SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 157 



or; and he thought it the architect's business to 

 carry into effect the designs of another. 



He was a gentleman ; and, therefore, a brief ex- 

 planation of his error soon put things into a more 

 orthodox, if not better, train. The land surveyor 

 was paid off — his plans put into the fire — and an 

 entirely new design ordered to be made : — But, stay ! 

 — The excavations for the cellarage of the ^' land- 

 lubber's" model were already made ; so that my 

 new design must be made to suit them ! — No matter. 

 The half of a professional man's employment consists 

 in making good the enors of blundering predecessors. 

 The greatest evil in the matter was simply a moral 

 one : for he who would thus have supplanted me in 

 the legitimate practice of my dearly purchased pro- 

 fession, was one whom I had employed more than 

 once in his own proper business. He had measured 

 ground, laid down lines, and taken levels for me. 

 If he were not humbled in thus assisting one who 

 could have done without him, was he not presump- 

 tuous in subsequently attempting to supersede his 

 employer ? 



Not in the least : or, at any rate, he stands greatly 

 excused ; for where is the man to whom money is 

 necessary, who will not esteem himself at full the 

 price which others seem ready to pay for him ? 



Charitably to speak it, perhaps there is no blame 

 attachable to any party. The patron erred in igno- 

 rance ; the surveyor from substantial necessity ; and 

 the circumstances under which both have acted, are 

 rather pitiful than criminal. 



No. Men individually must not be attacked. 

 The manners of society, however, are free game ; 

 and there is surely no harm in the statement of par- 

 ticular examples when they are honestly pointed at 

 the world in general, and with no invidious aim at 

 the parties involved. Where is the Radical, who, 

 having abused the half measures of the Whigs, or 

 the Whig, who, having vituperated the whole mea- 

 sures of the Tories, would not be proud to give his 



