Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Vol. 1 of 2
We can not copy the political form Of any foreign country, but we can learn their principles [said Mr. Lowell in beginning]. In England, until the middle Of this century the civil servants of India were appointed at the pleasure of the directors Of the East India Company, and until about the beginning of the century they received no special training. In 1806 a col lege was established for their education at Haileybury, and it did very good work; but the students were admitted to it by the patronage Of the directors of the company, and when the patronage system fell the college fell with it A system Of competitive examination was substituted, upon a plan drawn Up by a commission, of which Macauley was chairman. This plan, which is carried out to-day, is based 011 two main principles: 1, that the candidates must have a very high general education; 2, that they must not be required to spend in preparing for the examination time which they will have wasted if unsuccessful. Hence the examination covers only sub jects usually taught at universities and does not include subjects relating peculiarly to their duties in India. The examination is very much like an examination for graduation honors, and as the subjects are numerous and Optional, a man from any university has a fair chance at it. Before going to India the successful competitors spend a year in England, usually at a university, studying Indian law and languages. The same competitive examination is used to select the Eastern cadets; that is, the appointees to the civil service Of the other Asiatic colonies, including the Malay States.
Appointments to the civil service Of the Dutch East Indies have been made in Holland by competitive examination since 1864. The only gen eral education required is a diploma of a high school. The examination bears entirely upon the law, languages, history, religion, and customs of the Dutch Indies, and the candidates are in fact all prepared at the India Institute at Delft. The course there is three years, but only the men who rank highest at the examination get appointments, and they are a small part Of those who go through the school. A commission recently appointed by the minister of the colonies has reported that the preparation for the examination is too much a mere effort to learn by heart a mass Of unim portant details, and that the system is bad in not requiring a sufficiently high general education, and in having the competitive examination come at the end Of a long course Of technical study.
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