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

THE WEATHER..-SUN OFFICg, JUNE 6, IMO.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADS.
G 2 —highcsc since noon yesterday.
47 —lowest this morning and during the night.
61—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-20.83.
`WIND—South-Westerly ; fresh. with rain and stormy
weather. A heavy shower of hail yesterday afternoon.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tuts DAY.—Morning, 3h. 24m.—Afternoon, 3h. 45m
To-stonnow.-Morning, 4h. sm.—Afternoon, 4b. 25m

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THE SUN.

L.)NDOX, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 1860.

A respectable situation, with an advancing
salary, and for life ! The value of such a boon to
thousands was what gave half its earnestness to the
discussion of last evening. A great part of, we
might say all, the hon. members wish to have

superior men in the public service ; but hon.
members have constituents who confer on them their
special honour, and connections, who also think
that their friend or relative who can give
the Government a vote has some influence with
it ; and between his political supporters and the
others, an honourable member is not unlikely to be
pressed, sometimes dishonourably, to use " his fair
influence" to get a situation for a deserving and
needy young man. A Respectable Situation !
why it is the desideratum of thousands ; and we
have heard too much in times past, of the way in
which Ministers and members of Parliament have
been pressed, almost beyond endurance, for Govern-
ment appointments, not to mention the " job-
bery" in this way, which was seldom wanting.
Now it cannot be denied that the system of com-
petitive examinations for the Civil Service and for
other services too, is at least a check on undue soli-
citations and on jobbing. When the plan has been
in existence a sutli'.;ient time, every appointment of
a person who has not passed such an examination,
will be suspected and severely canvassed ; the only
question is are the evils incident to examination so

great as to outweigh those attendant on ap-
pointment at discretion by the Government. This
will hardly be-pretended. Every man knows his
liability to be influenced against his better judg•
ment by such considerations as are brought
to bear on those who have civil appointments,
directly or indirectly, in their gift ; and we are
persuaded that the great majority of such gentle-
men feel it a relief to be able to say to an importu-
nate suitor, I may help you, perhaps, if you arc able
to help yourself in the first instance. There's the
examination for all. Can you pass it ?
It is true some able young men may, in this way
fail for want of the requisite book knowledge ; but
after a lbw years, how few will they be ? What, in-
deed, can the young man be worth, who, if his gain-
ing a situation dcpend6d upon his proficiency,
in the most outlandish subject on earth would not
determine to master it. Of course k tztjects which
form the basis of a good general and polite educa-
tion would be naturally chosen ; but it is a great
mistake to think that for the main object of an
examination the particular subject is of much con-
sequence. The man who is best at anything which
all had to study, would, as the rule, be best at any-
thing which which came before him in after life.
Were the subject the language of the Ojtbbeway
India7,s, or the details of chemical combination, or
the geography of all the West Coast of Scotland
and of the llebrides—we would give more for the
best young man at any of these than for the second ;
and snore for the second than for the third; and
we, would not accept ali all the younker who had
not pluck to attempt such "out-of-the-way stuff."
WI at we want in every department of life is, men
who will be best at whatever is
„indispensable to
their success.

On this ground alone we should say that the
cx,pmiriotion questions, which seemed so ludicrous
to /he house, were more than justified. If there
Nvcre candidates in geography or in geology, it is
fair to suppose there might be among them young
men w 1 had determined to be at home in all parts
of Scotia .nd, Ireland, and Woks, and who would
not be a t a loss for any knowledge to be acquired
from th, 'physical atlases of the day; or who did
not m ea ,n to be puzzled by any interrogatory on

rocks, strata, and fossils. If they were there, for
the sake of the public service we ought to know
those lads. We may be quite sure they would fill
any post at home or abroad with credit, and would
not long continue creeping up the very gradually
inclined plane of civil service promotion.. Any
good examination paper should contain questions
rising from the minimum requirements, to questions
which would not be answered off-hand easily even
by the examiners themselves.
There was, as Lord STANLEY observed, an un-
worthy and absurd insinuation that the patronage
of the Civil Service was transferred from the Crown
to three irresponsible examiners. Nothing can be
more untrue. The examiners have no patronage.
They can give nothing. As well, as the noble
lord said, speak of a judge having the patronage
of an estate when his decision on the
law of the case would give it to one
party or the other. The examiners are
but judges—judges, on well ascertained prin-
ciples, of intellectual capacity and attain-
ments; and we can hardly bring ourselves to
believe the possibility of any gentlemen of the
knowledge and talents 'fitting them for such an
office, feeling even the slightest temptation to
give a wrong verdict on the papers handed up to
them.

