Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen B of Considerations on Representative Government. This LibriVox
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Considerations on Representative Government
Speaker 1: by John Stuart Mill, Chapter fourteen B. Other reasons make
Speaker 1: it desirable that some power in the state, which can
Speaker 1: only be the executive, should have the liberty of it
Speaker 1: any time and at discretion, calling a new parliament when
Speaker 1: there is a real doubt which of two contending parties
Speaker 1: has the strongest following, it is important that there should
Speaker 1: exist a constitutional means of immediately testing the point and
Speaker 1: setting it at rest. No other political topic has a
Speaker 1: chance of being properly attended to while this is undecided,
Speaker 1: and such an interval is mostly an interregnum for purposes
Speaker 1: of legislative or administrative improvement, neither party having sufficient confidence
Speaker 1: in its strength to attempt things likely to provoke opposition
Speaker 1: in any quarter that has either direct or indirect influence
Speaker 1: in the pending bad struggle. I have not taken account
Speaker 1: of the case in which the vast power centralized in
Speaker 1: the Chief Magistrate, and the insufficient attachment of the mass
Speaker 1: of the people to free institutions give him a chance
Speaker 1: of success in an attempt to subvert the Constitution, and
Speaker 1: usurp sovereign power. Where such peril exists, no first magistrate
Speaker 1: is admissible, whom the Parliament cannot, by a single vote
Speaker 1: reduced to a private station in a state of things,
Speaker 1: holding out any encouragement to that most audacious and prolificate
Speaker 1: of all breaches of trust. Even this entireness of constitutional
Speaker 1: dependence is but a weak protection of all officers of government.
Speaker 1: Those in whose appointment any participation of popular suffrage is
Speaker 1: the most objectionable are judicial officers. While there are no
Speaker 1: functionaries whose special and professional qualifications the popular judgment is
Speaker 1: less fitted to estimate, there are none in whose case
Speaker 1: absolute impartiality and freedom from connection with politicians or sections
Speaker 1: of politicians are of anything like equal importance. Some thinkers,
Speaker 1: among others mister Bentham, have been of opinion that, although
Speaker 1: it is better that judges should not be appointed by
Speaker 1: popular election, the people of their district ought to have
Speaker 1: the power after sufficient experience, of removing them from their trust.
Speaker 1: It cannot be denied that the irremovability of any public
Speaker 1: officer to whom great interests are entrusted is in itself
Speaker 1: an evil. It is far from desirable that there should
Speaker 1: be no means of getting rid of a bad or
Speaker 1: incompetent judge unless for such misconduct as he can be
Speaker 1: made to answer for in a criminal court, And that
Speaker 1: a functionary on whom so much depends should have the
Speaker 1: feeling of being free from responsibility except to opinion and
Speaker 1: his own conscience. The question, however, is whether, in the
Speaker 1: peculiar position of a judge, and supposing that all practicable
Speaker 1: securities have been taken for an honesty appointment, irresponsibility except
Speaker 1: to his own and the public conscience, has not, on
Speaker 1: the whole less tendency to pervert his conduct than responsibility
Speaker 1: to the government or to a popular vote. Experience has
Speaker 1: long decided this point in the affirmative as regards responsibility
Speaker 1: to the executive, and the case is quite equally strong
Speaker 1: when the responsibility sought to be enforced is to the
Speaker 1: suffrages of electors. Among the good qualities of a popular constituency,
Speaker 1: those peculiarly incumbent upon a judge, calmness and impartiality are
Speaker 1: not numbered happily in that intervention of popular suffrage which
Speaker 1: is essential to freedom. They are not the qualities required
Speaker 1: even the quality of justice, though necessary to all human beings,
Speaker 1: and therefore to all electors is not the inducement which
Speaker 1: decides any popular election. Justice and impartiality are as little
Speaker 1: wanted for electing a member of Parliament as they can
Speaker 1: be in any transaction of men. Electors have not to
Speaker 1: award something which either candidate has a right to, nor
Speaker 1: to pass judgment on the general merits of the competitors,
Speaker 1: but to declare which of them has most of their
Speaker 1: personal confidence or best represents their political convictions. A judge
Speaker 1: is bound to treat his political friend or the person
Speaker 1: best known to him exactly as he treats other people,
Speaker 1: but it would be a breach of duty as well
Speaker 1: as an absurdity if an elector did so. No argument
Speaker 1: can be grounded on the beneficial effect produced on judges,
Speaker 1: as on all other functionaries, by the moral jurisdiction of opinion.
