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  Another area in which the British excelled was in the skilled and dangerous work of mining tunnels. Conditions were bad: the air was foul, men often worked soaked to the skin and it was no place for the faint-hearted: ‘At times you hear alarming creaking noises round you, the earth threatening to cave in and overwhelm the labourers.’ It took raw courage to crawl into tunnels where the timbers were already bending under the pressure of the earth and shore up the space while the old supports cracked around you.

  British navvies had other less admirable traits. They discovered brandy, and drank it as they did the local wine – with predictable consequences. Pay days were always an excuse for a ‘few’ bottles to do the rounds. Otherwise, however, the men fitted in at least as well with the life of the French villagers as they had with their English counterparts.

  Helps’ biography of Brassey gives the broad sweep of the life of railway builders in France in the 1840s. A more detailed picture emerges from the diaries and papers of his partner William Mackenzie and his younger brother, Edward. The two contractors established offices in France and Edward set up house there, bringing his family out to join him. He worked on the Paris to Rouen line right up to its opening, and then promptly went on to start work on the Rouen to Le Havre Railway in 1843.

  They faced many problems. It was obviously in their interest, having brought their army over to France, to ensure that it was fully occupied. This was not always easy. Weather in January might make work impossible. On 10 January 1842, Edward noted in his diary: ‘Very few men at work, the Frost being so deep into the ground, in the afternoon Rhodes and I went to Mezieres. The men with great difficulty kept at work. Very cold.’ In the event, the weather got worse and nothing at all was done until the 17th. When the weather was favourable, work might be held up because the company had not completed the deeds for buying the land.

  I left early, Turner with me, for Les Mureaux, met Worthington and a great gang of men being idle for want of possession of land. He went with me into the wood near Epone and pointed out where a small piece of land was got, and we commenced and cut out a gully. I then returned home to breakfast.

  Delays could, however, be, a good deal more troublesome. In February 1843 he wrote,

  I went to the Poissy end of the works where a gang of men were at work making up part of an embankment at that point, working to every disadvantage not to stop the ballasting from Poissy. This job might have been done six months ago but we were not allowed to break ground at that time.

  A rather more common complaint received no more than the laconic jotting: ‘Very few men at work being pay Monday.’ There was no more success on the Tuesday either.

  Pay was a recurring problem. Contractors were not easily persuaded to offer extras no matter what the circumstances: ‘A man was killed by a fall this morning in the waggon face east end of Nanty Hill. The men in consequence turned out for more wages but they were not any better for it and went to work on the same terms.’

  In general, the Mackenzies knew their own men well, and the diaries are full of entries referring to men like ‘old Price’ or ‘old John Henman’, who would come over from England looking for work and be given it straight away. Men appeared who were last seen tipping at ‘the Liverpool tunnel’, and others who came not on their own but now with a son ready to follow on the navvy trail. There might be the occasional critical comment: ‘Some Irish men were very impudent and saucy’, or bad work noted: ‘culverts built by vagabonds the name Casey & Eagin’. Not that Edward was above criticism himself. William noted in his diary for 2 Feb 1842 that the foundations of the bridge at Rosney were in a poor state: ‘Edward was told to use hydraulic mortar, but did not, neglected doing so which is very bad work in such situations and very often we suffer in consequence.’ This event does not appear in Edward’s notes.

  William Mackenzie, who took the early contracts for building French railways, together with Thomas Brassey.

  On the whole, the brothers got on well together, and with the workforce they had brought with them. They found the French – and the French authorities – a good deal more difficult to cope with. Sometimes the problem was no more than the sort of fracas that could as easily have happened anywhere. A Frenchman hit one of the contracting staff, and when he came to collect his final pay was ‘very insolent’. He was sent packing, after which the mayor and a gendarme turned up, rather too late to be of any use. Far more disturbing was a series of events that began when one of the French gangers, Lamours, responsible for paying the labourers, collected 5300 francs for work done, and then absconded, leaving the men unpaid. The next day they turned up demanding their cash, but ‘We sent them off’. As far as the contractors were concerned, their deal was with the absent Monsieur Lamours and he had been paid: nothing that happened after that was their concern. The third day of the affair, things grew worse. Brassey appeared on site with Joseph Locke, who was not happy with the quality of the masonry work. Brassey then suggested to Edward Mackenzie that he follow them to Bonnivray. Edward recounts,

  Barentin viaduct, which failed catastrophically and had to be entirely rebuilt.

