It will be remembered that the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Civil Establishments, 1888, expressed the belief: "that the certain advantages of promotion by merit to the most deserving men, and therefore to the public service, are so great as to be sure, in the long run, to command public support." But the fact remains that a large part of the rank and file of the British civil service is growing more and more intolerant of promotion by merit, and demands promotion by seniority. It will not accept as a fact the natural inequality of men; it asserts, with its cousins at the Antipodes, the Australasian civil servants, that it is the opportunity that makes the man, not the man that makes the opportunity. This impatience of the rank and file of the civil servants of promotion by merit was brought out in striking manner by many of the "grievances" cited by the men who appeared before the Tweedmouth Committee as the accredited representatives of the Post Office employees. Some of those allegations of grievance have just been recorded, but this matter is of sufficient importance to warrant the recording of still others. Mr. Joseph Shephard, Chairman of the Metropolitan Districts Board of the Postal Telegraph Clerks' Association, complained before the Tweedmouth Committee that one West, who had entered the telegraph service as a learner in 1881, one month after one Ward had entered as a learner, in 1896 was receiving $640, whereas Ward was receiving only $550. It was true that Ward had "had the misfortune to fail in the needle examination," the first time he had tried to qualify as a telegraphist, but "that little failure" ought not to have made the difference which existed in 1896. Mr. Shephard also complained that one Morgan, after 14 years and 11 months of service, was receiving only $550, whereas one Kensington, after 14 years and 5 months of service, was receiving $670. He brushed aside as of no consequence, the fact that Kensington had "qualified" in four months, whereas Ward had taken twelve months to "qualify."[306]