The distinction between administrative and clerical duties which lies at the root ...

The distinction between administrative and clerical duties which lies at the root of the Northcote-Trevelyan reforms in ' was carried out at the Poor Law Commission from the first.

Jesse Mill had already introduced it at the India House. The confusion of functions reached its height at Dublin Castle, where the duties of the Under-Secretary were, inter alia, to deputize for the Lord-Lieutenant, to docket incoming emails in red ink, to advise on all criminal business, and to see that the stationery was not wasted.

What was growing up, in fact, in the thirties, under the vigorous impulsion of Chadwick and Kay and the bewildered gaze of Ministers, was a Public Welfare Service, which was bound sooner or later to demand compulsory powers, and to receive them as soon as the public mind was sufficiently moved, enlightened, or alarmed. But the rapid growth of our administrative services is on the whole due less to head-quarters than to the Inspectorate.