REORGANIZING OF THE PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS. THE OFFICIAL PROJECT.
THE project suggested by the gentlemen to whom the Treasury had intrusted an inquiry into the state of the public offices would supply many defects of the existing system, and would perhaps develop our public departments into a more perfect form of official machinery than that which is to be found in any country. In many respects the organization of France is superior to our own. The French have opportunities for a curriculum of expe- rimental study, it may be called, which very accidental circum- stances alone can secure to individuals in our country. Many cir- cumstances contribute to show the great freedom which the Rus- sian Government exercises in using its public men according to their individual capacity ; and the fusion of departments in that country is still so considerable, that in some distinguished in- stances high public officers have represented both branches of the armed service—the naval as well as the military. With us, di- vision of employment, although by no means carried out in a per- fect form, has gone so far that to each department is allotted its range of duties, to each man his own fragment of the range. Hopeless of stirring beyond his own department—almost of moving beyond the daily routine of his own desk, the public servant is content to get through the duties of the day in as easy a manner as possible ; and, denied the natural ambition of rising by capa- bility and assiduity, he falls back upon the enjoyment of a listless routine, and discovers the way of giving as little as he can for his money. This division of employments, however, by no means economizes the work done ; for it is so mechanical that in many cases it divides functions rather than work, and this occasions the same thing to be done many times over. It is needless, how- ever, in the present day, to recapitulate these defects and bad working in the public departments, which we have so recently anatomized and exposed.* These defects are now very generally admitted, and the proposed plan would not only supply them, but would check the evils incident to an appointment by patronage. It is proposed, as a general rule, that the age of admission to the civil service shall not be under seventeen or nineteen, nor above twenty-one or twenty-three ; some variety being anticipated in re- gard to different departments. The candidate to be subjected to examination, on such subjects, for example, as history, jurispru- dence, political economy, modern languages, political and physical geography, the staple of the classics, mathematics, &c. These items, however, appear to be mentioned rather for the purpose of indicating the kind of examination, than as pledging the reporters to the exact form of the curriculum. After his first admission, the candidate would only become a " probationer " liable to dis- missal, if, upon removal to one or more departments, he should prove to be hopelessly unfitted for the service. The examinations would be open to public competition, but the competition would not be for a specific appointment. Examiners would only pronounce the fitness of the candidate ; his appointment would rest with the chiefs of the departments. It is proposed to reserve some appointments for the sons and relatives of deserving public officers, as an addi- tional reward to such persons ; and it is also intimated that the minor appointments, such as tidewaiterships, or lettercarrierships, might be specially open to pupils in schools and colleges connected with the educational departments. At present there exists a • Vide Spectator, Nos. 1292, 1293, 1294. class of copying clerks, whose duties are generally on a level, and who are transferred from department to department, without loss to themselves or to the public. It is proposed to continue this class, and to encourage the distinction between the mechanical branch and the superior branch. Promotions would be made upon certificate of merit, by the immediate superior of the candidates ; the secretary of the department selecting out of a list kept for the purpose. Increase of salary would be allowed not simply as a routine but as due, upon certificate of punctual attendance and sa- tisfactory conduct. It is proposed that clerks should be trans- ferred from one department to another, and that the usage which at present excludes them from their higher appointments should be discontinued. Allusions to pensions and allowances suggest that some liberal concession on that score may be regarded as the equi- valent for the reform with which the public service is to be visited ; and another allusion to honorary distinctions seems to hint further inducements of that .kind. The total effect of all these changes would appear to be, that merely mechanical clerkship would remain at the lowest level; above which would be a class of more educated servants holding departmental employment, but liable to removal from department to department; with promotion and increase of pay, open to merit, and the highest appointments no longer inac- cessible. The general character of the reform speaks for itself, as most desirable, if it should be effected; and from the manner in which it is advanced we presun4 that it would not have proceeded thus far if there had not been some intention of carrying it out.
It may be that the promoters of the reform have laid too much stress upon some existing defects. It is argued, for example, that the present system does not attract the ablest men ; an assertion coming naïvely enough from men whose own names might almost be taken to refute the statement. The fact is, that the system does attract a great many able men ; but, with a few exceptions, they have no opportunity of making their way : the system dead- ens the men.
It may be doubted, also, whether somewhat too much is not made of the preliminary examination as a scholastic exhibition. That a central board of examiners would be a useful department there is no doubt ; but it should be remembered that the require- ments for different departments vary—that, while political economy may be specially necessary in one, political geography and modern languages in another, or accounts in a third and geometry in a fourth, it does not follow that all these attainments would be re- quired in each, at least in the same degree. On the other hand, although brilliant exceptions fo the rule can be pointed out, it is a rule, that those scholars who are able to make the most brilliant display in all the classes of learning do not necessarily turn out the ablest men in business or the most striking thinkers. Besides the remarkable instances of Milton, Dryden, and others, who have been regarded as not conspicuous for success in early career, there has been many a public man, and many a useful public servant, who would have been very " shy " under examination whether at school or elsewhere. The examination should be one to a certain extent, of course, for testing elementary knowledge ; but chiefly for ascertaining the ability of the candidate. Although it would be a desirable effect of an improved standard in the public service to promote school learning amongst the upper and middle classes, still it would hardly be a legitimate object of any improvement in the public service that it should be indirectly used as a means of encouraging particular schools or styles of education. There is another reason for not placing too high or precise a standard at the entrance ; and it is, that it'would be a positive ad- vantage if the neophyte had not completed hiseducation before en- tering. There is no pedant more unmanageable than the prema- turely middle-aged man whose education is complete at all points. Much of the education which a public servant should receive for the upper grades would be suggested and guided by his experience in the subordinate grades; • and it would be most desirable that the parents and guardians of young men in the public service should have a distinctly-understood motive for superintending the studies that should prepare the young men for their subsequent promo- tion. In this way the service would be partly self-trained, and its knowledge would be of a more applicable kind for its being con- ducted in connexion with practical work.
That a service constructed on the proposed plan would be very superior to the present, constructed upon no plan at all, few would deny. And from the pains which have been bestowed upon the inquiry and the production of this report, it is fair to suppose that there is some settled purpose beyond that of proposing a " reform," and taking the credit for honest intentions.
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