On this page
-
Text (4)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
cer ^ cate ; and , to be eligible to the " staff appoiitmente , " or highest posts in the Civil Ser-T ^ v ?> ^ Tl ® \ : yrb ! aj ! i :: ' 'be a great improvement in atolishi plg . appcmtments for poetical patronage , id ^ mp ^ ing tba inducement to crowd the Civil Servicev ? wita men nnsuited for such occupations , in opening a larger round of working experience % ¦ " % ? . Pl ^ Kc , Jbmcer , and in freeing for Mm the Pip to groniotion , at present almost absolutely clewed in its highest grades . j 3 ie plan has been violently assaulted by a conteoDporary as tending to reduce the English Civil to
S ^ rpice an Austrian bureaucracy ; and increased ei&ciency has 1 > een deprecated as dangerous to ^ e ; comm 6 n ^ realth . We do not want clever civil . ^ ntahts , it is said , so long as we have men that C ^ just read and write , and do what they are bidj for strong civil servants make a weak people . Ia ~ shbrt , the most superficial arguments against clerer administration were pressed into the war against the proposed reform . - The argument of
ta © i ; Toryv-who would prevent . ' the people from learning to read and write ; of the martinet officer , ^ rhic » relies on tike cat-o -nine-tails , and would keep tfoeasoldier front . reading lest he should have a ¦ trilLofhis oimj nay , the principle of Jact Cade , irh 6 s would hang .. a-,. , man for " setting of boys copies , 'is applied by an able and Liberal contemporary tottiecensure of a scheme which seems dreaded for the simple reason that it emanates from official authors .
understand that his religious principles are to be . subjected to inquiry , and that the public office is to be placed on the same footing as Confirmation or the Communion ? Nay , he must give reference to a medical man , and must come up to the standards of tc an insurance office . " Marvellous will be this public service , tested by a pedagogue examination in Greek and Latin , by a clerical vducler , and by an insurance standard of health and responsibility ! A Chinese bureau would be nothing to it . We have scarcely yet done with Mx . Jowett ' s suggestive hints . Such is to be the purity of this
p icked and model order , that the bar sinister is to be & bar to the admission to office ; otherwise , why require certificate of birth and baptism ? Mr . Jowett places the Civil Service on a footing with —we vere going to say some conventual order ; but really to can think of no order that would require all these tests ' of accomplishments , health , morals , religion , and legitimacy—not even the religions order of chivalry . The civil servants are to be like the Knights of Saint John , sans peur et sans reproche ; only no Knight of Saint John ever
had to undergo so severe a trial of kis reading , writing , and arithmetic—Bis geography ,- humanities , and exact sciences—to say nothing of engineering and political economy ! The civil servant is to be a model prig ; and the only question is , how any dozen young Englishmen are to force through the forbidden gate over which Jowett presides , as a xnild-eyed angel with a flaming sword , in order to penetrate to the systematist heaven within , which has been pictured to the contemplation of a Gladstone .
