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Marks for Family Merit
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been good enough to reply to questions that I sent to him concerning his
criterion of morality, and other points connected with the statistics, in a
way that seems satisfactory, and he has very obligingly furnished me with
additional MS. materials. One of his conclusions was that morality is
more often found among members of large families than among those of
small ones. It is reasonable to expect this would be the case owing to the
internal discipline among members of large families, and to the
wholesome sustaining and restraining effects of family pride and family
criticism. Members of small families are apt to be selfish, and when the
smallness of the family is due to the deaths of many of its members at
early ages, it is some evidence either of weakness of the family
constitution, or of deficiency of common sense or of affection on the part
of the parents in not taking better care of them. Mr. Holland quotes in his
letter to me a piece of advice by Franklin to a young man in search of a
wife, “to take one out of a bunch of sisters,” and a popular saying that
kittens brought up with others make the best pets, because they have
learned to play without scratching. Sir William Gull
[1]
has remarked that
those candidates for the Indian Civil Service who are members of large
families are on the whole the strongest.
Far be it from me to say that any scheme of marks for family merit
would not require a great deal of preparatory consideration. Careful
statistical inquiries have yet to be made into the family antecedents of
public servants of mature age in connection with their place in
examination lists at the earlier age when they first gained their
appointments. This would be necessary in order to learn the amount of
marks that should be assigned to various degrees of family merit. I foresee
no peculiar difficulty in conducting such an inquiry; indeed, now that
competitive examinations have been in general use for many years, the
time seems ripe for it, but of course its conduct would require much
confidential inquiry and a great deal of trouble in verifying returns. Still, it
admits of being done, and if the results, derived from different sources,
should confirm one another, they could be depended on.
[1]
Blue Book C—1446, 1876. On the Selection and Training of Candidates for the
Indian Civil Service.
