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 2. The number of vacancies created within a given time depends obviously upon the number of removals throughout the whole body of clerks, by promotion, resignation, or death, thus causing vacancies in the lowest classes, to be filled up by the appointment of strangers to the establishment. The only estimate of the frequency of such vacancies, which at present I am able to form, is founded upon the experience of the Civil Service examinations; and from this source I learn that in the two years, from May 1855 to May 1857, the Commissioners granted certificates to 268 clerks, &c. in the Customs, and to 107 in the Inland Revenue: while in the Post Office, the number of certificates granted between June 1856 and June 1857 was 137; giving, as the average annual number of fresh appointments.—

3. The value of the situations is not easily computed; consisting, as it does, of two parts, viz. (i.) the immediate annual salary upon entrance, and (ii.) the prospective increase obtained by annual advances within a class and by promotion from one class to another. The minimum value, however, can easily be stated as follows :—