Mr. Leone Levi on Wednesday made some remarkable state- -ments
to the British Association about the position of the Civil Service. The total number of persons coming under that desig- nation, exclusive of those paid from local funds, and exclusive of the legal departments, is 107,000, receiving an income of 1.0,800,000/. a year. This includes the postmen ; but we wish Mr. Levi or his reporter had entered a little more into detail, and ,told us whether he includes any portion of the police or not,—the Irish Constabulary, for example. The number given, if correct, -shows clearly that "local self-government" does not prohibit the -creation of a very powerful bureaucracy. Mr. Levi says there are no less than ninety classes of English clerks with varying :salaries, and thinks much of the work could be done by men -drawn from a lower class of society, and that competitive exami- nation might be made universal. At present it is applied fitfully to about one-third of the appointments in all. Surely a good deal -.of " doubling-up " is possible in many departments.
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