MASTER-KEY TO PUBLIC OFFICES,

AND

CANDIDATE'S COMPLETE INSTRUCTOR:

FULLY SHOWING

WHAT PLACES TO SEEK; WHAT STEPS TO TAKE; WHO ARE THE
PATRONS; WHAT ARE THE EXAMINATIONS; THE AGES AND
QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED; THE SALARIES, RULES OF
PROMOTION, CLASSIFICATION, HOURS OF ATTEND-
ANCE, PROSPECTS, AND PRIZES IN EACH
OFFICE; RETIRING PENSIONS, ETC.

THE WHOLE FORMING

A COMPREHENSIVE HAND-BOOK

FOR ALL

PERSONS DESIROUS TO ENTER HER MAJESTY'S CIVIL SERVICE.

BY

JOIN BOULGER, ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW,
EDITOR OF "THE CIVIL SERVICE GAZETTE," ETC. ETC.

LONDON:

HOULSTON AND WRIGHT, 65, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1860

226. 6.110.

PREFACE.

ACCORDING to Mr. HORACE MANN, Registrar to the Civil Service Commission, there are 80,000 persons appointed, directly or indirectly, by the central executive authority (exclusive of officers appointed and paid by local jurisdiction), and therefore properly belonging to the permanent Civil Service of the Kingdom. Cutting off the heads and the tails-high political and superior departmental functionaries, and inferior servants-there are between 30,000 and 40,000 holders of Public Civil situations to whom the test of Education now applies, who must prove their qualifications and capacities, and for whose use especially this work is intended. When Patronage was everything, and personal Merit or Qualification nothing, such a book would have been an impertinence, as disclosing the private-partnership affairs of a few families and their dependents-affairs in which the public had apparently no concern; but now that the Service is opened to the millions, the book is a necessity, the information it contains is daily asked for, and is, in fact, indispensable to all persons who have obtained, or who desire to obtain, Civil employment under the Crown. Several Departmental and General Guides, of more or less utility, have been published; but a comprehensive Hand-Book, or Instructor, was still called for: and having peculiar means of knowing the kind of information most in demand, and having special sources from which to supply it, I have felt it my duty to compose this volume for the instruction and use of the Public and of the Service.

In the most carefully-prepared work giving the details and peculiarities of numerous establishments, all of a changeable nature, some inaccuracies will necessarily be discoverable-caused by revisions and re-classifications in progress; but I flatter myself they will in this be found few and of slight importance; and I confidently hope that "THE MASTER-KEY" will be found a right trusty, practical instrument, in the hands of Candidates for Government Situations, by means of which they will easily unlock the doors, and obtain speedy entrance into Public Offices.

Civil Service Gazette Office, 67, Strand, 30th November, 1859.

JOHN BOULGER.

THE EAST INDIA PRIZES FOR 1860.

Ir has just been decided that the number of Appointments for the Civil Service in India open for Unrestricted Public Competition in July next, will be Eighty. For the Official Regulations and Course of Examination, see page 55.