J 86 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Junk' 



to remind our friends of another duty, which they too often neglect — 

 the education of his worlimen is a duly, which the engineer thinks he 

 has nothing to do with, he pays the man his wages, and there is an end 

 of the matter, the master may go on in neglect, and the workman in 

 vice, and few take the trouble to consider whether it really is of im- 

 portance to them or no, whether tiie workman becomes an intelligent 

 being or a besotted brute. Let those however who think so read the 

 evidence of Mr. William Fairbairn, given last year before the Parlia- 

 mentary Committee on the state of the working classes, and he will 

 see that by following liis worthy example that much is to be done that 

 will bring its own reward. The educated workman may not become a 

 more skilled mechanic, but he becomes a better servant, he knows his 

 own interests better aud those of his master, he is steadier, less given 

 to combination and to strikes, and in the words of the Quaker cotton 

 spinner, h:is a positive money superiority. The untaught man, how- 

 ever skilful, is too often the source of annoyance to himself and others, 

 looking with ignorant jealousy on his employers, he is ever watchful 

 against any fancied infringement of his rights, ready on any sudden 

 turn to fali into the snare of combining to increase his wages, and how- 

 ever large these may be too often spending both his money and his 

 time in sensual and debasing gratifications, without making any pro- 

 vision for the time when his strength and his youth no longer avail 

 hira. It is this latter circumstance which should direct our attention 

 to do what we can for the improvement of the workman's understand- 

 ing and his morals, and at the same time we should endeavour to re- 

 trieve the errors of the past by giving every assistance for the relief 

 of the unfortunate. Urged by these motives many of the most eminent 

 of the mechanical engineers have come to the determination of form- 

 ing an institution for elFecting the desired results by their own aid, 

 and by the contributions of the workman, so that the operative will 

 at last be enabled to make a provision for himself, his widow or his 

 orphan. The workmen of Messrs. Maudslays have already held a 

 meeting for this purpose. At the late anniversary of the Committee 

 of Marine Engineers, it was proposed that some general measure should 

 be adopted for extending the plan to all parties connected with me- 

 chanical engineering. A specific plan has not yet been adopted, but 

 the following among others have given their sanction to the general 

 principle, and have agreed to carry it out — Bryan Donkin, Esq., V.P., 

 Inst. C.E., Messrs. Maudslay, Sons and Field, Messrs. Miller, Raven- 

 hill and Co., Messrs. John Penn and Son, Messrs. John and Samuel 

 Seaward, and Capel, Messrs. Fairbairn, Murray, and Hetherington, 

 Messrs. John and Alfred Blyth, John Hague, Esq., James Simpson, Esq., 

 and W. .Simpson, Esq., &:c. Under such auspices we trust that the pro- 

 posed institution will be established, and as immediate steps are to be 

 taken to carry it out, we anticipate soon to witness its beneficial effects. 

 Having given this information to the profession, vve shall make no ap- 

 plication to them for supjiort, as we are sure that they want no asking 

 to use every exertion for so laudable a purpose, hi the course of next 

 month we hope the Society will be organized, and in the meanwhile 

 we shall be happy to be the medium of any communications addressed 

 to it through our office. 



ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION. 

 Brown r. Langshaw. 



Sir — In consequence of the erroneous reports of this case in the 

 Cambridge papers and elsewhere, and particularly the attack upon mv 

 professional character contained in a review in the last No. of " The 

 Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal," it has become necessary in 

 self-defence to publish a plain statement of the facts connected with 

 the whole matter. Wrong conclusions ignorantly or designedly drawn 

 from correct statements, may be safely left to tlie judgment and com- 

 mon sense of the public, but when injurious imputations and charges 

 aft'ecting one's reputation are founded on error or perversion, a man 

 must set but little value on his character were he to sutler them to go 

 forth uncontradicted and unrepelled. Such is my position, and I con- 

 fess it is one in which 1 did not expect to be placed, through at least 

 resp ctablc organs, and after the acknowledgment openly made in 

 court by his Lordship and the defendant's counsel, that my character 

 was in no way impeached in the transaction. I will not occupy your 

 valuable space, as I had intended, by specifically replying to the errors 

 and falsehoods contained in the report given in your last month's 

 Journal, but will at once proceed to sketch the principal facts of the 

 case, in order that the public may see its merits and judge whether, 

 instead of my having deceived and misled the committee, I have not 

 been most harshly and unjustly treated throughout the matter, and 

 greatly wronged by the incalculuble result of the late action. 



