CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS.
THE First Report of her Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners deserves all the attention it has received from the London daily
press. The Report proves conclusively that such examinations were needed to exclude incompetent persons from situations in Government offices, and that they are perfectly practicable. No one can doubt the formerproposition, upon finding that nearly a third. of those nominated for a pass-examination were rejected on the ground of the want of the most elementary knowledge, such as spelling, arithmetic, and writing. The assurance of the prac- ticability Of the examination is founded upon the zealous coopera- tion of the heads of departments, of which there is abundant evidence in the blue-book, and upon the singularly good sense displayed both in the requirements made of the candidates and in the examination-papers that have been hitherto set. But this is no more than might have been anticipated from such Commis- sioners as Mr. John Shaw Lefevre, Mr, Edward Romilly, and Sir Edward Ryan, and from such secretaries as Mr. James Spedding and Mr. J. G. Maitland. Nor, among the just grounds of con- fidence in the permanent success of the scheme, must we omit to give prominence to the wise caution displayed by the most eminent heads of departments in pressing upon the Commissioners the necessity of subordinating mere literary attainments and talent to the essential qualifications for the ordinary routine duties of junior clerks. All parties concerned seem not only disposed to
give the new system a fair trial, but to be possessed of that good sense and practical judgment of what is necessary and possible, for want of which so many, brilliant schemes have only disap- pointed the expectations of their supporters, and given a triumph to the enemies of intellectual progress.
We may therefore consider the scheme for opening the civil service to merit, and for putting a stop to the worst forms of jobbery and corruption, fairly launched under favourable auspices.
The Minister retains simply a power of nomination, subject to the approval of his nominee by the Commissioners ; and many proofs
are afforded by the correspondence appended to the Report, that the nomination of single candidates will, in all probability, speedily give way to the nomination of several to compete for each vacancy, at least in the offices where general intellectual attainments are of high importance. The competitive principle once fairly carried out, subject to such limits as may be judged necessary to secure a good character and physical health in candidates for laborious and confidential duties, the English people will have what will amount to another profession open to them, possessing advantages that sufficiently counterbalance a somewhat inferior scale of pay, and one of the greatest blots on the political system of this country will be wiped off. That so good a beginning has been made, is a subject for warm congratulation, and confers high credit on those to whom the initiation of the new system has been intrusted, and among them to the leading members of the Government. We have been particularly interested in the papers set on the subjects of history, geography, and English composition. They contrast favourably with the papers on these subjects too often set in examinations of higher pretension ; aiming not at all at show- ing the profundity of the examiner, but excellently adapted for
testing the amount of ordinary, useful information possessed by
the examinee. While we continue to regard really high attain- ments in the two languages of Greece and Rome, in their gram- matical structure and in the literature and history they contain, as the best available instrument and test of a thorough intellec- tual discipline, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that either from the inherent difficulty of mastering a dead language, or from the mode of teaching at present in use in our schools, not one boy out of ten, however good his abilities may be, does reach such a pitch of attainment as to make either the discipline he has undergone useful, or the knowledge he obtains a basis for a sub- sequent prosecution of learning. Under the fetish-worship of ma-
thematics and classics, hitherto followed in this country, the nine -boys have not learnt either of these branches of knowledge, and no other branch has been considered worthy of a place—as anything more than surplusage, which a boy might pursue if he pleased, but from which he could derive no honour or emolument. The result has been, of course, that other branches of knowledge have been pursued, when at all, with little vigour or steadiness ; and the real educational power of modern lanage, history, etcetera, has been ignored and denied. The Civil &rvice Commission have set this right so far as their department is concerned. Where languages are required, a modern language is placed on the same footing as Latin, and Greek is only a subject of voluntary ex- amination for additional certificates. But alongside of one foreign language, a competent knowledge of modern history and geo- graphy is demanded ; and the candidate for office is required to demonstrate his general intelligence, his power of perceiving the essential facts in a statements and his command of language, by drawing up a precis of official papers. When to these re- quirements are added the elementary accomplishments of arith- metic, good writing, and correct spelling, we cannot doubt that the test applied to the clerks aspiring to the Civil Service is more efficient both as a proof of training and of knowledge, than that applied by the pass-examinations at Oxford and Cambridge ; and that for the future these junior clerks will have proved themselves, so far as examinations go, better-educated and better-informed young men than the poll-men at Cambridge and the pass-men at Oxford. At the same time, we are bound to point out that the Com- missioners have published none of the answers to their papers except in the•case of spelling. In future, they ought to give the public the means of knowing not only the questions set to candidates but the average sort of answers. Till that is before us, we can only trust blindly to the discretion of the Commissioners • and even in their case such trust is not wholly satisfactory. They ought to publish specimens of at least the lowest of the accepted candidates and the highest of the rejected. We are the more anxious for this, as we look upon their system as an experiment that, if suc- cessful, must perforce be imitated in the pass-examinations of the Universities. Bachelors of Arts must not remain ignorant of sub- lects demanded of junior clerks in the War Office and in the Co- onial Office, if the Church and the Bar are to retain their honour- able rank among our professions.
We venture to make a suggestion to the Commissioners, directly connected with their office. It would be very useful not only to candidates for Government employment, but to all persons in the community who take any interest in administration—and admin- istration is beginning in England to mean politics—that a work should be published containing an account of our administrative system, the history and functions of the different offices, and spe- cimens of the sort of work done in each. Such a book would need the cooperation of many able men versed in the business of the special departments, and a clearheaded methodical editor, who could see what was really special in each department, and what belonged to the common system. Bulky it must be, because it must contain ample details to be of service ; but it would be a trifle compared to the unsystematized chaos of raw material crowded into many blue-books published every session. And the mere fact of the existence of such a work would inevitably lead to the simplification of Government business, when a number of persons engaged had once obtained a comprehensive view of the whole field of business, and the relations of its various parts. Apart, however, from this practical value, the interest of the work to politicians would repay the trouble and expense of its production.
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