won not by going into rings or making corners, but by treading steadily
the steep path of honour. Mr. Locke was accused of unduly favouring Mr.
Brassey. Mr. Helps replies that the partiality of a man like Mr. Locke
must have been based on business grounds. It was found that when Mr.
Brassey had undertaken a contract, the engineer-in-chief had little to
do in the way of supervision. Mr. Locke felt assured that the bargain
would be not only exactly but handsomely fulfilled, and that no excuse
would be pleaded for alteration or delay. After the fall of a great
viaduct it was suggested to Mr. Brassey that, by representing his case,
he might obtain a reduction of his loss. "No," was his reply, "I have
contracted to make and maintain the road, and nothing shall prevent
Thomas Brassey from being as good as his word."
As a contractor on a large scale, and especially as a contractor for
foreign railroads, Mr. Brassey was led rapidly to develop the system of
sub-contracting. His mode of dealing with his sub-contractors, however,
was peculiar. They did not regularly contract with him, but he appointed
them their work, telling them what price he should give for it. They
were ready to take his word, knowing that they would not suffer by so
doing. The sub-contractor who had made a bad bargain, and found himself
in a scrape, anxiously looked for the coming of Mr. Brassey. "Mr.
Brassey," says one of the witnesses examined for this biography, "came,
saw how matters stood, and invariably satisfied the man. If a cutting
taken to be clay turned out after a very short time to be rock, the sub-
contractor would be getting disheartened, yet he still persevered,
looking to the time when Mr. Brassey should come. He came, walking along
the line as usual with a number of followers, and on coming to the
cutting he looked round, counted the number of waggons at the work,
scanned the cutting, and took stock of the nature of the stuff. "This is
very hard," said he to the sub-contractor. "Yes, it is a pretty deal
harder than I bargained for." Mr. Brassey would linger behind, allowing
the others to go on, and then commence the following conversation: "What
is your price for this cutting?" "So much a yard, Sir." "It is very
evident you are not getting it out for that price. Have you asked for
any advance to be made to you for this rock?" "Yes, sir, but I can make
no sense of them." "If you say that your price is so much, it is quite
clear that you do not do it for that. I am glad that you have persevered
with it; but I shall not alter your price, it must remain as it is; but
the rock must be measured for you twice. Will that do for you?" "Yes,
very well indeed, and I am very much obliged to you, Sir." "Very well,
go on; you have done very well in persevering, and I shall look to you
again." One of these tours of inspection would often cost Mr. Brassey a
thousand pounds."
Mr. Brassey, like all men who have done great things in the practical
world, knew his way to men's hearts. In his tours along the line he
remembered even the navvies, and saluted them by their names.
He understood the value of the co-operative principle as a guarantee for
hearty work. His agents were made partakers in his success, and he
favoured the butty-gang system--that of letting work to a gang of a
dozen men, who divide the pay, allowing something extra to the head of
the gang.
Throughout his life it was a prime object with him to collect around him
a good staff of well-tried and capable men. He chose well, and adhered
to his choice. If a man failed in one line, he did not cast him off, but
tried him in another. It was well known in the labour market that be
would never give a man up if he could help it. He did not even give men
up when they had gone to law with him. In the appendix is a letter
written by him to provide employment for a person who "had by some means
got into a suit or reference against him," but whom he described as
"knowing his work well." In hard times he still kept his staff together
by subdividing the employment.
Those social philosophers who delight in imagining that there is no
engineering skill, or skill of any kind, in England, have to account for
the fact that a large proportion of the foreign railways are of British
construction. The lines built by Mr. Brassey form an imposing figure not
only on the map of England, but on those of Europe, North and South
America, and Australia. The Paris and Rouen Railway was the first of the
series. In passing to the foreign scene of action new difficulties had
to be encountered, including that of carrying over, managing and housing
large bodies of British navvies; and Mr. Brassey's administrative powers
were further tried and more conspicuously developed. The railway army,
under its commander-in-chief, was now fully organized. "If," says Mr.
Helps, "we look at the several persons and classes engaged, they may be
enumerated thus:--There were the engineers of the company or of the
government who were promoters of the line. There were the principal
contractors, whose work had to satisfy these engineers; and there were
the agents of the contractors to whom were apportioned the several
lengths of the line. These agents had the duties, in some respects, of a
commissary-general in an army; and for the work to go on well, it was
necessary that they should be men of much intelligence and force of
character. Then there were the various artizans, such as bricklayers and
masons, whose work, of course, was principally that of constructing the
culverts, bridges, stations, tunnels and viaducts, to which points of
the work the attention of the agents had to be carefully directed.
Again, there were the sub-contractors, whose duties I have enumerated,
and under them were the gangers, the corporals, as it were, in this
great army, being the persons who had the control of small bodies of
workmen, say twenty or more. Then came the great body of navvies, the
privates of the army, upon whose endurance and valour so much depended."
