15 AUGUST 1874, Page 13

INDIAN CIVIL-SERVICE EXAMINATION.

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")

Stu,—The selected candidates for the Indian Civil Service have recently been subjected to a process of vivisection at the hands of Edinburgh Reviewers, Cambridge M.A.'s, &c. As one of their number, I find myself described as an " awkward recluse," and, perhaps, not altogether consistently, as a " shallow sciolist," who has intruded into an honourable profession by the assistance of a " notorious crammer." May I be permitted to describe what this cramming consisted of ?

For two years I read specially for this examination with Mr.—. During that time I attended lectures on English from an Oxford Professor and from a Cambridge Fellow and First-class man,—lectures identically the same in character as those which they had delivered in their respective Universities. I read mathematics three hours a day, under the direction of a high Wrangler, and studied science both theoretically and practically with a Cambridge First-class man and Fellow. Far from confining ourselves to mere book-work, we had the use of an excellent electri- cal laboratory, and studied geology in the field as well as in the lecture-room and the Museum.

Have our critics taken the trouble to investigate the working of the system they are criticising ? Why, Sir, they all seem to agree that it is impossible for a man to pass without " taking up " an undesirably large range of subjects, whereas, in reality, six out of the first seven last year obtained sufficient marks in Classics and English alone to insure their success, and no less than twelve out of the thirty-five successful candidates might safely have confined their attention to two subjects.

My object in writing this letter is to speak a word for a much- abused system, a system to which I myself am not a little indebted. Even if I had failed in this examination, I should still feel that my two-years' " cramming " had not been wasted, and that I had brought away an increase of knowledge and a taste for literary and scientific pursuits likely to be far more valuable to me in after- life than any Civil-Service appointment.—I am, Sir, &c.,

A SELECTED CANDIDATE, 1873.