Even the initiatory competitive examination
would then be an insufficient security. It would exclude mere
ignorance and incapacity; it would compel youths of family to start in
the race with the same amount of instruction and ability as other
people; the stupidest son could not be put into the Indian service
as he can be into the church; but there would be nothing to prevent
undue preference afterwards. No longer all equally unknown and unheard
of by the arbiter of their lot, a portion of the service would be
personally, and a still greater number politically, in close
relation with him. Members of certain families, and of the higher
classes and influential connections generally, would rise more rapidly
than their competitors, and be often kept in situations for which they
were unfit, or placed in those for which others were fitter. The
same influences would be brought into play which affect promotions
in the army: and those alone, if such miracles of simplicity there be,
who believe that these are impartial, would expect impartiality in
those of India. This evil is, I fear, irremediable by any general
measures which can be taken under the present system. No such will
afford a degree of security comparable to that which once flowed
spontaneously from the so-called double government.
What is accounted so great an advantage in the case of the English
system of government at home has been its misfortune in India- that
it grew up of itself, not from preconceived design, but by
successive expedients, and by the adaptation of machinery originally
created for a different purpose.
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