No. 165.
Mr. Pierrepont to Mr. Evarts .

No. 252.]

Sir: Referring to your letter of the 11th of July last, introducing Mr. D. B. Eaton as chairman of the civil-service commission, and handed to [Page 238] me in person by that gentleman, I have now the honor to inclose to you a copy of a communication addressed to Lord Tenterden by the lords commissioners of the treasury, which is in answer to some inquiries of Mr. Eaton respecting the civil service of Great Britain. I also inclose a copy of Lord Derby’s note, transmitting the same to me.

I have, &c.,

EDWARDS PIERREPONT.
[Inclosure in No. 252.]

Lord Derby to Mr. Pierrepont .

Sir: With reference to your letter of the 10th of September last, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a letter which I have received from the lords commissioners of Her Majesty’s treasury, on the subject of the information that Mr. Eaton is desirous of obtaining, respecting the civil service of the Crown.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

DERBY.

Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, &c., &c., &c.

[Inclosure to inclosure in No. 252.]

Lords commissioners of the treasury to Lord Tenterden .

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.,

R. R. W. LINGEN.