LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
INDIA CIVIL-SERVICE EXAMINATIONS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE 4' SPECTATOR.") SIR,—The following letter, which I have received from the late Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject of my paper in Macmillan's Magazine, will be a valuable contribution to a ques- tion which it is desirable to discuss frankly and freely. Like the article in the Saturday Review of the 15th inst., it is a temperate condemnation of my proposals :— " Sta—I have read your pamphlet with much interest I had some- thing to do with setting up the Indian Examinations, and I have been an Examiner myself, of which title I am by no means ashamed. What I wish to point out to you is that I fear your very ingenious scheme would deter the best men from competition. You deprive the man who gets most marks of the credit which this gives him, and you subject him to the further possibility of being absolutely rejected for faults the nature of which will not be known. Such a rejection would amount to a positive disgrace. I cannot help thinking that this would deter the best men. I also object to so large a power being vested in persons who, if accused of partiality, have no objective test to appeal to. My political experience leads me to believe that these judges would be sure to be accused, and perhaps would deserve to be accused, of jobbing. The influences which high London society can bring to bear are enor- mous. I do not doubt the justice of the complaints which are made. ,..When you try men by a purely literary standard for duties which require qualities very different from purely literary merit, it cannot be otherwise. The question is whether a perfectly fair and objective test is not better than a test which must turn upon considerations personal, incapable of being reduced to marks, subjective, minute, disputable. I cannot help thinking that there is some danger of falling into an error which attaches itself to able and energetic men, the error of insisting upon having more out of an institution than it can yield, the idea of retaining all its merits while correcting all its faults. If this be carried too far, it makes more evil than it cures. Here, I fear, the elimination of some unfit persons would be dearly bought by the deterrent incidents of the plan, and the suspicion, perhaps the reality, of corruption. For myself, I never regarded competition as more than a rough substitute for patronage, very inferior to the honest judgment of an able man after a fair trial in the very work required, but much better than patronage in any shape or with any safeguards. You are quite at liberty to make any use you please of this letter. My sole desire is to get the best possible service for India.—I remain, Sir, faithfully yours,
"ROBERT LOWE."
The main objections already taken to the general scheme appear to be :—(a) Probable corruption among the adjudicators; (b) the infliction of disgrace or injury on the probationers who are not selected for the India Civil Service ; (c) the forcing bad bargains on other departments of the service.
(a.) The very idea of patronage in its mildest form is so nauseous to some people, that the proposal to give a Board of Adjudicators exclusive control over the selection of probationers will doubtless savour of corruption. But granting, for the sake of argument, a difficulty in finding among the best educated classes a jury of trust- worthy men, I think the opportunities of exercising patronage would be extremely rare, if not quite impossible, provided a suffi- ciently large staff be appointed ; for, whatever chances there would be of bringing personal interest to bear on one, or perhaps two adjudicators, it is difficult to conceive a body of some half- dozen or more comparatively disinterested men caballing for the mere purpose of playing into the bands of a few probationers.
(b.) I do not admit the probability of injury or disgrace reach- ing any candidate under the operation of my scheme. Disap- pointment there undoubtedly will be among the 30 and odd candidates who are not retained in the• College. Under the present arrangement, however, 30 to 35 of these 70 probationers would be absolutely disappointed ; under the arrangement proposed, they would be offered consolatory bonuses vary- ing in value from /300 to 1420 per annum. It must be remembered that although the examinees at the open compe- tition to be selected as probationers would be named in alphabetical order, after the manner of the Oxford Class Lists, the adjudicators would be in possession of all the particulars connected with this competitive examination ; and as it would necessarily be ruled that every advantage be given to the probationers, accord- ing to the places gained by them in the competition, I take it that only a few of those who would be selected under the ex- isting system would be offered appointments outside the Civil Service proper. Indeed my scheme does not aim at much more than the rejection of the few who may be considered by competent judges unfit, for various reasons, for the peculiar duties of government ; and the retention of the selected candi- dates in a College, either in London or at one of our Universities. As the proposal to introduce a social, in addition to the intellectual test, is likely to breed doubts and fears, I take this opportunity of expressing my conviction that if the adjudicators be men of the world, they would be able to exercise their delicate office in a manner which would meet the approval of all persons sincerely interested in India. For it is obvious that by "social fitness" is here meant something beyond the attributes which usually ac- company gentle birth. It no more follows that a man of good birth ought to have marks for his relations, than that a mere book-plodder is specially adapted to be a leader of men. Similarly it may be alleged that some clever men of humble birth possess higher claims to be selected as the future rulers of India, than a few better-bred candidates who happen to have passed a com- petitive examination. The question is simply one of expediency, to be determined by the collective opinions of arbitrators, whose antecedents would justify their being chosen to discharge such an office. Indeed, the question resolves itself to this,—whether it is politically expedient and patriotic to consider the possible grievances of one or two competitors, in preference to securing the best material for the India Civil Service? Certainly under the present system of a simple intellectual test there are always to be found candidates who, whether rightly or wrongly, consider they have been unfairly treated.
(c.) With regard to the proposal for distributing the remaining rewards, it would seem to some that I am wishing to enrich the material of the India Civil Service at the expense of other Depart- ments. This is not the ease. In the first place, I contend that among the 70 probationers, there would be no failures intellectu- ally; and it would by no means follow that because some of them, for want of a sufficient number of vacancies, had not been elected to the Indian Service, they would necessarily be below the aver- age of attainments and special qualification usually guaranteed to. the heads of these other State Services. Far from being bad: bargains, I venture to say the balance of gain would be on the side of these Services. In the second place, there remains the grave question as to what the candidates themselves would think of these proferred bonuses. As a matter of fact, I would ask what steps have been actually taken by some of the foremost of the rejected candidates at the open competition for the India Civil Service? I can point to two or three dozen cases in which such rejected candidates have elected to secure, by further competition,. situations in these very departments ; and as most of them have gained the highest places in their respective competitions by virtue. of the previous reading for the earlier examination, I conclude the heads of departments neither think amiss of them, nor view them in the light of intruders. And provided only specially fit men be sent to them, why should they alter their opinion under- my proposed system? If a return were made of candidates; formerly rejected at the India Civil Service competition, and now occupying junior and senior posts in the Indian Engineering De- partment, the Indian Forest Department, the Ceylon Civil Service,. &c., the public would have less reason to doubt the justice and feasibility of this part of the scheme.—I am, Sir, &c.,
W. BAPTISTE SCOONES.
Garrick Chambers, Garrick Street, August 17.
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