This recommendation the Treasury so far adopted as to concede to the Postmaster-General the appointment to all postmasterships where the salary exceeded £175 per annum, observing that the principle of making such appointment the reward of merit "would be inapplicable in all cases where the post office is held in conjunction with a private business or profession." And here I may remark that, though it is true that the powers and responsibilities of the chief office can never be placed on a completely satisfactory footing until all subordinate appointments are placed at its disposal, still the concession made was very large and highly valuable, and the relinquishment of so much patronage reflects great honour on the Liberal Administration then in power.[116] The last recommendation which I shall cite is one of far more importance than would appear on the face of it, viz., that the Postmaster-General "should determine the future complement of each class according to the nature and amount of duty to be performed in it." It might seem incredible that such a recommendation should be needed, but hitherto the number in a class had had but little reference to the amount of duty that fell to it to perform, and indeed, as mentioned in an earlier part of this narrative,[117] the division implied no real classification whatever, so that in many instances men of high class were, through lack of ability, employed at low-class work, and _vice versa_. The Report of the Commissioners, being referred by the Treasury to the Postmaster-General, Lord Canning, and having received his almost unqualified approval, was ordered, with little more exception than that already mentioned, to be carried into effect. _Competitive Examinations._ The following entry is on a subject of some difficulty, and of great importance:-- "_March 4th, 1854._--The Report of the Commissioners on the Civil Service generally has been issued. Some months ago they requested my opinion on the draft of their Report, in which they had recommended that the patronage should be accumulated chiefly in the hands of the Treasury (_i.e._, of the Whipper-in for the time being). To this arrangement I objected decidedly, and I now see that they have abandoned it, making the admission to the Service in all cases to depend on a competitive examination, and thus abandoning patronage altogether. This will not, I fear, work well. The competition will, I think, be necessarily thrown on matters of secondary importance. Indeed the Commissioners propose that it shall be literary. The plan is attracting much notice from the public, and is earnestly backed by the _Times_. The Report is in many respects excellent. Indeed the objects aimed at are, without exception, highly creditable to the Commissioners and to the Government."