There is a striking passage in one of the Erckmann-Chatrian novels,
depicting the French army going into action, with its vast bodies of
troops of all arms moving over the whole field, marshalled by perfect
discipline and wielded by the single will of Napoleon. The army of
industry when in action also presented a striking appearance in its way.
I think, says one of Mr. Brassey's time keepers with professional
enthusiasm, as fine a spectacle as any man could witness who is
accustomed to look at work is to see a cutting in full operation with
about twenty waggons being filled, every man at his post, and every man
with his shirt open working in the heat of the day, the ganger walking
about and everything going like clockwork. Such an exhibition of
physical power attracted many French gentlemen who came on to the
cuttings at Paris and Rouen and looking at the English workmen with
astonishment said _Mon Dieu, les Anglais comme ils travaillent!_
Another thing that called forth remark was the complete silence that
prevailed amongst the men. It was a fine sight to see the Englishmen
that were there with their muscular arms and hands hairy and brown.
The army was composed of elements as motley as ever met under any
commander. On the Paris and Rouen Railway eleven languages were spoken--
English, Erse, Gaelic, Welsh, French, German, Belgian (Flemish), Dutch,
Piedmontese, Spanish, and Polish. A common lingo naturally sprang up
like the Pigeon English of China. But in the end it seems many of the
navvies learnt to speak French pretty well. We are told that at first
the mode in which the English instructed the French was of a very
original character. They pointed to the earth to be moved or the waggon
to be filled said the word d--n emphatically, stamped their feet and
somehow or other their instructions thus conveyed were generally
comprehended by the foreigners. It is added however that this form of
instruction was only applicable in very simple cases.
The English navvy was found to be the first workman in the world. Some
navvies utterly distanced in working power the labourers of all other
countries. The French at first earned only two francs a day to the
Englishman's four and a half, but with better living, more instruction,
and improved tools (for the French tools were very poor at first) the
Frenchmen came to earn four francs. In the severe and dangerous work of
mining, however the Englishman maintained his superiority in nerve and
steadiness. The Piedmontese were very good hands especially for cutting
rock and at the same time well conducted, sober and saving. The
Neapolitans would not take any heavy work, but they seem to have been
temperate and thrifty. The men from Lucca ranked midway between the
Piedmontese and the Neapolitans. The Germans proved less enduring than
the French; those employed, however, were mostly Bavarians. The Belgians
were good labourers. In the mode of working, the foreign labourers had
of course much to learn from the English, whose experience in railway-
making had taught them the most compendious processes for moving earth.
Mr. Hawkshaw, the engineer, however says, as to the relative cost of
unskilled labour in different countries: "I have come to the conclusion
that its cost is much the same in all. I have had personal experience in
South America, in Russia, and in Holland, as well as in my own country,
and, as consulting engineer to some of the Indian and other foreign
railways. I am pretty well acquainted with the value of Hindoo and other
labour; and though an English labourer will do a larger amount of work
than a Creole or a Hindoo, yet you have to pay them proportionately
higher wages. Dutch labourers are, I think, as good as English, or
nearly so; and Russian workmen are docile and easily taught, and readily
adopt every method shown to them to be better than their own."
The "navvies," though rough, seem not to have been unmanageable. There
are no trades' unions among them, and they seldom strike. Brandy being
cheap in France, they were given to drink, which was not the French
habit: but their good nature, and the freedom with which they spent
their money, made them popular, and even the _gendarmes_ soon found
out the best way of managing them. They sometimes, but not generally,
got unruly on pay day. They came to their foreign work without wife or
family. The unmarried often took foreign wives. It is pleasant to hear
that those who had wives and families in England sent home money
periodically to them; and that they all sent money often to their
parents. They sturdily kept their English habits and their English
dress, with the high-low boots laced up, if they could possibly get them
made.
The multiplicity of schemes now submitted to Mr. Brassey brought out his
powers of calculation and mental arithmetic, which appear to have been
very great. After listening to a multitude of complicated details, he
would arrive mentally in a few seconds at the approximate cost of a
line. He made little use of notes, trusting to his memory, which,
naturally strong, was strengthened by habit. Dealing with hundreds of
people, he kept their affairs in his head and at every halt in his
journeys even for a quarter of an hour at a railway station he would sit
down and write letters of the clearest kind. His biographer says that he
was one of the greatest letter writers ever known.
If he ever got into serious difficulties it was not from miscalculation
but from financial embarrassment which in 1866 pressed upon him in such
a manner and with such severity that his property of all kinds was
largely committed and he weathered the storm only by the aid of the
staunch friends whom his high qualities and honourable conduct had
wedded to his person and his fortunes. In the midst of his difficulties
he pushed on his works to their conclusion with his characteristic
rapidity. His perseverance supported his reputation and turned the
wavering balance in his favour. The daring and vigorous completion of
the Lemberg and Czarnovitz works especially had this good effect and an
incident in connection with them showed the zeal and devotion which Mr.
