2l4 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Juir, 



him reflect on what lias been attempted and then say if he dare to 

 assign any limit to their future aggressions. We feel that tlie period 

 has now arisen when it becomes tln^ profession in a collective capacity 

 to do in all its power for resisting present attempts, preventing future 

 invasions, and remedying past evils, and unless these things U" done 

 and he done quickly too, we very much fear that an amount of distress 

 and in.^onvenience will be inflicted on every individual, such as to make 

 him bitterly regret his inactivity. 



The Standing Order of the House of Commons requiring the pay- 

 ment of a deposit into the Bank of England of ten per cent, on the 

 ])roposcd capital of all public works, is a regulation the evils of which 

 we have long deprecated. Many have shut their eyes under the de- 

 lusion that either the order would be repealed from a conviction of its 

 inefficiency, or such a change would take place in the money market 

 as would enable it to be complied with. We were never so insane, 

 for we considered that the same ignorance, which could lead to such 

 an enactment in the teeth of reason and ex])erience, would blind its 

 partisans to any defect in its operations, and that whether the money 

 market were either in a sound or unsound st.ite, the impediment would 

 be equally serious. The evils which have arisen to the profession 

 from the stagnation of afl'airs luive been quite enough without any 

 aggravation, but now whatever may be the means or disposition of the 

 monied interest, three years have passed over without a single act 

 having passed for any public work of importance. After the i)resent 

 year we really cannot see where employment for a large part of the 

 profession is to be obtained, for there will be neither railways, canals, 

 docks, harbours, bridges, gas nor water works to be constructed, and 

 no prospect, with jneans however abundant, ofobtainingactsof parlia- 

 ment, except after the long period required by the standing orders. 

 M'e foresaw what the result would be, and we gave warning of it, if 

 therefore every one has remained lukewarm it has been from no de- 

 fault or neglect on our part, and those who will suffer will have them- 

 selves to blame for the event. The engineers must petition and obtain 

 petitions from other parties for tlic redress of the grievances caused 

 by the Ten Per Cent. Clause, for they may readily see that unless they 

 put their shoulders to the wheel and sturdily toe, no relief will they 

 obtain. When an honourable member rose the last session to move for 

 a reduction in the amount of the deposit, how was he supported, and 

 Tvhat was the language of the President of the Board of Trade, the 

 mouthpiece of that department in which all our evils have originated ? 

 He actually declared that no diminution in the number of acts had 

 taken place, that no mischief was caused by the .Standing Order, and 

 finished by referring triumphantly to the number of notices then before 

 the House of application for acts. Had he but enquired how many of 

 these applicaticns were rejected for uon-compliance with this very 

 regulation, and if he had enquired at the end of the session how many 

 acts had |)assed, he would find that the account was merely a blank. 



The Irish Railway Report, and the new Irish Railway scheme, are 

 further developments of the same system; the progress of railways in 

 Ireland has been checked, and the management of such as may be 

 made is proposed to be entrusted to the government, the most ineffi- 

 cient body for the purpose which could possibly be selected, and which 

 has already filled Ireland with monuments of jobbery and mismanage- 

 ment. This new scheme must also be opposed as an emanation from 

 the same stock, and as calculated by acting as a precedent to be pro- 

 ductive of more immediate evil. The .Steam Navigation bill exhi- 

 bited, in all its deformity, the grasping ambition of the Board of 

 Trade; the genius of our engineers was to be controlled, their plans 

 revised, and their workshops taken from under their own manage- 

 ment, and placed under the inquisitorial power of the government. 

 The marine engineers were aroused, and the evil was warded off, but 

 it must not be thought that an end is put to the existence of this 

 monster, 'the snake is not killed but scotched,' and tie spirit which 

 animates it is too visible in the Railways Bill to allow us to doubt of its 

 re^^^al. These Railways Bills are too serious warnings of the danger 

 of allowing the least tampering with our interests, to let us pass them 

 by without calling the attention of our readers to the evils which are 

 threatened by them. Discretionary powers are asked for, the future 

 0])eration of which we arc loo well able to trace in those "shadows of 

 coming events," the "Reports and Papers relating to Railways," pre- 

 sented to Parliament. Here we see military ignoramuses interfering 

 with every part of the construction of railways and locomotives, put- 

 ting the designs of the engineers under supervision, and suggesting 

 that the workshop of the manufacturer of locomotives should be sub- 

 jected to .in inquisition. In fact, if our space permitted us, we might, 

 on this subject alone, draw a fearful picture of the mischief which is 

 threatened to every branch of the profession. Enougli has now been 

 said to call for an interference, and we have only to say further, that 

 experience has shown that even the slightest opposition has been 

 sufficient to check the Board of Trade in its mid-career, and if a 



sturdy opposition be organized, we are not without hopes of having 

 all the grievances redressed. We again recommend the engineers to 

 lose no time, or the profession will be stripped of its independence, 

 and their offices of all appearance of business. 



