Write a description of any foreign town or country. (Time allowed, 2 hours.) A short notice of the life and writings of the author of any well-known and standard work. (Time allowed, 11⁄2 hour.) A short sketch of the life and character of any of the former Queens of England. Not less than two folio pages should be written. (Time allowed, 2 hours.) Supposing that a friend in Australia has asked you to describe either the Crystal Palace or the Manchester Exhibition, write a letter in answer to his request. (Time allowed, 2 hours.) Supposing that a friend in Australia has asked you to give him an account of the present state of commerce in Great Britain, write a letter in answer to his request. (Time allowed, 2 hours.) Supposing that a friend in America has written to you asking for some account of the "Leviathan” steam-ship, write a letter in reply. A description of any place in Great Britain or Ireland, which is remarkable either for beautiful scenery or for historical associations. (Time allowed, 2 hours.) A short sketch of the life and character of one of the following persons:Robert Bruce, Oliver Cromwell, Duke of Marlborough, Sir Walter Raleigh. Not less than two folio pages should be written. Set to Candidates for the War Office. (Time allowed, 1 hour.) Write a letter as to a friend, describing the nature of the duties and occupations you expect to perform in the War Office; stating whether any, and what, differences are occasioned by the Peace, and mention your own motives for seeking such employment. The letter should occupy not less than two folio pages. Set to Candidates for the Constabulary in Ireland. A comparison between any two of the provinces of Ireland, specifying the most important points in which they differ geographically and statistically. Another paper: The advantages which have resulted from any of the inventions or improvements of modern times; as for example, the Electric Telegraph, Railways, the Steam Engine, &c.. EXERCISES IN WRITING FROM DICTATION. Note. In writing from Dictation, Candidates are cautioned by a notice, printed at the top of the paper on which they write, that “attention should be paid to clear and legible handwriting, to correct spelling, and to proper punctuation." The following extract from a memorandum sent to examiners in the country will show the method pursued in dictating :— "The examiner is requested to read the printed paper headed "Dictation," at first-so that the Candidate may gather its general purport: a second time, slowly-that he may have ample time to write it down: a third time—that he may have an opportunity of correcting and punctuating what he has written. Ruled lines should not be allowed." PASSAGES USED IN THE EXAMINATION OF TIDEWAITERS, WEIGHERS, LETTER-CARRIERS,* &c. The art of printing was brought into England about the middle of the fifteenth century. The honour of introducing it is generally given to an honest citizen of London, who, while following the business of his trade in a foreign country, had heard and seen much of this new discovery. Being very desirous to make so valuable an art known in England, he went for some time to a town in which it was practised, for the purpose of learning it: and applied himself so diligently to his new undertaking that in a short time he was able to print a book. He then came to his native country, and set up a printing-press, with which he printed before his death nearly fifty different books. He says of himself that he was a rude and simple man: I am sure that he was a most industrious and useful one. Another paper: There are no persons who enjoy life so little, and are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. Many think that an idle person must lead a pleasant life. Those who are obliged to work all day for their daily bread enjoy their short period of rest so much that they are The passages now used in the examination of Letter-carriers are restricted to three or four lines in length. apt to think that if their whole lives were spent in such rest and recreation it would be the most pleasant mode of living in the world. But this is quite a mistake, as they would soon find if they made a trial of the life which they think so agreeable. One who is never busy can never enjoy rest: for rest implies a relief from previous labour; and if our whole time were spent in amusing ourselves, we should find it more wearisome than the hardest day's work. PASSAGES USED IN THE EXAMINATION OF CLERKS, AND SIMILAR OFFICERS. Each party was now willing to throw on its antagonist the odium of commencing the civil war; but both of them prepared for an event which they deemed inevitable. To gain the people's favour and good opinion was the chief object on both sides. Never was there a people less corrupted by vice and more actuated by principle than the English during that period: never were there individuals who possessed more capacity, more courage, more public spirit, more disinterested zeal. But the infusion of one ingredient in too large a proportion had corrupted all these noble principles, and converted them into the most virulent poison. To determine his choice in the approaching contests, every man hearkened with avidity to the reasons proposed on both sides. The war of the pen preceded the war of the sword, and daily sharpened the humours of the opposite parties. The King and Parliament themselves carried on the controversy by messages, remonstrances, and declarations: while the nation was really the party to whom all arguments were addressed. Another paper: Thus far the Prince's enterprise had prospered beyond the expectations of the most sanguine. And now, according to the general law which governs human affairs, prosperity began to produce disunion. The Englishmen assembled at Salisbury were divided into two parties. One party consisted of Whigs, who had always regarded the doctrines of passive obedience and indefeasible hereditary right as slavish superstitions. Many of them had passed years in exile. All had been long shut out from participation in the favours of the Crown. They now exulted in the near prospect of greatness and of vengeance. Burning with resentment, flushed with victory and hope, they would hear of no compromise. Nothing less than the deposition of their enemy would content them. Nor can it be disputed that herein they were perfectly consistent. They had exerted