Speaker 1: For even in this respect, that which really exercises a
Speaker 1: useful control over the proceedings of a judge when fit
Speaker 1: for the judicial office, is not, except sometimes in political cases,
Speaker 1: the opinion of the community generally, but that of the
Speaker 1: only public by whom his conduct or qualifications can be
Speaker 1: duly estimated. The bar of his own court I must
Speaker 1: not be understood to say that the participation of the
Speaker 1: general public in the administration of justice is of no importance.
Speaker 1: It is of the greatest, but in what manner, by
Speaker 1: the actual discharge of a part of the judicial office
Speaker 1: in the capacity of jurymen. This is one of the
Speaker 1: few cases in politics in which it is better that
Speaker 1: the people should act directly and personally than through their representatives,
Speaker 1: being almost the only case in which the errors that
Speaker 1: a person exercising authority may commit can be better born
Speaker 1: than the consequences of making him responsible for them. If
Speaker 1: a judge could be removed from office by a popular vote,
Speaker 1: whoever was desirous of supplanting him, would make capital for
Speaker 1: that purpose out of all his judicial decisions, would carry
Speaker 1: all of them, as far as he found practicable by
Speaker 1: irregular appeal before a public opinion, wholly incompetent for want
Speaker 1: of having heard the case or from having heard it,
Speaker 1: without either the precautions or the impartiality belonging to a
Speaker 1: judicial hearing, would play upon popular passion and prejudice where
Speaker 1: they existed, and take pains to arouse them where they
Speaker 1: did not. And in this if the case were interesting,
Speaker 1: and he took sufficient trouble he would infallibly be successful
Speaker 1: unless the judge areous friends descended into the arena and
Speaker 1: made equally powerful appeals. On the other side, judges would
Speaker 1: end by feeling that they risked their office upon every
Speaker 1: decision they gave in a case susceptible of general interest,
Speaker 1: and that it was less essential for them to consider
Speaker 1: what decision was just than what would be most applauded
Speaker 1: by the public or would least admit of insidious misrepresentation.
Speaker 1: The practice introduced by some of the new or revised
Speaker 1: state constitutions in America of submitting judicial officers to periodical
Speaker 1: popular re election will be found, I apprehend to be
Speaker 1: one of the most dangerous errors ever yet committed by democracy.
Speaker 1: And were it not that the practical good sense, which
Speaker 1: never totally deserts the people of the United States, is
Speaker 1: said to be producing a reaction likely in no long
Speaker 1: time to lead to the retraction of the error, it
Speaker 1: might with reason be regarded as the first great downward
Speaker 1: step in the degeneration of modern democratic government. With regard
Speaker 1: to that large and important body which constitutes the permanent
Speaker 1: strength of the public service, those who do not change
Speaker 1: with changes of politics, but remain to aid every minister,
Speaker 1: by their experience and traditions, inform him by their knowledge
Speaker 1: of business and conduct official details under his general control.
Speaker 1: Those in short, who form the class of professional public servants,
Speaker 1: entering their profession as others do while young, in the
Speaker 1: hope of rising progressively to its higher grades as they
Speaker 1: advance in life. It is evidently inadmissible that these should
Speaker 1: be liable to be turned out and deprived of the
Speaker 1: whole benefit of their previous service, except for positive, proved
Speaker 1: and serious misconduct. Not, of course, such delinquency only as
Speaker 1: makes them amenable to the law, but voluntary neglect of
Speaker 1: duty or conduct implying untrustworthiness for the purposes for which
Speaker 1: their trust is given them. Since therefore, unless in case
Speaker 1: of personal culpability, there is no way of getting rid
Speaker 1: of them except by quartering them on the public as pensioners.
