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 incompetent to pass even a test examination, the competition is virtually between two only for each vacancy. In the next place, the present plan affords no security for the proper allocation of the successful competitors. As each competition has reference to one particular appointment, it is not merely probable but certain that some of the best men will be placed in the least important positions, and that far inferior persons will obtain the highest prizes and be intrusted with the most responsible functions. The existing plan is therefore defective in two points, (i) it does not secure for the public service the best men obtainable, nor even the best of those who are nominated, and (ii) it does not ensure that such right men as may be discovered shall be put in their right places. Both of these deficiencies would be avoided under a well managed system of extended competition. In the first place, the first fifty candidates in a competition of several hundreds (or even of 150, on the assumption of only three candidates to one vacancy) would be greatly superior to the 50 victors in 50 competitions of three to each. In the next place, the former fifty might easily be assigned to particular offices according to the peculiarity of their individual merits as shewn in the results of the examination; which, although not an infallible criterion of special fitness, must at least afford a far better indication of such fitness than any that is now obtained.

H. M. 26th September, 1857.