Chapter XVI: Part 16

That Napoleon retained some feeling of distrust, or even of fear, of Fouche was proved by his conduct in the early days of 1808. While engaged in the campaign of Spain, the emperor heard rumours that Fouche and Talleyrand, once bitter enemies, were having interviews at Paris in which Murat, king of Naples, was concerned. At once the sensitive autocrat hurried to Paris, but found nothing to incriminate Fouche. In that year Fouche received the title of duke of Otranto. During the absence of Napoleon in Austria in the campaign of 1809, the British Walcheren expedition threatened for a time the safety of Antwerp. Fouche thereupon issued an order to the prefects of the northern departments of the empire for the mobilization of 60,000 National Guards. He added to the order a statement in which occurred the words: "Let us prove to Europe that although the genius of Napoleon can throw lustre on France, his presence is not necessary to enable us to repulse the enemy." The emperor's approval of the measure was no less marked than his disapproval of the words just quoted. The next months brought further causes of friction between emperor and minister. The latter, knowing the desire of his master for peace at the close of the year 1809, undertook on his own account to make secret overtures to the British ministry. A little later Napoleon opened negotiations and found that Fouche had forestalled him. His rage against his minister was extreme, and on the 3rd of June 1810 he dismissed him from his office. However, as it was not the emperor's custom completely to disgrace a man who might again be useful, Fouche received the governorship of Rome. He went thither, not as governor but as fugitive, for on receiving the emperor's order to give up certain important documents of his former ministry, he handed over only a few, declaring that the rest were destroyed. At this the emperor's anger burst forth again, and Fouche on learning, after his arrival at Florence, that the storm was still raging at Paris, prepared to sail to the United States. Compelled, however, by stress of weather and sickness to put back again, he found a mediator in Elisa Bonaparte, grand duchess of Tuscany, thanks to whom he was allowed to settle at Aix and finally to return to his domain of Point Carre. In 1812 he sought vainly to turn Napoleon from the projected invasion of Russia; and on the return of the emperor in haste from Smorgoni to Paris at the close of that year, the ex-minister of police was suspected of complicity in the conspiracy of General Malet, which came so strangely near to success. From this suspicion Fouche cleared himself and gave the emperor useful advice concerning internal affairs and the diplomatic situation. Nevertheless, the emperor, still distrustful of the arch-intriguer, ordered him to undertake the government of the Illyrian provinces. On the break-up of the Napoleonic system in Germany in October 1813 Fouche was ordered to repair to Rome and thence to Naples, in order to watch the movements of Murat. Before Fouche arrived at Naples Murat threw off the mask and invaded the Roman territory, whereupon Fouche received orders to return to France. He arrived at Paris on the 10th of April 1814 at the time when Napoleon was being constrained by his marshals to abdicate.

The conduct of Fouche at this crisis was characteristic. As senator he advised the senate to send a deputation to the comte d'Artois, brother of Louis XVIII., with a view to a reconciliation between the monarchy and the nation. A little later he addressed to Napoleon, then at Elba, a letter begging him in the interests of peace and of France to withdraw to the United States. To the new sovereign Louis XVIII. he sent an appeal in favour of liberty and recommending the adoption of measures which would conciliate all interests. It was not successful, but Fouche remained unmolested.

