The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1851-4] COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS. 249
far more importance than would appear on the face of
it, viz., that the Postmaster-General " should determine
the future complement of each class according to the
nature and amount of duty to be performed in it." It
might
seem incredible that such a recommendation
should be needed, but hitherto the number in a class
had had but little reference to the amount of duty that
fell to it to perform, and indeed, as mentioned in an
earlier part of this narrative,* the division implied no
real classification whatever, so that in many instances
men of high class were, through lack of ability,
employed at low-class work, and vice versa.
The Report of the Commissioners, being referred
by the Treasury to the Postmaster-General, Lord
Canning, and having received his almost unqualified
approval, was ordered, with little more exception than
that already mentioned, to be carried into effect.
Competitive Examinations.
The following entry is on a subject of some diffi-
culty, and of great importance :
''March 4th, 1854, The Report
of the Commissioners on the
Civil Service generally has been issued. Some months ago they
requested my opinion on the draft of their Report, in which they
had recommended that the patronage should be accumulated chiefly
in the hands of the Treasury (i.e., of the Whipper-in for the time
being). To this arrangement I objected decidedly, and I now see
that they have abandoned it, making the admission to the Service in
all cases to depend on a competitive examination, and thus abandoning
patronage altogether. This will not, I fear, work well. The
competition will, I think, be necessarily thrown on matters of
secondary importance. Indeed the Commissioners propose that
it shall be literary. The plan is attracting much notice from the
public, and is earnestly backed by the Times. The Report is in
many respects excellent. Indeed the objects aimed at are, without
* See p. 184. ED.