446 



NATURE 



[August 8, 191 8 



SCIENCE AND THE CIVIL SERVICE. 



THE great technical devetopments of the nine- 

 teenth century, which were due in a large 

 measure to the influence and progress of science, 

 have undoubtedly introduced not only a great 

 transformation in the internal affairs of the 

 country, but also an altered outlook in the external 

 relations of the State. In consequence, many and 

 extensive have been the changes gradually brought 

 aibout, during- the past century, in the duties and 

 responsibilities of the Civil Service. Every Govern- 

 ment Department has been affected to some ex- 

 tent ; in some of them there have come into exist- 

 ence innovations which are of a very far-reaching- 

 character. The outstanding- feature of this evolu- 

 tion is that the work of Government Departments 

 has to-day entirely ceased to be of a purely ad- 

 ministrative order, whether it be in relation to 

 legislative measures referred thereto for prepara- 

 tion, revision, or criticism, or to the operations 

 conducted therein, or to the sphere of human 

 activity superintended, controlled, or managed 

 thereby. The business of every Government De- 

 partment is to-day to some extent technical or 

 scientific; in the case of some Departments the 

 ' administrative aspect predominates ; in others it 

 is the technical or scientific aspect that plays the 

 more important role. 



What, then, has the State done to ensure that 

 the personnel of the Civil Service, through whom 

 its responsibilities must be largely exercised, shall 

 be properly qualified and equipped for dealing-, 

 under present-day conditions, with the social, in- 

 dustrial, and commercial problems which must 

 come before it for legislative, executive, or other 

 action? 



One important step certainly has been taken in 

 relation to this matter : it has been definitely laid 

 down that candidates for the Civil Service shall, 

 before appointment, be required to undergo some 

 test as to their knowledge and capacity. To give 

 effect to this decision the Civil Service Commission 

 was, by an Order in Council dated May 21, 1855, 

 appointed to organise a system of examination; 

 the Commission continues to be charged to the 

 present day with the duty of providing suitable 

 candidates for the public services. In 1870 the 

 principle of open competition was introduced for 

 the purpose of filling certain specified situations 

 in the Civil Service, without, however, entirely 

 abolishing "patronage" appointments. After- 

 wards, in 1876, the clerical establishment of the 

 Civil Service was divided' into a higher and a 

 lower division; in 1890 the name "lower 

 division " was altered to "second division," and 

 a provision introduced making it possible for A 

 "second division" clerk to be promoted to 

 a higher division clerkship. It is the clerical 

 establishments of the Civil Service which 

 have alone received attention in the foregoing 

 legislation. 



Obviously, it is on the cortplete success of the 

 competitive examination scheme in force that the 

 welfare of the Civil Service, and, therefore, the 

 NO. 2545, VOL. lOl] 



protection of the public interest, must depend. 

 It is here that a serious failure has occurred ; the 

 open competitive scheme has not been an entire 

 success; it has been productive of a very unfor- 

 tunate result. The system of marking adopted in 

 the examination favoured candidates whose educa- 

 tion consisted largely in the learning of ancient 

 Greece and Rome, and handicapped those whose 

 forte was science. 



Furthermore, in practically every case the 

 officials who have in recent years received 

 "patronage" appointments in the higher division 

 of the Civil Service are men whose education and 

 training have been identical in character with 

 those of Civil Servants entering the Service by 

 open competition. In consequence, at the present 

 day the highest administrative posts in nearly 

 every Department are monopolised by men whose 

 learning is entirely literary. Further, the tech- 

 nical officers — that is, those in whose education 

 science has played the preponderating rdle, and 

 on whose skill and knowledge the welfare of many 

 of the public services very largely depends — are 

 almost entirely excluded from a share in the im- 

 portant administrative posts ; needless to say, 

 much to the injury of the public services. 



Could it be shown that a purely classical or 

 literary education really tends to develop or to 

 produce administrative talent in an individual 

 superior to that which can be obtained by means 

 of a scientific education and technical training, as 

 is sometimes claimed, there might indeed be some 

 excuse for the retention of the principle of selection 

 adopted ; but there is none in actual fact. There 

 exists, on the contrary, abundant evidence to 

 prove conclusively that administrative talent is 

 no exclusive privilege or quality of those who 

 have received a purely classical or literary educa- 

 tion : the names are familiar, in wide circles, to 

 high and low, of men who have proved them- 

 selves capable administrators of the highest order ; 

 men, possessing the capacity of a Cromer or of a 

 Kitchener, in whose education instruction in 

 science also occupied a very prominent place ; 

 men whose early years were, too, spent in tech- 

 nical spheres. 



The opinion has been gaining ground for some 

 time past that the administrative system of 

 Government Departments is unsatisfactory. The 

 extracts from the reports of the Exchequer and 

 Audit Department published from time to time, 

 wherein publicity is given to the defects in the 

 administrative arrangements in connection with 

 the public services, have provided, in relation to 

 such matters, authentic evidence tending to con- 

 firm, in the public mind, the unfavourable opinions 

 that prevail so widely as to the unbusinesshke 

 methods of the Civil Service and the general lack 

 of capacity shown by a large majority of its 

 members. Other authentic evidence is available 

 — some recorded, some not ; some public property, 

 some not — which provides an indication that scien- 

 tific knowledge and technical experience are held 

 in disrepute in many, happily not in all. Govern- 

 ment Departments; and, further, that the profes- 