This was far from satisfying him, and when he found that there were no hopes of advancement, he entered into relations with conspirators who sought the overthrow of the Bourbons. Lafayette and Davout were concerned in the affair, but their refusal to take the course desired by Fouche and other bold spirits led to nothing being done. Soon Napoleon escaped from Elba and made his way in triumph to Paris. Shortly before his arrival at Paris (March 19, 1815) Louis XVIII. sent to Fouche an offer of the ministry of police, which he declined, saying, "It is too late; the only plan to adopt is to retreat." He then foiled an attempt of the royalists to arrest him, and on the arrival of Napoleon he received for the third time the portfolio of police. That, however, did not prevent him from entering into secret relations with Metternich at Vienna, his aim being then, as always, to prepare for all eventualities. Meanwhile he used all his powers to induce the emperor to popularise his rule, and he is said to have caused the insertion of the words "The sovereignty resides in the people; it is the source of power" in the declaration of the council of state. But the autocratic tendencies of Napoleon could scarcely be held in check, and Fouche seeing the fall of the emperor to be imminent, took measures to expedite it and secure his own interests. On the 22nd of June Napoleon abdicated for the second time, and Fouche was next day elected president of the commission which provisionally governed France. Already he was in touch with Louis XVIII., then at Ghent, and now secretly received the overtures of his agent at Paris. While ostensibly working for the recognition of Napoleon II., he facilitated the success of the Bourbon cause, and thus procured for himself a place in the ministry of Louis XVIII. Even his skill, however, was unequal to the task of conciliating hot-headed royalists who remembered his vote as regicide and his fanaticism as terrorist. He resigned office, and after acting for a brief space as ambassador at Dresden, he retired to Prague. Finally he settled at Trieste, where he died on the 25th of December 1820. He had accumulated great wealth.

Marked at the outset by fanaticism, which, though cruel, was at least conscientious, Fouche's character deteriorated in and after the year 1794 into one of calculating cunning. The transition represented all that was worst in the life of France during the period of the Revolution and Empire. In Fouche the enthusiasm of the earlier period appeared as a cold, selfish and remorseless fanaticism; in him the bureaucracy of the period 1795-1799 and the autocracy of Napoleon found their ablest instrument. Yet his intellectual pride prevented him sinking to the level of a mere tool. His relations to Napoleon were marked by a certain aloofness. He multiplied the means of resistance even to that irresistible autocrat, so that though removed from office, he was never wholly disgraced. Despised by all for his tergiversations, he nevertheless was sought by all on account of his cleverness. He repaid the contempt of his superiors and the adulation of his inferiors by a mask of impenetrable reserve or scorn. He sought for power and neglected no means to make himself serviceable to the party whose success appeared to be imminent. Yet, while appearing to be the servant of the victors, present or prospective, he never gave himself to any one party. In this versatility he resembles Talleyrand, of whom he was a coarse replica. Both professed, under all their shifts and turns, to be desirous of serving France. Talleyrand certainly did so in the sphere of diplomacy; Fouche may occasionally have done so in the sphere of intrigue.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Fouche wrote some political pamphlets and reports, the
chief of which are _Reflexions sur le jugement de Louis Capet_ (1793);
_Reflexions sur l'education publique_ (1793); _Rapport et projet de
loi relatif aux colleges_ (1793); _Rapport sur la situation de
Commune-Affranchie_ [_Lyons_] (1794); _Lettre aux prefets concernant
les pretres_, &c. (1801); also the letters of 1815 noted above, and a
_Lettre au duc de Wellington_ (1817). The best life of Fouche is that
by L. Madelin, _Fouche_ (2 vols., Paris, 1901). The so-called _Fouche
Memoirs_ are not genuine, but they were apparently compiled, at least
in part, from notes written by Fouche, and are often valuable, though
their account of events (e.g. of the negotiations of 1809-1810) is not
seldom untrustworthy. For those negotiations see Coquelle, _Napoleon
et l'Angleterre_ (Paris, 1903, Eng. trans., London, 1904). For the
plots with which Fouche had to deal see E. Daudet, _La Police et les
Chouans sous le Consulat et l'Empire_ (Paris, 1895); P.M.C. Desmarest,
_Temoignages historiques, ou quinze ans de haute police_ (Paris, 1833,
2nd ed., 1900); E. Picard, _Bonaparte et Moreau_ (Paris, 1905); G.A.
Thierry, _Conspirateurs et gens de police_; _le complot de libelles_
(Paris, 1903) (Eng. trans., London, 1903); H. Welschinger, _Le Duc
d'Enghien_ (Paris, 1888); E. Guillon, _Les Complots militaires sous le
Consulat et l'Empire_ (Paris, 1894). (J. Hl. R.)

