way that he will forget, within a
couple of years, every fact that has been pestled into him. For every
vacancy in the various departments of the Administration there are
dozens, or even scores, of applicants; and the candidate selected for
the post is the one whose mind has been most successfully subjected to
this process of over-cramming, and consequently most effectually ruined
for all the practical purposes of life.

Now, to whatever cause it may be ascribed, there can be no doubt that
the general level throughout the various branches of the public service
is one of mediocrity. We are not surrounded, faithful and devoted as our
public servants are universally admitted to be, by administrative
geniuses. Facts point altogether the other way. Great national
catastrophes, like the blunders and miscalculations that have
characterized the conduct of the war in South Africa, have always
resulted in making the most uncomfortable revelations concerning the
inefficiency of more than one important department of Government.

The War Office has long since become a public scandal, and if the truth
were known about the inner domesticity of more than one great
Administrative office, the susceptibilities of the nation would be still
further shocked and outraged. Fortunately, however--or it may be
unfortunately--Government linen is usually washed at home; and it is
only in times of great emergency that the truth leaks out, to the
general consternation.

When this does happen there is a great outcry about the inefficiency of
this or that branch of the public service. The Government in power wait
to see if the agitation dies a natural death; and if it is successfully
kept up, a sort of pretence at reform takes place. There is a
re-shuffle. Fresh names are given to old abuses; incompetent officials
exchange posts; and a new building is erected at the public expense.
Then all goes on as heretofore.

Nobody seems to think of making an inquiry into the constitution of the
public service itself. But until this is done no real reform of any
permanent value can possibly be effected. It is not the nomenclature of
appointments, the subdivision of departmental work, and such matters of
detail, that stand in need of the reformer. The titles and duties of the
several officials are of secondary importance. It is not in them that
the evils of bad administration are to be located.

The fault lies with the officials themselves, who are the victi