[Inclosure to inclosure in No.
252.]
Lords commissioners of the
treasury to Lord Tenterden.
Treasury Chambers, October 30, 1877.
My Lord: In reply to your lordship’s letter of
the 20th ultimo, inclosing a copy of a letter from Mr. Eaton, an
American citizen lately on a visit to this country, who has been charged
by the President of the United States to draw up a report on the civil
service of the Crown, I am directed by the lords commissioners of Her
Majesty’s treasury, in the first place, to furnish your lordship, for
the information of the Secretary of State, with a copy of a letter,
dated 25th August last, from the American minister in this country,
introducing Mr. Eaton to the permanent secretary of the treasury. The
permanent secretary of the treasury was absent from London when Mr.
Eaton called, but he saw the acting secretary, from whom he received, in
answer to his questions, all the information which could be given.
It is scarcely needful to state that my lords are desirous, by every
means in their power, to assist the President of the United States in
any inquiry which the Secretary of State may see fit to forward to the
treasury, and it would not be difficult in this case to furnish Mr.
Eaton with documents sufficient to show him both what has been done in
this country on the subject of his commission, and also the reasons for
doing it. This, however, as will be seen from his letter, is not what he
appears to desire, and the questions which he proposes are so largely
matter of political opinion that it is very difficult to know what
official answer to give to them, beyond saying that successive
governments have been led in recent years upon a balance of reasons to
decide upon substituting competitive examinations for patronage as the
rule of admission into the greater part of the public service.
The change is still in progress. The limitations and conditions under
which the principle of competition ought to be applied cannot be said to
have been placed beyond discussion. And sufficient time has not yet
elapsed to afford complete experience of the result in all its
bearings.
It may, however, be said that, be the answers to the questions 2–5 what
they may be, there can be no doubt, in replying to the questions 1 and
6, that the reputation of the public service for morality, or, as we
should say, its honor, is never likely to stand higher than it has stood
at any time during the last forty or fifty years, and that no breath of
complaint in this respect has had anything to do with the recent
changes, but has been on all occasions most carefully disavowed by those
who for other reasons have favored such changes. No practical
difficulty, so far as my lords are aware, has been experienced in
commanding from time to time the loyal service of the permanent servants
of the Crown to execute the policy determined by Her Majesty’s advisers
in all the departments of the state.
The questions proposed appear to my lords to be such as could only be
answered by politicians in a parliamentary debate.
Perhaps the practical permanence of the tenure (although legally at
pleasure) on which civil servants in this country hold their
appointments is quite as well deserving
[Page 239]
of attention on the part of foreigners as the
rules according to which civil servants are admitted; but this is not a
new principle of our system.
My lords think that Mr. Eaton’s attention might, perhaps, be usefully
drawn to the reports of various committees of inquiry into public
offices, which were begun by the present chancellor of the exchequer and
Sir C. Trevelyan, in 1853, to the more recent reports of Mr. Playfair’s
commission, and to the annual reports of the civil-service
commissioners. Such of these documents as are not out of print can be
obtained from the stationery office on the requisition of the secretary
of state.
The competitive principle has been adopted, perhaps, more completely in
the Indian than in any other great service; and although the experience
of India may not be altogether applicable to countries directly under
representative government, yet my lords think it likely that Mr. Eaton
might obtain much valuable information and advice from Indian
administrators, to whom the secretary of state for India might introduce
him.
I am, &c.,
