FIFTH REPORT. WE, Your Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners, humbly offer to Your Majesty this our Fifth Annual Report. On previous occasions we have very fully explained the mode in which we were endeavouring to discharge the duties imposed upon us by the Order in Council under which we act, and no alteration of importance has been introduced into our system since the presentation of our last Report. At the same time there are some subjects on which, in the ordinary course of our proceedings, we should probably have thought it right to make some observations, and among those subjects we have especially to refer to-(1), the examination of last July for the Civil Service of India, and the steps since taken with reference to the legal training of the candidates then selected as probationers; (2), the examinations of candidates for admission to the dockyards and steam factories which we have very recently conducted at the request of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; and (3), the important question as to the best mode of filling inferior situations, raised in a correspondence which has passed between the authorities of the General Post Office and this department. The recent resolution, however, of the House of Commons, under which a Committee has been appointed "to inquire into the present mode of nominating and examining candidates for junior appointments in the Civil Service, with a view to "ascertaining whether greater facility may not be afforded for "the admission of properly qualified persons," appears to render it desirable that we should on the present occasion abstain from any lengthened discussion, and content ourselves with laying before Your Majesty the statistical and other details which it has been our usual practice to append to our Reports. We premise only the following short notices of our proceedings in successive years. The total number of nominations to situations to which the Order in Council has been applied was as follows: The dockyard and factory examinations were held during the latter half of last month, and the results were communicated to the Admiralty by letters of the 14th and 16th instant. † Including 391 persons who competed for nine writerships in the India Office. Of these nominations, the following were nominations of one candidate only: The numbers of competitors, and of the situations for which they were to compete, have been : It would, however, be wrong to infer that this decline in the proportion of rejections to certificates is due altogether to an improvement in the attainments of candidates, the real causes being the reductions which in some cases have been made in the subjects of examinations, and the introduction of new classes of situations for which a very low standard has been fixed. The specific grounds of rejection in the 310 cases of 1859 are stated in the Appendix; but it may be worth while here to mention that out of the total number of candidates rejected. (1,972), all but 106 have failed either in arithmetic or in spelling, some, of course, in other subjects also. * Including 391 persons who competed for nine writerships in the India Office. The cases in which nominees have been considered ineligible in respect of age, health, and character have been as follows: The largest examination conducted by us during the year 1859 was one undertaken at the request of the late Secretary of State for India. In our last Report we gave the details of that examination at a length which we considered to be justified by the importance which attached to it as the first open competition for situation in the Home Civil Service of the Crown. We advert to it now principally because, owing to the large number of candidates who then competed, the average number of competitors is considerably greater, in proportion to the number of situations disposed of in 1859, than it otherwise would have been. Including the India Office examination, the average proportion of competitors to vacancies in 1859 was 4 to 1, while excluding it the proportion was only 3 to 1. The number of competitive examinations conducted under our directions during the year 1859 was 96, and by those examinations 258 appointments were disposed of. The total number of competitors examined was 1,107 (as above mentioned), and of the 849 who were unsuccessful, 710 were not considered to have passed examinations which would have entitled them to certificates if they had presented themselves with absolute nominations. With reference to the number above stated as that of the competitive examinations held during the year, it should be mentioned that in several cases we have been requested to specify the names of those candidates for whom, though unsuccessful, we should be able to grant certificates of qualification as vacancies might occur. This information having been obtained from us, applications for certificates have been made immediately or after short intervals, so that the only prize really to be gained in the competition was a slight priority of appointment. It may be questioned whether these examinations are with propriety classed as competitions. We have mentioned in former Reports that it was our practice to permit candidates to select, subject to our approval, in addition to the subjects prescribed by the departmental authorities, others in which they might wish to be examined. Where candidates have availed themselves of this option, our rules have been the following:-(1), that in the case of those who passed in the prescribed subjects and acquitted themselves creditably in the |