Speaker 1: It is of the greatest importance that the appointments should
Speaker 1: be well made in the first instance, and it remains
Speaker 1: to be considered by what mode of appointment this purpose
Speaker 1: can best be attained. In making first appointments, little danger
Speaker 1: is to be apprehended from want of special skill and
Speaker 1: knowledge in the choosers, but much from partiality and private
Speaker 1: or political interest. Being all appointed at the commencement of manhood,
Speaker 1: not as having learned, but in order that they may
Speaker 1: learn their profession. The only thing by which the best
Speaker 1: candidates can be discriminated is proficiency in the ordinary branches
Speaker 1: of liberal education, and this can be ascertained without difficulty,
Speaker 1: provided there be the requisite pains and the requisite impartiality,
Speaker 1: and those who are appointed to inquire into it. Neither
Speaker 1: the one nor the other can reasonably be expected from
Speaker 1: a minister who must rely wholly on recommendations, and, however
Speaker 1: disinterested as to his personal wishes, never will be proof
Speaker 1: against the solicitations of persons who have the power of
Speaker 1: influencing his own election, or whose political adherence is important
Speaker 1: to the ministry to which he belongs. These considerations have
Speaker 1: introduced the practice of submitting all candidates for first appointments
Speaker 1: to a public examination conducted by persons not engaged in
Speaker 1: politics and of the same class in quality with the
Speaker 1: examiners for honors at the universities. This would probably be
Speaker 1: the best plan under any system, and under our parliamentary
Speaker 1: government it is the only one which affords a chance.
Speaker 1: I do not say of honest appointment, but even of
Speaker 1: abstinence from such as are manifestly and flagrantly profligate. It
Speaker 1: is also absolutely necessary that the examination should be competitive,
Speaker 1: and the appointments given to those who are most successful.
Speaker 1: A mere pass examination never, in the long run, does
Speaker 1: more than exclude absolute dunces. When the question in the
Speaker 1: mind of an examiner lies between blighting the prospects of
Speaker 1: an individual and performing a duty to the public, which
Speaker 1: in the particular instance seldom appears of first rate importance,
Speaker 1: and when he is sure to be bitterly reproached for
Speaker 1: doing the first, while in general no one will either
Speaker 1: know or care whether he is done the latter. The
Speaker 1: balance unless he is a man of very unusual stamp
Speaker 1: inclines to the side of good nature. A relaxation in
Speaker 1: one instance establishes a claim to it in others, which
Speaker 1: every repetition of indulgence makes it more difficult to resist.
Speaker 1: Each of these, in succession becomes a precedent for more,
Speaker 1: until the standard of proficiency sinks gradually to something almost contemptible.
Speaker 1: Examinations for degrees at the Too Great universeversities have generally
Speaker 1: been as slender in their requirements as those for honors
Speaker 1: are trying and serious. Where there is no inducement to
Speaker 1: exceed a certain minimum, the minimum comes to be the maximum.
Speaker 1: It becomes the general practice not to aim at more.
Speaker 1: And as in everything, there are some who do not
Speaker 1: attain all they aim at. However low the standard may
Speaker 1: be pitched, there are always several who fall short of it. When,
Speaker 1: on the contrary, the appointments are given to those among
Speaker 1: a great number of candidates who most distinguish themselves, and
Speaker 1: where the successful competitors are classed in order of merit,
Speaker 1: not only each is stimulated to do his very utmost,
Speaker 1: but the influence is felt in every place of liberal
Speaker 1: education throughout the country. It becomes with every schoolmaster an
Speaker 1: object of ambition and an avenue to success to have
Speaker 1: furnished pupils who have gained a high place in these competitions.
