Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎472r] (68/238)

Indian Civil Service a?id the Admission of Natives. 281
they would have a reasonable prospect of carrying on the
government, we should, in my opinion, be everlastingly
disgraced. I do not profess to know enough of the views
of the democracy to say whether such a contingency ought
to be provided for ; but, if it is at all within the bounds of
possibility, it is clear that it ought to be our endeavour to
constantly reduce the proportion of Europeans in the
service of the Government, and that we ought systemati
cally to keep the number of Europeans down to the very
minimum absolutely necessary to carry on the government
on the present system.
I should also like to point out that if, as even Mr. Dada-
bhai seems to admit, a certain number of Europeans in the
Civil Service are still indispensable, the present system of
entirely open competition is very illogical, and even ludicrous;
because it is quite on the cards, however improbable, that a
sufficient number of native candidates might appear in any
year and succeed in securing all the vacancies. We need
not go far to find native gentlemen who have come out
very high in the list of successful candidates—my friend
Mr. Dutt is a most conspicuous example—and it is quite
within the bounds of possibility that, if a sufficient number
were in a position to undertake such an expensive and
abhorrent voyage, they might beat all their European
competitors. Why not ? I here are certainly a sufficient
number of clever youths in the whole of India ; and when
we have a Madras Brahmin coming out first in English
composition, and with extremely high marks, one does not
know what might happen if the conditions of the examina
tion were such as to admit of unlimited competition from
India. It is much to be regretted, I think, that those
conditions are not at present either fair or reasonable.
The native candidate of small means is most unfairly
handicapped by having to make a long journey, the
expense of which is prohibitory to all but the well-to-do,
so that the number of natives competing has always been
extremely limited in comparison even with the educated