FOUCHER, SIMON (1644-1696), French philosopher, was born at Dijon on the 1st of March 1644. He was the son of a merchant, and appears to have taken orders at a very early age. For some years he held the position of honorary canon at Dijon, but this he resigned in order to take up his residence in Paris. He graduated at the Sorbonne, and spent the remainder of his life in literary work in Paris, where he died on the 27th of April 1696. In his day Foucher enjoyed considerable repute as a keen opponent of Malebranche. His philosophical standpoint was one of scepticism in regard to external perception. He revived the old arguments of the Academy, and advanced them with much ingenuity against Malebranche's doctrine. Otherwise his scepticism is subordinate to orthodox belief, the fundamental dogmas of the church seeming to him intuitively evident. His object was to reconcile his religious with his philosophical creed, and to remain a Christian without ceasing to be an academician. His writings against Malebranche were collected under the title _Dissertations sur la recherche de la verite_, 1693.

See F. Rabbe, _L'Abbe Simon Foucher_ (1867); C. Jourdain in
_Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques_ (1875), pp. 557-559.

FOUCQUET, JEAN, or JEHAN (c. 1415-1485), French painter, born at Tours, is the most representative and national French painter of the 15th century. Of his life little is known, but it is certain that he was in Italy about 1437, where he executed the portrait of Pope Eugenius IV., and that upon his return to France, whilst retaining his purely French sentiment, he grafted the elements of the Tuscan style, which he had acquired during his sojourn in Italy, upon the style of the Van Eycks, which was the basis of early 15th-century French art, and thus became the founder of an important new school. He was court painter to Louis XI. Though his supreme excellence as an illuminator and miniaturist, of exquisite precision in the rendering of the finest detail, and his power of clear characterization in work on this minute scale, have long since procured him an eminent position in the art of his country, his importance as a painter was only realized when his portraits and altarpieces were for the first time brought together from various parts of Europe in 1904, at the exhibition of the French Primitives held at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. One of Foucquet's most important paintings is the diptych, formerly at Notre Dame de Melun, of which one wing, depicting Agnes Sorel as the Virgin, is now at the Antwerp Museum and the other in the Berlin Gallery. The Louvre has his oil portraits of Charles VII., of Count Wilczek, and of Jouvenal des Ursins, besides a portrait drawing in crayon; whilst an authentic portrait from his brush is in the Liechtenstein collection. Far more numerous are his illuminated books and miniatures that have come down to us. The Brentano-Laroche collection at Frankfort contains forty miniatures from a Book of Hours, painted in 1461 for Etienne Chevalier who is portrayed by Foucquet on the Berlin wing of the Melun altarpiece. From Foucquet's hand again are eleven out of the fourteen miniatures illustrating a translation of Josephus at the Bibliotheque Nationale. The second volume of this MS., unfortunately with only one of the original thirteen miniatures, was discovered and bought in 1903 by Mr Henry Yates Thompson at a London sale, and restored by him to France.

See _Oeuvres de Jehan Foucquet_ (Curmer, Paris, 1866-1867); A. de
Champeaux and P. Gauchery, _Oeuvres d'art executees pour le duc de
Berry_; "Facsimiles of two histories by Jean Foucquet" from vols. i.
and ii. of the _Anciennetes des Juifs_ (London, 1902); Charles Blanc,
_Histoire des peintres de toutes les ecoles_ (introduction); and
Georges Lafenestre, _Jehan Fouquet_ (Paris, 1902).

FOUGERES, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, 30 m. N.E. of Rennes by rail. Pop. (1906) 21,847. Fougeres is built on the summit and slopes of a hill on the left bank of the Nancon, a tributary of the Couesnon. It was formerly one of the strongest places on the frontier towards Normandy, and it still preserves some portions of its medieval fortifications, notably a gateway of the 15th century known as the Porte St Sulpice. The castle, which is situated in the lower part of the town, directly overlooking the Nancon, is now a picturesque ruin, but gives abundant evidence in its towers and outworks of its former strength and magnificence. The finest of the towers was erected in 1242 by Hugues of Lusignan, and named after Melusine, the mythical foundress of the family. The churches of St Leonard and St Sulpice both date, at least in part, from the 15th century. An hotel de ville and a belfry, both of the 15th century, are of architectural interest, and the town possesses many curious old houses. There is a statue of General B. de Lari Coisiere (d. 1812), born in the town. Fougeres is the seat of a subprefect, and has a tribunal of first instance, a chamber of commerce and a communal college. It is the chief industrial town of its department, being a centre for the manufacture of boots and shoes; tanning and leather-dressing and the manufacture of sail-cloth and other fabrics are also important industries. Trade is in dairy produce and in the granite of the neighbouring quarries. Fougeres frequently figures in Breton history from the 11th to the 15th century. It was taken by the English in 1166, and again in 1448; and the name of Surienne, the captor on the second occasion, is still borne by one of the towers of the castle. In 1488 it was taken by the troops of Charles VIII. under la Tremoille. In the middle ages Fougeres was a lordship of some importance, which in the 13th century passed into the possession of the family of Lusignan, and in 1307 was confiscated by the crown and afterwards changed hands many times. In 1793, during the wars of the Vendee, it was occupied by the insurgents.

