We pulled up on Chalk Linton Hill, and as we stood us
there,
Two fields beyond we saw the squire fall stone dead
from the mare.

Then she swept on, and, in full cry, the hounds went
out of sight;
A cloud came over the broad moon, and something
dimmed our sight,
As Tom and I bore master home, both speaking under
breath;
And that's the way I saw th' owd squire ride boldly to
his death.

HINDOO CIVIL SERVANTS.

A MISTAKE has been made lately by the
Civil Service Commissioners which is not
the less grave for being the mistake of able
men, who, on the whole, discharge arduous
duties very efficiently. The mistake is that
the commissioners have sacrificed to an
official crotchet, two out of four Hindoo
candidates who, at the recent open competition
for the Civil Service of India, earned
fairly their right to serve the Queen. Two
of these four Hindoos, who won good places
among the selected fifty out of three
hundred and twenty-three candidates for public
office in India, were civilly strangled before
the altar of the said crotchet; and a third,
upon the same grounds, was scarified with
a reservation that might set a lasting mark
upon his character. Before we tell how
this was done, let us show what is meant
by open competition for the Civil Service
of India.

Before the year eighteen 'thirty-four no
native of India could hold, under the
British government of India, any high
employment in the public service. But in
that year an Act was passed ordaining
"that no native of British India, or natural-
born subject of His Majesty, should by reason
of his religion, place of birth, descent
or colour, be disabled from holding any
place, office or employment under the said
company." And when all imperial rights
of the East India Company were resumed
by the Crown, it was emphatically declared
to be Her Majesty's will " that so far as may
be, our subjects of whatever creed or race
be fairly and impartially admitted to offices
in our service, the duties of which they
may be qualified by their education, ability,
and integrity duly to discharge." We come
now to the means taken for testing these
qualifications.

Before the year eighteen hundred and
fifty-three, offices in India were obtained
by private interest with the East India
Directors. But the old system was
succeeded in that year by the annual distribution
of appointments in the Indian Civil
Service among the best men in open
competitive examination. The scheme of the
examinations was devised by a committee
which had Lord Macaulay for its chairman.
The plan of this committee was meant to
ensure the fair testing, not of one particular
form, but of any form, of good education.
It assigned to each of twelve branches of
knowledge, a certain number of marks, and
allowed candidates to offer themselves for
examination in as many or as few of the
twelve as they pleased. It did not
enforce knowledge of Latin and Greek. A
youth trained upon Latin, Greek, and
Mathematics, might get to the head of the list
with knowledge of that sort; but another
might get to the head of the list with
scarcely any knowledge of Mathematics,
little Latin, and no Greek, by passing a
good examination, say, in English, French,
Italian, German, Geology, and Chemistry.
In the scale of marks no value was given
to the vernacular languages of India, which
were to be studied at a later stage; but
there was recognition of the two great
classical languages of the East, Sanskrit
and Arabic. " These two languages," said
the report of the committee, " are already
studied by a few young men at the great
English seats of learning. They can be
learned as well here as in the East; and
they are not likely to be studied in the
East unless some attention has been paid
to them here." To the native of India
they are very much what Latin and Greek
are to the Englishman. In the year 'fifty-
three, the Indian Universities were not
established; and there was practically no
expectation of a native candidate from
India. But, for the recognition of Sanskrit
and Arabic studies in England, there were
allowed to each of those subjects three
hundred and seventy-five marks in a scale
which gave seven hundred and fifty to
Greek or Latin. The examinations thus
established were conducted by the India
Board till the year 'fifty-eight, when the
control of them was made over by Lord
Ellenborough to the Civil Service
Commissioners. In the preceding year, during
the mutiny, the University of Calcutta had
been established.

The Universities of Bombay and
Calcutta belong to a plan devised by the East
India Company before its extinction by the
Sepoy Mutiny of eighteen 'fifty-seven. A
despatch of the Courft of Directors,
prepared in the year 'fifty-four under the
direction of Sir Charles Wood, laid down a