The Government of England Part 17

1.

[161:4] In 1873 a Committee on Civil Service Expenditure suggested abolis.h.i.+ng the distinction altogether, and having a single examination for admission to each department, the men to stand upon an equality as regards subsequent promotion by merit. (3d Rep., Com. Papers, 1873, VII., 415, p. iv.) No action was taken on this recommendation; and two years later Playfair's Commission on Admission to the Civil Service reported (Com. Papers, 1875, XXIII., 1) that the distinction between a higher division to do the responsible work, and a lower division to do the routine work, ought to be maintained. But they criticised the existing division into Cla.s.ses I and II, on the ground that there was no possibility of promotion from the second to the first, and that the distinction did not correspond with the real difference in the nature of the work, so that mechanical work was done by the first cla.s.s and responsible work by the second, while the clerks in some of the departments belonged wholly to one cla.s.s. They recommended that there should be in every department a lower division of men and boy clerks; that its members should serve in any department to which they were appointed or transferred; and that after ten years' service they might, if they had shown exceptional capacity, be promoted to the upper division. These recommendations were embodied in the Order in Council of Feb. 12, 1876. The organisation of the civil service was thereby simplified and improved, but it was still imperfect. The Commission on Civil Establishments, in their second report, in 1888 (Com. Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1), said that in practice the work of the two divisions had overlapped, and the line between them had been drawn too low. They suggested also that the name of the lower division should be changed to second division. This was carried into effect by an Order in Council of March 21, 1890, which const.i.tuted the second division of the civil service, with a higher grade to be reached by promotion, and made the boy clerks into a separate division. The rules affecting the second division have since been embodied in a new Order in Council of Nov. 29, 1898, amended by another Order of Sept. 15, 1902. The first division, known as Cla.s.s I of the Civil Service, was regulated afresh by an Order in Council of Aug. 15, 1890, which created there also an upper grade to be reached by promotion.

It may be added that appointments made as the result of compet.i.tive examination are not absolute at once, but are probationary for a certain period.

[162:1] These are the men entering the civil service of the Eastern colonies, Ceylon, Hong Kong, the Federated Malay States, etc.

[163:1] Of the 514 successful candidates for the Cla.s.s I clerks.h.i.+ps, the Indian Civil Service and the Eastern Cadets, from 1896 to 1900 inclusive, 262 had studied at Oxford, 148 at Cambridge, 83 at other universities in the United Kingdom, 7 in colonial and Indian universities, and 14 in no university at all. (45th Rep. of the Civil Serv. Comrs., Com. Papers, 1901, XVIII., 129, pp. lxxix-lx.x.xii.) The proportion from Oxford and Cambridge in the Cla.s.s I clerks.h.i.+ps alone would be somewhat larger still. The later reports of the Civil Service Commission show that these proportions have not been very much changed.

[163:2] A more detailed statement of the method of conducting the examination and its results may be found in Lowell and Stephens, "Colonial Civil Service."

[164:1] Morley, "Life of Gladstone," I., 511.

[164:2] In a letter to Lord John Russell he wrote: "It must be remembered that an essential part of any such plan as it is now under discussion is the separation of _work_, wherever it can be made, into mechanical and intellectual, a separation which will open to the highly educated cla.s.s a career, and give them a command over all the higher parts of the civil service, which up to this time they have never enjoyed." _Ibid._, 649.

[165:1] For Mundella's origin see Davidson, "Eminent English Liberals,"

Ch. xii.; Hinton, "English Radical Leaders," Ch. viii.

[165:2] As in all such cases, the upper limit is extended to some extent for men who have served the public in a military or other capacity.

[166:1] 45th Rep. Civil Serv. Comrs., Com. Papers, 1901, XVIII., 129, pp. lxxiii-iv. Under the present regulations, writing (with copying), arithmetic and English composition are required; and of the eight optional subjects--precis (including indexing and adjusting of returns), bookkeeping and shorthand, geography and English history, Latin, French, German, elementary mathematics (plane geometry and algebra), and chemistry and physics--not more than four may be offered, including not more than two of the three languages.

[167:1] During the thirteen years from 1886 to 1898, inclusive, 147 first-cla.s.s clerks were appointed by open compet.i.tion, 34 were promoted from the second division (or the corresponding cla.s.s that preceded it), and 8 came from other sources (virtually by transfer from distinct services). During the same period 123 second division clerks were promoted to other posts carrying an increase of salary. Com. Papers, 1899, LXXVII., 751. From the later reports of the Civil Service Commissioners it would appear that the proportion of first-cla.s.s clerks.h.i.+ps filled by promotion does not increase.

[167:2] Order in Council, Nov. 29, 1898, -- 15.

[167:3] Or boy copyists. They were formerly two separate cla.s.ses, but are now combined.

[167:4] The nature of the examination was changed at the same time, and for the same reason as that of the second division clerks.

[168:1] 45th Rep. of the Civil Serv. Comrs., Com. Papers, 1901, XVIII., 129, pp. lx.x.xiii-vii.

[168:2] _Ibid._, 129, pp. lx.x.xiii-vii.

[169:1] The Committee on Civil Establishments reported that this method of appointment was a necessity in the Foreign Office. Com. Papers, 1890, XXVII., 1, p. 9.

[170:1] Courtney, "The Working Const.i.tution," 149-50. The local member, however, is still often consulted, but rather as having local knowledge than with a view to political influence.