FOUILLEE, ALFRED JULES EMILE (1838- ), French philosopher, was born at La Poueze on the 18th of October 1838. He held several minor philosophical lectureships, and from 1864 was professor of philosophy at the lycees of Douai, Montpellier and Bordeaux successively. In 1867 and 1868 he was crowned by the Academy of Moral Science for his work on Plato and Socrates. In 1872 he was elected master of conferences at the Ecole Normale, and was made doctor of philosophy in recognition of his two treatises, _Platonis Hippias Minor sive Socratica contra liberum arbitrium argumenta_ and _La Liberte et le determinisme_. The strain of the next three years' continuous work undermined his health and his eyesight, and he was compelled to retire from his professorship. During these years he had published works on Plato and Socrates and a history of philosophy (1875); but after his retirement he further developed his philosophical position, a speculative eclecticism through which he endeavoured to reconcile metaphysical idealism with the naturalistic and mechanical standpoint of science. In _L'Evolutionnisme des idees-forces_ (1890), _La Psychologie des idees-forces_ (1893), and _La Morale des idees-forces_ (1907), is elaborated his doctrine of _idees-forces_, or of mind as efficient cause through the tendency of ideas to realize themselves in appropriate movement. Ethical and sociological developments of this theory succeed its physical and psychological treatment, the consideration of the antinomy of freedom being especially important. Fouillee's wife, who by a previous marriage was the mother of the poet and philosopher Jean Marie Guyau (1854-1888), is well known, under the pseudonym of "G. Bruno," as the author of educational books for children.

His other chief works are: _L'Idee moderne du droit en Allemagne, en
Angleterre et en France_ (Paris, 1878); _La Science sociale
contemporaine_ (1880); _La Propriete sociale et la democratie_ (1884);
_Critique des systemes de morale contemporains_ (1883); _La Morale,
l'art et la religion d'apres Guyau_ (1889); _L'Avenir de la
metaphysique fondee sur l'experience_ (1889); _L'Enseignement au point
de vue national_ (1891); _Descartes_ (1893); _Temperament et
caractere_ (2nd ed., 1895); _Le Mouvement positiviste et la conception
sociologique du monde_ (1896); _Le Mouvement idealiste et la reaction
contre la science positive_ (1896); _La Psychologie du peuple
francais_ (2nd ed., 1898); _La France au point de vue moral_ (1900);
_L'Esquisse psychologique des peuples europeens_ (1903); _Nietzsche et
l' "immoralisme"_ (1903); _Le Moralisme de Kant_ (1905).

