6
recurs whether competition does not offer the best attainable criterion. Superiority in a literary contest reveals at least the existence of industry and intelligence; and, without contending that these qualities must necessarily be accompanied by all the other important requisites, it is at all events more likely that the latter will be found where the former are known to be present than where they have not been discovered. No doubt, it is quite possible that the very best man in such a contest might not be so well adapted for the situation to be filled as one of his unsuccessful rivals; but the question turns upon averages not upon individual cases. To adopt an illustration given by Mr. Temple, whatever may be the merit of any single victor in such a trial as compared with any single nominee, it is quite certain that the first twenty victors will be better and fitter than any other twenty. And what he says with respect to candidates for clerkships I venture to say with respect to candidates for inferior positions, and to express my belief that twenty Tidewaiters who could read, write, and cipher well, and compose a sensible letter on an ordinary topic would be not only better men but better Tidewaiters than twenty less-instructed officers. And then it must not be assumed that a competition might not be made to include other than mere literary tests. Indeed, for my own part, I believe that experience would gradually lead to the adoption of continually improved methods of discovering and measuring an actual capacity for business.
Then, again, to take those moral qualities which are even more essential than are mental qualifications to the efficiency of a public servant; are not the means of investigating the character of candidates as available under the system of competition as under that of Government nomination? If careful inquiries as to character and disposition have always hitherto preceded the exercise of Government patronage on behalf of Tidewaiters, Weighers, and Excisemen, a similar scrutiny might continue to be made, with at least equal zeal and perhaps with even more effect, by those to whom the conduct of competitions
