2.  Limited  competition  would  be  much  improved  if  more
persons  competed,  and  more  should  therefore  be  nominated
for  each  competition.  If  they  are  to  continue,  there  must  also
be  preliminary  examinations  of  those  nominated  by  members
to  compete,  so  that  there  shall  not,  in  the  future,  be  compe-
titions between  mere  dunces,  blockheads,  and  ignoramuses.
3.  The  conmiittee  (whose  report  is  unanimous)  are  convinced
that  open  competition — ^free  aUke  to  every  British  subject,
and  an  end,  utterly,  of  the  monopoly  of  patronage,  now  re-
duced to  mere  selections  for  examination — are  what  the  public
interest  and  the  better  public  opinion  demand,  and  that  these
results  must  very  soon  be  reached.  In  not  advising  open  com-
petition at  once,  as  the  only  entrance  to  the  public  service,  they
are  influenced  by  prudential  reasons.  They  fear  a  recoil  of
public  opinion,  if  too  great  changes  are  made  hastily.  In  the
interest  of  open  competition  itself,  they  advise  a  cautious  ad-
vance towards  its  complete  introduction.
4.  While  such  further  experience  is  being  acquired,  the
committee  recommend  that  pass  examinations  be  wholly  su-
perseded, that  no  place  in  the  pubUc  service  be  filled  save
through  a  competition  of  five  or  at  least  three  nominated  per-
sons, except  that  open  competitions,  wherever  it  be  practicable,
should  be  introduced  after  the  plan  of  those  which  had  lately
been  shown  to  be  satisfactory  in  the  East  Indian  service.     The

16


222  CIVIL  SERVICE  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN.
ealntary  system  of  probation,  according  to  which  no  one  was
to  be  appointed  until  after  a  trial  of  six  months,  was,  I  hardly
need  say,  retained.  Such  were  the  conclusions  reached  in
1860.  If  it  was  a  bold  experiment  to  introduce  the  new  sys-
tem, it  was  certainly  applied  with  prudence  and  watched  with
care.
