§ MR. HANKEY, with reference to a Letter of the 3rd December 1873, from Mr. Lyon Playfair to the Lords of the Treasury, and printed in the Appropriation Accounts of Civil Service and Revenue Accounts for the year ending 31st March 1873, on page 409, asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether his attention has been directed to the statement of Mr. Lyon Playfair, that if their
Lordships should decide that the Order in Council" (referring to Civil Service Examinations) "cannot be departed from. I should advise that, instead of introducing an inconvenient and costly plan which will have the effect of converting a large body of temporary servants into a permanent body, that an exemption to the general rule should he made by amendment of the Order in Council;and, if so, whether he is prepared to obtain an alteration in the present Orders in Council?
§ MR. W. H. SMITH, in reply, said, that the whole subject of the organization of the public service was under consideration by a Commission, of which the right hon. Member for Edinburgh University (Mr. Lyon Playfair) was Chairman, and therefore he did not feel at liberty to express any opinion on this Question of the hon. Member.