  I followed but was stopped by Lamours men, who said they must be paid before they would let me go. I was kept 2½ hours and was released by some Dragoons sent from Vernon.

  The matter was now referred to the authorities, who decided that the Mackenzies had indeed met their legal obligations, but to keep the peace the men would have to be paid. Edward was disgusted: ‘They said this is French law – the people are masters not the magistrates. We had to pay the men 7120 francs – this sum is now to be paid twice.’ He was a good deal more cautious a few weeks later when he had to deal with a somewhat suspicious Belgian ganger, Delmier.

  Returned along the line, paid the Belgian and asked his men if they were satisfied he would pay them. They all said they were. I gave him his money and left them.

  History was shortly to repeat itself, and in the most embarrassing circumstances. This time not only were Locke and Brassey at the works on a visit, they had the Minister of Public Works with them: ‘Word came through that Delmier men were come to the office. The Belgian had sloped after all the precautions we had taken.’ The result was inevitable: the payment had to be made all over again.

  Occasionally the contractors were more fortunate. While working on the Orleans railway, Edward heard that a ganger called Simcox had left without paying his men. There was a fair chance he was heading for home, and sure enough he was caught about to catch a coach to Paris. He was hauled back, made to hand over all the money, 1300 francs, and was then sacked on the spot.

  Mackenzie had at least his core of British navvies, and this made life a great deal easier than it was for William Lloyd, who had only started his engineering apprenticeship in 1838 and in 1842 found himself on his way to a post as resident engineer on the ‘Great Northern of France’. It was all very different from the scene he had left behind in Croydon: ‘Then France was French, our bedrooms were not too luxurious, the floors were of red tiles innocent of carpet, water was limited in quantity, and soap was absent from the washstand – this had to be purchased off the chamber-maid.’

  He arrived with six navvies to take charge of work at Beaumont, but found there were no men, no tools, no equipment of any kind whatsoever, simply a ‘preremptory order’ to employ 300 men and start work at once. More in hope than expectation, he put up notices asking local peasants to turn up on the next morning with whatever tools they owned. When he went to the meeting place he found ‘a motley crowd of volunteer navvies, numbering more than a hundred, with every species of earth-disturbing implement, and with a perfect collection of wheelbarrows, many of remote antiquity.’ He set this makeshift band to work, but was delighted when a gang of Belgian navvies with experience on the railways appeared looking for work. He hired them on the spot – and created a riot. The French did not want Belgian workers. In fact they claimed they would kill any Belgian who as much as picked up a shovel. Lloyd went to talk to
the French, but rather than pacifying them, his speech seemed only to make them more irate. One of the English navvies, known as Tom Breakwater from his having been born on Plymouth breakwater, came up to Lloyd to ask what it was the angry men were shouting. Lloyd explained that they were threatening to throw him in the river, a prospect which Tom Breakwater accepted with equanimity. He coolly remarked, ‘Never mind, master, I’ll pull you out.’ Lloyd had a better scheme. It was, he declared, a King’s Fête day, and everyone could have the day off. This was greeted with great enthusiasm. Lloyd, not surprisingly, felt in need of a restorative and popped in to the local inn, where he was cheerily greeted by the ringleaders of the mini-rebellion. He spent the rest of the day drinking the King’s health with the men who a few hours before had threatened to drown him. What happened on the next day history does not tell. This little adventure at the beginning of his career did nothing to deter Lloyd, who spent much of his life travelling the world as an itinerant railway builder – as indeed did the laconic Tom Breakwater.

