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#o ^18, March 27, 1858.] THE LEAD E R. 8...
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." 7 SISTERS-IN-LAW. jgOMB qaestioos hav...
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COUNCILS OF CONCILIATION. On Tuesday, th...
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~—TIIE^IVTTrSEKVICFr ~ Tiik now report o...
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CONSULAR REFORM. Me. Seymour Fitzgerald ...
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Tun Discharged Prisonkrs 1 Atd Sooikty.—...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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#O ^18, March 27, 1858.] The Lead E R. 8...
# o ^ 18 , March 27 , 1858 . ] THE LEAD E R . 80 S
." 7 Sisters-In-Law. Jgomb Qaestioos Hav...
. " 7 SISTERS-IN-LAW . jgOMB qaestioos have « n inexhaustible iafceFesfc shntJv because they are questions of feeling more . than patters of fact . For one person who reads law reports , or new records of scientific experiments presenting novel points in every case , hundreds read Jove talcs , with their almost invariable incidents of Jiking , loving , quarrelling , and making-up . Thus , the biU for legalizing marriages with sisters-in-law always provokes an interesting debate . The little fancy sketches and hypothetical pictures of interiors brought up occasionally in the debates relieve the references to Leviticus and the law-books . We remember how Shiel , with cunning hand , painted for an impressed House the picture of a sister-inlaw , using ' that speculative tenderness which woman so -well knows how to employ , ' to attract the love of her sister ' s husband , or with hypocritical show smoothing the pillow of the sick wife— ' that pillow in which she had a reversionary interest . ' There was all the art of the rhetorician in the words , ftnd the idea held up to odium is repulsive ; but so it would , be were a cousin or mere friend of the sick wife to act in the same way . Many young lady-visitors now find a temporary home in the houses of men to whom , if widowers , they
could be lawfully wed . But * we guess' that something besides this possibility is required to induce « n unmarried young lady to throw away her time on a married man . Some people argue as if every sister-in-law in England waited but the repeal of the present law to commence a conspiracy on the peace of mind ( perhaps life ) of her married sister and on the heart of the husband . "When one thinks of his own circle of society a smile can only reply to the argument , and perhaps , for some minds , a grave assurance that there are sisters-in-law who , if there was no other man in the world , would not think of accepting the husband permitted to them by the proposed new law . But if all the sisters-in-law in England are ardent and immodest lovers of their sisters '
husbands , will the present law restrain them , or are they so curiously compounded in heart and mind that the prohibition to marry is sufficient to restrain their irregular love and to repress them into amiable inmates of the homes they would break up did the law allow them ? Against this picture of those etifants terribles of English households , we may state the known fact that there are good , modest women , who see no harm in marrying the widowed husband of their dead sister , or in becoming a second
mother to their dead sister ' s children . They are forbidden by law to do so , and if , as they have done in some cases , they disobey the law , you give them the bad habit of setting their individual conscience against the law , and of considering the law with contempt . In subsequent years they , or inferiors under their influence , may better the example by breaking good laws in . obedience to questionable promptings from within—and some of the responsibility may rest on those who first made a foolish law to repress a natural feeling .
Councils Of Conciliation. On Tuesday, Th...
COUNCILS OF CONCILIATION . On Tuesday , the 30 th instant , Mr . Mackinnon will anovo leave to bring in a bill to enable masters and workmen to establish Councils of Conciliation . This bill has been prepared under the direct assistance and sanction of the Nat ional Association of United Trados , and has boon approved by numerous members of the House of Commons . We would direct attention , in reference- to this matter , to a letter from Mr . Winters , which appears in another column . " The question is progressing , " says Mr . Winters , and wo think there is no doubt but that ¦ when it has been practically developed , the working classes will progress also . We hope shortly to explain the provisions of Mr . Mnckinnon ' s mcasuro , and to append analyses of the cvidonoo upon which its proposals are basod . In the meantime the Libernl party in the House of Commons is bound "to consider the subject frankly , while , with rospect to tho Government , no reason hus been suggested why it opposes the bill .
~—Tiie^Ivttrsekvicfr ~ Tiik Now Report O...
