2 THE ARCHITECT. [JAN. 2, 1869.
really to merit being put to the test of experience shall be described, or at least pointed out.
Surveying—a link between architecture and building, when understood to mean the surveying of buildings, and an auxiliary to engineering when applied to land—deserves and shall receive notice. This will give occasion to consider many questions of varied natures which are in debate, as to the position and duties of building surveyors; and to collect and furnish information as to the value, the compulsory sale, and the tenure of house property.
The business of building, especially in these days of keen competition, is in a position which renders reliable and early information of great value; we shall be alive to the importance of securing and furnishing to our readers such intelligence.
Men, as well as work and art, claim space in the pages of The Architect. The position and prospects of the workman, of the labour market, and of the various trade societies of the country; the status of the contractor, and the fair and equitable adjustment of differences between him and his workmen on the one hand, or his employers on the other; and the position, duties, obligations, and remuneration of professional men, form a series of subjects to which we hope to give constant attention. The fitting education alike of the operative and the art workman, the surveyor, the engineer, and the architect, is a kindred subject and one which presses for notice, and cannot, and will not, be long left in its present unsatisfactory condition. THE ARCHITECT will give its hearty and unwavering support to any wise measures for improving the technical education of the artisan, or for the systematic instruction of the student of architecture or civil engineering which may be brought forward.
The proceedings of various learned, professional, and other sorieties, will be reported in these columns so far as they are available, and come within the scope of the journal. These societies have done very much to raise the position of the professions which have founded them; and in that which remains for them to do, they will, we believe, only be successful when supported by the public press.
The columns of The Architect will always be open to all legitimate correspondence,; and readers are invited with brevity and distinctness to address communications to us on any points of importance that arise. Such letters as contain enquiries on points of a practical nature, we shall ordinarily treat as addressed rather to the readers than the conductors of the journal, and shall usually print without editorial reply, with the desire of receiving answers from our readers. The ‘ Notes and Novelties,’ for which we reserve a column, will contain brief and miscellaneous accounts of whatever is newest and best; and for this column and our list of tenders, we shall always gladly welcome properly authenticated information. To furnish the general information of the journal, not only England, but the Continent, the Colonies, India, and the United States will be explored, and The Architect will endeavour to give a constant succession of intelligence at once useful, reliable, and new.
The Editor has no desire in the conduct of this journal to intrude himself, his works, or his name on its readers. No one can feel more than himself the impossibility of carrying out unaided any portion, even the smallest, of the wide programme just sketched—a programme no wider, however, than the narrowest view of the meaning of such a title as The Architect renders it necessary for him to lay down. He is happy, therefore, to be able to rely on the hearty cooperation of many friends and fellow-labourers as contributors and supporters. So many and so varied and so valuable are the sources from which it is possible to obtain contributions, that it is confidently hoped the result may be found to deserve, and will receive, a large share of public confidence.
T. Roger Smith.
Note.—The conductors of The Architect consider it due to themselves and the public to say frankly that, in their opinion, the execution of the illustrations in the first number is not quite equal to the importance of their subjects—most certainly not equal to what they themselves consider it essential such illustrations should be. This arises principally from the difficulty of printing a very large number of copies within a very short time.The defect shall be remedied in the future ; but not to have noticed it would almost have implied that we were not alive to it.—Ed.
THE ARCHITECTURAL AND ENGINEERING PROGRESS MADE DURING THE YEAR 1868.
THE year 1868 has been marked by political events of no ordinary magnitude. As regards its architectural and engineering character, it has no doubt been less memorable, although even in this respect its records are far from presenting a blank.
The absence of enterprise, and the continued embarrassment arising from the operations of finance companies, credit companies, and other associations formed for the purpose of giving an undue stimulus to the employment of the engineer and of the contractor, have continued with unexampled pertinacity. One after another, the boards of directors of some of the largest of our railway companies have been compelled to meet their shareholders with the confession that they have been in the habit of distributing dividends that were not actually earned, and that more money must be forthcoming to meet the demands of accumulated debt. In some cases the result of this long deferred confession has been to show that honesty was the best policy. Difficulties, when boldly looked in the face, have diminished or disappeared ; and the cessation of aggressive warfare has been attended by a careful development of the true sources of revenue.
In other cases the attempt has been made to make the public pay for the extravagance and incompetence of the boards that had so far wasted the property of their constituents. The most signal instance of an aggressive policy of this nature appears to have resulted in failure. The Brighton, South-Eastern, and Chatham and Dover Railway Companies, failing in their attempt to push through Parliament a Bill that would have left the district which they were incorporated in order to serve, altogether at their mercy, have tried the unpopular experiment of a sudden and considerable increase of fares. The immediate cash results will be made evident at the next half-yearly meeting. Judging from the weekly returns, it will be eminently disappointing. The effect produced on the public feeling of the residents in the district is evinced by the Parliamentary notices for the construction of competing lines that have been deposited for the ensuing session.
Some slight indication of a revival, if not of confidence, at least of the anticipation that confidence may some day return, is to be found in the notices given for the needful, and long delayed, supplement to the railway system which is to be afforded by town tramways. It is inexplicable that this simple expedient should have been so long delayed. When once a well-selected and well-conducted experiment is carried out on an adeqaate scale, the experience of what has been done in this respect in America forbids us to doubt the great demand that will rapidly arise for this method of communication.
The wealthy and enterprising merchants of Liverpool have still allowed the formation of a railway tunnel under the Mersey to remain in the state of project, although Parliamentary power has been obtained for carrying out the scheme. The ample return that the actual traffic, so inconveniently carried on by the various ferries, would afford, even if the subway through the solid sandstone on which Liverpool stands should cost as much as that beneath the silt and mud of the Thames at Rotherhithe, is such as to ensure the completion of this scheme sooner or later. However, some effort is now being made to commence operations.
Of all the triumphs gained by the engineer during the year, and in some respects of all the most memorable and successful operations of the military branch of the profession, must be ranked the well-planned and successful march on Magdala. For the first time in our history the conduct of an important expedition has been committed to an engineer. For the first time has a great enterprise, under unexampled conditions, involving the exploration and the temporary military occupation of an entirely unknown country, been carried out with uninterrupted success.
While we have thus raised the credit of the engineers of this country abroad by their admirable discharge of an unprecedented duty, we have done much, not by origination but by progress, for the adornment of our capital at home. We have opened to pedestrian traffic a short and healthy route from Westminster to the Temple. The partial completion of the Thames Embankment is at once the addition of a noble architectural feature to London, a step towards the thorough internal service of the traffic of the metropolis by the opening of well-considered lines of thoroughfare, and a redemption of the Thames from a state altogether discreditable to the civilisation of the nineteenth century.
The work of demolition in other parts of London is preparing further additions to the convenience as well as to the splendour of the metropolis. Thirty months have not proved sufficient for the completion of the Holborn Viaduct—a grievous delay and waste of time and cost for which, we suppose, some explanation will be forthcoming. Enough is done to lead us to anticipate the opening of this important line of roadway with impatience. It will add some forty minutes to the day of each of the hundreds of thousands of persons who daily are condemned to pursue the present tortuous route from Oxford Street to the City. The changes and improvements in the neighbourhood, which cannot be fully appreciated before the completion of this great central improvement, are upon a scale that is actually colossal.
A further step in raising London to a level with other capitals has been taken in the construction of the new Meat Market.
A great improvement in the internal communication of the metropolis has been made by the completion of the Western extension
