"You want to be in harness, my boy, eh?"--said the vicar, turning to me.--"That's right, Frank. Literature will come on, in due course, all in good time. There's nothing like having regular work to do, however trifling. It not only gives you a daily object in life, but also steadies your mind, causing you better to appreciate higher intellectual employment! I thought, however, my boy, that you looked down on `Her Majesty's hard bargains,' as poor Government clerks are somewhat unjustly termed?" "That was, because I thought they were a pack of idlers, doing nothing, and earning a menial salary for it. `Playing from ten to to four, like the fountains in Trafalgar Square,' as _Punch_ declares," I said. "Ah!" said the vicar, "that is a mistake, as you will soon find out when you belong to their body. They _do_ work, and well, too. Many of the grand things on which departmental ministers pride themselves--and get the credit, too, of effecting by their own unaided efforts--are really achieved by the plodding office hacks, who work on unrecognised in our midst! Our whole public service is a blunder, my boy. There is no effective rise given in it to talent or merit, as is the case in other official circles. The `big men,' who are appointed for political purposes, get on, it is true; but, the `little men,' who labour from year's end to year's end, like horses in a mill, never have a chance of distinguishing themselves. When they are of a certain age, and attain a particular height in their office, they become superannuated, and retire; for, should a vacancy occur, of a higher standing in the public secretariat, it is not given to _them_--although the training of their whole life may peculiarly fit them for the post! No, it is bestowed on some young political adherent of the party then in power, who may be as unacquainted with the duties connected with the position, as _I_ am ignorant of double fluxions! This naturally disgusts men with the service; and, that is why you generally hear Government offices spoken of as playgrounds for idle youths, who enter them to saunter through life--on the strength of the constituent-influence of their fathers on the seats of budding MP's." "I really thought they never worked," said I. "There's Horner, for instance. You don't suppose, sir, that _he_ confers such inestimable benefit on his country by his daily avocations in Downing Street?"