152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



LANGUAGE AND THE ENGLISH CIVIL SERVICE. 1 



Br ALEXANDER BAIN, 



PROFESSOR OF LOGIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 



THE system of* competitive examinations for the public service, of 

 which I have laid before the section a brief history compiled 

 from the reports, is one of those radical innovations that may ulti- 

 mately lead to great consequences. For the present, however, it 

 leads to many debates. Not merely does the working out of the 

 scheme involve conflicting views, but there is still great hesitation in 

 many quarters as to whether the innovation is to be productive of 

 good or of evil. The report of the Playfair Commission, and the 

 more recent report relative to the changes in the India Civil Service 

 regulations, indicate pretty broadly the doubts that still cleave to 

 many minds on the whole question. It is enough to refer to the views 

 of Sir Arthur Helps, Mr. W. R. Greg, and Dr. Farr, expressed to the 

 Playfair Commission, as decidedly adverse to the competitive system. 

 The authorities cited in the report on the India examinations scarcely 

 go the length of total condemnation ; but many acquiesce only be- 

 cause there is no hope of a reversal. 



The question of the expediency of the system as a whole is not 

 well suited to a sectional discussion. We shall be much better em- 

 ployed in adverting to some of those details in the conduct of the 

 examinations that have a bearing on the whole education of the 

 country, as well as on the Civil Service itself. It was very well, at 

 first starting, for the commissioners to be guided, in their choice of 

 subjects and in assigning values to those subjects, by the received 

 branches of education in the schools and colleges. But, sooner or 

 later, these subjects must be discussed on their intrinsic merits for 

 the ends in view. 



I shall occupy the present paper with the consideration of two 

 departments in the examination programme the one relating to the 

 physical or natural sciences, 3 the other relating to languages. 



This second topic is one of very serious import. It concerns the 

 Civil Service competitions only as a part of our whole scheme of edu- 

 cation. I mean the position of languages in our examinations. While 

 the vast field of natural science is rolled up in one heading, with a 

 total of 1,000 marks, our Civil Service scheme presents a row of five 

 languages besides our own two ancient and three modern with an 

 aggregate value of 2,G25 marks. The India scheme has, in addition, 



1 From advance-sheets of a paper entitled " The Civil Service Examination Scheme 

 considered with Reference 1. To Sciences ; and, 2. To Languages," read at the recent 

 meeting of the Social Science Congress in Aberdeen, Scotland. 



2 This part of the address is omitted for want of space. 