FOULD, ACHILLE (1800-1867), French financier and politician, was born at Paris on the 17th of November 1800. The son of a rich Jewish banker, he was associated with and afterwards succeeded his father in the management of the business. As early as 1842 he entered political life, having been elected in that year as a deputy for the department of the Hautes Pyrenees. From that time to his death he actively busied himself with the affairs of his country. He readily acquiesced in the revolution of February 1848, and is said to have exercised a decided influence in financial matters on the provisional government then formed. He shortly afterwards published two pamphlets against the use of paper money, entitled, _Pas d'Assignats!_ and _Observations sur la question financiere_. During the presidency of Louis Napoleon he was four times minister of finance, and took a leading part in the economical reforms then made in France. His strong conservative tendencies led him to oppose the doctrine of free trade, and disposed him to hail the _coup d'etat_ and the new empire. On the 25th of January 1852, in consequence of the decree confiscating the property of the Orleans family, he resigned the office of minister of finance, but was on the same day appointed senator, and soon after rejoined the government as minister of state and of the imperial household. In this capacity he directed the Paris exhibition of 1855. The events of November 1860 led once more to his resignation, but he was recalled to the ministry of finance in November of the following year, and retained office until the publication of the imperial letter of the 19th of January 1867, when Emile Ollivier became the chief adviser of the emperor. During his last tenure of office he had reduced the floating debt, which the Mexican war had considerably increased, by the negotiation of a loan of 300 millions of francs (1863). Fould, besides uncommon financial abilities, had a taste for the fine arts, which he developed and refined during his youth by visiting Italy and the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean. In 1857 he was made a member of the Academy of the Fine Arts. He died at Tarbes on the 5th of October 1867.

FOULIS, ANDREW (1712-1775) and ROBERT (1707-1776), Scottish printers and publishers, were the sons of a Glasgow maltman. Robert was apprenticed to a barber; but his ability attracted the attention of Dr Francis Hutcheson, who strongly recommended him to establish a printing press. After spending 1738 and 1739 in England and France in company with his brother Andrew, who had been intended for the church and had received a better education, he started business in 1741 in Glasgow, and in 1743 was appointed printer to the university. In this same year he brought out _Demetrius Phalereus de elocutione_, in Greek and Latin, the first Greek book ever printed in Glasgow; and this was followed in 1774 by the famous 12mo edition of Horace which was long but erroneously believed to be immaculate: though the successive sheets were exposed in the university and a reward offered for the discovery of any inaccuracy, six errors at least, according to T.F. Dibdin, escaped detection. Soon afterwards the brothers entered into partnership, and they continued for about thirty years to issue carefully corrected and beautifully printed editions of classical works in Latin, Greek, English, French and Italian. They printed more than five hundred separate publications, among them the small editions of Cicero, Tacitus, Cornelius Nepos, Virgil, Tibullus and Propertius, Lucretius and Juvenal; a beautiful edition of the Greek Testament, in small 4to; Homer (4 vols. fol., 1756-1758); Herodotus, Greek and Latin (9 vols. 12mo, 1761); Xenophon, Greek and Latin (12 vols. 12mo, 1762-1767); Gray's Poems; Pope's Works; Milton's Poems. The Homer, for which Flaxman's designs were executed, is perhaps the most famous production of the Foulis press. The brothers spared no pains, and Robert went to France to procure manuscripts of the classics, and to engage a skilled engraver and a copper-plate printer. Unfortunately it became their ambition to establish an institution for the encouragement of the fine arts; and though one of their chief patrons, the earl of Northumberland, warned them to "print for posterity and prosper," they spent their money in collecting pictures, pieces of sculpture and models, in paying for the education and travelling of youthful artists, and in copying the masterpieces of foreign art. Their countrymen were not ripe for such an attempt, and the "Academy" not only proved a failure but involved the projectors in ruin. Andrew died on the 18th of September 1775, and his brother went to London, hoping to realize a large sum by the sale of his pictures. They were sold for much less than he anticipated, and Robert returned broken-hearted to Scotland, where he died at Edinburgh on the 2nd of June 1776. Robert was the author of a _Catalogue of Paintings with Critical Remarks_. The business was afterwards carried on under the same name by Robert's son Andrew.

See W.J. Duncan, _Notices and Documents illustrative of the Literary
History of Glasgow_, printed for the Maitland Club (1831), which
_inter alia_ contains a catalogue of the works printed at the Foulis
press, and another of the pictures, statues and busts in plaster of
Paris produced at the "Academy" in the university of Glasgow.

