MR. O'BEIENasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council, Whether there are any, and, if so, what grounds why the Civil Service Commissioners have not more clearly defined the examination courses in Mental and Moral 735 Philosophy, Jurisprudence, and Political Economy, in the preliminary India and Class I. Examinations; and, whether it would be possible to make the Royal University Degree courses and the Civil Service requirements in these subjects more closely approximate, so that Irish candidates for Civil Service appointments shall labour under no disadvantages as compared with candidates from English Universities in presenting themselves before the Civil Service Examiners?
§ MR. COURTNEYSir, I will answer the Question for my right hon. Friend. I have received a Memorandum from the Civil Service Commissioners in this matter, which states that the examination in these subjects left no candidates from any particular part of the Kingdom at a disadvantage. It has been purposely left open, so that candidates, wherever trained, might enter under the same conditions. There is no approximation to any course in any English University, any more than to any Scotch or Irish University.