MR. BRASSEY, CONTRACTOR.* [FIRST NOTICE.]
MA. HELPS has succeeded in what ought to be the object of every biographer,—not so much to tell us what the subject of his memoir did, or even thought, but, if he be worth a memoir at all, to produce bun before our mind's eye as he was ;—he has, that is, made us believe in a man of broad intellect, warm heart and generous band, and he has made ns associate these qualities with the well known name of Brassey the contractor. Mr. Brassey was not a man of genius, but he was what in some respects is more imitable, and therefore more valuable to us, a man of the rarest judgment in business matters, of extraordinary powers of organisation, and of a trustfulness and generosity, which, while they are often found in smaller men, are very uncommon in men who combine with the will to do good such large powers to achieve it. The combination of qualities which enables a man to do so much, and achieve so great a success in life, without, apparently, sacrificing the better part of his own nature, or injuriously a L(fe and Labours of Mr. Brassey. By Arthur Helps. London : Bell and Daldy. 1879. affecting the welfare of others, is exceedingly rare, and justi- fies the attempt to describe it, and show how it enabled Mr. Brassey to make his own interests harmonious with those of his employers and employe's.
Though we should have read Mr. Helps's book with very little discernment if we attributed to Mr. Brassey a base and worldly reading of the proverb, " Honesty is the best policy," yet we may fairly say that no better example of its truth has ever been furnished, and the words " Vide Helps's Life of Brassey" might with benefit be added in future copy-books. The secret of his unparalleled success, the foundation of his colossal fortune—assisted, no doubt, by great intellectual power and by favourable circumstances—was emphatically his high moral nature, a nature to which it was not merely duty, but strong desire and absolute pleasure, to carry out, not only to the letter, not merely in the spirit, but in a largely generous and liberal spirit, the engagements, both specific and implied, which he had entered into with those for whom he worked and with those who worked for him. Men are not slow to discover these invaluable qualities in those whom they employ, and especially capitalists whose money, and engi- neers whose reputation are embarked in the enterprise to be carried out. They naturally, and without any betrayal of those who have committed their interests to them, give a preference to such a one, knowing that it is not a question merely of who will undertake the work for the lowest sum, but who will afterwards carry out his promises in their fullest integrity, recognising none of the numerous frauds of business, not even sailing close to the wind, scarcely exacting his just and honourable rights, but pressing on his work, anxious only to do it thoroughly well, and as quickly as may be consistent with such thoroughness ; avoiding disputes and law, taking no advantage of the mistakes or ignorance of others, and not too anxious for profit, but trusting for it to his own skill and judgment in his preliminary calculations, and abid- ing bravely and cheerfully by his own mistakes or by the acci- dental strokes of adverse fortune. Such a man was Mr. Brassey, and it followed naturally that when his rare qualities had been proved, large works were not only offered to, but pressed upon him, without being first subjected to public competition ; works so exten- sive that, without taking any advantage of the preference felt for him to charge more than the usual profits of his business, he realised by skilful management and re-investment of only three per cent. on the capital he laid out for others the enormous sum of two and a half millions sterling in the course of his life ;—and this notwith- standing, as we have said, the wise liberality of his business, and, as we have not yet said, the exceeding generosity of his private ex- penditure, a generosity that gave away, it is said, £200,000 in the course of his life. As a remarkable instance of his readiness to accept full responsibility and great pecuniary loss, rather than delay work which he had undertaken, even when there was reason to suppose that the cause of accident and loss lay in defective engineer- ing design, and not in unskilful execution, we must quote part of a letter, addressed to the biographer, which appears in the appendix ; and we may remark, by the way, that this is only one instance out of many in which Mr. Brassey declined to urge quite reasonable claims for compensation and assistance :—
" The fall of the Barentin Viaduct, on the Rouen and Havre Railway, brings out the same generosity of feeling. In 1846 the original struc- ture, of light and elegant design, had nearly reached completion, when one night it fell to the ground from end to end, owing to some defect, which he himself had previously pointed out, in an offer to share with the company the expense of the necessary remedy. This catastrophe involved a loss of at least £30,000, which in those days was not a small sum, even to Mr. Brassey ; and as there were good reasons for laying the blame and the loss on others, most men would in the circumstances at least have disputed their liability. Not so Mr. Brassey. Without pausing for a moment on such questions, he at once addressed himself to the task of filling up the gap."