FOULLON, JOSEPH FRANCOIS (1717-1789), French administrator, was born at Saumur. During the Seven Years' War he was intendant-general of the armies, and intendant of the army and navy under Marshal de Belle-Isle. In 1771 he was appointed intendant of finances. In 1789, when Necker was dismissed, Foullon was appointed minister of the king's household, and was thought of by the reactionary party as a substitute. But he was unpopular on all sides. The farmers-general detested him on account of his severity, the Parisians on account of his wealth accumulated in utter indifference to the sufferings of the poor; he was reported, probably quite without foundation, to have said, "If the people cannot get bread, let them eat hay." After the taking of the Bastille on the 14th of July, he withdrew to his estate at Vitry and attempted to spread the news of his death; but he was recognized, taken to Paris, carried off with a bundle of hay tied to his back to the hotel de ville, and, in spite of the intervention of Lafayette, was dragged out by the populace and hanged to a lamp-post on the 22nd of July 1789.

See Eugene Bonnemere, _Histoire des paysans_ (4th ed., 1887), tome
iii.; C.L. Chassin, _Les Elections et les cahiers de Paris en 1789_.
(Paris, 1889), tomes iii. and iv.

FOUNDATION (Lat. _fundatio_, from _fundare_, to found), the act of building, constituting or instituting on a permanent basis; especially the establishing of any institution by endowing or providing it with funds for its continual maintenance. The word is thus applied also to the institutions so established, such as a college, monastery or hospital; and the terms "on the foundation," or "foundationer," are used of members of such a college or society who enjoy, as fellows, scholars, &c., the benefits of the endowment. Formerly "foundation" also meant the charter or incorporation of any such institution or society, and it is still applied to the funds used for the endowment of such institutions.

The terms "old foundation" and "new foundation" used in connexion with the organizing of English cathedral chapters have no reference to the age of the cathedrals. At the time of the Reformation under Henry VIII. the old college chapters were left unchanged, and are referred to as the "old foundations," but the monastic chapters were all suppressed, consequently new chapters had to be formed for their cathedrals and these constitute the "new foundations."

"Foundation" also means the base (natural or artificial) on which any erection is built up; generally made below the level of the ground (see FOUNDATIONS below). A foundation-stone is one of the stones at the base of a building, generally a corner-stone, frequently laid with a public ceremony to celebrate the commencement of the building. The term is also applied to the ground-work of any structure, such as, in dress-making, the underskirt over which the real skirt is hung, any material used for stiffening purposes, as "foundation muslin or net." In knitting or crochet the first stitches onto which all the rest are worked are called the "foundation chain." In gem-cutting the "foundation-square" is the first of eight squares round the edges of a brilliant made in bevel planes and from which the angles are all removed to form three-corner facets.

FOUNDATIONS, in building. The object of foundations is to distribute the weight of a structure equally over the ground. In the construction of a building the weights are concentrated at given points on piers, columns, &c., and these foundations require to be spread so as to reduce the weight to an average. In the preparation of a foundation care must be taken to prevent the lateral escape of the soil or the movement of a bed upon sloping ground, and it is also necessary to provide against any damage by the action of the atmosphere. The soils met with in ordinary practice, such as rock, gravel, chalk, clay and sand, vary as to their capabilities of bearing weight. There is no provision in any English building acts as to the load that may be placed on any of these soils, but under the New York Building Code it is provided that, where no test of the sustaining power of the soil is made, different soils, excluding mud, at the bottom of the footings shall be deemed to safely sustain the following loads to the superficial foot:

per sq. ft.
Soft clay 1 ton.
Ordinary soft clay and sand, together in layers,
wet and springy 2 tons.
Loam, clay or fine sand, firm and dry 3 tons.
Very firm coarse sand, stiff gravel or hard clay 4 tons.

Load on foundation.

A comparison of the pressure exerted on an ordinary foundation by the walls of the several thicknesses and heights provided for by the London Building Act of 1894, and a comparison of a few of the principal authorities, will be found useful in helping us to arrive at a decision as to what can safely be allowed. Take as an example a wall of the warehouse class, 70 ft. high, whose section at the base for a height of 27 ft. is 2-1/2 bricks thick (or 22-1/2 in.), and for the same distance in height again is 2 bricks thick (or 18 in.), the remainder to the top being 1-1/2 bricks thick (or 14 in.). The weight of brickwork per foot run of such a wall is 4.05 tons on any area of 3.75 ft. super. of brickwork. According to the act the concrete is to project 4 in. on each side; we have then an additional area of .66 ft. super. to add, thus making the total foundation area of each foot run of wall 4.41 ft. super. to take a weight of 4.05 tons or nearly a ton per foot super. (viz. .9 ton.)

