HC Deb 08 March 1869 vol 194 c841
SIR PATRICK O'BRIEN

said, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, "Whether it is the fact that gentlemen have been recently selected for the office of Examiners at the India Civil Service Examination who were at the time private tutors in the Universities; and, whether it is the fact that the practice of selecting some of the Examiners from among the members of the Irish Universities has been of late years discontinued?

MR. GRANT DUFF

In reply to my hon. Friend, I have to say, that the Civil Service Commissioners rarely appoint as Examiners for the Civil Service of India gentlemen who are engaged in private tuition. To make, however, a rule of absolutely excluding gentlemen so engaged would be tantamount to refusing the assistance of some persons of exceptional efficiency. No one is ever knowingly appointed to examine his own pupils, and three appointments have been cancelled in the past year lest this untoward result should arise. No practice of selecting as Examiners members of Irish Universities as members of Irish Universities having ever prevailed, it cannot be said to have been discontinued. Such persons have often been appointed, and will, no doubt, often be again, because they were the best men available; not because they were Irish. It may console my hon. Friend to know that, in a list containing all the names of Examiners for the Indian Civil Service since 1858, I find seven connected with the Irish and only five connected with the Scotch Universities.