Brassey's character inspired. The works were chiefly going on at Lemberg
five hundred miles from Vienna and the difficulty was, how to get the
money to pay the men from Vienna to Lemberg, the intervening country
being occupied by the Austrian and Prussian armies. Mr. Brassey's
coadjutor and devoted friend Mr. Ofenheim, Director General of the
Company, undertook to do it. He was told there was no engine but he
found an old engine in a shed. Next he wanted an engine driver and he
found one but the man said that he had a wife and children and that he
would not go. His reluctance was overcome by the promise of a high
reward for himself and a provision in case of death for his wife and
family. The two jumped on the old engine and got up steam. They then
started and ran at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour between the
sentinels of the opposing armies who were so surprised, Mr. Ofenheim
says, that they had not time to shoot him. His only fear was that there
might be a rail up somewhere. But he got to Lemberg and paid the men who
would otherwise have gone home, leaving the line unfinished for the
winter. The Emperor of Austria might well ask, Who is this Mr. Brassey,
the English contractor for whom men are to be found who work with such
zeal and risk their lives? In recognition of a power which the Emperor
had reason to envy he sent Mr. Brassey the Cross of the Iron Crown.
It was only in Spain, the land where two and two make five, that Mr.
Brassey's powers of calculation failed him. He and his partners lost
largely upon the Bilbao railway. It seems that there was a mistake as to
the nature of the soil, and that the climate proved wetter than was
expected. But the firm also forgot to allow for the ecclesiastical
calendar, and the stoppage of work on the numberless fete days. There
were, however, other difficulties peculiarly Spanish,--antediluvian
finance, antediluvian currency, the necessity of sending pay under a
guard of clerks armed with revolvers, and the strange nature of the
people whom it was requisite to employ--one of them, a Carlist chief,
living in defiance of the Government with a tail of ruffians like
himself, who, when you would not transact business as he wished,
"bivouacked" with his tail round your office and threatened to "kill you
as he would a fly." Mr. Brassey managed notwithstanding to illustrate
the civilizing power of railways by teaching the Basques the use of
paper money.
Minor misfortunes of course occurred, such as the fall of the Barentin
Viaduct on the Rouen and Havre railway, a brick structure one hundred
feet high and a third of a mile in length, which had just elicited the
praise of the Minister of Public Works. Rapid execution in bad weather,
and inferior mortar, were the principal causes of this accident. By
extraordinary effort the viaduct was built in less than six months, a
display of energy and resource which the company acknowledged by an
allowance of L1,000. On the Bilbao railway some of the works were
destroyed by very heavy rains. The agent telegraphed to Mr. Brassey to
come at once, as a bridge had been washed down. There hours afterwards
came a telegraph announcing that a large bank was carried away, and next
morning another saying that the rain continued and more damage had been
done. Mr. Brassey, turning to a friend, said, laughing: "I think I had
better wait till I hear that the wind has ceased, so that when I do go I
may see what is _left_ of the works, and estimate all the disasters
at once, and so save a second journey."
Mr. Brassey's business rapidly developed to an immense extent, and,
instead of being contractor for one or two lines, he became a sort of
contractor-in-chief, and a man to be consulted by all railway
proprietors. In thirty-six years be executed no less than one hundred
and seventy railway and other contracts. In his residence, as in his
enterprises, he now became cosmopolitan, and lived a good deal on the
rail. He had the physical power to bear this life. His brother-in-law
says, "I have known him come direct from France to Rugby having left
Havre the night before--he would have been engaged in the office the
whole day." He would then come down to Rugby by the mail train at
twelve o'clock, and it was his common practice to be on the works by six
o'clock the next morning. He would frequently walk from Rugby to
Nuneaton, a distance of sixteen miles. Having arrived at Nuneaton in the
afternoon he would proceed the same night by road to Tamworth, and the
next morning he would be out on the road so soon that he had the
reputation among his staff of being the first man on the works. He used
to proceed over the works from Tamworth to Stafford, walking the greater
part of the distance, and would frequently proceed that same evening to
Lancaster in order to inspect the works there in progress, under the
contract which he had for the execution of the railway from Lancaster to
Carlisle.
In constructing the Great Northern Railway the difficulties of the Fen
Country were met and surmounted. Mr. Brassey's chief agent in this was
Mr. Ballard, a man self raised from the ranks of labour but indebted for
the eminence which he ultimately attained to Mr. Brassey's
discrimination in selecting him for the arduous undertaking. He has
borne interesting testimony to his superior's comprehensiveness and
rapidity of view, the directness with which he went to the important
point, disregarding secondary matters and economizing his time and
thought.
