NA TURE 



25 



SCIENCE AND THE FUTURE INDIAN CIVIL 

 SERVICE EXAMINATIONS. 



THE following memorial, signed by a numerous and 

 highly-distinguished body of resident graduates of 

 the University of Cambridge, has been presented to the 

 Civil Service Commissioners : — 



" We, the undersigned resident graduates of the 

 University of Cambridge interested in the study of 

 natural science, understanding that a reorganization of 

 the open competitive examination for the Civil Service of 

 India is under the consideration of the Civil Service 

 Commissioners, beg respectfully to urge on the Com- 

 missioners the desirability of widening the range of the 

 examination so as to include the several branches of 

 natural science. We think it especially important that 

 the maximum number of marks obtainable by a candi- 

 date in natural science in the examination should be the 

 same as that obtainable by a candidate in classics or 

 in mathematics. In support of this opinion we venture 

 to point out that the Natural Sciences Tripos, both from 

 its numbers and from the rewards assigned by the Col- 

 leges to those of their members who distinguish them- 

 selves therein, is now of equal importance with the 

 Classical or Mathematical Tripos. 



" W^e have the honour to append a statement of the 

 numbers who have during the last five years taken 

 honours in natural science, classics, and mathematics. 

 We inclose a copy of the Cambridge University Reporter 

 of June 12, 1888, containing a report to the Senate and a 

 schedule of the numbers examined in each branch of 

 natural science in the years 1883-87. 



" We would desire to call attention to the acknowledged 

 educational value of the study of natural science, and to 

 point out that the training which it affords, combining as 

 it does both theory and practice, is such as peculiarly to 

 fit a student for the pursuits of practical Hfe. 



" We beg to state that a deputation would be happy to 

 wait on the Commissioners to explain more fully our 

 views on the subject should it be their pleasure to receive 

 them." 



This memorial is signed, among others, by two Heads 

 of Houses, I thirteen Professors, and twenty Fellows. 

 The memorialists, as will be seen, urge that in future 

 competitions the position of a candidate offering natural 

 science shall be not less favourable than that of those 

 who offer classics or mathematics. And in a highly 

 instructive schedule they show how important a place 

 the study of the natural sciences has now attained in the 

 University of Cambridge. 



It may be unknown to many of our readers that the 

 subject to which this memorial relates has lately become 

 one of great importance, in consequence of a proposed re- 

 organization of the higher branches of the public services 

 in India. A Commission, which we believe sat in India, 

 known as the Public Service Commission, has advised 

 that the following changes should be made with the object 

 of admitting natives of India to higher and more extensive 

 employment in the public services : — 



(i) That the strength of the Covenanted Civil Service 

 should be reduced to what is necessary to fill the chief 

 administrative appointments of the Government, and such 

 a proportion of smaller appointments as will secure a 

 complete course of training for junior Civilians. This 

 Vol. xLi. — No. 1046, 



branch of the service to continue to be recruited by 

 means of open competitions in England, at which natives 

 of India should be allowed to compete unreservedly, and 

 for which the maximum age of the Native candidates, and 

 therefore presumably of the English candidates, should 

 be raised to twenty-three years. 



(2) That a certain number of appointments should be 

 transferred from the Covenanted Civil Service to a local 

 Civil Service, which is to be recruited, locally, from 

 Natives and resident Europeans who satisfy certain 

 prescribed preliminary conditions. 



We do not know how far these proposals have been 

 adopted by the home authorities, though we understand 

 that they have received the general approval of the 

 Indian Government. We will therefore only say, in 

 passing, that they appear to be open to two serious 

 objections. 



First, that it seems a dangerous thing to select so 

 limited a number of young men for the higher branch 

 of the service by open competition, since doing so will 

 give to each one of those who succeed almost the certainty 

 of the reversion of one of the prizes of the public ser- 

 vices. Under such a condition there will be far too little 

 inducement for zeal in the service, and too little oppor- 

 tunity for selection and rejection when age and experience 

 have developed the administrative powers of the selected 

 men. 



Secondly, unless care be taken to regulate the previous 

 training of the candidates, as, for example, by requiring 

 that every candidate shall have taken a University 

 degree in England or India before presenting himself at 

 the competitive examination, it is likely that well-taught 

 rather than well-educated men will be selected, and that 

 an inferior order of men will offer themselves, since many 

 of the ablest men would be unable to submit to some 

 years of private tuition, and to give up, as they would 

 probably have to do, a University education for the 

 chance of obtaining an appointment in India. 



Whatever decision may have been made, however, it 

 is of the utmost importance that the representatives of 

 Cambridge who have addressed themselves to the Civil 

 Service Commissioners should be supported in every pos- 

 sible way, and at once, by all those who have the interest 

 of science and education at heart. For there is reason to 

 fear that the Commissioners have contemplated the com- 

 plete withdrawal of science from these examinations ; 

 and unfortunately many of the various regulations for the 

 Army examinations which have been brought forward 

 with their sanction in recent years give an air of 

 probability to this suggestion. This is in no way 

 weakened when we consider the extremely unfortunate 

 position that science candidates for the Indian Civil 

 Service have occupied under the administration of the 

 Commissioners for many years past. This position, it 

 should be said, has been due, not so much to the marks 

 allotted to science in the present scheme, as to the 

 methods adopted by the Commissioners in conducting 

 their examinations, which have long caused it to be 

 recognized by those who are engaged in the instruction 

 of Civil Service candidates that, as a rule, only thqse 

 candidates who are excellent either in classics or mathe- 

 matics, or those who are distinctly good in both, nave a 

 really good chance of success. 



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