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CONTRACTS FOR WORKS. 
city. Advertisements are then inserted in news- 
papers, or otherwise brought before the notice 
of the public, stating that certain works are re- 
quired to be done, the plans and particulars of 
which are deposited for inspection and examina- 
tion at a certain place, from some specified date 
to another, and inviting all persons who may be 
willing to contract for the execution of such 
work, to inspect the plans, or the ground itself, 
and to send in sealed tenders to a certain place, 
on or before a certain day; in which they are to 
state the price or conditions upon which they 
will undertake the performance of the work. 
These tenders are opened by a committee or 
some authorized person, and the common course 
is to let, or give the work to the lowest bid- 
der. Notwithstanding this is the usual practice, 
it is one that ought not to be universally adopted, 
because the ability of the contractor to perform 
the work, and his responsibility ought always to 
be inquired into. Many instances occur in which 
parties, from the hope of gain, will put in tenders, 
| without being acquainted with the nature of the 
work, and will take contracts for its performance 
at prices lower than it can possibly be done for, 
although they perhaps neither possess the neces- 
sary implements, or capital to pay their men, or 
provide what is necessary for its execution; and, 
notwithstanding they may give sureties under 
bond for the due performance of what they un- 
dertake, yet when they find it costs more than 
they are to receive for it, or that their operations 
are so unsatisfactory to the engineer that he will 
not pass their accounts for payment, abscond, 
leaving their sureties to suffer, or prove that they 
are not responsible; the engineer has then to 
look out for other persons to finish his work, after 
much delay and vexation, and perhaps can only 
procure them at very advanced prices. The en- 
gineer, from his knowledge and experience, ought 
to be able to judge of the value of what he means 
to execute, and should be consulted as to the 
tenders before any one is accepted ; and he ought 
not to permit any tender to be accepted when he 
knows the price offered is such a one as will not 
allow the work to be executed in a good and sub- 
stantial manner. Cases do sometimes occur, and 
the author has met with them, in which able 
and competent contractors having a heavy stock 
of materials and horses, and powerful gangs of 
men, whose operations may have met with tem- 
porary suspension from unavoidable causes, un- 
dertake to do jobs at very low prices through 
competition, rather than break up their estab- 
lishments, and. dispose of their stock; and in 
such cases, if the contractor is known to be capa- 
ble and responsible, of course the engineer is 
bound to give his employer the advantage aris- 
ing from the circumstances; but in general he 
cannot be too careful about the character and 
responsibility of his contractor. Persons who 
undertake large contracts for earth-work, as well 
as their workmen, have obtained the name of 
trayerba, and by others Millaria Contrayerba. 
CONVEYANCH. 
Navigators, from the circumstance of their work 
having in general some connexion with the for- 
mation of inland canals, docks, and rivers, or 
other accessories to navigation.— Millington. 
CONTRAJERVA,—botanically Dorstenia Con- 
trajerva. A tender, evergreen, medicinal, herba- 
ceous plant, of the nettle tribe. It is a native of 
Peru, Mexico, and the West Indies, and was in- 
troduced to the hothouses of Britain about the 
middle of last century. Its root is fusiform, 
knotty, branching, brown without, and whitish 
within; its leaves are radical, petiolate, about 
four inches long, about four inches broad, irregu- 
lar-shaped, and deeply laciniated ; and its fructi- 
fication is produced on radical stalks or scapes 
about 4 or 6 inches high, and comprises a fleshy, 
placenta-like receptacle, about an inch long, and 
three-fourths of an inch broad, and a number of 
very small, green, scarcely conspicuous flowers, 
packed closely together, and covering the whole 
disc of the receptacle. The root is the part used 
in medicine; it retains its virtues when dried 
and pulverized, and surrenders them to either 
alcohol or water; it has a warm, bitterish taste, 
and acts as a sudorific and a tonic; and it is em- 
ployed in chronic rheumatism, atonic gout, dy- 
sentery, difficult dentition, and several kinds of 
fevers.—Contrajerva or Contrayerba is also the 
name of a tender, medicinal, biennal plant, of the 
sunflower division of the composite order. This 
plant is called by some botanists Flavaria Con- 
It 
was introduced to Britain from Peru, near the 
close of last century. It has a height of about 
20 inches, and carries a yellow flower in the lat- 
ter part of summer and early part of autumn. 
CONTUSION. See Brutsz. 
CONVALLARIA. See Liny or tHE VALueEy. 
CONVOLVULUS. See Binpweep. | 
CONVEYANCE, in law. The transfer of the 
title to lands or hereditaments. There are dif- 
ferent kinds of conveyance at common law; as | 
by feoffment and livery, that is, making a deed 
of the land in fee, and putting the grantee into | 
possession ; by lease and release, that 1s, granting 
a term of years, or other limited right of posses- 
sion of the land, and then relinquishing the re- | 
mainder to the lessee, after he has taken posses- | 
sion; by grant, which was first used in regard to 
incorporeal hereditament, such as the right of re- 
ceiving a certain perpetual rent, or appointing a 
clergyman to a particular church, where no livery 
of seizin and actual possession could be given, but 
was subsequently applied to corporeal heredita- 
ments; or, finally, by bargain and sale, which is, 
in fact, a species of grant. Such were the modes | 
of conveyance by the common law ; but the in- 
troduction of uses and trusts made a great revo- 
lution in the modes of conveyance in England. | 
The feoffment to uses was first introduced, where- | 
by the fee of the land was granted to one person, 
for the use or benefit of another. ‘The statute of 
27° Henry VIII., was passed to prevent this 
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