New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-21

! swjmf Perish the thought Let as establish n.y.
dropathic academies, which would at once give us
the benefits enjoyed by the time bonOred customs Oh
the English system"
For that is the panacea at last. Mr.. Weirs simple
andtnexpensive plan TO prevent lying and stealing
in the Civil Service-at least that is what he pro
poses in the beginning, though before the end he de-
fleets into design to keep ignorance out OF elective
ofices-is to establish schools of training with
their several departments presided over by the bes
talent the country affords with all the appliances
for thorough training in finance, in law, in morals
in government, and in all the minor business per
tanning to the conduct of the State" But Mr.. Wer
is moderate. He does not wish /" to multiply these
academies" If they grew on every bush they would
not be sufficiently exclusive. He would be content
with two one at the East and one at the West but
these two must be =" founded upon a scale COM
mensurate with the ends in view" Naturally, Mr..
Weir begins to"commensurate"n lis academies pretty
high up. He is going to have schools where grad
yates of colleges may enter upon course
of study especially adapted to the needs
of the several departments of the Civil
Service" Mr.. Weir has a very poor opinion OF col
leges after all. They only kind of preparatory
school for his Civil Service academy but not at all
capable of fitting man to be good postmaster or
a capable clerk. These academies are also to be
requisite ability, and passes the requisite examina
TONS" Still if they to take up the college grad
uate when the college leaves him. the citizens sons
would not have much chance, unless he were on a
level with the college graduate in point of educa-
ton
But why" says Professor Weir, /" why, it may be
asked, should an educated man and a gentleman
have the preference of place the honest though
ignorant sons of toll 7" No person in the United
States, venture to say ever asked that question
except Mr.. JnO. f. Weir. Even Mr. Denis Kearney
does not clamOr for ignorance. Ignorance does not
call itself ignorance. 1t calls itself better know-
edge. If you come to that we should all like to
have letters handed to and our foreign trunks
overhauled and our whiskey stills watched by
graduates of colleges with the Civil Service
academic course grated Shall Yale and Harvard
and Amherst and Bowdoin any longer tamper with
the " lying and stealing" characteristic of the
Civil Service fancy that because they nursed our
Websters and Choates and Everetts and Bancrofts
and Storys to greatness that they NAV still be suf
fcient for the day-books and ledgers of the Treas
ury Perish the thought. BY all means let us
establish our Civil Service academies to supplement
the colleges and supersede the law-schools and to
" give us at once the benefits enjoyed by the time
honored customs of the English system"
But if there are few minutes left before the es-
Enlistment of those academies, will not Professor
Weir improve the occasion bv explaining how "cus-
toms" can enjoy benefits" aud what are the time
hOnOred customs" whose benefits are to receive
from a brand-new Civil Service academy Does the
English Civil Service have training academies
Those parts of the English system which have honor
among reformers the new parts. Those parts
which have time on their side are not honored
That part of the English system which is held up
for our copying by the refOrmers is not Z" the time
hOnored customs" but the customs which have
hardly yet passed beyond the experimental stage
which are still the subject Of serious and hostile dis
cussiOn.
When Professor Weir has the appropriation for
his academies well in hand. may suggest that the
first professOrshp be prOfesSorship Of the English
language, so that the college graduate before he
enters the Civil Service may learn TO express his
ideas with measurable degree of accuracy; and
his second a professOrship of science so that his
academician may know how 10 discern between
things as they are and the mere phantasmagoria of
things and his third a professorshp of proofs,
which shall teach the ingenious youth that he is to
show the superiority of his manners and education
by the accuracy of his observation, by the business
with which he represents his opponent, by the
breadth Of his own views and the wisdom ofhs own
plans and not by making broad upon his brow, be-
fore angels and men, the phyacteres Of any college
whatever. GAIL HAMILTON.