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system of competition; and entertaining this conviction of the beneficial operation of the plan upon the Civil Service itself, I feel, as otherwise I should not feel, quite free to consider what influence it would exert upon the promotion of popular education.
Let me then proceed to suggest, as briefly as I can, a scheme of competition for inferior appointments, and to point out the way in which it would probably stimulate in some measure the education of the people. And to make the discussion as simple as possible, my future remarks and illustrations will relate exclusively to England and Wales. If the plan suggested should be considered worthy of adoption in this part of the United Kingdom, it could easily be adapted to the somewhat different circumstances of Scotland and Ireland.
The number of vacancies in inferior situations requiring to be annually filled up in England and Wales may be estimated at about 650, viz.—
| Tidewaiters and Weighers | 250 |
| Expectants of Excise | 230 |
| Letter Carriers | 150 |
| Messengers and others | 20 |
| 650 |
The annual value of these situations ranges, as already stated, from £50 to £80; and is generally above £60.
Well, the proposal is that these 650 situations should be filled up by selecting the 650 persons who, on competitive examinations, should appear to be the best qualified; superiority in this respect being indicated by superior excellence in the subjects prescribed for examination, whatever these might be. At present, the test examination for all these officers includes hand-writing, spelling, and elementary arithmetic: for Tide-waiters and Weighers a knowledge of the weights and measures is also required; and the arithmetic of Excise Expectants includes vulgar and decimal fractions. Probably for a competitive examination a uniform list of subjects might be adopted,
