civil service commissioners, and was laid before Parlia- Civil ment.° Service mission. When the Civil Service Commission' was first Comcreated in 1855, it was a tentative department, and the commissioners received no salary. It was afterwards deemed expedient to make them salaried officers. Of late years the business of the department has greatly increased, and the delicacy and difficulty of the work have increased also. The commissioners have now to examine candidates for the whole civil service, and likewise candidates for first appointments in the army, for admission to the Royal Military Academy, for commissions in the Royal Marines, for appointments in the Indian civil service, the Indian civil engineers, the foreign service, together with candidates for employment as writers. The commissioners have likewise to conduct correspondence with the various public departments as to the character of the examinations and the questions to be put to candidates.P In 1875, upon the death of Sir Edward Ryan, the late chief commissioner, the government appointed in his place a peer of Parliament, Lord Hampton, with an increased salary; and a third commissionership was again created, an office which had been in abeyance since the death of Sir E. Head in 1869. This gave rise to considerable opposition in the House of Commons, chiefly because of Lord Hampton's advanced age (76). But the government defended the appointment on the ground of special fitness, and because it was desirable that the commission should be represented in Parliament.q On May 5, 1874, the House of Commons appointed Sale of a select committee to enquire into the existing principles governand practice regulating the purchase and sale of mate- stores. • 20th Rep. Civ. Serv. Com. p. 16. Com. Pap. 1876, v. 22. P Hans. D. v. 227, P. 1100. ment Salaries, &c., of public officers to be regulated by the Treasury, rials and stores in the several public departments." (This was in continuation of a similar enquiry in 1873.) The committee reported on July 3 on the several civil and military departments, but principally upon the management of the stationery department, and upon the mode of regulating and defraying the cost of printing for Parliament and for the public departments. As with the appointment and dismissal, so also in regard to the remuneration of public employés, it should be left to the government to determine the amount of pay to be allotted to all public servants, of whatever grade or position. Those who serve the crown should look directly to the crown for compensation and reward. The salaries and allowances of all public servants, in every department of state (with the exception of those functionaries whose salaries are fixed by Act of Parliament), are regulated by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and determined by Treasury minutes. [When a salary is proposed to be fixed by a Bill before the House of Commons an amendment to increase the amount of salary, though unusual, and generally inexpedient, is not irregular."] It is competent for the official head of every public department to recommend to the Treasury the alteration or increase of salaries to his own subordinates. But every such recommendation is subjected to the closest scrutiny by the Treasury, who possess supreme control in all financial matters, over every other branch of the public service. The salaries and expenses of the public departments are annually submitted to the review of the House of Commons in and voted the estimates, and a separate vote is taken for the amount required to defray the same, in each depart by Par liament. Com. Pap. 1874, v. 11, p. 339. Corresp. Will. IV. with Earl Grey, v. 1, pp. 134-152. Citing opinion of law officers of the crown. The officers of the two Houses of Parliament are also an exception to this rule; see post, pp. 660-664, Hans. D. v. 73, p. 1662. Ib. v. 117, p. 834. And see v. 2. Op the Treasury. &c. ment. Appended to the estimate for every vote, a list Salaries, is given of the different items of expenditure included therein; but, although it is within the power of the House of Commons, in committee of supply, to reduce any such vote by omitting the amount of any particular salary, or other item, this power is rarely exercised, and only upon grave and urgent considerations. It is perfectly competent for either House of Parliament, and more particularly for the House of Commons, to subject the conduct of the executive government towards the subordinate officers and servants of the crown to free enquiry and criticism; but there should be no attempt to interfere with the discretion of responsible ministers, in regulating the pay and allowances of public employés, except in cases where it is apparent that injustice and oppression have been exercised. On July 16, 1849, a motion was made in the House of Commons that a reduction of ten per cent. should be made in all salaries in the several departments of government, at home and abroad. The motion was opposed by ministers, and negatived on division." The Treasury have always objected to dealing en bloc with departmental salaries. When the government determine upon any reduction of official salaries, or emoluments, it is customary to respect existing interests. It is a rule in the public service that if an officer in the receipt of a pension receives new employment his pension is merged for the time being in the salary he receives." This law must not be evaded, by allowing colonial officers in receipt of imperial pensions, to draw part of their emoluments by way of gratuity, lest the offenders should incur severe penalties, and a withdrawal of their privileges to receive pensions out of the United Kingdom.a When a man has been discharged from the public Subject to service upon retiring allowance and is afterwards found w Hans. D. v. 107, pp. 408-451. x Ib. v. 217, p. 1451; Com. Pap. 1873, v. 7, P. 662. y Ib. v. 203, p. 1464; see Com. Pap. 1870, v. 54, p. 457, &c. Circular Desp. 1 Oct. 1878. N. recall. details capable of doing further work the Treasury may recall him, and if he does not answer to the recall he forfeits his pension.b Pecuniary While every salary and the classification of every should be office is duly submitted in the annual estimates for the left to the criticism and sanction of Parliament, it is the peculiar Treasury. Applications for increase duty of the executive government and of the heads of the several departments to enter into the particular and minute considerations by which the rate of salaries, the annual increments, and the prospect of promotion are adjusted. This duty is discharged by the lords of the Treasury, and should be left to their unfettered discretion, inasmuch as they are responsible for the expenditure incurred in every branch of the public service. By a Treasury minute, dated February 26, 1866, which embodies the substance of regulations previously of salary. established in various departments of the civil service, it is provided that henceforth, as a general rule, no application in relation to increased pay or allowances (or for promotion, where such rests with the Treasury) will be entertained by the board unless transmitted through the head of the department to which the applicant belongs. But in the event of the departmental head refusing to forward any such application, the Treasury will receive it direct from the subordinate officer, if it be accompanied by a copy or statement of the refusal, and will determine whether or not the communication was one which should have been addressed to them. This minute has originated in consequence of a practice recently introduced by employés in the civil service of memorialising the Treasury for increase of salary or improved departmental position through members of Parliament or other influential persons, or by direct petition to the board itself. Hans. D. v. 235, p. 1420. In enforcing a stricter rule upon the service, the Treasury expressly disclaim the desire to debar any classes or individuals in the public service from making a respectful complaint of any matter of personal grievance. Still less do they intend to offer any obstacle to the most free action of members of the legislature who, on public grounds, may consider it their duty, whether in Parliament or by communications to the Treasury, to call attention to cases of grievance on the part of individuals, or who may think fit to enter upon the investigation of questions affecting the remuneration and other conditions of service under which classes of public officers are employed. It is equally the duty and the desire of the Treasury to afford every proper facility for such representations, and to give them their impartial attention. influence Nevertheless, a due regard to the principles of sub- Political ordination, and the maintenance of proper relations forbidden. between the various officers employed in the civil service, requires that for the future the Treasury should insist upon the observance of the rule which forbids subordinate officers from seeking advancement by means of pressure put upon the executive government by persons whose only knowledge of the circumstances of the case is derived from the ex parte representation of the applicants themselves. And by a minute, dated May 2, 1867, and directed against the 'growing practice on the part of gentlemen employed in the public service to endeavour to influence the Treasury to accede to their applications for increase of salary or additional retiring allowance by means of the private solicitation of members of Parliament and other persons of political influence,' the lords of the Treasury declare that any such attempt hereafter will be treated For example, Hans. D. v. 193, p. 1407; v. 217, pp. 303-306. Com. Pap. 1873, v. 7, pp. 683-689. Copy Treasury Minute, Com. Pap. 1866, v. 39, p. 339; Hans. D. |