Colonial civil service; the selection and training of colonial officials in England, Holland, and France

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Cornell University Library JV 443.L91 1900a

Preface

All thinking men are united in the opinion that the United States ought to establish in the Philippines a civil service which shall be thoroughly efficient and free from political pressure of every kind, and hence it appears worth while to see what light can be derived from the experience of other nations. A radical change in the British system has been made since the excellent work of the late Dorman B. Eaton on the English civil service was published; and there is no book in our own language, and none containing the latest information in any other, upon the methods of recruiting officials for the colonies of Holland and France. For this reason the following pages on the Selection and Training of Colonial Officials in those three countries were originally prepared at the request of the American Historical Association, and a summary of the results was presented at the meeting of the Association at Boston on December 27, last.

In writing a report of this kind it is important to include, as far as possible, everything that a student of the subject might desire to find, and hence the following chapters must comprise a great deal of detail that is unnecessary for the general reader.

vi PREFACE

In order, therefore, to save the latter from wasting his time on what does not interest him, the chapters have been subdivided into short sections with separate titles. This, it is hoped, will enable any one to find rapidly any special points in which he may be interested.

The writer is very grateful for the assistance given him, in the preparation of this work, by gentlemen in the colonial offices, by colonial officials on leave of absence, and by instructors of candidates for the service, in each of the three countries which he visited, and he would like to insert their names here ; but the list is so long that it seems better to omit names altogether, and merely express his appreciation of the great courtesy and kindness with which he was treated.

Among the persons who took part in the discussion of this paper at the meeting of the American Historical Association was Professor H. Morse Stephens of Cornell University, who spoke of the work of the East India College at Haileybury, where a number of his forbears had been trained for the Indian Civil Service. He received his own early education there after the college had been given up and the institution changed into a school for boys, on the model of Marlborough and other modern English public schools. Professor Stephens has had, in fact, a singular chance for comparing the old system with the new, for he v/as an undergraduate at Balliol College, O.xford, from 1877 to 1880, when

PREFACE vu

the eflforts of Jowett attracted thither a majority of the selected candidates for the Indian Civil Service while the age of admission was under nineteen ; and he afterward taught the history of India for two years, 1892- 1894, at the University of Cambridge, to the selected candidates for the Indian Civil Service after the age of admission had been raised. He has kindly contributed the account of the old college at Haileybury published in this volume.

The history of Haileybury is, indeed, too little known. The account in the " Memorials of Old Haileybury College" published in 1894, the only work on the subject, has mainly the character of a collection of personal reminiscences, and is inadequate for this purpose. A description, therefore, of the real work of the institution, based upon the views of men trained at Haileybury, such as John Lawrence, Bartle Frere, and George Campbell, which Professor Stephens has collected, is very much needed; and it seemed especially appropriate as a sequel to the examination of existing methods of recruiting colonial officials, because the writer has been irresistibly led by his study of those methods to the conclusion that the only practicable plan for the United States to adopt is that of a college not altogether unlike Haileybury.

A. LAWRENCE LOWELL.

Boston, January 29, igoa

TABLE OF CONTENTS rAGB

Necessity for a Special Service .... 3

CHAPTER I. ENGLAND History of the Recruiting of the Indian Civn

Service 7

Early regulation by statute 8

The college at Fort William 9

The college at Haileybury 11

Merits and faults of Haileybury 13

Introduction of competitive examinations ... 15

The report of Macaulay's Commission . . • 'S

Gradual reduction of the age of the candidates . . 20

Inquiry into the system in 1876 . ... 21

Reduction of the age to nineteen .... 24

Effect of the change 26

The age again raised to twenty-three .... 27

Present Regulation of the Examination . 28 Method of conducting the examination . . -31

Nature of the examination ...... 32

The method of marking 34

The nature of the subjects 36

Severity of the examination 37

' Previous preparation of the candidates ... 38

Cramming -iq

Quality of the candidates .41

Their physical condition 41

ix

Table Of Contents

Natives of India at the competition Subsequent training of the candidates Summary of the history Results of the system . . . ,

Offices included in the Indian Civil Service History of the Covenanted Civil Service Efforts to employ more natives in the Service Number of Europeans in the several services

Method of recruiting Native Officials

CHAPTER II. HOLLAND History of the Subject 113

The Royal Academy at Delft 114

The Ordinance of 1864 and the Grand Examination

for Officials 116

The state school at Leyden 117

The municipal school at Delft 118

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The municipal school at Leyden .

