held at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, should henceforth be exacted at the final examination in England. A probationary period of two years was allowed to the candidates to prepare for this final examination, and an additional allowance of £200 was granted to cover the expenses of the second year.

As it was obviously undesirable that the young civilians should be left entirely to themselves during this period of two years, without any guarantee for their course of study, a system of half-yearly examinations was instituted with the view of securing on their part continuous application to the subjects on which they would be examined.

Up to the year 1862 selected candidates, who failed in their Further Examination, were commonly, by the indulgence of the Secretary of State, allowed a second trial, provided that they were not beyond twenty-four years of age. But the result of this indulgence was found to be a relaxation of diligence on the part of the probationers; and in the Regulations for 1863 it was announced that candidates rejected at the Further Examination, would in no case be allowed to present themselves for reexamination; and this rule is still in force.

The following tables, extracted from the Civil Service Commissioners' Report, are inserted as presenting some facts which may be of interest in connection with these examinations:

ADVANTAGES OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE.

The scale of salaries, a few pages further, will clearly show what lucrative appointments the Indian Civil Service possesses. As a general rule, the young Civil servant commences with a salary of £480 a year, rising, as vacancies occur, to £600, £840, £1,080, £1,200, £1,800, £2,300, £2,700, £3,000, or £3,500 a year. Promotion is chiefly by merit, and, provided his health and character be good, every Civil servant appointed an Assistant to a Magistrate, may reasonably indulge in the hope of becoming in due time a Joint Magistrate and Deputy Collector, then Magistrate and Collector, and, perhaps, finally, a Civil and Session Judge, or a Commissioner of Revenue and Circuit, or even a Judge of the High Court of Judicature. Again, in addition to the already very lucrative appointments which the Indian

It

Civil Service holds out as an inducement to its servants, it possesses another great advantage in the plan of frequently uniting several appointments in the hands of one official. Thus, a man may be a Sub-Collector and Magistrate at one place, and yet be Collector and Magistrate at another, receiving, of course, double salary; or he may be, as is sometimes the case, a Deputy Commissioner of Customs, a Collector and Magistrate, and a Commissioner of Opium, with a magnificent threefold salary. should also be remembered that the mere official salary of an appointment is seldom the only remuneration obtained. An assistant to a Magistrate and Collector, receiving the salary of say 400 rupees a_month, in many cases doubles or trebles it by his Deputation, Travelling, Durbar, Moonshee, or other allowances. In short, the Indian Civil Service, both from its pecuniary prizes and the positions of high social influence which it offers, is the most splendid career that any country can offer to its young men of talent.

It has often been a subject of discussion whether the throwing open of the Indian Civil Service to public competition has been, after all, a successful measure. Some old Indians-laudatores temporis acti-are wont to make the most doleful prophecies regarding the results of abolishing Haileybury, and introducing the Civil Service Commissioners in its place. They are fond of constantly asserting that "the Service is not what it was," "" the young men are not what they used to be"-in fact, that nothing is what it used to be. Socially, perhaps, the Indian Civil Service may have suffered. Formerly, the young civilians sent out were relations of the directors, or of other important officials whose names were themselves at once an introduction to Indian society, and respected by the natives; whereas at the present day any man who has brains and a certificate of birth can obtain what was once in a great measure the result of patronage. But respecting this assumed degeneracy of the Indian Civil Service, the Commissioners say that it may perhaps be expected that they should be able to make some statement as to the character of the results which have been obtained by the system of public competition. "But

those results," they state, "can hardly be said to have been sufficiently tested up to the present time. It may, indeed, be shown that the young civilians selected by open competition, who, under the scheme which has recently been superseded, underwent examinations in languages at the presidency towns of India, were able to pass those examinations, on the average, in a shorter time than was usual under the old system; and it may be added that they have carried out with them a valuable amount of legal knowledge. But a further period must elapse before it can be seen how far this proficiency in languages and in law is accompanied by a corresponding degree of capacity for the practical discharge of important duties. It may, however, perhaps be stated generally that the evidence, so far as it goes, is favourable; as is shown by the following extract from a despatch written by the Government of India, on the 5th of May, 1866, and published in a return to an address of the House of Commons, dated the 26th May,

1865:

666 "We would observe that as the Civil servants who were first appointed under the system of competitive examination have not yet been ten years in India, and as, consequently, the great majority of the servants so appointed are still holding very subordinate positions in the public service, it would, in our opinion, be premature to pronounce conclusively whether or not the Civil Service has on the whole been improved by the present system.

"We are inclined, however, to believe that it has; for it may at least, we think, be confidently affirmed that the present system is effective to exclude great inefficiency, which undoubtedly was not excluded under the old system; and, also, that the young men who enter the service under the present system are, as a rule, more highly educated than those who found admittance under the former system. Even if there should be some defects in the present system, and we are not now prepared to point to any, we are disposed to think that they would be more than counterbalanced by the results abovementioned.'

"On one point of importante-viz, the petence of the selected candilates, regarding believe that doubts are sometimes enterta able to appeal to the testimony of Dr. Gill, of Brock Street, who has for several years acted as car thief adviser on medical questions; and who has recently stated to us in the following terms the result of his vations:

"Having now for seven years medically eximized

the candidates who have passed the open competition for the Indian Civil Service, I am able to make you the following report of their physical condition.

"As the candidates have in livin me I have noted the height and ro

appeared before

I found an unexceptional development of the frame, I marked the candidate 107. If only moderate or mean strength, 85. If inclined to be weak. 75. I need not add, since you know, that if there were any important weakness the candidate was rejected.

""I find in the first division

,, in the second division

,, in the third division

"The mean height, as far as I could ascertain it wilout actual measurement, was rather over ft. Ba

"Though these numbers have no strictly rigid mille. they still fairly express the character of the men in respect of their general vigour and appear use.

It has been forced upon me, by the data qua performed, that superior physical health and strength are generally essential to success in those competate ex

aminations.

"I have further noted that a history of healthy parents and numerous brothers and sisters cofuited for the most part with the characters of strength presented by the candidate himself.

"As the candidates have had to appear before me, not only after their first competitive examination, but also just prior to their leaving for India, I have had an opportunity of observing that their status of health was somewhat higher at the second than at their first appearance