6. A subcontractor should not (without his free consent) be placed
under a general contractor, and no general contractor should be
compelled to accept (without his free consent) the estimate of any
subcontractor.

7. Should a contractor decline to assume in his contract the estimate
for any work not included in his original estimate, he should not
thereby be denied the contract upon the portions of the work covered
by his original estimate.

8. Estimates should not be binding more than thirty days after
received.

9. Unless previous notification has been given to the contrary in the
specification or otherwise, the lowest invited bidder is entitled to
the contract. If radical changes are made, the whole competition
should be reopened.

10. After bids have been received, and before the award, bidders
should not be allowed to amend their estimates.

[Illustration: COMMUNICATIONS]

[_The editors cannot pay attention to demands of correspondents who
forget to give their names and addresses as guaranty of good faith;
nor do they hold themselves responsible for opinions expressed by
their correspondents._]

BARYE'S ADMIRER.

NEW YORK, N.Y., December 28, 1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:--

_Dear Sirs,_--I have just seen a letter from "Anglo-American" in your
issue of December 14, in which he calls for the name of the English
artist who said concerning the French sculptor, Barye: "Had he been
born in Great Britain, we would have had a group by Barye in every
square in London."

Theophile Silvestre reports this remark as if uttered in his presence.
He says (1856) that the speaker was Mr. Herbert, an artist of
distinction. Probably this was Arthur J. Herbert. Your correspondent
takes the remark perhaps too literally, when it merely meant to
express admiration through a slight exaggeration. Mr. Herbert would
have been content to see a few squares only decorated with groups by
an English equivalent of Barye, had one existed.

As to the assertion by "Anglo-American" that Alfred Stevens was "an
artist not inferior to Barye" it will be shared by few who have
studied the works of the great French sculptor of animals and men.

"Anglo-American" is right in saying that my short paper in _Harper's
Weekly_ errs in giving two bronze groups after Barye to Mount Vernon
Square, Baltimore, instead of four. Were I a resident of that city, I
could hardly have known this better, and how the error got th