The public proceedings at home, which are most deserving of
at- tention, incline, according to the fashion of the day, towards ma- terial improvement. Whether we look to the official quarter or to the industrial field, we find the same tendency. The vigorous effort made by leading men in public meeting at Edinburgh, promises to effect a change, complete and prompt, in that opprobrium of Scot- land the dwellings of agricultural labourers : a society is formed to obtain advances on the principle of those for drainage, with a year- ly payment of 61 per cent for twenty-five years, to satisfy princi- pal and interest. Again, the announced plan for reorganizing the Civil Service appears to be one of the most searching and pregnant improvements ever introduced by a Government. As yet, but little public explanation has been given. Our readers have been for some time aware that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and certain of his colleagues had under their consideration the whole subject of the civil service—its organization and emoluments. We know that several suggestions have been laid before the Ministry : certainly there has been precipitancy in forming conclusions on these suggestions; but from what is said with re-
Erato the proposed plan, it appears probable that the time for de- eration has not been wasted. In brief, the plan is to follow.the example of the East India Government Ant, inautuiring every candidate for employment in the civil service to undergo an ex- amination before entering, and subsequently' to undergo some kind of probation as the preliminary to promotion. Thie'would not only afford checks against the admission or advancement of im- proper candidates and undeserving servants, but it would confer a most desirable boon upon a very numerous class of men, in per- mitting merit to obtain its simple due. The improved conduct of affairs in the hands of a service where assiduity and capacity should be substituted for interest and routine, can scarcely be appreciated at the first contemplation of such a reform.
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