recent number of _La Semaine des Constructeurs_, and some
considerations are mentioned which are new to us. According to
Fremy-Ligneville, the most familiar authority on the subject, the
architect incurs no responsibility whatever, either for his own
estimates or those of other people, unless he intentionally and
fraudulently misleads his client by a pretended estimate. In this
case, as in that of any other fraud, he is liable for the results of
his crime. Except under such circumstances, however, the architect's
estimate of cost is simply an expression of opinion, the correctness
of which he does not guarantee, any more than a lawyer guarantees the
correctness of an opinion, although important interests may depend
upon it. The owner can estimate the value of the architect's opinion,
as of the lawyer's, by the professional reputation of the man who
gives it, and, if he wishes to be more secure, he can go to another
architect, as he would to another lawyer, for an independent estimate.
Moreover, if the owner of the projected building is still anxious that
the cost should be strictly limited to the sum estimated by the
architects, he can have a contract drawn by which the builder shall be
obliged to complete it for that sum, and can have his plans and
specifications examined by competent authority, to see if they include
everything necessary. This ought to make him reasonably sure what his
house will cost him, provided he does not himself make changes in the
plans or specifications. If he has omitted to take this precaution,
and, as his building goes on, he finds that it is likely to exceed the
estimate, he has another excellent opportunity to protect himself, by
ordering immediately such changes in the plans and specifications for
the work yet remaining to be done as may reduce the expense to the
desired amount, and by doing so he generally suffers no damage, as, if
he does not get all he expected to for his money, he gets all his
money will pay for.

* * * * *

With all these opportunities for revising and testing the correctness
of an architect's estimate, the man who neglects to avail himself of
any of them, and who allows the work on his house to go on, after it
has become evident that it will cost more than the estimate, has,
according to M. Fremy-Ligneville, no claim against any one on account
of his disappointment. Of course, the architect should be as careful
in his estimates as h