THE FORGOTTEN BULWARK OF COMPETITION.
T"provincial journalists are giving themselves what we suspect is quite needless trouble to defend the system of free Competition for the public service. It is, we believe, quite possible that that system may have to stand another attack, and that the attack may be favoured by very important people, or even be acceptable to the existing Ministry. It is also true that open competition has been condemned by the Commission on the Civil Service, and that a compromise has been suggested which would restore political patronage, checked by a pass examination, and therefore with less responsibility for its exercise. And it is also true that on certain points a case can be made out against competition and its results, a case which is strong or weak according to the speaker's belief in the value of " gentleman- liness," and of the qualities which it is asserted a literary examination must fail to test. But nevertheless, though the attack may be formidable, and may be supported by many who, while believing the system useful in the Civil Services, think it distinctly dangerous when applied to the Army, it is, we believe, in very little danger. The scheme has now lasted twenty years, and though it has fallen short of an ideal result, it has not produced the kind of result Which would induce politicians to risk serious unpopularity to secure its abolition. The party in power would do a good deal, we dare say, to discredit "the philosophers" and a little to restore patronage—not very much, for patronage has been and will be in their rivals' bands for three years out of every five—but they will not risk the displeasure of influential constituents. And that displeasure will be very great. We question if any of those who write so glibly on the necessity for getting rid of "Chinese customs," and suggest so offhandedly that competition should be abolished, are quite aware of the extent to which the plan has affected English social life. There is not a middle-class family in England or a family of any kind in Scotland in which open competition is not felt as a slight but perceptible relief to the burden of life. The notion of a secure maintenance to be won by head-work without asking anybody for anything has entered into the very soul of Paterfamilias, and he will not give it up without a struggle from which, unless the case made out is unanswerable, any political party would shrink. The passion for place which prevails to so terrible an extent on the Continent, and to a less extent in Ire- land, has not yet reached the same height in this country, but the desire for a secure life is still very strong. There is scarcely a family able to pay for good education which has not a son, or nephew, or cousin, or clever dependant whose future would be clouded by the abolition of competition, who are not paying more for education "Because, by Jove ! in theae days of examinations, education is your only chance," who do.
not at heart regard competition as a ticket in their lottery of life, and a very good one. The appointments are not very numerous, the prizes, except in the Indian Civil Service, are not very good, and the number of candidates has never reached the figure some visionaries expected; but still the idea that the Queen's Service is an open career has become fixed, and for every boy who goes up ten families are interested that the chance of his going-up should be left open. It is all very well to say that the stupid cannot succeed, and that the stupid are ten to one, but even if true, that does not affect the consideration we are putting forward. Paterfamilias governs England, and Paterfamilias does not think his boy stupid ; or if he does, wants the extent of his stupidity tested ; or if he cannot rise to that height of confidence, desires that his stupidity shall be ameliorated by his educating himself for a definite and easily comprehended struggle. This last motive has so much weight, that it has affected the whole course of middle-class edu- cation, has furnished a standard for success, and has helped most strongly to produce the new willingness to pay heavily for educa- tion. Everybody now knows, when he is told that John Smith could go up for a competitive examination, what sort of education and power of thinking John Smith is supposed by his father to have got, and the loss of that standard would leave a void in every superior school. We do not say it is the best standard. We do not even say it is a good standard. We are quite willing to allow that the world is no happier and very little the wiser for this incessant straining towards a mark placed just out of ordinary reach. But we do say that the average Englishman, on the whole, approves the existence of the mark, that it makes his mind easier, that he would miss it greatly if taken away, and that he will be very apt to punch any- body's head who takes it. He does not now think of competi- tion as a political question at all, or as one in dispute, but as part of the British system according to which he has framed his life, and brought up his sons, and paid his bills, and regulated his conduct generally. If it can be proved to him that the scheme seriously injures the country, he will give it up with a growl, as he submitted