Changes in the Ordinance of 1864 The Law of 1876, and the Examination by the

ulties

The Ordinances of 1883 and 1893

Summary of Existing Rules The Judicial Service .

The Administrative Service

The Grand Examination for Officiai^

The examining commission Qualifications for the examination Absence of a limit of age .

The programme of the examination

The first part ....

The second part The proportion of failures .

Fac-

Positions reserved for Members of the Service

The Indische Instelling te Delft The course of study at the school

The Grand Examination at Batavia, — Natives and Half-castes .....

Criticisms made tn-ON the Present System The recent special commission and its report Tl^e plan proposed by the commission Comments made upon the report

The Physical Examination ,

The Native Officials ....

Special Services .....

The Other Dutch Colonies xii TABLE OF CONTENTS rACB

Rules relating to the Grand Examination for Officials. (Annexed to the Ordinance of July

20, 1893, with the subsequent modifications.) . 158

Regulation and Programme for the Same . . 164

Regulation 164

Programme 169

First part i6g

Second part lyo

CHAPTER III. FR.\NCE The Colonlal School 175

Foundation of the school 175

The government of the school 178

The qualifications for admission to the school . .180

The competitive examination for admission . . i8i

Preparation for the examination 183

The sections or courses at the school .... 185 The studies in the different sections . . . .187

Rank at the school and appointment to the service . 190

Cramming and method of marking .... 192

Estimate of the school 192

Criticisms by M. Boutmy 194

Reduction in the Positions reserved for Graduates

OF the School 197

The African Service 197

The Service of Indo-China 200

Change in the object of the school .... 202

Other Methods of entering the Service . . 202

Open competition 203

Appointments from the Army and Navy . . . 205

Promotions from the subordinate service . . . 206

TABLE OF CONTENTS Xlil

\ rAGK

The Judicial Service 208

French Experience of Little Value . • • 208

Courses of Study in the Administrative Sections

OF THE Colonial School . . . .210

CHAPTER IV. THE UNITED STATES The Principles to be applied 214

The English System cannot be adopted here . 216 Because contrary to our habits of thought . . .216 Because a standard cannot be maintained . . . 220

Possibility of a Special College . . , .221

Advantages of such a college 223

Regulations of such a college 226

Size of the college 227

Concluding Remarks 229

THE EAST INDIA COLLEGE AT HAILEYBURY

Good Men obtained under the Different Systems . . 236

History of the Patronage System 238

Appointments under the Patronage System . . . 246 Scandals under the Patronage System . . . .251 Lack of Suitable Training for Indian Officials prior to the

Foundation of the College of Fort William . . . 256 xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS

fAOR

The Founaation of Haileybury 267

Qualifications for Entrance into Haileybury . . . 284

The Course of Studies at Haileybury 289

Haileybury Students who did not enter the Civil Service in

India 303

The Intellectual Side of Life at Haileybury . . . 306

Social Side of Life at Haileybury 308

The Number of Students at Haileybury . . . .312 Reminiscences and Opinions of Haileybury, by Men who

were trained there 313

The Court of Director's and the College .... 314

Direct Appointments to the Indian Civil Service, 1827-1831 319

The Abolition of the East India College at Haileybury . 328

The New Haileybury .... ... 331

The Effect of Haileybury on the Indian Civil Service . 333

Haileyburians versus Competition Wallahs . . . 338

Conclusion 34S

The

Selection ind Training of Colonial

Officials in England, Holland,

and France

Introduction

NECESSITY FOR A SPECIAL SERVICE

The requirements for a civil service in tropical or Asiatic colonies are quite -different from those for the home civil service. At home, except for special branches of administration requiring a high degree of technical knowledge, such as the Army or the NaA^y, an intelligent man can easUy leam in a comparatively short time to do the government work fairly well In the Post Office, for example, every one knows in a general way, or can readijy understand, what is wanted, and the work can be done after a fashion by new men of good capacity. In most branches of the home administration, therefore, a constant change of employees produces inferior service, but does not stop the wheels of government altogether, and does not involve a danger of national ruin.

