128 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



LESSONS IN PENMANSHIP. XXX. 



OFFICIAL HANDWRITING. III. 



THE accompanying model of official handwriting has been 

 copied, by permission, from a specimen sheet of Treasury 

 Journal Entries, annexed to one of the annual reports issued by 

 Her Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners. It is inserted here 

 to furnish our readers with a trustworthy example of the style 

 of handwriting adopted for entries in the various accounts of the 

 public income and expenditure kept in the different Govern- 

 ment offices. It should be said, that the sheet of entries from 

 which our model has been copied was sent from the Treasury at 

 the request of the Commissioners, aiid inserted, with other 

 specimens of Government correspondence, in the report, of which 



Our readers will readily understand that the specimen of hand- 

 writing which we have now brought under their notice forms 

 merely a portion of the sheet of entries from which it is taken. 

 It is a part of the central column. The narrow column on the 

 left contains reference numbers numbers, most probably, of 

 folios in other books in which are entered the items which make 

 up the gross totals inserted either on the debtor or creditor side, 

 opposite the entries in the central column. On either side of 

 this column are, firstly, the entries for reference numbers, one 

 of which is shown in our model ; and then, to the right and laft 

 of these reference columns, are columns for pounds, shillings, 

 and pence, the whole forming a compendious balance-sheet. It 

 may be as well to note that the difference between this and an 

 ordinary balance-sheet- is, that whereas in the latter the debtor 



2/3 

 2/9 



SPECIMEN OF OFFICIAL HANDWRITING SUITABLE FOR BOOKKEEPING IN GOVERNMENT OFFICES. 



it forms a part, for the purpose of showing candidates for the 

 Civil Service the style of writing that they should endeavour to 

 acquire for what we may call Government bookkeeping. "They 

 may, we think," say the Commissioners, in giving their reason 

 for inserting in their report the specimens to which we have 

 referred, "be useful to those who are preparing for examina- 

 tion." Of this there can be no doubt whatever ; but as the 

 majority of those who may be intending to offer themselves as 

 candidates for appointments in the Civil Service may neither 

 have an opportunity of seeing the reports of the Commissioners 

 on the one hand, nor care, on the other, to go to the expense of 

 procuring them, we have endeavoured to supplement what has 

 already been done in these reports for the guidance and in- 

 struction of candidates, by setting before our readers the 

 specimens of official correspondence that have been given in 

 previous lessons (see Lessons in Penmanship, XXVII., XXVIII., 

 pages 33, 64), and the present model of official bookkeeping. 



and creditor sides of the accounts are written on opposite folios, 

 or divided by a double line when on the same folio, as is often 

 the case in printed statements of accounts, each series of 

 pounds, shillings, and pence columns being on the right-hand 

 side of the folio; while in the forinerjjthe entries, whether they 

 belong to the debtor or creditor sidejof the account, are entered 

 consecutively in the central column* of the sheet, the figures 

 belonging to the entries on the debtor side being inserted in the 

 pounds, shillings, and pence columns on the left, while the 

 figures belonging to the entries on the creditor side are placed 

 in the pounds, shillings, and pence columns on the right. 



There is no occasion for us to speak at length of the pecu- 

 liarities of the style of the handwriting shown in our model. 

 It differs but little from the ordinary style adopted for copies 

 in round-hand and small-hand, the chief point of difference 

 being that the capitals are rather smaller in proportion to the 

 size of the small letters. 