IPor our-own part , we do liot hold that that master is best served whose servants are ignorant antd fll-. trained ; nor have we any very great lesBjpect forithat master who can onljr secure his oWn independence by surrounding himself with incompetent servants . We should be sorry to see the argunient of our alarmed contemporary prevail . Jjet us have an able Civil Service , and * bre ? pub 1 i ^ wilt be still more independent , because i 0 isnj ) OssiWe "io enforce a stronger responsibility Tittonible-officers th ^ n , upon those who are
in-< so > mpetent . No tyrant is . so , unmanageable as a fool ; nothing is so irresponsible as notorious intiooapetency . We should regret ,,: therefore , if any mistaken pedantry were to lead the propounded of a most twefMreform into such priggishrefinementsas would jtisilfy the complaint of bur contemporary . We are not without fears that that justification may b £ impending . . Although the report presented to the Treasury , and signed by Sir Charles Trevelyan and Sir Stafford ) Northcote , is upon the whole
practical in its character , it is not without some trace of . a * martinet pedantry , which enemies might turn to great account .. The Jdea of making alL civil servants classical scholars , proficients in mathematics , and students in political economy , is startling . We cannot forget that other reports besides that in question have been submitted to Ministers , including one that had the ntost astounding perfect ion and minuteness of classification ; dividing all offices into symmetrical compartments , and
subdividing the compartments into fractional copies ; allotting duties with the most marvellous imaginativeness , and proposing official arrangements and special officers for such purposes as to read Ctie newspapers , to record the opinions thereof , to provide clotting for the clerk , and even , if our memory is not catching the imaginative infection , taking care for the washing of the clerk ' s clothes . We had dismissed that poetical composition from our minds , until we find , published with the report to the ^ Treasury , a letter from the Reverend Benjamin
« Jowett , JTellow of Baliol College , Oxford , to Sir Charles Trevelyan . Mr . Joweit supplies a certificate to Sir Charles as to the sufficiency of the examination for certain purposes . He endeavours to meet objections against the proposed examination , and to show that it would be sufficient , at least with some help , to test the moral character of the candidates . He thinks that with such aids as he suggests , a standard of character might be obtained at least c as high as the standard of character , which can be assured in persons admitted to holy
orders . " The test of education is difficult , but he characteristically inclines to take the test of proficiency in Greek and Latin ; with special qualifications testing the candidates' power to write a neat hand , and their thorough knowledge of arithmetic and book-keeping-, and English composition . That , however , is far from all . Every candidate should give reference to a clergyman or magistrate ; bo that not capacity , not personal qualities alone , but connexions , are to bo considered . TIic candidate must also give reference to a clergyman or dissenting minister : arc we to
Untitled Article
WAR , LIFE , AND SOCIAL HEALTH . Wab commences , and the London public revives the good old custom of damning bad plays . The coincidence has been remarked , and it is quite natural . During a season of long inaction , where many elements of human energy have been in abeyance—when the instincts of contest , will , love of danger , have been in j-epose—the home-keeping mind had a disposition xb sink into acquiescence , to accept a quiet routine of life , and to let routine go on for its own sake . So long as the actors of one evening fulfilled the stage business o&the previous evening , the languid audience was satisfied ; the sole test of dramatic merit was carried , as that
of aU other merit has been , to the till ; and if the receipts kept up , the acting , of course , was good , the play was respectable , and the audiences had no disposition , much less the right , to grumble . Iflay , if the receipts dwindled very slowly , so that no > sudden falling off" could be fastened upon any particular actor or play-writer , commerce could not recognise the difference , and play-going , like national honour , the love of enterprise , of every chivalrous feeling , must dwindle day by day , and console itself with remembering that our cottonmanufacturers were exhibiting an inverse proportion of increase . War begins , and the damning of bad plays recommences ; that is , the public is at > out to apply to subjects of art and aesthetics real tests of life and action .
showing that armies which fight for independence and freedom can sacrifice themselves , and secure their objects , without entailing devastation , spoliation , and degrading outrages upon those who live in the fields which the armies traverse . Let us leave outrage , rapine , and rape to Russian soldiers , and the soldiers of despotic outlawry ; and let us show , as -we have seen in recent times , that English soldiers can fight for freedom , without demanding to be indulged in hideous licenses . Others have gone for purposes in some respects
less momentous and practical , but yet not without a bearing on . the progress of mankind . Many a man is there to bring back the ra / w material of history m telling how battles are fought and won , and how peoples demean themselves upon whose lands battles are fought out . Others have gone from this stagnant country to see the human form in its most vigorous action , to see the human soul stirred by all its deepest passion ;—to see the vile conquered and trampled under foot by triumphant justice ; to see the helpless assuage suffering by
gentleness and patience ; to see the heroic conquer danger , death , and defeat itself , by grandeur of purpose ; —to see hoYr man can bear himself y hen tried by the severest trials of his mortal destiny ; how nations act when stirred by the passions of states And , from viewing that great epoch in action , men will come back to civilised peace , and restore to art the life of which it has been deprived during l ° ng generations of inaction . We may expect , after war , that the tedious exhibition of simpering nonentities , which annually proclaim the
stunted condition of art in this country , -will be replaced by a more living reflex of life in action ; not only because artists who seek the campaign with the instincts of their order will see the human frame in action ; not because armies and combined peoples will simply be physical models for the mechanical copyist ; but because Art will again live in an atmosphere of life , an atmosphere of passion , —in an atmosphere , in
short , of healthy activity . Music , the art whose perfection belongs to our own day , is likely to receive an impulse as well as painting , and national music , which has nearly died out , will revive amidst the clang of arms ; poetry will recover from its effeminate , contemplative supineness , and the peace "which restores tranquillity to Europe , with , we trust , an access of constitutional freedom , will find the world , after the storm , living with renewed life on the restoration of peace .
