The Philippine Civil Service Law is now about to be put to its first really severe test as a result of the change in the national administration. Heretofore those whose duty and privilege it has been to enforce it have been in the most full and hearty sympathy with its purposes. President McKinley was from the outset definitely committed to the widest application of the merit system to appointments in the Philippines. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Taft firmly supported that system, as has each succeeding governor-general up to, but not including, Mr. Harrison, who is as yet an unknown quantity. It is interesting, however, to note that on the day following his arrival there was a demand for the instant resignation of Mr. Thomas Cary Welch, a faithful and efficient employee of the government, who had been for nearly ten years in the service, whose position was desired for, and immediately given to, Mr. Stephen Bonsal. That gentleman had been appointed at Washington a member of the Municipal Board of Manila immediately after Mr. Harrison's confirmation as governor-general. It is not recorded that Mr. Bonsal rendered any valuable service to the city on the voyage, or during the twenty-four hours of his occupancy of his municipal post subsequent to his arrival! Nor does it appear that he passed any examination before his early promotion. Following closely upon the removal of Mr. Welch came a demand for the resignation of Captain Charles H. Sleeper, Director of Lands, who was unquestionably one of the ablest and most efficient of the bureau chiefs. He had earned the ill-will of the _politicos_ by insisting that persons authorized to make public land surveys, or other surveys on which claims of title as against the government were to be based, should know enough about surveying to make one correct survey when given an opportunity practically to demonstrate their abilities under very favourable conditions. He had also incurred the dislike of influential _caciques_ by defending the occupants of small holdings on friar estates from the rapacity of their rich neighbours, and by protecting free-patent applicants and homesteaders when large landowners opposed their applications in order to prevent their securing land, so that they might the more easily be held as peon labourers. He had started in his bureau a practical school for Filipino surveyors which was training really well-qualified candidates for positions desired by the politicians for themselves or their incompetent friends. Last, but not least, he had helped to upset the plans of the men primarily responsible for the so-called "friar lands investigation" conducted by the House Committee on Insular Affairs, which cost the United States government a very large sum, and resulted in demonstrating his uprightness and the efficiency of his administration.