tho whole of their examination papers, would, in
the first place, load their reports and the shelves of the
library of that house with a vast quantity of the most uLe-
less and worthless matter. Ono of the most important
branches of this examination was arithmetic ; and
what could be more ridiculous than to call upon those
examiners to print in detail every suns and problem in at ith-
motic which was put before every person who came forward
to be examined with a view of entering the civil service of
the country. It would be very mischievous as regarded the
amount of needless expense to which it would put the pub-
lic, and still more mischievous from the tendency it would
have to encourage trick and stratagem in the young men,
instead of le iding them to trust to the manly processes of a
sound and well-conducted education. He thought the mo-
tion, framed as it was, laid down rules which were very ex-
ceptionabre, but if the opinion of the hon. gentleman and
the general opinion of the house really were that the exa-
miners. ha I not done enough to make those parties acquainted
with the general character of the examinations, such an ex-
pression of opinion, deliberately made by those who had
looked into the reports, and had really considered the ques-
tions, and conveyed to the examiners themselves, would, he
had no doubt, have great weight with them. But he (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) should like to know whether
there was in that house any one man who had considered
carefully the whole of the papers published by the exa-
miners, and, having considered them, had made up his
mind that they were not sufficient to give fair information
to th, persons to be examined. Had his hon. friend him-
self (Mr. B. Cochrane) read all the published papers? He
should like an answer to that question. (Hear, hear.) The
hon. member was very ready to speak just now, when he
had something to say, but he was not so willing to speak
now. (Hear, and laughter.) But if the hon. gentleman
had, and if he considered that sufficient information was net
given, it -would be a matter well worhy the attention of the
examiners, and one which he (the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer) felt sure they would take into consideration. But that
would be no cause for the interference ,f the house by a mo-
tion which, to say nothing of the speech by which it was sup-
puolteeadr:lN,reasari.)n thTehneadtuocrteroinfeahceewnosulurde
panredisduisizonurtahegehrnoeusnte.