Speaker 1: And there is hardly any other mode in which the
Speaker 1: state can do so much to raise the quality of
Speaker 1: educational institutions throughout the country. Though the principle of competitive
Speaker 1: examinations for public employment is of such recent introduction in
Speaker 1: this country and is still so imperfectly carried out, the
Speaker 1: Indian service being as yet nearly the only case in
Speaker 1: which it exists. In its completeness, a sensible effect has
Speaker 1: already begun to be produced on the places of middle
Speaker 1: class education, notwithstanding the difficulties which the principle has encountered
Speaker 1: from the disgracefully low existing state of education in the country,
Speaker 1: which these very examinations have brought into strong light. So
Speaker 1: contemptible has the standard of acquirement been found to be
Speaker 1: among the youths who obtained the nomination from the minister
Speaker 1: which entitles them to offer themselves as candidates, that the
Speaker 1: competition of such candidates produces almost a poorer result than
Speaker 1: would be obtained from a mere pass examination, for no
Speaker 1: one would think of fixing the conditions of a pass
Speaker 1: examination so low as is actually found sufficient to enable
Speaker 1: a young man to surpass his fellow candidates. Accordingly, it
Speaker 1: is said that successive years show on the whole a
Speaker 1: decline of attainments, less effort being made because the results
Speaker 1: of former examinations have proved that the exertions then used
Speaker 1: were greater than would have been sufficient to attain the object.
Speaker 1: Partly from this decrease of effort, and partly because even
Speaker 1: at the examinations which do not require a previous nomination,
Speaker 1: conscious ignorance reduces the number of competitors to a mere handful.
Speaker 1: It has so happened that, though there have always been
Speaker 1: a few instances of great proficiency, the lower part of
Speaker 1: the list of successful candidates represents but a very moderate
Speaker 1: amount of acquirement. And we have it on the word
Speaker 1: of the Commissioners that nearly all who have been unsuccessful
Speaker 1: have owed their failure to ignorance, not of the higher
Speaker 1: branches of instruction, but of its very humblest elements, spelling
Speaker 1: and arithmetic. The outcries which continue to be made against
Speaker 1: these examinations by some of the organs of opinion are often,
Speaker 1: I regret to say, as little creditable to the good
Speaker 1: faith as to the good sense of the assailants. They
Speaker 1: proceed mostly by misrepresentation of the kind of ignorance which,
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, actually leads to failure in
Speaker 1: the examinations. They quote with emphasis the most recondite questions
Speaker 1: which can be shown to have been ever asked, and
Speaker 1: make it appear as if unexceptionable answers to all these
Speaker 1: were made the sinequa nun of success. Yet it has
Speaker 1: been repeated to satiety that such questions are not put
Speaker 1: because it is expected of every one that he should
Speaker 1: answer them, but in order that whoever is able to
Speaker 1: do so, may have the means of proving and availing
Speaker 1: himself of that portion of his knowledge. It is not
Speaker 1: as a ground of rejection, but as an additional means
Speaker 1: of success, that this opportunity is given. We are then
Speaker 1: asked whether the kind of knowledge supposed in this, that
Speaker 1: or the other question is calculated to be of any
Speaker 1: use to the candidate. After he has attained his object
Speaker 1: people differ greatly in opinion as to what knowledge is useful.
Speaker 1: There are persons in existence, and a late foreign Secretary
Speaker 1: of State is one of them who think English spelling
Speaker 1: a useless accomplishment in a diplomatic attachee or a clerk
Speaker 1: in a government office. About one thing, the objectors seem
Speaker 1: to be unanimous that general mental cultivation is not useful
Speaker 1: in these employments, whatever else may be. So. If, however,
Speaker 1: as I presume to think it is useful, or if
Speaker 1: any education at all is useful, it must be tested
Speaker 1: by the tests most likely to show whether the candidate
Speaker 1: possesses it or not. To ascertain whether he has been
Speaker 1: well educated, he must be interrogated in the things which
Speaker 1: he is likely to know if he has been well educated,
Speaker 1: even though not directly pertinent to the work to which
Speaker 1: he is to be appointed. Will those who object to
Speaker 1: his being questioned in classics and mens mathematics tell us
Speaker 1: what they would have him questioned in. There seems, however,
Speaker 1: to be equal objection to examining him in these and
Speaker 1: to examining him in anything but these. If the commissioners
Speaker 1: anxious to open a door of admission to those who
Speaker 1: have not gone through the routine of a grammar school,
Speaker 1: or who make up for the smallness of their knowledge
Speaker 1: of what is there taught by greater knowledge of something else,
Speaker 1: allow marks to be gained by proficiency in any other
Speaker 1: subject of real utility, they are reproached for that too.