In an Asiatic colony, on the other hand, where the duty of the official consists, for the most part, in ruling over districts containing many thousands of natives, an untrained man, suddenly appointed, would be perfectly helpless however great his natural capacity. He knows neither the language nor the customs of the people, nor does he comprehend their thoughts; and the consequences of his ignorance may be disastrous. Well meaning but inexperienced officials could easily provoke an insurrection like the Indian Mutiny without being in the least conscious that they were drifting into danger. Hence the administration of the colony can be entrusted only to men who have mastered the language and all the conditions under which the government must be carried on. But Oriental and Western civilizations are so different that years must pass before an official becomes thoroughly efficient ; and no man of parts will undertake those years of preparation if he is liable to be thrown back on the world to start life all over again after he has proved himself a valuable public servant. The colonial civil service must therefore be a lifelong career.

The career must be b9gun young, and that for two reasons. First, because it is only in youth that new languages, and a comprehension of strange civilizations, can be acquired rapidly and well ; and second, because if the selection of colonial officials is made after men have begun to be established in life, those who have already shown an ability to succeed will not abandon an assured career for another in which, though the reward is great, success is problematical. The men who apply will be those whose previous ventures in life have not been the most fortunate ; and the colonial service cannot afford to accept the failures in other vocations. Hence colonial officials must be recruited at the time when young men are

NECESSITY FOR A SPECIAL SERVICE 5

choosing their occupations in life, and as the service means leaving home for a tropical climate, and what are to most persons uncongenial surroundings, men of strong qualities, moral, intellectual, and physical, must be tempted into it by large pay, security of tenure, and liberal pensions.

On these principles all the progressive nations of the world are agreed, and the completeness with which they act upon them in practice is proportionate to the length of their experience. France has tried recruiting her colonial officials from her home civil service, but she has given it up ; and in fact Leroy-Bcaulieu, the great French writer on colonies, ascribed a capital importance to the mistakes of his country in this matter.^

In passing it must be remarked that it is unnecessary, and frequently it is inexpedient after the organization has been completed, to select the executive head of the colony from the permanent civil service. In the great English dependencies in the East the Governor is, as a rule, an eminent English statesman appointed for five years only. His duty is to bring to bear on colonial problems large political views, and a world-wide experience of life ; while his relation to the colonial officials is like that of an English Minister to the permanent staff of his department He relies upon them for technical information and a knowledge of the native life, and he acts as a link

1 " De la Colonisation chez les Peuples Modemes," 4 Ed., pp. 450-451, 832.

between them and the Government at home. All this is true of the Dutch colonies also.

Assuming that a colonial service must be a career, to begin in youth, and is to continue for life, the question naturally presents itself how the selection of young men is to be made. There are two methods of doing this : on the one hand, an arbitrary choice by the authorities, limited, more or less, by the requirement of certain qualifications, — a method which has certainly its advantages, but entails unavoidably, to some extent at least, the evils of patronage and favoritism ; and on the other hand, a free competition of some kind among voluntary candidates. Either one or the other of these systems, or some combination of the two, must be adopted. During the last half century the progressive nations of Europe have been coming to use the competitive system to a greater and greater extent, although the forms in which it has been introduced diflfer veiy materially from one another.

A second question that presents itself is how the young men who have been selected shall be prepared for their work ; how far their training shall take the form of academic studies, and how far of an apprenticeship in the colony itself.

The object of the following pages is to show the way these problems have been worked out by the three progressive nations of Western Europe that have been called upon to face them for a considerable length of time.