The entire business of government
is skilled employment; the qualifications for the discharge of it
are of that special and professional kind which cannot be properly
judged of except by persons who have themselves some share of those
qualifications, or some practical experience of them. The business
of finding the fittest persons to fill public employments- not merely
selecting the best who offer, but looking out for the absolutely best,
and taking note of all fit persons who are met with, that they may
be found when wanted- is very laborious, and requires a delicate as
well as highly conscientious discernment; and as there is no public
duty which is in general so badly performed, so there is none for
which it is of greater importance to enforce the utmost practicable
amount of personal responsibility, by imposing it as a special
obligation on high functionaries in the several departments. All
subordinate public officers who are not appointed by some mode of
public competition should be selected on the direct responsibility
of the minister under whom they serve. The ministers, all but the
chief, will naturally be selected by the chief; and the chief himself,
though really designated by Parliament, should be, in a regal
government, officially appointed by the Crown. The functionary who
appoints should be the sole person empowered to remove any subordinate
officer who is liable to removal; which the far greater number ought
not to be, except for personal misconduct; since it would be vain to
expect that the body of persons by whom the whole detail of the public
business is transacted, and whose qualifications are generally of much
more importance to the public than those of the minister himself, will
devote themselves to their profession, and acquire the knowledge and
skill on which the minister must often place entire dependence, if
they are liable at any moment to be turned adrift for no fault, that
the minister may gratify himself, or promote his political interest,
by appointing somebody else.
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