I forbear also esi>ressly replying to the imputations and assertions 



founded upon the mis-statements to which I have alluded, as I con- 

 sider it sufficient to disprove the premises on which they are based, 

 and rely on that amends which those wh.o have been led to circulate 

 them will, as honourable men, I am sure, award me. 



It was in February, 1837, that I received a letter from the Rev. 

 George Langshaw (see letter A,) as chairman of the committee, in- 

 vitmg me to compete with Mr. Rickman, Mr. Poynter, Mr. Sharpe, 

 and Mr. Walter of Cambridge, in furnishing plans for the intended 

 new church there. Taking the cue from this letter, in which the 

 defendant writes " we are anxious to accomplish something as worthy 

 as possible of the exam|)le of former days, more esjiecially as our 

 church will stand in the middle of Cambridge, opposite Christ's Col- 

 lege," and fr(.nn his criticism, "1 will candidly tell you that your new 

 church at Stamford has pleased many here, though the hisidt has been 

 thought not equal to the outside," I prepared a design in which the 

 interior was rendered exceedingly rich and ell'ective, and the exterior 

 considerably more ornamental than the Stamford churcli. 



The latter structure, built on a design somewhat similar, and so 

 furnishing practical data to a considerable extent for my estimate was 

 executed for .t'3,.')00. The amount of expenditure fixed upon for the 

 Cambridge church was £40(10 (i7(c/ £.300 (the value of the materials 

 of the old churcli), but towards the completion of my drawings I had 

 some misgivings as to the possibility of executing the building for this 

 amount, and upon making my estimate, these misgivings were con- 

 firmed. 



In laying my drawings before the committee, therefore, I distinctly 

 declined to undertake to carry the design into execution, as it then 

 stood, for the £1,500, but explained that certain portions of the orna- 

 mental work could be omitted, without in the slightest degree affect- 

 ing the integrity or general design of the buildings, so r.s to bring it 

 within tliat sum. (See letter B.)* 



What other course, let me ask, would any man, even of the most 

 fastidious sense of honour and integrity, have had me pursue ? the 

 more especially when it was known that my drawings were not com- 

 pleted even until the day they were sent off to Cambridge. 



In October following I received a letter from the defendant, inform- 

 ing me that my plans were preferred, and I shortly afterwards at- 

 tended a meeting of the committee, and received instructions to make 

 certain alterations in the ground and gallery plans, and to prepare two 

 new perspective drawings of the exterior and interior denuded of the 

 expensive ornamental work, and exhibiting the building in the state 

 described in my letter. 



The plans thus altered and those unaltered were then again sub- 

 mitted to the committee, and the whole were formally approved by 

 receiving the defendant's signature. 



At the preceding meeting, however, certain conditions had been 

 drawn up by the committee in the shape of resolutions, the effect of 

 which was that they might decline my plans altogether, if the tenders 

 should exceed the amount of £4,500, and that in that event they 

 should not be bound to make me any remuneration for my drawings 

 and trouble, beyond what would be made to the unsuccessful competi- 

 tors. To these conditions it was required that I should give my un- 

 qualified assent before my p'ans could be finally adopted ; but to this 

 I had strong objections, considering them, by their stringency, calcu- 

 lated to embarrass and prejudice me, but proposed to qualify the con- 

 dition as to the rejection of ray plans, by adding the words "if the 

 excess of the tenders should not be sufficiently accounted for." 



Whilst this was being debated, the committee instructed me to 

 prepare drawings and estimates of transepts, school-room, crypt, ^c, 

 and make many other alterations. 



I did so, and at last, upon being pressed for an assent to the con- 

 ditions, and assured privately by the defendant that these terms were 

 only imposed as a matter of business, and with no intention of taking 

 any undue advantage of me, 1 was induced at last to give it. My 

 plans were thereupon formally adopted, and I received instructions to 

 prepare the working or contract ilrawings; this was in December, 

 1&37. Bearing in mind the observations in Mr. Langshaw's first letter 

 before alluded to, and moreover perceiving that on the part of the 

 committee generally there was still an earnest desire to obtain a build- 

 ing of as ornate a character as po.ssible, I was induced, in preparing 

 the working drawings, to assimilate them very nearly to the more 

 ornamental features of the original design, relying upon being able to 

 obtain the consent of the committee to the condition that in case the 

 tenders were in excess, I should then be allowed to reduce the work- 

 ing drawings of such ornamental work as would make them agree 

 with the plans considered as adopted. The jiarish would thus have 

 the chance of getting the church so built for the £4,500. I accordingly 

 proceeded with and completed the working drawings pursuant to this 



' We have not received ibis letter."— Kpitok. 



