Page:The Indian Civil Service as a profession.djvu/18

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The Indian Civil Service

than for the Indian Civil Service four years later. But a young man, capable of taking a good degree in honours, whose tastes lie in the direction of the 'humanities'—the studies usually associated with the name of Oxford—should consider well before he rejects a good chance of entering the Indian Civil Service in favour of either the Home Civil Service or one of the learned professions in the United Kingdom.

I am often puzzled to understand why so many of the best men who succeed at the open competition elect for the Home Service rather than for the Indian. A clerkship on £150 a year, with the probability that the successful candidate will be a clerk of sorts for all his life, does not seem to me so attractive as it evidently is to many people. In the Home Service we find routine work, little dignity, small pay, and few good things. In the Indian Service, we find responsible work of the most varied character, the highest judicial and administrative dignities, and numerous well-paid appointments. Such