9 OCTOBER 1830, Page 13

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

FITNESS OF CLERKS IN GOVERNMENT OFFICES.

WE have received a letter from a Brighton correspondent, respecting the remarks on Clerks in Government Offices which appeared in our last number. Our correspondent agrees with us in the necessity of a reform among those gentlemen. He traces with us their inefficiency to its true cause—the .indiscriminate manner in which the patronage of public offices is exercised, and the want of any thing like a proper test of the fitness of the young men when appointed; and he might have added, that the kindly feelings of the heads of departments in all cases, and the nature of the Government regulations in many, render it almost impossible, where an'tinfit person has been once fairly introduced, to get rid of the burden of his services ; and thus the primary error is converted into a permanent nuisance. Our correspondent proposes, as a test of efficiency, that all clerks in:Public Offices should be chosen from among the graduates of the two Universities : he thinks that talent would in this way be secured, and that the habits of industry necessary for the acquisition of college honours, would insure such a capacity of labour as would allow of the duties being performed by one-fourth of the number at present employed, instead of one-half, as we ventured to suggest. Our correspondent has probably overlooked one particular in his proposed test,—namely, that as long as Oxford and Cambridge abide by their rules, none but members of the Church of England can obtain degrees. Now, after the Bills of 1829 and 1828, we think it will hardly be maintained that the subordinate officers of Government should be filled solely by Episcopalians, while the superior offices are filled indifferently by Protestants and Catholics, ?Churchmen and Dissenters.

But even were there means of getting over this fatal objection to our correspondent's test, we think it would be of little value. Undoubtedly, among the graduates of the two Universities, we may find many able and even business men ; but we are so far from thinking, merely from the circumstance of their being graduates, that they must be the one or the other, that, with the exception of a Government Office, we hardly know a worse school than a university for a young man who is intended to make his way through life by the steady application of every-day workable talents. .A Mere mathematician, or a mere, scholar, is the last man we would select for a clerk ; and the men of degrees—the superlatives of the colleges— are, nineout of ten, mere mathematicians or mere scholars.

The most effectual of all tests, we believe, will be found in assigning to clerks of Public Offices a due quantity of labour, and a due—only a due—remuneration. In that case, only those who are content to labour for their hire would be selected, for none -else would apply.