is experience allows him to be, and any
conscientious man would try not to mislead a client, but both he and
his client must remember that when the tenders of the builders
themselves usually vary from fifty to a hundred per cent for the same
piece of work, an architect's estimate cannot be anything more than an
opinion. Moreover, the architect should not forget that, being an
opinion, and not a guaranty, he is not only at liberty to modify it as
much and as often as he sees fit, but is bound to do so, and to inform
his client at once of the change, when fuller information, or
alteration in the circumstances, shall show him that the original
estimate is likely to be exceeded. If he does this frankly, although
his client may be disappointed, he cannot reproach the architect with
trying to deceive him, and there will probably still be time to make
the changes necessary for reducing the expense to the desired point.
In a case decided in Paris in July, 1855, a man was condemned to pay
fifty-four thousand francs for repairs done on a house. He proved that
his architect had estimated the expense at seven or eight thousand,
but it was shown that the architect had subsequently informed him that
it would be necessary to do more work than was at first contemplated,
and that he had made inquiries about the matter, and had turned out
his tenants so that the work might be done, and had paid the
contractors more than the sum originally estimated; and the court
thought he had no case at all against the architect.

* * * * *

The great building firm of Peto Brothers, in England, having been
awarded a contract for a large public building, have taken advantage
of what, as they say, they consider a favorable opportunity to
initiate a system of profit-sharing with their men, in accordance with
a circular which is printed in the _Builder_. The system described by
the circular is very simple. It is to apply for the present, only to
the contract mentioned, but, if it works well, will be extended to
future cases. Under the arrangement proposed one-quarter of the net
profits of the contract are, when the building is done and the
accounts settled, to be divided, as a bonus above their wages, among
the men who have worked on it, in proportion to the wages they have
earned. The conditions under which each man is entitled to his share
are that he shall have worked long enough on the contract to have
earned five pound