Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.

PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.

[C.-2439.] Price 38. 9d.

CONTENTS.

TWENTY-THIRD REPORT

APPENDIX I.-ORDERS OF HER MAJESTY IN COUNCIL -

APPENDIX II.—Regulations respecting Open Competitive Ex-

aminations settled since the issue of the 22nd Report

APPENDIX III.—Limits of Age and Subjects of Examination

prescribed for the various Departments

APPENDIX IV.-Statistical Tables, &c. relating to the Home

Civil Service

APPENDIX VII.-Specimens of Examination Papers, Home Civil

Service

APPENDIX VIII.-Correspondence relating to the Home Civil

Service

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549

TWENTY-THIRD REPORT.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,

WE, Your Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners, humbly
offer to Your Majesty this our Twenty-third Report.

In accordance with our usual practice we have appended to

this Report a detailed account of the examinations held during

the year 1878.

The total number of cases dealt with in that year was 17,0551;*

the corresponding number in 1877 having been 15,888. These

numbers may be distributed under the following heads:-

It will be observed that the increase, amounting to about 7.3

per cent. on the whole number, occurs almost entirely in the

cases not falling within the provision of the Order in Council of

June 4, 1870, and especially under the heads of Home Services and

Military Services. Under the former head it is due to an in-

crease in the number of persons examined, at the request of the

Lords of the Admiralty, for promotion in the dockyards; and in

the latter to the extended operation of the change introduced in

the previous year, whereby the "preliminary was separated

from the "further" or competitive portion of the examination

for admission to the Royal Military College.

The following statement shows in a summary form the par-

ticulars of the 11,875 Home Civil Service cases dealt with under

* In these and similar statements a candidate who appeared twice (or more) is

counted as two (or more) candidates.

I 447. Wt. B 706.

a