Speaker 1: Nothing will satisfy the objectors but free admission of total ignorance.
Speaker 1: We are triumphantly told that neither Clive nor Wellington could
Speaker 1: have passed the test which is prescribed for an aspirant
Speaker 1: to an engineer cadet ship, as if because Clive and
Speaker 1: Wellington did not do what was not required of them,
Speaker 1: they could not have done it if it had been required.
Speaker 1: If it be only meant to inform us that it
Speaker 1: is possible to be a great general without these things.
Speaker 1: So it is without many other things which are very
Speaker 1: useful to great generals. Alexander the Great had never heard
Speaker 1: of Vauban's rules, nor could Julius Caesar speak French. We
Speaker 1: are next informed that bookworms, a term which seems to
Speaker 1: be held applicable to whoever has the smallest tincture of
Speaker 1: book knowledge, may not be good at bodily exercises or
Speaker 1: have the habits of gentlemen. This is a very common
Speaker 1: line of remark with dunces of condition. But whatever the
Speaker 1: dunces may think, they have no monopoly of either gentlemanly
Speaker 1: habits or bodily activity. Wherever these are needed, let them
Speaker 1: be inquired into and separately provided for, not to the
Speaker 1: exclusion of mental qualifications. But in addition, meanwhile, I am
Speaker 1: credibly informed that in the military Academy at Woolwich, the
Speaker 1: competition cadets are as superior to those admitted on the
Speaker 1: old system of nomination in these respects as in all others,
Speaker 1: that they learn even their drill, more quickly, as indeed
Speaker 1: might be expected, for an intelligent person learns all things
Speaker 1: sooner than a stupid one, and that in general demeanor
Speaker 1: they contrast so favorably with their predecessors, that the authorities
Speaker 1: of the institutions are impatient for the day to arrive
Speaker 1: when the last remains of the old leaven shall have
Speaker 1: disappeared from the place. If this be so, and it
Speaker 1: is easy to ascertain whether it is so, it is
Speaker 1: to be hoped we shall soon have heard for the
Speaker 1: last time that ignorance is a better qualification than knowledge
Speaker 1: for the military, and a fortiori for every other profession,
Speaker 1: or that any one good quality. However, little apparently connected
Speaker 1: with liberal education is at all likely to be promoted
Speaker 1: by going without it. Though the first admission to government
Speaker 1: employment be decided by competitive examination, it would in most
Speaker 1: cases be impossible that subsequent promotion should be so decided,
Speaker 1: And it seems proper that this should take place, as
Speaker 1: it usually does at present, on a mixed system of
Speaker 1: seniority and selection. Those whose duties are of a routine
Speaker 1: character should rise by seniority to the highest point to
Speaker 1: which duties merely of that description can carry them, while
Speaker 1: those to whom functions of particular trust and requiring special
Speaker 1: capacity are confided should be selected from the body on
Speaker 1: the discretion of the Chief of the office, and this
Speaker 1: selection will generally be made honestly by him, if the
Speaker 1: original appointments take place by open competition, for under that system,
Speaker 1: his establishment will generally consist of individuals to whom, but
Speaker 1: for the official connection, he would have been a stranger.
Speaker 1: If among them there be any in whom he or
Speaker 1: his political friends and supporters take an interest, it will
Speaker 1: be but occasionally, and only when to this advantage of
Speaker 1: connection is added, as far as the initiatory examination could
Speaker 1: test it at least equality of real merit. And except
Speaker 1: when there is a very strong motive to job these appointments,
Speaker 1: there is always a strong one to appoint the fittest person,
Speaker 1: being the one who gives to his chief the most
Speaker 1: useful assistance, saves him most trouble and helps most to
Speaker 1: build up that reputation for good management of public business,
Speaker 1: which necessarily and properly rebound to the credit of the minister,
Speaker 1: however much the qualities to which it is immediately owing
Speaker 1: may be those of his subordinates. End of Chapter fourteen
Speaker 1: B Recording by Bill Burst