Page:Civil Service Competitions.djvu/9

 class of persons desirous of filling them. It can scarely then be considered a disadvantage that this inevitable number of applicants should consist of those who have ability and industry to give in exchange to the Government, instead of those who have only votes to sell to members of Parliament.

There is little of novelty in the principal features of the plan here advocated. The idea of bestowing Government appointments according to the results of competitive examinations was developed in 1853, in the Report of Sir and Sir, on " ;" and the tendency, since that period, both of public opinion and of Governmental action, has been to affirm the substantial soundness of the views then advocated, and to recognize both the duties of the Civil Service as requiring the exertions of a higher class of officers and the utility of the examination test as a means of discovering practical ability. The chief fruits of these convictions have been, first, the Order in Council of 21st of May, 1855, prescribing a test of fitness, to which all entrants into the service are now subjected; and secondly, the Resolution of the 14th July, 1857—passed, with the assent of Government, by the House of Commons—that the plan of competition, which has been hitherto occasionally tried, should henceforth be more generally adopted.