To a statute which should incorporate all its essential features I
should feel bound to give my approval; but whether it would be for the
best interests of the public to fix upon an expedient for immediate and
extensive application which embraces certain features of the English
system, but excludes or ignores others of equal importance, may be
seriously doubted, even by those who are impressed, as I am myself, with
the grave importance of correcting the evils which inhere in the present
methods of appointment.

If, for example, the English rule which shuts out persons above the age
of 25 years from a large number of public employments is not to be made
an essential part of our own system, it is questionable whether the
attainment of the highest number of marks at a competitive examination
should be the criterion by which all applications for appointment should
be put to test. And under similar conditions it may also be questioned
whether admission to the service should be strictly limited to its
lowest ranks.

There are very many characteristics which go to make a model civil
servant. Prominent among them are probity, industry, good sense, good
habits, good temper, patience, order, courtesy, tact, self-reliance,
manly deference to superior officers, and manly consideration for
inferiors. The absence of these traits is not supplied by wide knowledge
of books, or by promptitude in answering questions, or by any other
quality likely to be brought to light by competitive examination.

To make success in such a contest, therefore, an indispensable condition
of public employment would very likely result in the practical exclusion
of the older applicants, even though they might possess qualifications
far superior to their younger and more brilliant competitors.