religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or any of them, be disqualified from holding any place, office, or employment under the said Company.' While the door seemed thus to be opened to Natives, it was practically shut upon them by the enactments which reserved most of the chief offices to members of the covenanted service. Until 1853 the first appointments to that service were made by the directors of the East India Company by nomination, and no Native of India was ever nominated. In 1853,' the nomination system was abolished, and the service was thrown open to public competition. A few Natives have from time to time been successful in the competitive examination, but, this being held in London, they obviously have serious difficulties to meet. In 1887 the covenanted service comprised 890 members, of whom only 16 were Natives.2 In 1870 another measure was therefore enacted by Parliament with the object of giving to the Natives. other means of rising to high offices. It was declared 'expedient that additional facilities should be given for the employment of Natives of India of proved merit and ability in the Civil service of Her Majesty in India,' and that subject to rules to be laid down by the Governor-General in Council, with the sanction of the Secretary of State and Council, such Natives might be appointed to any of the offices reserved by law to the members of the covenanted service. Nothing could be done towards carrying out these provisions until rules had been made in the manner prescribed, and for

1 16 and 17 Vic. c. 95.

2 These figures include officers on leave and others. The number of offices held by covenanted civil servants in India is 765, about one to every 1,000 square miles, and one to every quarter of a million of the population. I take these and other figures from the Report of the Indian Public Service Commission, 1886-87.

nearly ten years the Act remained almost a dead letter. In 1879, when Lord Lytton was Viceroy, rules were laid down, under which, when they had come into full operation, a sixth part of the whole number of offices reserved to the covenanted Civil service would be held by Natives of India. The principle of open competition being clearly unsuitable in India, appointments were to be made by selection, tests of qualification being supplied by special examinations. About fifty Natives have been appointed under these rules; but as the system has not passed out of the experimental stage, and will probably be modified, I will not now describe it further. These Native gentlemen, although not technically members of the covenanted Civil service, virtually belong to it. I reserve for another lecture my remarks on the general question of the employment of Natives in important posts. I am now describing the state of things that actually exists.

I have already explained the difference between Regulation and Non-Regulation provinces. It is only to the former that the Act of Parliament reserving certain offices for members of the covenanted service fully applies. In the Non-Regulation provinces some of these offices are held either by covenanted civilians, or by officers of the Staff Corps, or by members of the Uncovenanted service.

The so-called Uncovenanted service has no existence as a single and separate body. Every public servant employed in the civil administration, who does not belong to the covenanted Civil service or to the Army is an uncovenanted officer. Thus, the great majority of civil officers are included under this term.

It was long ago laid down as a maxim, in regard

1 Lecture VI., p. 145.

to the employment of European officers in the more important branches of the service, that the first selection of young men shall not be made in India, but shall rest with the authorities in England, while, after the first selection, those authorities shall exercise no interference. The distribution of offices, and all questions of appointment and promotion, are left absolutely to the Governments in India. It is a historical fact (I am quoting from an official paper) that the observance of this wholesome rule has more than anything else conduced to the purity of Indian patronage, and to its general freedom from party and political bias.'

There are some branches of the administration for which it is hardly possible to find properly qualified Natives. The time may come when this will no longer be true, but at the present time the Civil engineers and the superior officers in the Educational, Public Works, Telegraph, and Forest services must, as a general rule, be Englishmen. The first appointments to the superior Educational service are made, by selection, by the Secretary of State for India; officers of the other services that I have named are chosen in England by competitive examination, and go through a special course of instruction at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, which, although open to others, is maintained primarily for this purpose.

With these, and some other exceptions, all appointments to civil offices are made by the Governments in India, and the rule has been laid down and acted upon that, as far as possible, qualified Natives are to be employed, in preference to Europeans, in every branch of the administration.

Out of the total number of civil employés in India, 90 per cent. are Natives, but of course the great

majority of these are in minor posts. Excluding the 765 offices held by covenanted officers, there are about 2,600 persons in the superior grades of the executive and judicial branches of service, and very nearly all of these are Natives. Thus, although the higher offices of control are held by Englishmen, the greater part of the actual administration is in Native hands. This is often ignored in discussing the question of the admission of Natives to a larger share of public employment. The organisation of our great and highly efficient Native Civil service is one of the most successful achievements of the British Government in India. Native officers manage most of the business connected with all branches of the revenue, and with the multifarious interests in land. Natives dispose of the greater part of the magisterial work. The duties of the Civil Courts, excepting the Courts of Appeal, are almost entirely entrusted to Native judges. A Native judge sits on the Bench in each of the High Courts. For many years past, Native judges have exercised jurisdiction in all classes of civil cases, over Natives and Europeans alike. I have already stated my belief that, as a rule, their work is quite as good as that of the English judges. Twenty years ago, the Native Civil service was badly paid, comparatively inefficient, and not always trustworthy. In these respects there has been a great change. Nothing in the recent history of India has been more remarkable than the improvement that has taken place in the standard of morality among the higher classes of Native officials. Much of this has certainly been due to the fact that their position and salaries are far better than they were, and that temptations to corruption have been removed, but I do not doubt that much has been due to their better edu

cation. Another powerful cause has been in silent and constant operation. The Native officials have had before them, through a long course of years, the example of the irreproachable integrity of the Englishmen employed in the higher ranks of the public service. Living in an atmosphere of official uprightness has made Native judges and magistrates upright also.

Although the salaries given to Natives in posts of importance are ordinarily less than those given to Englishmen, they are very liberal, and they do not err on the side of being too small. With the exception of England, there is no country in Europe in which judicial and executive officers receive salaries equal to those given in the Native Civil service of India.1 At

1 It is difficult to compare salaries in countries where the conditions of life and the official duties to be performed are very different. Subject to this warning, which, however, tells strongly in favour of what I have said regarding the salaries paid to natives of India, I give the following facts. In Bengal a Native High Court judge receives 5,000l. a year. The salaries of the Native subordinate judges range from 720l. to 1,2007., and those of the Munsifs (the lowest class of judges) from 300l. to 4807. The salaries of the higher grades in the executive service are not very dissimilar. In Algeria, the highest judicial officer, the First President of the Court of Appeal, who is always a Frenchman, receives 7201., with a furnished house. No other judge has more than 4007. The Juges de Paix, also Frenchmen, receive from 1081. to 1607. a year, with furnished houses. The salary of no Mohammedan judicial officer, a native of Algeria, exceeds 607. The Préfet of Algiers receives 1,000l., and two other Préfets receive 8007.; each Préfet has also a travelling allowance of 2007. a year and a furnished house. No Sous-Préfet has more than 3601. In France itself the salaries of the higher judicial and executive officers are smaller than those given to Natives in India. For instance, the First President of the Cour de Cassation receives 1,2007. In the Cour d'Appel, the salaries of the First Presidents range from 6007. to 1,000l., and of the other Presidents from 300l. to 550l. In the Tribunaux de Première Instance the salaries of the judges are from 1447. to 8007. The Juges d'Instruction receive from 1157. to 3847.; the Juges de Paix from 721. to 3201. In many cases these salaries are supplemented by the grant of furnished houses and by various allowances, usually of small amount. A comparison between the salaries given to officers of the executive service in India and in France would show similar results. The great majority of the Préfets in France, who hold offices second in importance to hardly any in the country, receive less than Native Deputy Magistrates of the higher grades in Bengal.