Neither are the evils confined to the engineers, but equally threaten 

 other and more numerous classes. It is acknowledged that it is to 

 the railways and other public works that we, in a great degree, owe 

 the employment of the working classes, and diminution of the poor 

 rates, and any sudden cessation of employment must be productive of 

 the most disastrous consequences. The contractors, also and sub- 

 contractors employed, and the several classes of tradesmen and la- 

 bourers connected with them, are exposed to consequences equally 

 ruinous; not only will they be put out of work, but their plant, tools 

 and materiel becoming useless, must be sold at ruinous prices. A 

 large amount of capital, also, which was directly employed in pro- 

 moting the progress of the nation, has been, during the suspension, 

 diverted, being either hoarded or rendered comparativelv idle. Con- 

 sidered, indeed, in every possible way, whether on the broadest 

 grounds or the narrowest, the measures of the government equally 

 refuse the test, the interests of the nation being sacrificed through 

 narrow-mindedness, or a love of jobbery. 



PLAN FOR A NEW ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTURAL 

 AND ENGINEERING DRAUGHTSMEN. 



Among the various means which may be adopted in order to attain 

 ar.y desirable object, the association of numerous individuals who have 

 a common interest in if, is one which has often proved successful ia 

 cases where isolated energy would have been unavailing. This may 

 be observed in various instances, whether in pursuits of public utility, 

 of pleasure, of charity, or of a private advantage. 



It is now intended to suggest to the consideration of those concerned, 

 whether this principle of association, so largely applied at the present 

 day to objects of great public concern, might not be made useful to 

 those engaged in one department of the arts of design with which it 

 has hitherto had perhaps but little connection. 



That class of artists is here alluded to, who are employed in a sub- 

 ordinate capacity in prepciring the necessary drawings required pre- 

 viously to the execution of any great work either of architecture or 

 engineering, to furnish the necessary illustration for the artificers who 

 are to carry it into practice, and for the proprietor who is to possess 

 it when completed. 



it may be true that the different societies already formed both of 

 architects and engineers, may have the eftect of adding to the general 

 stock of information, of increasing the means of knowledge, and main- 

 taining the character of each profession with the public ; but the union 

 now advocated, is intended to be of a more humble kind of utility, 

 less exalted in its objects, less interesting to the imagination, but it is 

 conceived, not less adapted to meet the wishes and supply the wants 

 of a considerable number of individuals. 



However it may be that the young student of architecture (by which 

 perhaps he merely means the drawing of architectural decoration), 

 flatters himself that he is pursuing a " fine art," including all the grand 

 and elevating, and beautiful attributes that may be connected with the 

 term, he will probably find sooner or later, (circumstanced as the ;irt 

 is in these utilitarian days), that he cannot pursue it profession., Uy 

 without making it a different sort of business ; a pursuit in which the 

 physical qualities of objects shall be more considered than the aejlhe- 

 tical, in which the combination of the various talents of others shall 

 be preferred to the concentration of a single isolated niiud upon a 

 single visionary object, in which the useful shall triumph over the 

 beautiful, and the matter of fact over the imaginative. 



These observations are put forward as prefatory to the inai?i object 

 of this paper, which is to suggest the formation of an Association of 

 Architectural and Engineering Draughtsmen, for the purpose of 

 enabling them more readily to communicate with each other, and with 

 those at whose hands they expect employment ; and of affording to the 

 latter class, the means of readily obtaining that assistance of which 

 they may stand in need, on terms the most equitable to both parties. 



To obtain these ends, the means now proposed are, the collecting 

 together at a given place for public exhibition, a number of specimens 

 of the abilities of members of the associated body, whether applied in 

 the different ways which are fuund practically useful in business, or 

 exerted to produce results more attractive to the eye at first sight. 

 For there should not merely be a display of the heaven-ward aspira- 

 ions of unfettered fancy, exerted upon castles in the air, bridges over 

 chaos, temples for which even if already erected it would be difficult 

 o contrive any useful destination, and palaces adapted to pursuits of 