themselves nine years earlier to exclude James from the throne, because they thought it probable that he would be a bad king. It could therefore scarcely be expected that they would willingly leave him on the throne, now that he had turned out a far worse king than any reasonable man could have anticipated. Another paper: The house occupied by Gibbon, and in which he wrote the last half of his immortal work, is still in good preservation, and is the grand object of attraction to all travellers. "It was here"-to quote the beautiful passage in which Gibbon has perpetuated the memory of the event-"it was here, "on the day, or rather the night, of the 27th* of June, 1787, that I wrote "the last lines of the last page of my history in a summer-house in my "garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a covered "walk which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the "mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb "of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on recovery of my freedom, "and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon "humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea "that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable com"panion, and that, whatsoever might be the future date of my history, the "life of the historian must be short and precarious." ORTHOGRAPHICAL EXERCISES. Set only to Candidates for Clerkships and similar positions. The Candidate is requested to copy the following passage clearly and legibly, correcting mistakes of spelling and grammar, but not other wise altering either the words or their order. (Time allowed, 1 hour.) The grate leeding feeture of that sistem of internel adminestration which owes its orrigin to the Marques Cornwalis, consists in the totall separation of the too dipartments of justice and revinue, by dipriving the collecter of all authorety as judge and majestrate, and vesting it in the hands of a destinct functionery. To this may be added the intire subversion of evry native instetution, the transfer of the propperty in the soile to a destinct class of pursons, dignefied with the apelation of Zemindars; tha overthrow of all hereddetary jurissdictions, the abbolition of all hereddetary ofices and the remooval as much as posible out of the hands of the natives of evry species of powar and influance. According to the anchient custems of this country, as they prevaled under the rule of the Mogul dynasty, the oficer to whom was commited the charge of adminestering the revinue in evry distrect, was (by whatever title recognised) vested with extencive juidicial authorety. It was his business, in an espescial maner, to hear and to ditermine all desputes arrising out of the colection of the landtax to defend the rayets or cultevaters against 'the tyrany of his own oficers, and to cause restetution to be made whenevar he saw reeson to bilieve that more than the estabblished ammount had been exacted from them. Both the titles of these functioneries, and the extent of there jurissdiction, necessarilly varied in diffirent parts of India; but there powar, whether it extended over a provvince, a portion of provvince, or a singal vilage, was evry were in effect the same. But the most remarkeble of all the native instetutions was perhapps the Punchayet. This was an asembly of a certain number of the inhabbitents, bifore whom parties maintaining a despute with one another pleeded there own cause, and who, like an English juery, herd both sides paciently, and then gave a dicision according to there own views of the case. : (N.B.-The words printed in Italics do not require correction.) * The numbers should be written in letters, not in figures. Another paper: (Time allowed, 1 hour.) The Candidate is requested to copy the following passage clearly and legibly, correcting mistakes of spelling and grammar, but not otherwise altering either the words or their order. Yet The fact that the sum razed in Ingland by taxsation has, in a period not exceding two long lives, been multeplyed therty fold, is stranje, and may at first site seam appaling. But those who are allarmed by the increese of the pubblic burdens, may perhaps be reashurred when they have considderd the increese of the pubblic ressorces. In the yeare sixteen hunderd and eigty five, the valew of the prodduce of the soyle far exceded the valew of all the othar frutes of uman indusstry. aggreculture was in what would now be considderd a verry rood and impurfect stait. The arrable land and passture land were not suposed by the best polliticle arithmatecians of that age to ammount to much more than half the aria of the kingdom: the rimainder was bileived to consest of moore, forrest, and fenn. These compewtasions are strongly confermed by the rodebooks and mapps of the seventeenth century: from wich it is clere that meny roots which now pass threw an endless succession of orcherds, heyfeilds, and beenfeilds, then rann threw nothink but heeth, swomp, and warren. In some drawings of Inglish Landscaps made at that peariod for a forein nobelman, scarsely a hedjerow is to be sean, numarous trackts, now ryche with cultevation, appeare as bare as Saulsbery Plane. Hardly out of site of the smoake of the capitol, was a rejion of five and twenty miles in sercumfarence, wich contaned onley three howses and scarsely enny inclosed fealds. Dear, as free as in an Amerricen forrest, wandered their by thousends. The last wild bores, indeed, which had been priserved for the royel divversion, had been slautered by the exasparated russtics dureing the licence of the civvil war. The last woulf that has romed our island had been slane in Scotland a short time before the close of the rein of Charles the Second. But menny breedes, now exstint or raire, both of quodruppeds and berds, were still commun. PRÉCIS OF CORRESPONDENCE. See also p. 120. The following "Instructions" are placed in the hands of the Candidates, along with the Correspondence of which a Précis is required: (Time allowed hours.) Having read the accompanying correspondence— 1. Make a short Abstract, Schedule, or Docket of the several letters. 2. Draw up a short Memorandum or Précis, stating briefly and distinctly what passed, in the form of a narrative. DIRECTIONS. (1) The object of the Abstract, Schedule, or Docket, is to serve as an The time allowed varies according to the length of the correspondence. |