94 THE LAW AFFECTING ENGINEERS 



will not apparently be sufficient for this purpose. In a recent 

 case (Bozson v. Altrincham Urban District Council, 1903, 67 

 J. P. 397), one of the conditions was that the party tendering 

 should undertake to execute a contract for the due perform- 

 ance of the works, and enter into a bond with two sureties 

 for due and satisfactory completion. The plaintiff having 

 tendered for the work, and the council having resolved that the 

 tender should be accepted, directed their clerk to write the 

 plaintiff to that effect, and to affix their seal to the letter. It 

 was held that this acceptance did not conclude a contract 

 between the parties. 



2. Advertisement for tenders. The duty of issuing an 

 advertisement for tenders may sometimes devolve upon the 

 engineer. A properly drawn advertisement should state the 

 time and place where the tenders are to be made, and should 

 indicate the place where the plans and specifications are to 

 be seen. It should also contain a statement that bills of 

 quantities ("the accuracy of which is not guaranteed") can 

 be obtained for a certain fee. For the sake of caution, it 

 should be declared that the employers do not undertake to 

 accept the lowest or any tender (as to " the lowest tender," 

 see 13, post). An advertisement of this kind ought to be 

 sufficient to put the most unwary contractor on his guard ; but 

 something more full and explicit is often desirable. 



3. Statement of conditions to be observed on tendering. 

 Owing to his placing too much reliance on the plans, bills of 

 quantities, etc., the contractor sometimes finds that his 

 estimate and tender are far below what they ought to have 

 been. In the result, what promised to be a profitable under- 

 taking often involves serious loss. When seeking the perform- 

 ance of works on a large scale, the engineer may find it 

 prudent to emphasise the difficulties of the undertaking in a 

 series of "conditions to be observed on tendering." Mr. 

 Hudson in his Building Contracts (Vol. II., p. 463), suggests 

 the following : " The contractor must also go over the entire 

 site or line of the works, and satisfy himself about all matters 

 relating to the nature of the ground, subsoil and strata, 

 levels and inclinations, the means of access thereto and egress 

 therefrom, and all other accommodation he may require, the 

 obstacles to the excavation of the trenches, the amount of 