The Italian Railway enterprises of Mr. Brassey owed their origin to the
economical genius of Count Cavour and their execution drew from the
Count the declaration that Mr. Brassey was one of the most remarkable
men he knew; clear-headed, cautious, yet very enterprising and
fulfilling his engagements faithfully. "We never," said the Count, "had
a difficulty with him." And he added that Mr. Brassey would make a
splendid minister of public works. Mr. Brassey took shares gallantly,
and, when their value had risen most generously resigned them with a
view to enabling the government to interest Piedmontese investors in the
undertaking. So far was he from being a maker of corners. It is justly
remarked that these Piedmontese railroads constructed by English
enterprise were a most important link in the chain of events which
brought about the emancipation and unification of Italy.
Mr. Brassey has left on record the notable remark that the railway from
Turin to Novara was completed for about the same money as was spent in
obtaining the Bill for the railway from London to York. If the history
of railway bills in the British Parliament, of which this statement
gives us an inkling, could be disclosed, it would probably be one of the
most scandalous revelations in commercial history. The contests which
led to such ruinous expense and to so much demoralization, both of
Parliament and of the commercial world, were a consequence of adopting
the system of uncontrolled competition in place of that of government
control. Mr. Brassey was in favour of the system of government control.
"He was of opinion that the French policy, which did not admit the
principle of free competition, was not only more calculated to serve the
interests of the shareholders, but more favourable to the public. He
moreover considered that a multiplicity of parallel lines of
communication between the same termini, and the uncontrolled competition
in regard to the service of trains, such as exists in England, did not
secure so efficient a service for the public as the system adopted in
France." Mr. Thomas Brassey says that he remembers that his father, when
travelling in France, would constantly point out the superiority of the
arrangements, and express his regret that the French policy had not been
adopted in England. "He thought that all the advantage of cheap service
and of sufficiently frequent communication, which were intended to be
secured for the British public under a system of free competition, would
have been equally well secured by adopting the foreign system, and
giving a monopoly to the interest of railway communication in a given
district to one company; and then limiting the exercise of that monopoly
by watchful supervision on the part of the State in the interests of the
public." With regard to extensions, he thought that the government might
have secured sufficient compulsory powers. There can be no sort of doubt
that this sort of policy would have saved England an enormous amount of
pecuniary loss, personal distress and public demoralization. It is a
policy, it will be observed, of government regulation, not of government
subsidies or construction by government. It of course implies the
existence of an administration capable of regulating a railway system,
and placed above the influence of jobbery and corruption.
For the adoption of the policy of free competition Sir Robert Peel was
especially responsible. He said, in his own defence, that he had not at
his command power to control those undertakings. Mr. Helps assumes
rather characteristically that he meant official power, and draws a
moral in favour of the extension of the civil service. But there is no
doubt that Peel really meant Parliamentary power. The railway men in the
Parliament were too strong for him and compelled him to throw overboard
the scheme of government control framed by his own committee under the
presidency of Lord Dalhousie. The moral to be drawn therefore is not
that of civil service extension, but that of the necessity of guarding
against Parliamentary rings in legislation concerning public works.
Of all Mr. Brassey's undertakings not one was superior in importance to
that with which Canadians are best acquainted--the Grand Trunk Railway,
with the Victoria Bridge. It is needless here to describe this
enterprise, or to recount the tragic annals of the loss brought on
thousands of shareholders, which financially speaking was its calamitous
sequel. The severest part of the undertaking was the Victoria Bridge.
"The first working season there," says one of the chief agents, "was a
period of difficulty, trouble and disaster." The agents of the
contractors had no experience of the climate. There were numerous
strikes among the workmen. The cholera committed dreadful ravages in the
neighbourhood. In one case, out of a gang of two hundred men, sixty were
sick at one time, many of whom ultimately died. The shortness of the
working season in this country involved much loss of time. It was seldom
that the setting of the masonry was fairly commenced before the middle
of August, and it was certain that all work must cease at the end of
November. Then there were the shoving of the ice at the beginning and
breaking up of the frosts, and the collisions between floating rafts 250
feet long and the staging erected for putting together the tubes. Great
financial difficulties were experienced in consequence of the Crimean
war. The mechanical difficulties were also immense, and called for
extraordinary efforts both of energy and invention. The bridge, however,
was completed, as had been intended, in December, 1859 and formally
opened by the Prince of Wales in the following year. "The devotion and
energy of the large number of workmen employed," says Mr. Hodges, "can
hardly be praised too highly. Once brought into proper discipline, they
worked as we alone can work against difficulties. They have left behind
them in Canada an imperishable monument of British skill, pluck, science
and perseverance in this bridge, which they not only designed, but
constructed."