The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-03-29

Among other queer old-fashioned flncics still
prevailing in England-though happily long since
exploded here's the idea that fitness for an office
is, or should be, necessary qualification for re-
ceiving it. To what extravagant lengths this
truly preposterous notion may sometimes be car
red, has been lately illustrated in the case of one
Captain WISE, who had been appointed by Minis
ters to be Vice Consul at Jeddo but whose qualif-
cations for the place were most rudey and imperti-
nently called into question by members of the
House of Commons, upon grounds which need
only to be stated, to make their ahsurdity and
insuffciency apparent. Captain WISE, it appears,
was an officer Of the Life GuardS-a gentleman
of good family, and as even The Times itself,
willing to concede, "a courteous and
an educated gentleman" Possessing these
qualifications which it must be confessed are vast
ly superior to those ordinarily required in an
American Envoy Minister Plenipoentiary-
he was appointed, at amoderate salary, to- Consul
lar position, in the distant Empire Of Japan. In
stead, however, of being duly grateful to the gall
liant Captain for thus generously consenting to
sacrifice himself for the public good, no sooner
was the appointment announced, than the people
and press of Great Britain set up an immediate
outcry about the abuse of patronage involved in
such selection. Captain WISE, it was said, did
not understand Japanese. Rules which had been
previously established for the regulation of Con-
sular appointments were quoted in justification of
the popular clamor The substance of those
rules, we gather as follows from Parliamentary
debate on the subject. They require that persons
selected for the English Consular service should
satisfy the Civil Service Commissioners they
are called
81 That they have correct knowledge of the English
language to be able TO express themselves clearly
and correctly in writing.
80 That they write and speak French correctly and
fuently
rent language-so far commerce is cOncerned-of the
port at which they appointed to reside enable them
to communicate directly with the authorities and natives
of the place; knowledge Of the Italian language being
taken to meet this requirement far any place stu
aed to the east of the Straits of Gibraltar concerned
and knowledge of the German language regards
ports within the Baltic countries having in the
Baltic
~ sufficient knowledge of British mercantile and
commercial law to enable them to deal with questions
arising between British shpowners shipmasters and
seamen As regards this head of examination cand-
dates must be prepared be examined in Smiths Com
pendulum Of Mercantile La,o."
The unreasonableness of such exactons as those
contained in the foregoing rules can only be
properly appreciated by persons holding Consular
appointments from our own Government, and who
find it perfectly easy to perform all the duties in
cumbent upon them, without possessing a single
of the qualifications which are regarded by the
English Foreign office as essentially necessary. As
TO a "correct knowledge of the English language"
how many, or rather how few, even of our Minis
tiers, are able to speak, much less to write it,
''clearly and correctly while knowledge of
French is not even required in the case of our Min
lister at Paris. 1t is fortunate thing for Mr.. Ma
SON that it is not. As for Italian and German a
familiar acquaintance with Sanscrit and Hebrew
might as well be expected from our Consular
Agents as n knowledge of either of those Ian
guages. They are, emphatically, unknown
''tongues," both in our Diplomatic and Consular
servce-quite as much so, in fact, as japanese, for
the want of which poor Captain WISE was consd-
cred to be disqualified for beggarly Vice-Consu-
late at the port of Jeddo. To show how
much more liberal our own policy is, in regard to
all such appointments, and the remark may be ex-
tended as well to every department of Government
patronage in this country, we quote the following
candid confession of official unitness and dsquali-
fcation from speech delivered by our Consul
at Liverpool, BEVERLY TUCKER, Esq, at a
public banquet in that city. Mr.. TUCKER informed
the merchants of Liverpool that
she sent from Virginia, unknown to commerce
and unaquanted with its mysteries, to represent his
country in the greatest commercial port the world
knowing less about it, perhaps, than any in his
country.
"He was awarded almost the highest honor that the
President of his country could give him. and still know
ing not what it misunderstanding not his mission
OF everything connected with 1.-THE arrived in