~—TIIE ^ IVTTrSEKVICFr ~ Tiik now report of tho Civil Service Commissionors traces the progress of the reform ooinmcncod in 1855 . That yoar saw tho instil ul ion of an inucpendont Board of Examiners whoso eorlillealo of competency wns essential to act mil nltainmont of ofllco , but tlio examination was applied only to thoso persons who wero nominated by tho Crown . Two resolutions of tho Houso of Commons approved of
an extension of the principle of competition , and the principle has been extended , but in a very partial ana angular way . The competition is in general a * triangular duel , within lists marked out by red tape . Rival nominees contend for the vacancy , and the best of the ' bad bargains , ' backed by Ministers and members , gets the situation . There is no doubt , however , that the working of the Commission has operated as a powerful check upon the appointment of stupid and illiterate yotmg men to junior clerkships . It is in the spirit of this testimony to their general utility that we would call the attention of the Commissioners to some
characteristics of their examinations , which seem , to us radically defective . The first quality requisite in a civil servant is fitness for the particular situation to which he is appointed , and the principal object of the examination should be to ascertain that fitness . Many persons speak of the appointment of persons of merit and of examinations to test merit ; but the most meritorious man in a country may be specially unfit for a particular situation : as the wise and gentle poet Cowper was actually unable to fulfil the duties m the House of Lords to which he was appointed . We cannot , therefore , understand the justice or propriety of any examination directed to any other point save to ascertain fitness . It is easy to anticipate the work which a clerk may have to do in any department , and it is easy to frame the
examination to test his capacity for that work . We can see no good in examining Coast officers of the Customs in History , as was done until Mr . Hayter pointed out that it tended to deter suitable candidates . History was never likel y to be wanted in their duties , and many an active , intelligent man might from unstudious habits in early life , and from a thorough distaste for that branch of knowledge , be actually unfitted to make himself up in the knowledge required by the Commissioners . We mark out this point in the new report , because it indicates the defect which runs through the whole of the examinations .
The whole series of tests , with few exceptions , are calculated to ascertain means and not results ; to find out what books a lad has gone through , not what new powers he may have educed ; to ascertain , how many facts he has stored in his memory , not what use he can make of them ; to ascertain that he has gone by the right road to learning , not to find out what wisdom he has picked up by the way . When you examine a boy in history or geography , you give a premium to advertising quacks , who promise to ' cram' him for the contest in three months ; and there is no doubt that in a
few weeks . a dull boy of good memory could stuff into his head many thousand facts of geography or history . We know a clerk who passed with eclat in the history branch of a competition , who told us that he owed it all to the accidental purchase the clay before of a long chronological table of principal events . We also object to examinations in Latin for a similar reason . For tho education of an English gentleman Latin is a means , not at end . It is not necessary through life that he should write or talk Latin , but he is taught it that it may the more fully inform him of the derivation and richness of
the English tongue . But there arc boys who ' go through ' Latin with success , and yet who never apply their acquisition for want of natural abilitythey never become masters of English . Yet in a Civil Service competition they would win high marks in Latin translation and Latin composition . The same remarks apply to examinations in German and in French , with this regard that in some departments knowledge of theso languages is actually useful . But when we como io a competition between two candidates , we cannot see why the man superior in the qualities likely to bo useful in the oflioc should bo rejected because ho is inferior in certain departments of school teaching . And yet this wondrous wrong is sometimes done . By a
table before us we find that in a competition for a clerkship in their own department the Commissioners rejected a gentleman lor a junior clerkship who Mas superior in the aggregate murks for English composition , handwriting , orthogniphy , and mtcUigcnoo , shown in the dictation and orthography exercise . Tho succo ' sfful ^ goittlcTnalT waa superior in arithmetic , which may bo useful to a certain extent in the oilioo , but could ' nol . possibly bo of much use as clovorness in composing a good letter , and fine penmanship in writing it ,. It is , however , the fact established under tho hand of the Commissioners , that chieily on account of nu inferiority in tho qualities less requisite in tho ofllec , a goutloniun was rojeotod in favour of a competitor