to the Income-tax; but to argument short of that, to argument about the manufacture of "prigs," and the folly of testing character on paper, and the certainty that Clive would have been "spun," he will be as deaf as any num- ber of adders. We venture to say that if the Government, strong as it is, were to bring in a Resolution to abolish Competition, it would have to rush it through in one night, or withdraw it without more debate. Within three days of the proposal becoming known, the members of the majority, county Members as well as borough Members, would have received shoals of letters of the kind which influence Parliamentary votes, letters of unmistakable clearness, letters signifying that if the Bill passed, Blankshire and Quieton would have other representatives. The very least that would be demanded would be ten years' notice, so that the training already begun should not be wasted,—and ten years means in politics almost perpetuity. From Scotland the opposition would be even more bitter, for there, owing to a better system of national education, open competition means a hope for anybody, from the lowest to the highest, and to take it away would provoke the kind of enduring wrath which in Scotland is never assuaged till either its cause has been removed or its object seriously hurt. If anybody doubts this, let him just remember how valuable good patronage—that is, patronage giving incomes—is to patrons, how they strive for it, what influence it gives them, what rank, and then remember that under open competition every father of an educated son is a patron, with right to bestow a capital chance directly on his own offspring. Unless we wholly misread the people around us, or unless the Ministry can convince the small householders that they suffer by the com- petitive system—Which is out of the question—there will be "wigs on the green" before that bone is taken out of the bull- dog's throat.
We very much doubt whether any compromise of an effective kind could be devised which would soothe away this kind of resistance. Marks, no doubt, might be given for physical qualifications. As a matter of fact, we suspect successful candidates are quite up to the average standard in health and energy, but an examination on that point would be borne, and if it were not ridiculously severe, would be accounted fair. So, it is possible, would be a certain number of marks, not too many, awarded by Examiners under the heading "Competence," and avowedly intended to " weight " candidates who, in their experienced judgment, even if successful, would be indifferent servants of the State ; but beyond that it will, we think, be found very difficult to go. A sound "pass examination" may protect the country from inefficient Civil servants or Military officers, but it will in no way replace to Paterfamilias what is now practically his right to exercise his own patronage in his own favour if he likes. He will have to ask a nomination of somebody, and he does not want to be " beholden " to any- body for what, after all, is only a power granted to his son of showing himself competent enough to dispense with patronage. He will suspect the patron of choosing imbeciles to contend with a favourite ; he will suspect the ETaminers of submitting to social influences ; he will suspect everybody and every process, or if he does not, he will suspect his own influence to procure a nomina- tion. Ile has grown to trust free competition, and nothing else will be the same thing to him. Nothing is more remarkable in the whole history of Competitive Examination than the confidence re- posed by the public in the fairness and ability of the Examiners, a confidence so deep that perhaps the very strongest objection to the scheme is the excessive loss which failure sometimes entails upon a lad of the slowly-growing kind. His relatives never quite fully believe in him again. There is the strongest and most unreason- able disposition to scold, and scold hard, at the half dozen gentle- men who have discovered that there are quicker methods of teaching than public schools yet use, and who are called Cram- mere for their pains ; but nobody seriously charges the Examiners with anything except being, like Cromwell's Judges, " kinless loons," so intent on their duty that they will do justice to the most unmistakable "cads." That confidence has had the most excel- lent effect, and anything which weakened it would do away at once with the greatest result of competition, its effect in making ordi- nary fathers seek education for their sons as earnestly as they once sought patronage or money. No system will excite in them the same regard, and though they may be wrong, though they themselves constantly doubt whether they are not wrong, they will, we are convinced, be exceedingly reluctant to give it up. We shall be very curious, if any attack of a formal kind is levelled at Competi- tion, to see its first reception, and compare it with the reception after the Members have had time to receive their masters' approvals or remonstrances. If we are not greatly mistaken, there will not be time that Session to get the measure through, and next Session the Tories will attribute the project to their Liberal opponents.
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