On the other hand, we do not object to all prac-
ticable publicity. We do not think it essential ;
still it would meet some objections of cavillers. The
suggestion also is good of affixing to each question
on the papers the number of marks which its
answer would obtain. It would be a fair guide
to tha candidates working within limited hours,
and perhaps not aware of the relative importance
attached to the questions by his judges.
It is remarkable, however, that even now the
greater part of those who fail do so in the more
elementary studies—in arithmetic and spelling.
It cannot be contended, surely, thatsuchaquisitions
arc not indispensable. Those who find fault with
examinations would be the very first perhaps to
ridicule appointments in which, through something
that came before the public, these deficiencies
became apparent. We have indeed undergone a
great social change since the time when potent
barons thought it an honour to be unable to write
their names, or even since high-born gentlemen and
ladies spelt their mother tongue pretty nearly
according to their fancy. But all these persons
would, hag their credit depended on it, have been
as perfect in orthography, as in all that was
deemed an accomplishment in their days. We
sincerely hope, therefore, that a system calculated
to test who are the young men with a spirit to be
up to any requirement, will not be given up or
even injuriously modified to meet the clamour of a
few discarded candidates. Let them rather try
again, and let not the country mar a system which
puts to the test whether they do try, and whether,
if they try, they can succeed.

Mr. BENTINCK has often before now been a
serious obstructive in the House of Commons, and
a most irritating intermeddler. He aspires ap-
parently to be the MARPLOT of the Conservative
Party : as—in the Liberal Party—Mr. HORSMAN
has latterly aimed, to all appearance, at becoming
universally recognised as its ISHMAEL. These kind
of politicians are certainly and obviously the most
difficult of all to manage. They are party men, and
yet they are only such upon the understanding that
they are party men, with the somewhat anomarous
privilege of perpetual independence. They are
liable upon any and every occasion, and at moments
of all the most inopportune, to turn suddenly restiff
—to get the bit, as it were, between their teeth and
go off at a tangent in a hand gallop. Whenever
they act thus merely with the result of creating
confusion amongst the ranks of their own particular
associates—making themselves more than usually
unpleasant to their own immediate surroundings—
well and good for mere lookers-on—the spectacle
presented to view is rather agreeable than other-
wise, has often in those instances proved to the
general public an abundant source of entertainment.
But on Monday evening the member for West
Norfolk went even beyond himself—be out-Ben-
tincked BENTINCK ! Not content any longer with
merely insisting upon the necessity of an imperiunz
in imperio on the side of the Opposition—he must
needs absolutely go the length of trying to measure
swords, so to speak, with the right hon. the Speaker !
Now it is one of the immemorial traditions of that
most august representative assembly in the world,
that to the authority of the Speaker, both sides of
the House alike, all parties without any distinction,
every one from the leader on the Treasury bench
and tha leader of the Opposition downwards, from
the Father of the House (is not this now Mr.
SrooNER ?) to the youngest and least experienced
of the popular representatives bow absolutely and
completely. The decision of the right hon. gentle
man who occupies the chair of the House of Com-
mons is held on all hands to be conclusive. The
First Commoner in the land is there in that Chair
as the First Commoner. His word is the law of
the House in regard to its proceedings. No one
dreams of demurring at his decizdo:4 as to the order
of procedure. This is the tradition of the Com-
mons. This is their national instinct so to speak.
Mr. BENTINCK apparently deems the course thus
pursued to be erroneous—the course pursued back
and back until the records of the House are lost, to
use Lord MACAULA Y's phrase, in the twilight of fable,
leading us towards the time of the Wittenagernote.
The member for West Norfolk in his supremo wis-
doni deems any further adherence to this system or
habit simply inexpedient. Insomuch that on Mon-
day evening during that untoward discussion which
was commenced upon the order of the day for the
Reform Bill going into Committee—Mr. BENTINCK
showed himself to bc not in any way amenaVe
to the decision arrived at explicitly in his re•
gard by the Speaker. Having risen to move the
" instruction" of which he -had given notice, as
had been, in fact, duly announced upon the papers
of the House for that evening, Mr. BENTINCK was
at once informed by the Speaker that • there was
precisely the same objection to his " instruction"
as there had previously been to the " instruction"
moved (also according to notice) by the hon. mem
her for Northamptonshire. This objection, more-
over, was pronounced insuperable by the Speaker,
" inasmuch," said the right hon. gentleman,
was mandatory in its terms, and that in fact it
called upon the House to direct the committee not
to proceed further with the bill till provision wr s
made for giving to the counties in England that.
share in the representation of the people to which
they might be shown to be entitled by population
or property. It NI as competext," the Speaker
added, " for the committee to enter into the subject
of registration, and to dispose of it as they might
think proper." The Speaker maintaining yet
further, that "it was, therefore, not necessary to

"as it

move any such instruction, and in his opinion on
these grounds it was irregular and out of order.'
Mr. hUNT, the member for. Northamptonshire, had
bowed at once to the decision of the Speaker, and
had readily withdrawn his notice. Not so Mr.
BENTINCK. The Speaker, as we have shown, had
spoken plainly- pronounced the moving of
any such instruction to be, in his (the Speaker's)
opinion, "irregular and out of order." The mem-