  A drawing from William Mackenzie’s office of an arch of a viaduct across the Seine on the Paris to Rouen Railway

  Lloyd’s experience was an unusual one. Most French railways appear to have adopted the practice established by Locke and other engineers of leaving the hiring of workmen in the hands of contractors. It was all too easy for a young Englishman, new to the country and not speaking the language, to fall foul of local prejudices. Not that prejudice was limited to French attitudes to the English. Edward Mackenzie, when faced with problems, revealed the typical British reaction to foreigners in his diaries: ‘After breakfast went into the town with Tomes – called about the Stabling by appointment, but as usual with the French no appointment was kept.’ Or again: ‘Paid off Old Blubberhead his store account and took 1000 francs of deductions off his bills and he never made a remark. This is French honesty.’

  The world of the railway builders can seem to be a very closed one, into which the larger world of politics never impinged. But no sector of French life escaped the events of 1848, the ‘Year of Revolutions.’ In Paris, the crowds were out on the streets and the barricades were going up. The clamour for reform was turning into a full-scale revolution. To the British in France, events in Paris warranted a diary jotting. What really concerned them was the effect on their workforce, and the problems they faced in getting money from their Parisian bankers to pay wages and bills. The following extracts from Edward Mackenzie’s diary give something of the flavour and problems of the times.

  24 Feb Nothing but destruction in the neighbourhood of Paris. Louis Philippe (King) abdicated, all the barriers stopped and the city in open rebellion and Republic proclaimed – less rain afternoon.

  26 Feb Arranged for engine and some horses being sent to Dieppe to finish the work there if the present disturbed state of the Country ceased and things became peaceable.

  1 Mar Some mechanics from Tours came down in the waggon with me to Boulogne. These men are driven away by the Revolutionaries and not allowed to stop.

  9 Mar Some of the bricklayers were standing idle, and said they would go to work no more there, that they were afraid of their lives and that the Frenchmen threw bricks at them last night in the tunnel and told them they must all quit.

  I went through the tunnel, all was quiet and no symtoms [sic] of disorder. Two Gendarmes came up and said they had heard something of the row but that they would take steps to prevent it.

  The authorities then agreed to do what they could to prevent the intimidation of the British workers. That problem was, however, replaced by a new one.

  12 Mar Had word from Laffitte stating that they had stopped payment and that the Bank would be closed for a time, and he said also the 60,000 francs advised as being sent off for us had not been sent.

  The money was sent only for it to be immediately misappropriated.

  14 March When I got to the office this morning enquired immediately (from a letter just received from Faurin telling me Adams had played me a trick) from James whether the checks I had given him yesterday were cashed. He said no, that Adams had told him the 60,000 francs which had come for us he would take to his own account. Laffite & Co owing him money considered he was first in appropriating our money to pay himself … got a statement of all the facts put on paper connected with this rascally transaction.

  Malaunay viaduct on the route from Rouen to Le Havre, which was strengthened following the collapse of the Barentin viaduct

  25 March Paris in a very unsettled and discontented manner, every thief being a King.

  His own position was all the time getting steadily worse and he was beginning to pay off the men. Attempts to get more money were constantly frustrated.

  19 April We went from here to the Bordeaux railway office, saw Mr du Richmond one of the Directors who said they had no money, and that Government had given notice for all the lines being taken into their own hands.

  20 April Told we could not get any more money from the Boulogne Company for construction but that we were to be paid for maintenance 15,000 fr now and the balance the first of May when our upholding would cease.

  There was nothing to be done but to ship the wagons and horses back to England and tidy up the business. William Mackenzie drew £400 out of a Liverpool bank to pay the men, and Edward was soon off inspecting a line being built in Belgium. It was to be some time before the Mackenzies were to be back building railways in France.

  The financial affairs of the contractor as seen by Edward Mackenzie, preoccupied with the day to day running of a major construction site, were very different from those as seen by the partners, Thomas Brassey and William Mackenzie. William’s diary is full of details of new proposals and political manoeuvring. While Edward bustled around the Paris-Rouen-Le Havre network, William was engaged in finding new contracts, as well as settling problems on existing lines. His reputation had won him contracts in France and other parts of Europe, while at the same time other contractors, in France and Belgium, were trying to buy his favour or gain it via threats of political influence. He had already by this time begun work on the Orleans & Bordeaux Railway, but was working from his London office. A diary entry on a visit in January 1845 serves as a reminder that the big contractors needed to be conversant with more than just civil engineering.