Another factor must, however, be taken into consideration, viz. the weight distributed from the loaded floor and from the roof. In this case there would be at least six floors, and the entire weight could hardly be taken at less than 6 tons, which would give a total weight of 10.05 tons on an area of 4.41 ft. super. or a load of 2.28 tons per foot super. This is on the assumption that no extra weight has been thrown on the foundations by openings or piers, or by girders, &c., in which case, in addition to the work being executed in cement, the foundations should be increased in area. Piers always involve a great increase of weight on the foundations, and in very many instances this increased weight, instead of being provided for by increasing the area of the foundations and so reducing the weight per foot super., is only partly met by the improper method of merely increasing the depth of the concrete, while keeping the same projection of concrete round the footings as for the walls. As an example take an iron column to carry a safe load of 80 tons, standing on a York stone template, and in turn supported by a brick pier 22-1/2 in. square. In this case we should have, after allowing for the projection of concrete on either side, an area of 4 ft. 5 in. square, or 19.6 ft. super., and this would give a pressure of 4.1 tons per foot on the foundations, or almost twice as much as in the previous example of a warehouse wall. Here, instead of increasing the depth of the concrete, it would be necessary to increase its width; if it were made 6 ft. square, we should have an area of 36 ft. super. to take the 80 tons, and thus the pressure would only be 2.2 tons per foot, and the cost of the foundation be much the same.

If we compare a section of wall of the dwelling-house class, as prescribed by the London Building Act, we find that, taking a wall 50 ft. high and having a thickness at base of 22-1/2 in. as for the warehouse wall to which we have referred, we have a wall weighing 3.75 tons per foot super. on an area of 4.41 feet super., or .85 ton per foot without weight of floors and roof as against the .9 ton in the warehouse example. To this must be added the weight of, say, 5 floors and roof at a total of 3 tons per foot run of wall, and we then have an aggregate of 6.75 tons per foot run and 1.50 tons per foot super. as against 2.28 tons in the warehouse class.

If we turn from the act to text-books we find that Colonel Seddon in the _Aide Memoir_ gives the load which ordinary foundations will bear as a safe load per foot super. as follows:

tons.
Rock, moderately hard 9
Rock of strength of good concrete 3
Rock, very soft 1.8
Firm earth 1 to 1-1/2
Hard clay 1 to 1-1/2
Clean dry gravel and clean sharp sand prevented from
spreading sideways 1 to 1-1/2

Most of the work in London may be classed under one of the latter heads, and according to this table we have, when we erect walls in accordance with the building act, to overload our foundations.

As to the possibility of spreading weights, we have as an example the chimney at Adkin's Soap Works in Birmingham, 312 ft. high, so arranged that its pressure on the foundations is only 1-1/2 tons per foot super.; also the great St Rollox chimney at Glasgow, which has a pressure of 1-3/4 tons; the weight of the Eiffel Tower (7500 tons) is so spread over 4 bases, each 130 ft. square, that the pressure is only .117 ton, or 2-1/3 cwt., per foot super. The Tower Bridge has a load of 16 tons per foot on the granite bed under the columns of towers, reduced by spreading to an actual pressure on the clay foundation of 4 tons. The piers under the Holborn Viaduct have a load of 2-1/4 tons only, those of the Imperial Institute 2-1/4 tons, and those of the destructor cells and chimney shaft at Great Yarmouth 4 tons 6-3/4 cwt. per foot super. From these various examples it would appear that on sound clay or gravel foundation a load of from 2-1/4 to 4 tons may be employed with safety.

Trial borings.