We do not mean that this chivalrous devotion to duty and sense of responsibility were sufficient of themselves to insure such a success as Mr. Brassey attained, but that no intellectual power, no pro- fessional ability, and no talent for direction of large affairs could have brought within his grasp the vast works which built up his fortune, if the remarkable integrity of his character and the liberality of his dealings had not early and widely recommended him to those who had public money to spend. His rapid and correct judgment, however, his skill in calculation and finance, his grasp and memory of detail, his tact in negotiation, and more than all, perhaps, his hold on the affections of his subordinates, were great additional forces in his hands, and enabled him to turn to marvellous account the opportunities which his character brought within his reach of these forces, the power which the devo- tion of his agents supplied was both the greatest, the most un- usual, and the moat interesting ; and it arose, Mr. Helps tells us, —proving his case with abundant evidence,—from the quite un- bounded confidence which he placed in them, and the liberality and friendliness of his bearing towards them. Acting on a principle the reverse of that by which he bound himself ri- gorously to fulfil his own engagements, he was ready, on evidence of unforeseen contingencies resulting in loss to those in his employ, to render the most generous assistance or make the amplest allow- ance. Thus all under him knew that they would be treated with more than justice, and they were free to forget self-interest, and give up their whole mind to the work in hand. Sure of the readiest assistance and the kindest forbearance, and permitted to work out all details in the manner most consonant to their indi- vidual genius, all depressing influences were removed ; thought, skill and experience came into full play, and the certainty that reward and prosperity would follow the conscientious discharge of duty added that zest to work to which very few of us indeed are superior. This unreserved confidence and unwonted liberality might have been very fatal to Mr. Brassey's interests, removed, as his agents generally were, from any possibility of supervision— working in all parts of the globe—had he not possessed the gift, reserved, it would almost seem, by the Creator, for the especial reward and protection of the pure in heart, of reading char- acter at a glance, and choosing his assistants and friends with an unerring instinct. It is marvellous that we do not hear of a single mistake in this direction, nor of a single instance of decep- tion or fraud ; and when we learn that his works were carried on in every corner of Europe, in India, South America, Canada, and Australia, and that they included 6,600 miles of railway, besides very numerous other public works, and cost seventy-five millions of money, we get some faint idea of how many and how much he must have trusted; and when every allowance is made for the pos- sible ignorance of the biographer, and for the clear judgment of the subject of the memoir in his selection of agents, we must still consider it almost established, that confidence, even as a matter of policy, is far more successful when displayed by a man of this sort of insight, than checks and eapionnage, and that freedom to work out each his own idea is more sure to produce a satis- factory result, by tasking the full powers of the mind and in- teresting the intellect in the work, than the most minute and care- ful instructions in the world. On this matter we are quite in accordance with Mr. Helps, who writes as follows:—
" Apply this to all kinds of work, and it will be found that the judicious master not only places the ' wise confidence' I have spoken of above, in his agents, but is able to abstain from unwise interference and needless criticism, and to be content with allowing his work to be done by other people somewhat in their own way, so that it be well done. Where most men fail in governing is in not trusting enough to those
who have to act under them From all I have seen of Mr. Brassey's conduct, as a principal, I am convinced that he was one of the most judicious masters, as well as one of the kindest ; and that, looking ever to results, he thoroughly understood the art of leaving his agents to do their work in their own way, when minute interference was needless,—all interference, as he well knew, having a tendency to check an agent's energy and his power of reasonable assumption of responsible authority."
All this is so different from the ordinary way of doing business, that it is difficult to imagine a book more calculated to effect a valuable revolution in the principles which should guide those who work for and with and over others, whether on the stupendous scale of Mr. Brassey or within the humblest and narrowest limits. The usual business maxims are entirely falsified by Mr. Brassey's experience,—" Soaped every one ;" " trust no one farther than you can see ;" " exact your rights rigorously, and you will be respected the more ;" "everyone for himself, and God for us all," &c. We hear little about God in Mr. Helps's life of the great contractor, and scarcely (we regret to say) a word of his religious views ; but we are mistaken if a man so trustful, so generous, so tender- hearted, so modest, so refined, so patient, so cheerful, and so full of admiration for everything that was either good or beautiful
around him, did not habitually act from far higher motives than either self-interest, though of the most honourable kind, or even a lofty and imperious sense of duty. We venture to think that, so far from believing in the last maxim we have quoted, he was one to whom all things were added because he sought first the kingdom of God. It will do no harm if men of the ordinary business stamp should be tempted to try his plan. The base motive from which they will begin can scarcely fail to give place to the right one, under the softening influence of the conduct they will have to pursue.
We must reserve our remarks on the book, as a book, for a future notice. In the meantime, the world is much indebted to Mr.
Helps for chronicling the causes of such a remarkable success.
Previous page
