" CRAM. 



23 



who are unfettered in their powers of appoint- 

 ment will seldom now appoint a young man to a 

 conspicuous post unless his degree will justify 

 the appointment in the eyes of the public. The 

 President of the Council, for instance, is unre- 

 stricted in the choice of school -inspectors, but 

 he practically makes a high degree a sine qua 

 non. Not only does he thus lessen his responsi- 

 bility very greatly, and almost entirely avoid sus- 

 picion of undue influence, but the general success 

 and ability of those appointed in this manner 

 fully bear out the wisdom of the practice. 



The fact seems to be, that the powers which 

 enable a man to take a conspicuous place in a 

 fierce competitive examination are closely cor- 

 related, if they be not identical, with those lead- 

 ing to success in the battle of life. It might be 

 expected that a high wrangler, or a double first, 

 would generally be a weakly bookworm, pre- 

 maturely exhausted by intense study, unable to 

 expand his mind beyond his books, and deficient 

 in all the tact and worldly knowledge to be ac- 

 quired by mixing in the business of life. But 

 experience seems to negative such ideas. The 

 weakly men are weeded out before they get to 

 the final struggle, or break down in the course of 

 it. The true bookworm shows himself to be 

 a bookworm, and does not fight his way to a 

 high place. Success in a severe examination re- 

 quires, as a general rule, a combination of robust 

 physical health, good nerve, great general energy, 

 and powers of endurance and perseverance, added 

 to pure intellectual ability. There are, of course, 

 exceptions in all matters of this sort, but, so far 

 as we can lay down rules in human affairs, it is 

 the mens sana in corpore sano which carries a 

 candidate to the higher part of the list. 



A man must not always be set down as a 

 blockhead because he cannot stand the examina- 

 tion-room. Some men of extensive knowledge 

 and much intelligence lose their presence of 

 mind altogether when they see the dreadful 

 paper. They cannot command their thoughts 

 during the few hours when their success in life is 

 at stake. The man who trembles at the sight of 

 the paper is probably defective in the nerve and 

 moral courage so often needed in the business of 

 life. It by no means follows, again, that the man 

 of real genius will take a conspicuous place in 

 the list. His peculiar abilities will often lie in a 

 narrow line, and be correlated with weakness in 

 other directions. His powers can only be ren- 

 dered patent in the course of time. It is well 

 known that some of the most original mathema- 

 ticians were not senior wranglers. Public ex- 



aminations must be looked upon as tests of gen- 

 eral rather than special abilities ; talent, strength, 

 and soundness of constitution win the high place 

 — powers which can be developed in any direction 

 in after-life. 



If evidence were needed to support this view 

 of the matter, it is amply afforded by the recent 

 parliamentary report on the education and train- 

 ing of candidates for the Indian Civil Service. 

 Whatever may be thought as to the details of the 

 methods of training, which have been recently 

 modified, there can be no doubt that this report 

 is conclusive as to the success of examinational 

 selection. The ability of the statements furnished 

 to this report, by officers appointed by open com- 

 petition, goes far to prove the success of the sys- 

 tem. It is impossible to imagine a severer test 

 than that system has passed through in the case 

 of the Indian Civil Service. Young men selected 

 for the amount of Latin, Greek, mathematics, 

 French, German, logic, political economy, etc., 

 which they could " cram up," have been sent out 

 at twenty-one or twenty-three years of age, and 

 thrown at once into a new world, where it is dif- 

 ficult to imagine that their " crammed " knowl- 

 edge could be of the least direct use. There they 

 have been brought into contact with a large body 

 of older officers, appointed under a different 

 system, and little prejudiced in favor of these 

 " Competition "Wallahs." Yet the evidence is 

 overwhelming to the effect that these victims of 

 " cram " have been successful in governing India. 

 A large number of the best appointments have 

 already been secured by them, although the sys- 

 tem has only been in existence for twenty-two 

 years, and seniority is naturally of much account. 

 The number who are failures is very small, cer- 

 tainly smaller than it would be under the patron- 

 age system. It is impossible that I should, within 

 the limits of this article, present the evidence 

 accumulated on this subject. I must refer the 

 reader to the " Blue-book " itself, which is full 

 of interest for all concerned in education. 1 I 

 must also refer the reader to the remarkably able 

 essays on the subject, published by Mr. Alfred 

 Cotterell Tupp, B. A., of the Bengal Civil Service, 2 

 to which essays I am indebted for some of my 

 ideas on this subject. Mr. Tupp gives a powerful 

 answer to the celebrated attack on the competi- 

 tive system contained in the Edinburgh Review 



1 The Selection and Training of Candidates for the In- 

 dian Civil Service (C. 1,446). 18T6. Price 3s. od. 



- The Indian Civil Service and the Competitive Sys- 

 tem, a Discussion on the Examinations and the Training 

 in England. London: K. W. Brydges, 137 Gower Street. 

 1876. 