less qualified in the great majority of the branches of knowledge actually required in the situation ! The simple remedy for this anomaly is that there should be no examination for which any ' prepara ^ tion' but really good instruction would serve , One kind of education is to drive a boy through the routine of established studies , and make him ' get them up ' in succession , regardless of his tastes or capacities , or of the other ways by which yon may attain the same results . That education is very common in this country , and these Civil Service examinations encourage it by holding out premiuois to the boys who cram into their little heads the greatest number of facts and . the
largest amount of dead Languages . Another kind of education consists in the true bringing out of the boy ' s best qualities , of developing Ms peculiar tastes for special subjects or his peculiar abilities . For instance , a knowledge of Latin and Greek would tend to form the style , enrich the vocabulary and discipline the faculties of some boys , but there are some who have almost by nature a talent for English composition , whose vocabulary is already copious , and whose faculties are naturally braced , and to them an excessive study of Latin and Greek would be the weary pacing in harness to a goal they could reach unharnessed in a few bounds . If yotr
want clerks quick at precis writing , English composition , and arithmetic , why not confine your competitive examinations to these tests ? And , referring to arithmetic , we find that ' mental arithmetic , the best discipline and test of real ability in that department , is entirely omitted . In short , we are afraid we must come to the conclusion that one half of the examinations as at present conducted are designed to test scholastic acquirements , and the other half to test the abilities likely to be required in our offices . But even with respect to this latter half-we
have considerable doubts as to the work being weH done . The examiners are all gentlemen connected with Universities , learned and . impartial men , and well able to conduct examinations in German , Hebrew , Latin , and Greek . But what do they know oi precis writing , or of official correspondence ? It is a distinct branch of literature , and we know very well that some of the well-trained clerks in the Waroffice or Foreign-office would laugh very heartily at any official work attempted to be done by professors from Universities . Why is not the really ' official * part of the examination conducted by official , and not by University men ?
Consular Reform. Me. Seymour Fitzgerald ...
CONSULAR REFORM . Me . Seymour Fitzgerald moved on Monday evening last the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the working of the consular service . As we had , several weeks previously , recapitulated the whole of the statements adduced in support of this motion , it is unnecessary to add more than one or two remarks . The investigation , we trust , will not be confined to consular salaries , but to promotion , responsibility , and general routine in the consular department . The questions involved are those of consular salaries , tecs , trading , prerogative , jurisdiction , capacity , and responsibility . Very inferior men have , in not a few instances , been selected to fill high posts , while others of distinguished ability have been suffered to remain ^ for years in a position of obsourity and subordination . Tho late Government had resolved upon asking for a committee next session , but we are glad that there is to bo no delay , and that the subject will be fully gone into this year .
Tun Discharged Prisonkrs 1 Atd Sooikty.—...
Tun Discharged Prisonkrs Atd Sooikty . —Tho first annual meeting of this society was held at Willie ' * Rooms last Saturday ; the Earl of Shaftesbury in tho chair . Tho Earl of Chiohestor nnd tho Bishop of London wore among tho speakers , nnd the report gave a favourable view of the state of the charity , and of the good it had oflectod , in relieving destitute prisoner * after thoir discharge from gaol , obtaining employment for them , nnd assisting them to emigrate . Tho chairman aftid ho waa glad to find an increase in tho number of these societies , each of which is a now protest against tho former violent opposition to any attempt towards ameliorating tho condition of discharged prisoners , A-NoBrJt 5-MR <) riANr < 3 . - ^' -l l » o-Eari-oi '^ . CaUhnofl 8 » ffay . e . __ tho operatives of tho Wolverton-works , on Friday -week , a looturo on tho History of tlio Stoam-ongino . The looturc-rooin was orowded to excess . After traolng tho progress of tho Htonm-engino from tho first discovery of tlio power of stonm by Hero of Alexandria , 215 3 'oars n . o ., tho lecturer showed , hy a variety of working modolH , the various stops of improvement mado from time to time , and concluded by comparing them wltli Jtho engines of all kinds now In use .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27031858/page/15/
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