Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 27th March 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 303, Untitled Article

Page 303
Page 15
15 of 24

On this page

  • Text (6)
  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      , " ~ " " "" SISTERS-IN-LAW " . JSome questions : ; hav ; e . an iaexhawstible interest sunmjy because they are questions of feeling , more . than matters of lact . JFor one person who xeads law " reports , or new records of -scientific . experiments presenting novel points in every ease , hundreds read We tales , with their almost invariable incidents of liking , loving , quarrelling , and making-up . Thus , ibhe bill 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 Ijeviticus 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 'wliich woman so well knows . how to employ , ' to attract the love of her sister's iiusbaad , or with h vpocritical show smoothing the pillow of the sick wife— that pillow in vrhich she had a reversionary interest . There was all the art of the rhetorician in the ^ words , : a » d the idea held up to odium is repulsive ; b . utso 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 Avcd . But ' we guess' that something besides this possibility is required to induce . an unmarried young lady to throw away her time on a married mail . 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 tbeir 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 enfant ) , 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 examplo by breaking good laws in obedience to questionable promptings iVom within—and some of the responsibility may rest on those who first made a jboliah law to repress a natural feeling . ,

      Untitled Article

      COUNCILS OF CONCILIATION . On Tuesday , the 30 th instant , Mr . Mackinnon will move 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 National Association of United Trades , and has been approved by numerous members of the House of Commons . We would direct attention , in reference to this matter , to a lotted- from Mr . Winters , which appears in another . oolumn . " The question is progressing , " says Mr . Winters , and wo think there is no doubt but that when it has boen pructioally developed , the working classes will progress also . We hopo shortly to explain the provisions of Mr . Mackinnon ' s measure , and to append analyses of the evidenco upon which its proposals are based . In tho meantime the Liberal party in the Houso of Commons is bound to oonaider the subject frankly , while , with respect to the Government , no reason has been suggoutod why it opposes tho bill .

      Untitled Article

      THE CIVIL SERVICE . The new report of tho Civil Service Commissioners traces tho progress of tho roi'onn commenced in 1855 . That year saw tho institution of iCn independent ; Board of Examiners whoso ceitillcnlo of competency was esaoutml to actual atlainmciit , of oflico , but tho examination viva applied only < o those persons who were nominated by the Crown . Two rcsolutiona of tho Houso of Commons approved of

      an extension of the " plScipIe " of competition , and the principle has been eiteuded , but in a very partial and angular way . The competition is in general a ' triangular duel , ' within lists marked out fcy red tape . Rival nominees contend ^ for the va ^ cancy , and the best of . the ' bad bargains , ' hacked 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 young men to junior clerkships- It is in the-spirit of this testimony to their general utility tliat we -would , call the attention of the Commissioners to some < sharacteristics 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 objeet 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 in the House of Lords to whieh 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 . W-e can see no good in examining Coast ^ ffieers of the Customs in History , as was done until Mr . Hayter pointed out that it tended to deter suitable candidates . History was never likely to be wanted in their duties , and many an active , intelligent man might from unstudious habits in early "" li fe , and from a thorough distaste for that branch of knowledge , be actually tmfitted to make himself tip 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 ; avid 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 day before of a long chronological table of principal events . We also object to examinations in Latin for a similar reason . For the education of an English gentleman Latin is a means , not at end . It is not ncoessary through life that lie 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 nover beoome masters of English . Yet in a Civil Service competition they would win high marks in Latin translation and Latin composition . The samo remarks apply to examinations in German and in French , with this regard that in soino departments knowledge of these languages is aotually useful . But when we como to u , oompotitio-n between two candidates , we cannot sec way the man superior in the qualities likely to be useful ui the ofhoo should bo rejected because ho is inferior in oortain departments of school teaching . And yet this wondrous wrong is sometimes done . By a table before ua we lind that in a competition for a clerkship in . their own department tho Commissioners rejootod a gentleman for a junior clerkship who was superior in the aggregate nuu \ ks for English composition , handwriting , ortho-¦ gra ] ihy—tuid-iiitelli ^ enoor Bhowai .-iu-thordiotut , iou-tuidurthogmphy oxcrciso . Tho suocosbI ' uI gentleman wus superior in arithmetic , which may bo useful to a oortain extent in the oll ' ioo , but could aiot possibly bo of much use as clovomoss in composing u good letter , and ( hip penmanship in writing if ,. It in , however , tho fact established under tho hand of tho Commissioners , that chiefly on account of an inferiority in the qualities loss requisite in tho oflico , a gentleman , was rejected in favour of a competitor

      less qualified ~ in the great majority of the branches of knowledge aetually required in the situation ! The simple remedy for this anomaly is that there should be no examination for which any ' preparation * 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 « r capacities , or of the other ways by which you may attain the same results . That education is very common in -this country , and these Civil Service ; examinations -eocourage it by holding out premiums to the hoys 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 liringing out of tie boy ' s best qualities , of developing ms peculiar tastes for special subjects or Iris peculiar abilities . For instance , & laiosriedge of Latin and Greek would tend to form the sty ie , earich 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 alreafo copious , and whose faculties are naturally bracea , and to them « en -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 wmi

      want clerks quick sA , 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 oaaifeted . In short , « ane afraid we . must come to the conclusion that one . half of the examinations as at present conducted ss& designed to test scholastic acquirements , and the other half to test the abilities likely to be required in our offiees . But even with respect to this latter half-we

      have considerable doubts as to the work being J « KeM 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 of 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 ?

      Untitled Article

      CONSULAR REFORM . Mk . Seymoub . FiTaGER&jiD moved on Monday evening last the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the -working of the consular service . As we had , several w . eeks 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 oonsulo ? salaries , hut to promotion , responsibility , and general routine in the . consular department . The questions involved are those of consular salaries , fees , 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 obscurity and subordination . The late Government had resolved upon asking for a committee next session , but wo are glad that there is to be no delay , and that the subject will 'be fully gone into this year .

      Untitled Article

      The Discharged Prisowkbs' Aid Society . —The firat annual mooting of this sooioty was hold at Willis ' s Rooms last Saturday ; the Earl of Shaftesbury in tho chair . The Earl of Chiuliestor nnd tho Bishop of London were among the apoalcers , and tho report gnve a favourable view of tho state of tho charity , and of the good it had effected , in relieving- destitute prisoners after thoir discharge from gaol , obtaining employment for them , and assisting them to emigrate . Tho chairman said ho was glad to find an iuoreaso in tho number of those societies , eaoh of which is a now protest against , tl » o fawner violent opposition to any attempt towards atno-JiQcatfng-tluuj 0 lv 4 Jtta ^ J ^^ A Noiimc Mechanic . —The Earl of Caithness gave the operatives of tho Wolvorton-works , on Friday week , a lecturo on tho History of the Steain-engino . The lecture-room was erowded to excess . After tracing the progress of the Htoam-ongino from tho first disoovory of tho power of steam by Hero of Alexandria , 210 years u . q ., tho leoturor showed , by a . variety of . working models , tho various stops of improvement mado Xcom tirno to time , and concluded by comparing them witU tho engines of all kinds now in use .

      Untitled Article

      SEMIS , Marge 27 , 1858 . ] THE fc ff A Ij > EB . £ 03

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1858, page 303, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2236/page/15/