EDITOR'S TABLE. 



i6j 



ress which this country has made in 

 the matter of civil-service reform, 

 and this in the teeth of the strongest 

 opposition which could be made in 

 the interest of the old, unregenerate 

 idea that all offices were on a level 

 with the abilities of the first comer, 

 provided only he had the necessary 

 certificates of political service. A 

 powerful New York journal thought 

 at one time to sneer the reform out 

 of existence; but, the more it sneered, 

 the more the idea seemed to gain in 

 strength, and the more firmly it 

 rooted itself in our system of gov- 

 ernment. This would seem to prove 

 that the citizens of this country, how- 

 ever they might outwardly counte- 

 nance the notion that anybody was 

 fit for anything, felt in their hearts 

 that the doctrine was a false and 

 fraudulent one. That is precisely 

 what it was and is; and the false- 

 hood and the fraud have in many 

 ways cost this country dear. It 

 needs perhaps a little experience of 

 administrative work in order to ap- 

 preciate fully the difference in effi- 

 ciency between a man in whom ex- 

 perience is united to intelligence 

 and seriousness of purpose, and who 

 is thus enabled to put a stamp of 

 thoroughness on all he does, and 

 one of mediocre or inferior intelli- 

 gence who simply thinks he is big 

 enough for any office, and that one 

 way of doing a thing is about as 

 good as another. It is always at the 

 expense of the public that the latter 

 type of official practices his crude 

 and ignorant methods; but in gen- 

 eral, though the shoe is sure to 

 pinch, it is difficult, if not impossi- 

 ble, for the public to tell just where 

 they are pinched or where the respon- 

 sibility rests. We may set it down, 

 however, for an unmistakable fact 

 that, in so far as governmental meth- 

 ods are marked by inefficiency and 

 lack of intelligence, the origin of the 

 trouble lies in the idea to which we 



referred at the outset, that " anybody 

 is fit for anything." The man who 

 employs a blacksmith as a dentist 

 when more skilled assistance is avail- 

 able has only himself to thank if he 

 suffers a few unnecessary pangs ; and 

 precisely so in the public service : if 

 we put into office men who lack the 

 essential qualifications for their posi- 

 tions, we must take what we can get 

 and, if not be thankful, at least 

 have the sense to place the responsi- 

 bility upon the right shoulders that 

 is, upon our own. 



DECIMAL COMPUTATION. 



The article from the pen of Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer which we publish 

 in this number will, we believe, open 

 the eyes of many of our readers to 

 the fact that whatever the advan- 

 tages of the metric system of measure- 

 ment now so widely used in Europe 

 may be, there are very considerable 

 objections to its introduction in coun- 

 tries where it has not yet been estab- 

 lished. Mr. Spencer, as usual, states 

 his case in a very comprehensive 

 manner ; and it would be difficult to 

 add anything to the arguments he 

 brings forward. He makes it very 

 clear that the only valid claim that 

 can be urged on behalf of the metric 

 system is that, on account of its 

 correspondence with the existing 

 system of notation, values expressed 

 therein admit of easier arithmetical 

 treatment than values expressed ac- 

 cording to other methods. He shows, 

 however, that this is quite a limited 

 advantage. Express your values in 

 the metric or decimal system, and 

 you can add or multiply them with 

 great facility; but the difficulty lies 

 in getting those particular fractional 

 values expressed which we have 

 most occasion to use in everyday 

 life, and which it is the instinctive 

 habit of our minds to deal with 

 such as thirds, fourths, sixths, 



