TWENTIETH REPORT OF HER MAJESTY'S CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONERS, TOGETHER WITH APPENDICES. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE, FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. [C.-1587.] Price 38. 1876. APPENDIX II.-Regulations framed by the Civil Service Commis- sioners and approved by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the Order in Council of 4th June 1870, for PAGE TWENTIETH REPORT. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, WE, Your Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners, humbly offer to Your Majesty this our Twentieth Report. Since the date of our last Report some changes have occurred affecting the constitution of this Commission and the organisation of the Service for which it is our duty to provide. The death of Sir Edward Ryan on the 22nd of August last deprived the Board of its First Commissioner, who had presided over it from the time of its institution on May 21st, 1855, and to whose good judgment and firmness in its management is mainly due whatever success or usefulness has attended its labours. On occasion of the vacancy thus created, Your Majesty was pleased to restore the Board to its original number of three members, a number which had not been maintained since the death of Sir Edmund Head, in January 1868, although, as appears from the following statement, the business of the Department had, since that date, very largely increased. At the same time the duty of conducting the examinations for First Appointments in the Army, and for admission to the Royal Military Academy, which had previously been undertaken by the Board at the request of the Secretary of State for War, was formally imposed upon it. Your Majesty's Order in Council of 12th February last conveys a decision upon some of the principal recommendations of the Commission appointed by the Treasury in 1874, and presided over by Dr. Lyon Playfair. By this Order, it is directed that a "Lower Division" of the Civil Service, of two classes, viz., men and boys, shall be constituted, admission to which is, as the rule, to be gained, in the case of men, by open competition amongst candidates between 17 and 20 years of age, who are to be examined in the subjects laid down in Regulations known as "Regulations No. II. ;"* in the case of boys, by persons between * 1. Handwriting. 2. Orthography. 3. Arithmetic. 4. Copying MS. (to test accuracy). 5. English Composition. 38685. 6. Geography. 7. Indexing or Docketing. 8. Digesting Returns into Summaries. 9. English History. 10. Bookkeeping. a 2 15 and 17 years of age, who are to compete in a more limited number of subjects. We have already begun to give effect to this part of the Order; an examination for 20 boy clerkships having been held on June 28, and one for 80 men clerkships on July 25. The terms upon which the successful candidates are to be employed, and the mode of their appointment, are indicated in sections 9-11 and 13-18 of the Order, of which a copy is annexed to this Report. Clause 12 of the same Order provides for the exceptional appointment to Lower Division clerkships, upon certain conditions, of persons who have been serving as temporary writers. A considerable number of such cases have already been presented to us, with a view to the issue of the requisite certificates of qualification. The statistical tables appended to this Report present in detail an account of the examinations held during the year 1875. The total number of cases dealt with was 15,342, which may be thus distributed : I. Cases falling within the provisions of the II. Cases not falling within the provisions of 12,174 The following statement shows in a summary form the particulars of the 12,174 Home Civil Service cases dealt with under the Order in Council in 1875 as compared with the 12,209 cases similarly dealt with in 1874 :— |