7. The Situation of Assistant to the Surveyors, Office of Works, &c. 8. The Appointment of Attaché in the Diplomatic Service 9. A special certificate in Public Law (Third Secretary, Diplomatic Service) 546 NOTE. The following examination papers, set during the year 1878, have been published in a separate form, and may be obtained through any bookseller. Papers set to Candidates at : Open Competition for Assistants of Excise held in December 1877. Open Competition for the Home Civil Service (Class I.) held in April 1878. Open Competition for Men Clerkships of the Lower Division held in September 1878. FACTORY INSPECTOR. I.-SPECIMENS OF THE PAPERS SET AT EXAMINATIONS FOR DICTATION. (I.) About thirty years before this time, a Mahommedan soldier had begun to distinguish himself in the wars of Southern India. His education had been neglected; his extraction was humble. His father bad been a petty officer of revenue; his grandfather a wandering priest. But though thus meanly descended, though ignorant even of the alphabet, the adventurer had no sooner been placed at the head of a body of troops than he approved himself a man born for conquest and command. Among the crowd of chiefs who were struggling for a share of India, none could compare with him in the qualities of the captain and the statesman. He became a general; he became a sovereign. Out of the fragments of old principalities, which had gone to pieces in the general wreck, he formed for himself a great, compact, and vigorous empire. That empire he ruled with the ability, severity, and vigilance of Louis the Eleventh. Uncontrolled in his pleasures, implacable in his revenge, he had yet enlargement of mind enough to perceive how much the prosperity of subjects adds to the strength of governments. He was an oppressor; but he had at least the merit of protecting his people against all oppression except his own. He was now in extreme old age; but his intellect was as clear, and his spirit as high, as in the prime of manhood. Such was the great founder of the Mahommedan kingdom of Southern India, and the most formidable enemy with whom the English conquerors of India have ever had to contend. Had Hastings been governor of Madras, this Indian chieftain would have been either made a friend, or vigorously encountered as an enemy. Unhappily, the English authorities in the south provoked their powerful neighbour's hostility, without being prepared to repel it. FOR DICTATION. (II.) All around the castle was a seen of busy commotion; for such funeral banquets were times of general and profuse hospitality, of which not only every one who could claim the most distant connection with the deceased, but all passengers whatsoever, were invited to partake. The wealth and consequence of the deceased Saxon nobleman occasioned this custom to be observed in the fullest extent. Numerous parties, therefore, were seen ascending and descending the hill on which the castle was situated; and when the King and his attendants entered the open and unguarded gates of the external barrier, the space within presented a scene not easily reconciled with the cause of the assemblage. In one place cooks were toiling to roast huge oxen and fat sheep; in another, hogsheads of ale were broached to be drained at the freedom of all comers. Groups of every description were to be seen devouring the food and swallowing the liquor thus abandoned to their discretion. The ill-clothed Saxon serf was drowning the sense of his half-year's hunger and thirst in one day of gluttony and drunkenness-the more pampered burgess was eating his morsel with relish, or curiously criticising the quality of the malt and the skill of the brewer. Some few of the poorer Norman gentry might also be seen, distinguished by their shaven chins and short cloaks, and not less so by their keeping together and looking with great scorn on the whole solemnity, even while condescending to avail themselves of the good cheer which was so liberally supplied. Mendicants were of course assembled by the score, together with strolling soldiers returned from Palestine, pedlars were displaying their wares, and travelling mechanics were inquiring after employment. FACTORY INSPECTOR. EXERCISE TO TEST HANDWRITING. Copy, on the form supplied, as much of the following, including the table of figures, as you can in half an hour, taking care to write as well as you can. A STATEMENT Showing the Gross Receipt and Net Produce of the Customs Revenue of the United Kingdom (including the Duty on British Spirits collected on behalf of the Inland Revenue) in each Financial Year from 1872 to 1876 inclusive, with the Charges of Collection thereon, and the Rate per cent. of Collection on the Gross Receipt and Net Produce respectively. The Gross and Net Receipt of Customs as shown in this Statement include the duty collected on behalf of the Inland Revenue, on the delivery for home consumption of British Spirits deposited in the Customs warehouses under Act 27 & 28 Vict. c. 11. The charges of collection include the cost of collecting that duty. The Gross and Net Receipt also include duties collected at the Isle of Man, moneys received as rent for Crown premises, proceeds of goods sold for duties, and other miscellaneous receipts. FACTORY INSPECTOR. ARITHMETIC. Similar to that set to Constabulary Cadets, see p. 483. ADDITION. Similar to that set to Constabulary Cadets, see p. 485. SUBJECTS FOR ENGLISH COMPOSITION. Time allowed, 2 hours. In this exercise attention should be paid to handwriting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and style. 1. Describe any manufacturing process with which you are acquainted; Or, 2. Winter, its inconveniences and pleasures. The composition should fill not less than two folio pages. PRÉCIS. Time allowed, 3 hours. Having read the accompanying Correspondence-* 1. Make a short Abstract, Schedule, or Docket of the several letters and other papers. 2. Draw up a Memorandum or Précis, i.e., a brief and clear statement of what passed, not letter by letter, but in the form of a narrative. DIRECTIONS. (1.) The object of the Abstract, Schedule, or Docket is to serve as an Index. It should contain the date of each letter; the names of the persons by whom and to whom it is written; and, in as few words as possible, the subject of it. The merits of such an Abstract are (1) to give the really important point or points of each letter, omitting everything else; (2) to do this briefly; (3) distinctly; and (4) in such a form as readily to catch the eye. (2.) The object of the Memorandum or Précis, which should be, not letter by letter, but in the form of a narrative, is that anyone who had not time to read the original letters might, by reading the Précis, be put in possession of all the leading features of what passed. The merits of such a Précis are-(I) to contain all that is important in the Correspondence, and nothing that is unimportant; (2) to present this in a consecutive and readable shape, expressed as distinctly as possible; (3) to be as brief as is compatible with completeness and distinctness. Brevity should be particularly studied. The Abstract should occupy 1 or 2 pages only, or 3 at the most. *This was about ten pages of a copy of "Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of South Africa." [C.-2100.] |