d have been
obtained from a survey of any other field in which the like qualities
have been displayed. It was chiefly with railway enterprises, and this
almost from their inception, and to an extent far beyond the rivalry
of any other constructor, that Mr. Brassey was engaged; and the
railway system, not only by its own immense demands on capital, labor
and inventive skill, but still more by the stimulus and aid it has
given to industrial enterprises of every kind, must be regarded as the
main lever of a material progress that has outstripped the conceptions
and possibilities of all previous ages. With the development of a
system so different in its nature from the great undertakings of any
former period came the need of the contractor, entrusted with the
direction and laden with the full responsibility of works which no
government "boards" or similar machinery would have been competent to
carry through under the conditions imposed by the novel circumstances
of the movement and the exacting spirit by which it was impelled. To
attain the foremost place in the new career thus created demanded,
obviously, no ordinary powers--special knowledge of various kinds,
equal facility in mastering details and grasping a general plan, tact
in the choice and management of subordinates, courage and promptness
in encountering unforeseen obstacles and disasters, and skill and
clearheadedness in the general control of enormous and intricate
financial interests. To these qualities must be added in the present
case what is not so invariably associated with the names of succesful
contractors--a faithfulness and integrity which merited and received
the fullest confidence. Whether working at a gain or at a loss, Mr.
Brassey was ever resolute to execute his engagements to the letter,
and he declined to make demands for extra compensation when his
contracts proved unprofitable, though it was customary with him to
make good the losses of his sub-contractors. He amassed a colossal
fortune, not through excessive gains, but by a small profit--"as
nearly as possible three per cent."--which accrued to him from all his
enterprises taken as a whole, and the accumulations consequent on an
inexpensive mode of life.

The railways constructed by Mr. Brassey, generally in partnership
with some other contractor, between the years 1834 and 1870, comprised
between six and seven thousand miles in all parts of the globe,
including Australia and in almost every c