ADMISSION TESTS FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE.
IT would be a great misfortune, we conceive, for the public, if the Government were to put itself in a tutelary position towards the persons employed in the public departments; yet in pushing the principle of competitive examination, there is a chance that the Executive may be forced into that unsuitable relation. The object professed by the advocates of examination is, to put the best men in the right places. But " best" is still a relative phrase : " best " for what ? With a certain class of reformers it appears to be as- sumed that the best schoolboys will be the best public ser- vants, though nothing is more notorious than the fact that aptitude - for rising in a school and taking the prizes is not ',e • same thing as -aptitude for doing other kinds of labour.
an educated country, it is very proper to require that all
-.,.dates for the public service should possess the general rudiments of information which everybody ought to have ; and also that, in any particular department, the candidate should possess the attainments manifestly required for that de- partment. Nothing, therefore, can be more proper than the pre- liminary examination, in order to ascertain whether or not the candidates do enjoy the requisite qualifications. This, however, should be regarded less as an examination of fitness for the post, than as an examination for the purpose of detecting manifest un- fitness—an examination less with a view to selection than rejec- tion. Beyond that, we do not see that examination can do much. It would, as a speaker said on Tuesday night, be totally impossible to make examination the, means. of testing moral qualifications. Special aptitude for hard labour could scarcely be tested by such a process ; nor could peculiar qualifications that enable men to get on in different branches of action. It is notorious that in- different scholars who run away from school often make good cailors. Even in science and learning, some of the most brilliant examples have not been noted for proficiency while they were la- homing in the lower ranks : in other words, they had the genius for the particular kind of study, but they had not the genius, perhaps not the ambition, for seeking purely scholastic distinction. They did not care to excel their schoolfellows say in mathematics ; but when they came to handling applied figures or earthworks, they became first-rate officers of engineers or artillery. It is the business of parents and guardians to prepare .youths for the pre- liminary examination, and there is no injustice in thus disposing of the responsibility, since any attainments that may be required for the purposes of examination are sure to be useful in many other employments. The tutor who trained.a lad for a public depart- ment, though the pupil were unsuccessful in attaining that object, would have renderedlaim fitter for gaining his livelihood elsewhere. Taking that broad, simple, and mice-for-all kind of test for ad- mission to the public service, the rest of the work of developing a good class of officers must lie with the attractions that draw the proper men into the ranks, and with the tact or conscientiousness of those who regulate the promotion. No system can supply the want of sound material, or of living skill in the use of the mate- rial. No system can supersede the necessity for good stuff of man- hood in the ranks, or for statesmanship at the head. It is the in- different plans of promotion, the want of constant attention in the highest offices, and perhaps of power, that keep good men out of the public service. At the present moment, the Baltic fleet of forty-five ships ought to have on board 88 surgeons, the com- plement for war-time ; whereas it has only 40, and 67 unqualified persons who are called " dressers." What is the reason ? The reason is, that the salary and the chances of promotion for the medical department of the Army or Navy are not sufficient to draw into the ranks, permanently, a high class of men, or to get the most work out of them if such should wander into commission. It is not so with other" professions. Notwithstanding the excessive competition in the law, for ex- ample, the highest class of intellect in the country plunges into the profession only too copiously; not because every lawyer is sure of a good income—quite the reverse—there are shoals of lawyers putting up with a beggarly pittance; but the highest ranks of the profession are prizes. Posts like the Judgeships or the Chancellorships are the supreme prizes that must draw in thousands where half-a-dozen only can attain the goal. Give to the highest permanent officers in the Civil Service authority to ' redistribute the men in the ranks, and under certain limitations to administer correction, coupled with increased distinctions and attractions in the highest ranks, and there would be no necessity to examine every man entering the public service in order to find out his fitness.
Previous page
