ABSTRACT
Offering a career of advancement and ever-increasing variety in work, authority and status, together with an adequate salary and generous pension, a civil service clerkship was a valuable prize. As the justices’ power and influence in penal policy and administration were extinguished, the stage was not left to the Prison Commissioners alone. Higher grades of the reformed civil service were to make a much more effective challenge to Du Cane than the magistrates. There were changes both in the size of government and in how it was conducted. Although the proportionate changes in Home Office staffing were significant, the base numbers remained small. Standing, status and independence of action within an organization are largely determined by the mode and terms of appointment of personnel. At one extreme is grace and favour. Whether through nepotism or political patronage, office thus obtained permits very little independent action.
