On the Position of the Engineer in Relation to the Contractors.
May 26, 1854.
I have in due course taken steps to prepare a report for the Directors on the state of the work, but you must not apply to the contractors for such reports. In the first place, it would lead to ridiculous contradictions, inasmuch as most likely my reports would differ materially from theirs; and also it would reverse the whole order of things. I must alone, so long at least as I am the professional adviser of the Company, be the medium of communication with contractors in all matters which the terms of the contract refer to me. I am very particular about the regularity of all these forms, because, although, while all goes smooth, they are of no consequence, yet if, unfortunately, any little difficulties arise, then it is unpleasant and difficult to alter a previous course.
I would ask, then, that all official communications with the contractors should be made through me, and that, even as regards these, we should confer together before any formal resolution should at any time be passed, so as to be sure that it is properly worded, and that no awkward precedent is established.
You may have seen that a great appeal case before the Lords, affecting claims of some hundreds of thousands, has just been finally decided in favour of the Great Western Railway Company after fourteen years of litigation;[190] and this favourable decision was entirely obtained by carefully prepared specifications, and by my not having departed in any single case, in years of correspondence, from the letter and spirit of the contract, and particularly from the fact—strongly commented upon by Lords Cranworth and Brougham—that I had maintained my position of umpire between the Company and contractor. It is, then, as essential to the Company as to the contractor and to me that I should maintain that position.
On the Relations between the Engineer and the Directors.
I.
April 15, 1850.
You will remember that on the 2nd of November last I addressed you a letter on the subject of my acting as umpire in several cases of reference between the Company and contractors, who were raising heavy claims against the Company, in which I expressed my readiness to act in a very responsible, laborious, and thankless position....
I am also still acting, so far as my services can be useful, as your engineer; and in arranging with contractors, &c., there is even now much remaining to be done. As long as I enjoy your full confidence, it would be a great pleasure to me, although the profit might for the present be small, to continue your engineer, looking forward, as I do, at no distant period to the completion of the works; but the changes that have lately taken place in the Board, and the excitement which has been displayed by some of your proprietors in effecting those changes—such excitement as is too apt frequently to lead men to form most unjust and erroneous opinions of the trustworthiness of those who have been long engaged in their service—very naturally causes anxiety. I, and you who have been acting with me for so long, know that I have always advised you honestly, and I hope generally wisely, on such matters as I have been consulted upon, notwithstanding my known connection with other and sometimes conflicting interests. But new men may not have the same confidence in me, and I cannot afford to run the risk of any doubts being entertained upon the subject.