III.
December 12, 1851.
With reference to your letter of December 11, stating that the Directors ‘are satisfied that great irregularities have existed, and that they feel it to be their duty, and will not hesitate on any occasion, to represent to me any irregularity on the part of my staff that may come to their knowledge,’ I am almost afraid, unless in a short note you may have failed to convey to me the meaning of the Directors, that they greatly misunderstand my feelings on the subject; my great desire, as great as, possibly greater than even that of the Directors, who cannot feel so personally responsible as I do for the efficiency of my staff—my great desire I say is to hear immediately from anybody, and particularly of course from a Director, of any supposed irregularity; and I should feel that I had ground of complaint even if any such report or any suspicion of any irregularity were not immediately communicated to me. The moment that the Directors could doubt my being as anxious as they can be to know and to remedy any irregularity, or that they should look upon me in such matters otherwise than as one of themselves, I should feel that I had lost their confidence, and could no longer carry on satisfactorily to myself my duties, and should therefore resign them. Such must, I beg, be our relative position as regards the future; and carrying out this principle as regards the past, I must beg of them to tell me explicitly what are the irregularities to which they refer as having been committed. I ought to be fully informed of such things—indeed, nothing ought to be suspected even without my knowing; for if I ought not to know, who ought?
As a matter of form, and to be strictly correct, I must guard myself against being supposed to mean that I could desire or approve of what the Directors I am sure would also disapprove of—namely, a system of fault-seeking—because in a very numerous staff or body of men, particularly where they have not the benefit of permanent situations, the perfection of regularity cannot be hoped for; what I principally seek and require of my assistants is an honest discharge of their duties, and any departure from this it is well known amongst them I never overlook. Have the goodness, therefore, to ascertain for me, and to let me know immediately, what these irregularities have been.
A few words may here be added on Mr. Brunel’s practice in reference to taking pupils.
Although many of his assistants had been his pupils, he did not encourage young men to come to him with the object of learning their profession in his office. He never absolutely declined to take pupils; but he endeavoured, by fixing a high premium, to reduce the number of applicants.
He did not profess to do more for his pupils than to give them the opportunities of seeing work, afforded by his office, and the chance of being afterwards employed as his assistants. He attached much importance to private study of mathematics and other branches of science.
Passing on to the position assumed by Mr. Brunel in his relations to the profession at large;—it may be stated in a few words, that he was desirous on all occasions of promoting its welfare by encouraging friendly intercourse among its members, by healing strife, by suppressing as far as he could all cant or pretension, and by setting his face steadfastly against all attempts to fetter the freedom of invention or to lessen the independence of engineers by State patronage or control.
It may appear strange to affirm of one who was foremost in almost all the professional contests of his time, that he was zealous in healing strife; but it is nevertheless true that Mr. Brunel, while he was a bold and uncompromising advocate of his own schemes, was at the same time untiring in his exertions to limit the area of controversy, to confine it strictly within its proper bounds, and to divest it of all personality or of anything which could lead to unpleasant feeling or annoyance.
His endeavours to this end were greatly helped by the friendly relations which he maintained at all times with his professional brethren. He never allowed any divergence of opinion to interfere with private friendship; and, even in the height of controversy, he was glad to give, and ready to ask for, advice on matters connected with the scientific departments of civil engineering.