Yes , war is a g ^ , not only for its specific object , but absolutely , in itself , as an interrupter of that peace which , as all history shows , tends to render nations stagnant . The very " arts of peace' * pine for want of stirring the national blood . Nations , like individuals , cannot develope all their power without suffering and trial ; and as Triptolemiis was tried ii \ fire before he could earn greatness of soul to bring new arts to maji , so England from time to time must renew the temper of her heart in the fierce fire of war .
We shalL have similar results in other things . Already numbers are rushing to the seat of war for purposes better than mere curiosity . Some wlio think that peace is abandoned for a time over the entire field of Europe , —who feel that the independence , if not the existence of their own country , will rest upon the amount of energy still existing in her own people , —have gone to learn for themselves how man acts when he is called upon to face danger in its most formidable and gigantic aspect . It is not only military art ,
but patriotism , that Englishmen Lave gone to learn in the working model of the Turkish people , on the banks of the Danube . And although we have been accustomed to sneer at the Turk for a barbarian , there is something still so august and noble in any man that takes the sword in his right hand and steps forward to defend his country , even at the cost of life , that the Turk is a worthy teacher of the Englishman in the opportunity (] iat has come to tho Turk before it has reuched tlie Englishman .
Some , too , have gone to learn lio-w the blessings o > f science can be brought to mitigate tho horrors that accompany war , by remedies for the wounded , and by better rule of military strength and administration in the rear of armies . To check the disorders "that have formerly followed wars will be a grand improvement , not altogether unat-( etnpted . It is to bo hoped that , in this regard , modern science and modern opinion will do justico to philosophy and to pnicticul Christianity , by
Untitled Article
INDIAN JUDGES . The future historian will turn with great interest to a pamphlet brought over by the last mail from India—the reply of the Bombay Association to the charges of the Sudder Adawlut . It has been said that the opinion of foreign countries , which stand removed from personal interests and local prejudices , is like that of a contemporary posterity . We should be the last to call England a foreign country as regards India ; but certainly , if we have prejudices , they are not of a kind to make us judge too favourably of the natives ; and thus we can at least judge with as little favour as posterity can . Although the pamp hlet has not yet had the extensive circulation which it deserves , it has , so far as it has gone , created a very strong impression . * It will be remembered that the judges of the Sudder Aduwlut , referring to the twenty-second paragraph in tho petition from the Bombay Association , on the subject of judicial grievances and law reforms , undertook to refute the statement made in that passage . They represent it as coa-
Untitled Article
W * THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Untitled Article
* A Letter to tho Government of Bombay , addressed by tho MannRinff Committee of tho Boml > ay Association ^ . » n reply to ft Report invited by Government from tho Judaea of tho Sudder Dewanoo Auawlut , or tlio Honourablo * ne East India Company ' s Supremo Court of Appeal at Itonabay . regarding tho accuracy of Homo of tne complaiats ruado by tho Bombay Association , respecting tho Administration of Justice in tho Bombay Presidency , in their flrflt petition to tho Imperial Parliament . Published by W « Bombay Association . , Bombay ; Printed at tho Bombay Education Society » Press .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1854, page 180, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2027/page/12/
-