  17 January Mr Haddon, Winch, my nephew and I went and called on Mr Wright respecting pattern 1st Class Carriage for Orleans & Bordeaux Railway.

  The official opening of the line from Paris to Le Havre included the blessing of the locomotive

  A few days later he received a very different proposition.

  29 January About mid day the Belgian Gentlemen Contractors called on me to propose that I would consent to amalgamate the Bordeaux Contracts with them and Barbier to which proposal I refused to listen -they strongly advised me to do so as sound Policy or the Council of State upset my Contract – They then told me Barbier has sent for them to join him and they were to find Capital and knowledge and experience, none of which he had – they said hitherto they had not seen him. They asked me if I would allow them an interview tomorrow at 12°ck respecting a Railway in Belgium. I complied.

  Mackenzie was aware that although the English were a major force in railway building in Europe, their continental associates had the ear of government, as a later entry shows.

  13 March Government in my opinion are more disposed to thwarting as much as possible than be honest. Laurent & Luzarch are listened to in everything. The feeling is French use English money and English have no control whatsoever.

  It was a situation rife with wheeler-dealers, bribes and the payment of backhanders. Powerful men like Mackenzie and Brassey were in a strong enough position to stand above such mean dealings. Mackenzie’s diaries record a meeting with one such easer of ways and opener of palms, Mr Cunningham.

  1 April He then said have you plenty of money. I replied no – he then wished to impress on my mind he had worked hard for us with his influence on the Havre line an
d would be glad of a few Hundred pounds for such service. I flatly declined him. He said in Spain he ought to have some smacks. I would not listen to such proposal, his influence is Humbug.

  It was all very well for the Mackenzies of the contracting world to take a high-principled attitude, but the lower echelons of contractors and sub-contractors were constantly on the brink of bankruptcy. Very little had to go awry with a contract for a slim profit to turn into a loss. To ensure that contractors could meet their obligations to workforce and suppliers, it was required that they should deposit money with the railway company as a safeguard. Mackenzie noted that one of the first things he did before starting work on the Orleans, Tours and Bordeaux Railway was to deposit £80,000 with the government. Small contractors often sank all their cash into equipment and prevaricated as long as possible over their deposits. Some prevaricated for so long that they were overtaken by events, with drastic consequences. William Mackenzie visited the Orleans area in January 1843, a journey involving ‘the worst roads and worst travelling I ever experienced’, and arrived in Nancy to be confronted with just such a situation, involving a minor contractor.

  Rennaud was going to shoot himself. It turned out when he took his contract he did not deposit his caution money (£1200) to the Ponts et Chaussées and moreover he had not the means and in the case the said works would again be adjudicated and if let for more money he would have to make good the difference to Government as far as his means would cover. In this state of mind he would come to any terms with me and he had thus far transferred his interests to us. I had him fast but under the circumstances I behaved liberally to him in giving him & Dubeck half the profits allowing us a sum for Cash and Materials but all cash and management wholly and solely to be in McK & Brassey control whatsoever any Mem” of Agreement that comes O’Neill’s claim which I would not at all admit under the circumstance of public adjudication. He brought us interest and the matter was free to us nevertheless I gave him a verbal promise of £100 not to be considered a claim and that his interest had done us any favour whatsoever. His position is wholly and solely the personal interest he professes to have by Deputies, Ministers &c and that he can put us in a Train by connecting ourselves with Rennaud and Dubeck to procure private Contracts from Government that will yield a return of 30 to 40% profit. We of course furnish all the funds and management and manage funds on the Marne and Rhone Canal is the first large job to be obtained. It is 6000 metres in length about 30 miles from Bordeaux. I beg in fear it will be much the same as the canal and turn out that Government would give it to us without either Dubeck’s interest or Rennaud’s and we could do it for a less figure by not being hampered by these speculators who have nothing to lose and might gain something however I will follow it.