[170:2] Messengers are often examined in the three R's.

[171:1] Com. Papers, 1883, x.x.xVIII., 543.

[171:2] Third Rep. of the Com. on Civil Serv. Exp., Com. Papers, 1873, VII., 415, Qs. 4270-72, 4727, 4762, 4764. There was at that time some trouble in the case of dismissals. _Ibid._, Qs. 4271-72.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MINISTERS AND THE CIVIL SERVICE

[Sidenote: The Need of both Expert and Layman.]

As scientific and technical knowledge increase, as the relations of life become more complex, there is an ever-growing need of men of special training in every department of human activity; and this is no less true of the government than of every other organisation. Any work, therefore, carried on at the present day without the a.s.sistance of experts is certain to be more or less inefficient. But, on the other hand, experts acting alone tend to take disproportionate views, and to get more or less out of touch with the common sense of the rest of the world. They are apt to exaggerate the importance of technical questions as compared with others of a more general nature--a tendency which leads either to hobbies, or, where the organism is less vigorous, to officialism and red tape. These evils have become so marked in the case of some governments as to give rise to the ill name of bureaucracy. In order, therefore, to produce really good results, and avoid the dangers of inefficiency on the one hand, and of bureaucracy on the other, it is necessary to have in any administration a proper combination of experts and men of the world. Now, of all the existing political traditions in England, the least known to the public, and yet one of those most deserving attention, is that which governs the relation between the expert and the layman.

[Sidenote: The Judge and Jury.]

The first branch of the English government to reach a high point of development was that which dealt with the administration of justice; and it is here that we first see the cooperation of professional and lay elements. They appear in the form of judge and jury; and in that form they have worked together from the Middle Ages to the present day. The judge, a royal officer of high rank, supplies the expert knowledge, while the lay influence is exerted by means of a panel of twelve men of average ignorance, drawn from the community by lot for the occasion; and although this is not the usual method of combining the two elements, their reciprocal control has certainly been effective.

[Sidenote: The Justice of the Peace and his Clerk.]

It was not, however, in the superior courts of law alone that the principle made itself felt. Its working, if less evident on the surface, may be traced no less clearly in the exercise of petty jurisdiction by the justices of the peace sitting without a jury. But here the mutual relation of the two elements was reversed. The justice of the peace was in most cases a landowner, a country gentleman, not skilled in law. In the earlier period the commission included a number of trained lawyers, who were said to be of the quorum, because without the presence of one of them the justices were not by law competent to act.[174:1] But in process of time the trained lawyers ceased to be appointed, while the names of almost all the justices came to be inserted in the quorum clause;[174:2] and thus it happened that judicial authority was vested in a squire who knew little of the law he was called upon to administer.

But the justice supplied, in fact, the lay, not the professional, element in his own court; the requisite legal knowledge being usually furnished by his clerk, who was learned in the law; or, at least, learned in the duties of the justice of the peace as set forth in the statutes and in the manuals published for the purpose.

The office of clerk of the peace for the county must be of considerable age, for it is referred to in a statute of Richard II. in 1388.[174:3]

But besides this office, which is a public one, it has been the habit time out of memory for an active justice to retain a private clerk of his own to a.s.sist him when acting as a single magistrate; such a clerk being paid partly out of the justice's pocket, partly from the fees that accrued.[175:1]

[Sidenote: As Portrayed in Literature.]

More important than the age of these offices is the question of the real power exerted by their holders. That the influence of a clerk over the justice who employed him has long been both great and notorious is clear from the frequent references to it in literature. Early in the seventeenth century Fletcher, in "The Elder Brother," makes Miramont say to Brissac:[175:2]--

"Thou monstrous piece of ignorance in office!

Thou that hast no more knowledge than thy Clerk infuses."

Near the end of that century the same idea was expressed with singular frankness in a manual on "The Office of the Clerk of the Peace,"

published in 1682. In an address "to the reader," which precedes the second part of the volume, the author explains the object of the book.

After saying of the justices of the peace that their birth is a glory to their seats, he continues:--

"But divers of these Gentlemen having not been conversant in the Practice of the Ordinary Courts of Justice, often in the absence of those worthy Persons, who be a.s.sociated with them for their Learning in the Law, meet with many difficulties and discouragements."

Coming down to the eighteenth century there is the case of Squire Western and his clerk in "Tom Jones"; and later in the same novel the scene in the inn at Upton, where the strange justice is unwilling to act because he has not with him his book or his clerk. The reader will probably remember Justice Foxley and his clerk in "Redgauntlet"; and also d.i.c.kens's burlesque of the relation in the scene at Ipswich, where after much whispering between the justice (Mr. Nupkins) and his clerk (Mr. Jinks) the magistrate says to Mr. Pickwick:--

"An information has been sworn before me that it is apprehended you are going to fight a duel, and that the other man, Tupman, is your aider and abettor in it. Therefore--eh, Mr. Jinks?"

"Certainly, Sir."

"Therefore, I call upon you both to--I think that's the course, Mr.

Jinks?"

"Certainly, Sir."

"To--to--what, Mr. Jinks?" said the magistrate pettishly.

"To find bail, Sir."

"Yes. Therefore, I call upon you both--as I was about to say, when I was interrupted by my clerk--to find bail."

The satire here is particularly keen, because before the public the magistrate always takes the whole credit to himself, and is very sensitive about having the world believe that he is under the control of his clerk.