IV EXAMINATIONS 189 



the candidates ; the examination should be in the 

 minimum of necessary subjects, and the standard of 

 passing should be the lowest compatible with the 

 safe guarding of the public. No competition for 

 honours or distinction of any kind should be associated 

 with such examination. The education of candidates 

 for the professions the church, the law, medicine, the 

 army is and should be undertaken by bodies inde- 

 pendent of the profession. The university degree, or 

 the Fellowship of a College of Surgeons or Physicians 

 should be altogether independent of and an addition 

 to the possession of the State or professional diploma. 

 III. The question in regard to examinations, 

 which undoubtedly has the greatest interest for the 

 general public, is that as to the desirability of con- 

 tinuing to employ them for the purpose of selecting 

 appointees in the Home and Indian Civil Service. I 

 must admit that, strongly opposed as I am to com- 

 petitive examination in the universities, I do not see 

 how to avoid it in this matter. I believe that a great 

 boon was conferred on the people of this country when 

 Government appointments were thrown open to them 

 in this way, and I should rather see further progress 

 in this direction, so as to include more valuable 

 offices, than a retrograde movement. The whole 

 question here seems to me to limit itself to this : 

 " How to improve the Civil Service Commissioners' 

 .examinations so that ability and qualities of the kind 

 desired for any given post may be selected as the 

 result of those examinations." I have no doubt that 

 a great deal might be done in the way of improving 



