Speaking generally it may be said that the English government believes that competitive examination in the ordinary subjects of study is an excellent way of selecting young men for employment at the end of their school or uni versity career, whether at 17 or at 22 years of age, but that it is not effective when applied to men engaged in professional work or as a test of professional knowledge. The fact how ever that the main body of the officials are appointed by competition has produced an esprit de corps which keeps the whole service out of politics, and the exceptional cases of appoint ment by nomination neither excite nor as a rule deserve criticism.
In 1855 and in 1870 almost all young Eng lishmen of the well-to-do classes who did not enter the army or navy went through the same course of education in classics and mathematics at the old endowed "public and the two great universities. Professional preparation for the young "gentlemen" followed graduation, and therefore it was very easy immediately after graduation to compare their abilities and acquirements by examination. Those who failed began, without feeling that they had wasted either time or effort, preparation for the Bar or the Church or the "public school" teaching profession, or more often started their professional work with little or no pre paration. In the same way an examination for the lower civil service confined to reading, writ ing, and arithmetic, corresponded to the facts of the time, for few boys who did not go through the public school course learnt much else. Since 1870 the number of "secondary* and "higher grade" schools with a fairly wide curriculum has enormously increased. In 1898 it was found that the old narrow examination for the lower division had become by the mere force of competition a difficult and technical test for which boys left their schools and pre pared themselves' at crammers. A wider cur riculum including modern languages and sci ence was therefore substituted. This fact and the facilities in London and •other cities for obtaining higher education in evening classes is tending to lessen the educational advantages possessed by the average first division clerk over a clever and ambitious second division clerk, and to break down the original reason for their life-long difference of status.
Burke in his reform of 1782 not only helped to create the class of professional "civil ser vants" but attempted to distribute some of their work upon a more logical and economical basis. What we now call "Government De partments" consisted then of the clerical staff attached, either to certain ancient offices of State, such as those of the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Post master General, and the Secretaries of State, or to Committees of the Privy Council, or to Boards of Commissioners administering other ancient offices such as those of the Lord High Treasurer, or the Lord High Admiral. Each
office had "grown" of itself, and new offices had been created as work increased and without reference to any consistent plan. Of the two principal Secretaries of State, for instance, the Secretary of the North conducted all corre spondence with the Northern powers of Eu rope, and the Secretary for the South not only corresponded with France, Spain, etc., but car ried on Irish business and the whole police and other work of the "Home" Department. Burke re-divided their duties, making the Northern Department the office of the For eign Secretary, and the Southern Department that of the Home Secretary. At the same time, England having lost the greater part of her Empire, he suppressed the Colonial Secretary, who had existed since 1768, and who had by hopelessly unworkable arrangement shared his duties with a Committee of the Privy Council called the Board of Trade and Plantations. The work of both was given to the Home Sec retary.
But it was not until the period of legis lative activity which followed the Reform Bill of 1832 that anything like a complete survey was made of the functions of government, or that any serious attempt was undertaken to create a department for each function. Both the recognition of the need of such a survey and the actual form taken by the redistribution of powers were largely influenced by the sug gestions of Jeremy Bentham in his
The Board of Works (Bentham's °Domain Minister") was created in 1832; the Poor Law Commission (Bentham's °Indigence Relief was created in 1834, became the Poor Law Board in 1847, and was merged in the Local Government Board in 1871 • the Com mittee of Council for Education (Bentham's °Education Minister/9 was created in 1839 and became the Board of Education in 1899; and the Registrar General (to superintend Ben. tham's °Local Registrars° of vital statistics) was created in 1837. Separate Secretaries of State were appointed for War and Colonies in 1854, and for India in 1858. A Secretary for Scotland was created in 1885, and a Board of Agriculture in 1889.