New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-10-28

who is best, and that the method employed
q has no tendency TO elicit the best That
smethod pretends only to decide who among
q certain number of lads will best answer a
q string of questions, for the answering OF
= which they are prepared by tutors, who have
sprung up for the purpose since TINS Iasiloh OIL
election has been adopted" lie aulhIt'eu 'n"!
oppointees should not have to learn to spell ana
nut the multiplication table into practice after
they had entered the public service, and he con-
coded that the politicians are free from press
ure. Int he doubted whether the offices are, on
the whole, better manned"
Mr.. Trollope did not say so ana proDaDy
did not see it-but his own case seems 10 1ur-
nisb rs strong an argument for competitive OK
ominotions AS could be desired lie was ap-
pointed in 1874, only two years after the pass
ago of the Reform bill, and before the pressure
of public opinion for reform OF the Clvll scr
Woo beoan 70 make itself felt. Lord Mel
bourne. who became Prime Minister IN the year
Trollope. an ignorant boy of nineteen, was
made n clerk. introduced pass examinations
dining his Ministry. These were in time fol-
lowed nv competitive examinations, introduced
nv some Of the chiefs in their departments as
barrier 70 the appointment of incompetent
cIerl,s nrior 70 the formal establishment OF the
system throughout the service In 1870 lroi-
lone obtained his place by personal influence
and without any examination, edve a trlai III
writing. in which by reason OF nervousness anu
n bad pen he made blots and spelled badly he
was asked if he was proficient III arithmetic
what could sayP l had never lehrheu 'he
MULTIPLICATION table, and had no more luea Oh
the rule of three than of comic sections ne
vas told that on the morrow he would be exam
ined in arithmetic, and again IN writing no
brought with him beautiful Transcription OF
several pages of Gibbon, but no one looked at H.
ond he was given his desk without any further
examination In another place he admits that
he probably ought to have been rejected Du'
adds complacently that If he had been the ser
vice would have lost valuable member Inns
is true. 1t so happened that IN taxing IN TINS
boy who did not know his multiplication taDle
the service acquired member who was talth-
ful ambitions energetic, and hard-headed.
He made himself very useful in time. But tins
was one prize in lottery in which the Govern
mont drew many blanks. The scandals which
resulted from appointments like his created the
demand for the competitive system. His APP
system of personal appointments his retention,
after he began to make himself useful, showed
the advantage, to service and servant alike, OF
system in which political removals were not
countcnanCcd
Mr.. Troopc was no doubt prcjudiced by the
pcculiar circumstances under which he came
into the service. The competitive system came
after he did and he was. perhaps, little old
fogyish about it, He was d0gmatic and cccen-
tric in some of his opinions. Speaking OF his Post
Office experience he said How ! loved when
.I was contadictcd-as ] was very often, anu
no doubt, very propcrly-to do instantly ~
awas bid, and then prove that what was doing
was fatuous, dishonest, expensive and I'M
practicable And then the fcudS-Such de-
~ Iicious fcuds." Asa Post Office official An
thony Trollope must have been an entertaining
character