332 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[October, 



pay their own survejor ; and an addition of 5 per cent, as architect's com- 

 mission. 



" In case of failure to give such security as may he satisfactory to the sub- 

 scribers, if called upon by them to do so ; he shall have no claim of any kind 

 upon tlieni for any payment or remuneration whatever, and they shall be at 

 liherty to carry into effect any other plan they may select. 



" [ The subscribers will present to the gentleman whose design is marked 

 No. 2, £lb, and to No. 3, £10. 



" Should you. Sir, be desirous upon these terms to send a design, &c., for 

 the Church, you will be pleased to inform the subscribers of your intention 

 to do so, by a letter addressed to me on or before the 30th of November next, 

 and you will send the designs and estimates to me on or before the 30th of 

 December next. 



" I am, Sir, your's, obediently, 



James Sparke, Hon. Sec." 



" P.S. — The architect is requested to conform as nearly as may be in the 

 details of the work, to the printed instructions of the Incorporated Society 

 for promoting the building, &c. of Churches." 



I wish to lay the facts of this case before the public witli as few 

 remarks upon them as possible, but it is necessary here to observe, 

 that it has been stated, by way of apology for the most offensive 

 clauses in this most offensive letter, that they were considered requi- 

 site in order to protect the subscribers against a fraud to which other 

 parties, in similar circumstances, had been recently exposed, by a no- 

 torious falsification of estimates — but this excuse can by no means be 

 admitted. The subscribers* selected the competitors, and were not 

 justified in assuming that all architects are of the stamp alluded to. 

 I sliould like to ask the respectable legal gentleman who signs this 

 document on behalf of the subscribers, (begging his pardon for using 

 the argiwiaitum ad hominem,) how he wculd like to be sorted with 

 such veimin as might be raked out of his profession? 



Whatever opinion the subscribers may have thought fit to hold con- 

 cerning the parties to whom this letter was addressed, it is certain 

 that the terms it offered were peremptorily rejected by the majority, 

 or by the whole of them for any thing I know to the contrary, it may 

 be presumed, also, that somebody took the trouble to enlighten the 

 subscribers upon some little miscalculations into which they luul fallen 

 with regard to the sort of building which £3000 might be expected to 

 produce, since they shortly favoured the same parties with two other 

 letters. 



The first of these coramimications, dated the 18th Nov. 1839, is 

 nearly word for word the same as that dated in October, to the end of 

 the passage marked ]. It then proceeds as follows: — 



" 7f the mbscribers shall be unable to find a respectable builder willing to 

 execute the design of any architect for the sitm of £3000, snch architect shall 

 have no claim of any kind npon the subscribers for any payment or reniunera- 

 tion vhatever, and they shall be at liberty to carry into effect any other de- 

 sign they may think fit to select. 



" The plans to be drawn to the scale of J of an inch to a foot. 



" No colouring or shading to any of the drawings except the plans and 

 sections. 



" No perspective views will be admitted. 



" One-third of the sittings in the body of the church to be in pews 2 ft. 10 

 in. by 1 ft. 8 in. 



" One-third in pews 2 ft. 7 in. by 1 ft. 7 in. 



" One-third ditto 2 ft. 6 in. by 1 ft. 6 in. 



" The west gallery te be fitted up with open seats with back rails." 



The letter then concluded as before from the passage marked [ to 

 the end. To the postcript was added, 



" Your opinion is requested whether it is desirable that any part of the 

 timber be Kyanized, ami if so, what ])art ? 



" Your ojiinion is requested whether 800 persons be too great a number 

 to be accommodated on the floor of the Church, considering that £3000 is 

 the sum to be expended on the whole building, which it is wished to be of 

 an ecclesiastical character, though not of a rich or highly ornamented style." 



The last is as follows : — . 



" Bury St. Edmund's, Nov. 30, 1839. 



" Sir — I have to inform you of the alterations the subscribers have deter- 

 mined upon, and shall feel obliged by your attention thereto. 



" To contain (>50 on the ground tloor. 



" The West gallery 200 children, and a staircase at each end, to be ser- 

 viceable for the side galleries when built. 



" A Tower is indispensable. 



" £3000 to be expended on the building exclusive of architect's commis- 

 sion, and of any drawback for duty on the materials. 



" I bog to observe, that the term " sub.scribers" is used tliroiii;bout in the 

 simr- sense in which it is used by the Hon. Sec. Mr. Sparke, and in no oilier, 

 llie business was of course conducted by a Committee. 



