in confunction

with demo
cratic institutions.


886

POSTSCRIPT

enriching itself. In England, with the publicity of parlia
mentary government and the effectiveness of the criticism
that is possible under the party system, the difficulty of
securing administrative excellence under a democracy has
been reduced to a minimum, A method h%s been devised
for obtaining the services of men of capacity and yet subjecting
 them to the control of independent authorities from
outside. There is no official caste, and if we lose something
by being careless of expert training and setting amateurs to
learn their business by their mistakes, we have a constant
supply of men who have intimate relations with the nonofficial
 world, and bring their common sense to bear on the
problems that present themselves. The Indian Civil Service!
has given the type on which other administrative bodies have
been modelled—in regions where responsible self-government
 is impossible,—and this service is the product of the
East India Company and Parliament. There is an impressive
fitness in the fact that the characteristic institution of a commercial
 empire should have been developed, not solely by the
wisdom of political rulers, but also by the sagacity of English
merchants guiding a commercial enterprise.

1 The training of candidates, for posts under the Company, at a college for four
years was insisted on by the Act of 1813 (53 Geo. IIL. ec. 155, § 46), and an examination
 for admission was required by 3 and 4 W. IV. c. 85, §§ 104—106, and
patronage in the nomination of candidates was abolished by 16 and 17 Vict. e. 36.
The system which was thus organised was taken over without substantial
alteration by the Civil Service Commissioners in 1858 (21 and 22 V, ¢. 106, § 32).
Bir C. E. Trevelyan, who had long experience of the working of the official system
in India, was & prime mover in the reform of the Home Civil Service in 1854.
Reports, etc. 1854, xxvii. p. 8.