" Pulpit and desk to be included, but not the furniture of the Church, en- 

 closure of same, or bells. 



" The price of Woolpit bricks is about £3 per thousand delivered, but it is 

 presumed allowance will be made for duty. 



" It is guaranteed that the building shall be open for public competition. 

 " The question of Kyanizing is left open. 

 " Colouring of the elevation to be allowed. 



" I am, &c. 



" James Sparke, Hon Sec." 



Upon the faith of the conditions set forth in these three letters, five 

 designs were sent in, three of them by members of tlie Institute of 

 British Architects. How these gentlemen reconciled it to themselves 

 or to the principles laid down in the report on competitions published 

 in their name, and deal on any terms with parties who had shown by 

 their first letter the sort of temper in which they might be rtipected to 

 meet the competitors, and so gross a misapprehension of the practice 

 and duties of their profession, is best known to themselves. Perliaps 

 they imagined that the passage in italics, in the second letter, was in- 

 serted for the purpose of being acted upon, and if so, they are greatly 

 to be commendeil for the purity of their minds. The other two designs 

 were by gentlemen not known as architects to the profession in Lon- 

 don, and these two were the designs preferred. And not without 

 reason ; that selected as No. 1, presented the striking feature of a 

 gpire one hundred and sixty feet high, and was not tidopted without 

 certain reflections, anything but flattering, upon the incompetency of 

 the " London Architects," none of whom had been able to produce any 

 thing to compare with it. 



Having selected the design, the subscribers proceeded to receive 

 tenders for its execution; but it having been whispered that the esti- 

 mates of the builders greatly exceeded the stipulated sum, the result 

 was — not that the subscribers rejected the design and chose another — 

 but that the tenders were returned to the builders unopened, and the 

 design referred back to the architect, for the purpose of being altered 

 so as to bring it within the means of the subscribers. Certain alte- 

 rations having been effected, tenders were received a second time, a 

 contract was made, and the building is now in progress. How the 

 subscribers have fulfilled the conditions they dictated, may be seen by 

 the following statement: 



The accepted tender amounted to £3550 (in round numbers). 



Ill addition to this, extra foundations, to the amount of £150 to 

 £200, were found to be necessary, not in consequence of any unfore- 

 seen difficulty, such as might arise from the nature of the soil, but 

 because it was discovered that the section, (a copy of which lies before 

 me,) represented the foundations to be one foot below the surface of the 

 ground .' 



The cost of the building is therefore to be from £3,700 to £3,750 %. 

 nor is this all, for neither plastering nor painting are included in the 

 contract. 



Instead of G50 sittings in pews on the ground floor, there are but 

 3G0; ISO more are in open seats, and the remainder on benches. 



Instead of stone quoins there is not an atom of stiuie in the building 

 but what may be indispensable. The window jambs. Sec, are of 

 moulded brick, not gauged brick, gentle reader, but bricks from the 

 kiln, with good s joints between them. 



The side walls are 24 bricks tliick, but, to save materials, are built 

 hollow, the construction of the rest of the building being in strict keep- 

 ing ; the side roofs are to be covered with zinc. Whether all this is 

 quite acting up either to the letter or the spirit of the instructions of 

 the Incorporated Society, may admit of a doubt at least ; also whether 

 a building with bare walls of ordinary brick, and fittings of naked 

 deal inside, can be exactly said to maintain an ecclesiastical cha- 

 racter. 



Now these be truths. I offer no commentary upon them, for the 

 case is neither sufficiently novel nor peculiar to call for it. If any 

 thing should be mis-stated, I hope somebody better informed will be 

 so lihliging as to correct it, and I am sure your columns will be open, 

 either for that purpose, or for an explanation of the proceedings of 

 the subscribers, which I should exceedingly like to see, tliat is to say, 

 made upon honourable and equitable grounds. The misfortune is, 

 fto drop now the particular case and pursue the question generally,) 

 that subscribers and committees, possessing the privilege of iniper- 

 sonalitv, and, as Lord Erskine once said of a corporation, having 



neither a body to be kicked nor a soul to be d d, are apt to consider 



that they have fulfilled every obligation incumbent upon them, when 

 they have squared their moral sense by the Law — and who is to blame 

 tlieiii ? They have a right to suppose that the architects, in a matter 

 in which they are so much interested, are as well informed both upon 

 the law and the practice as themselves, and content to abide by both, 

 since they send their designs. Lest, how ever, any professional gentle- 

 man should chance to be in ignorance of his legal position, or should 