One of the first and most important requirements in preparing drawings for a large building is to ascertain the nature of the subsoil and strata at different levels over the proposed site, so as to be able to arrange the footings accordingly at the various depths and to decide as to the various forms and methods to be employed. For this purpose trial holes or borings are sunk until a suitable bed or bottom is found, upon which the concrete foundation may safely be put. If no such solid bottom is found, as often happens near the water side, special foundations must be employed, such as dock, gridiron, cantilever and pile foundations, &c., all of which will be described hereafter. As examples of the varying subsoils we may mention the following, in which will be noticed the great depths dug before getting through the made ground: At the Bank of England there were 22 ft. of made ground resting on 4 ft. of gravel. Some of the made ground was of ancient date, and preserved relics of Roman occupation. In some parts the subsoils have been excavated for ballast or gravel, as at Kensington, or for brick earth, as at Highbury, and the pits filled in with rubbish. Rock, which forms an excellent and unchanging foundation in one situation, may prove a dangerous foundation in another. Thus chalk forms a good limestone foundation in certain positions, but when it dips towards a slope or a cliff with an outcrop of the gault or underlying clay, it is a very unsuitable foundation for any building, as the landslips in the Isle of Wight and on the Dorsetshire coast bear witness. A boring made in Tallis Street, near the Thames embankment, showed: (1) 18 in. ballast, dirty; (2) 6 in. greensand, wet and dirty; (3) 2 ft. peat clay; (4) 6 in. greensand; (5) 5-1/2 ft. peaty bog; (6) 9 ft. running sand; and (7) 4 ft. clean ballast, resting at a depth of 23 ft. below the ground line upon blue clay. A boring at Highbury New Park gave: (1) 2 ft. made ground, (2) 18 ft. loam, (3) 9 ft. sand, (4) 4 ft. peat, and (5) 8 ft. gravel and sand. These examples show that while trial holes should always be made before designing a foundation, to ascertain the nature of the subsoil, care must be taken not to calculate upon uniformity. Thus at the block 2 of the admiralty extension new buildings (London), one of the trial holes upon the south-west side of the old buildings showed the clay to be about 29-1/2 ft. below the surface of the ground, while actual excavation proved the dip of the clay to be such that in the execution of the new building it became necessary to underpin the north-west corner of the old building at the deepest part 42 ft. below the ground. The foundations of block 1 of the new admiralty buildings are placed in a dock, built upon the London clay at a depth of 30 ft. in solid concrete 6 ft. thick. At the Hotel Victoria, in Northumberland Avenue (London), the various subsoils are as follows: (1) 38-1/2 ft. made ground clay and gravel mixed, (2) 4 ft. gravel and sand, (3) 6 ft. rising sand; (4) 2 ft. fine ballast, and at a depth of 50 ft. blue clay. At the south end the clay was 43 ft. down and at the north end 37 ft. The front wall was constructed on a concrete bed 9 ft. wide. The site was surrounded by a similar wall of concrete about 6 ft. wide, forming a species of boxes, and the whole was covered with a depth of 6 ft. of concrete upon which the walls were raised. The foundation for 53 Parliament Street, where running sand was encountered, was constructed with short piles, 7 or 8 ft. long and 6 in. diam., pointed and placed as close together as possible over the whole foundation, the tops were then sawn off level, and a concrete raft, 7 or 8 ft. thick, was built over the whole area. At the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, Westminster, the foundations to the two party walls upon each side of the building were carried down about 22 ft. below the pavement level, that on the west side being 22 ft. deep and that on the east side 24 ft.

Construction.

The London Building Act and the model by-laws prohibit the erection of
buildings on sites that have been used as "shoots" for faecal matter
or vegetable refuse, and in such cases the objectionable material must
be removed prior to the commencement of building operations, and the
holes from which it was taken filled up with dry brick or other
rubbish well rammed. Foundations are usually executed by excavators or
navvies, and the tools and implements used are boning rods, level
pegs, lines, spirit level, pickaxe, various shovels, wheel-barrow,
rammer or punner, &c. In digging the ordinary trenches and
excavations, should the ground be loose, planking and strutting have
to be employed. This consists of rough boarding put along the sides of
the trenches and wedged tight with waling pieces and struts; this work
is done by navvies. Figs. 1 and 2 show the general forms of planking
and strutting for the different soils.

In very large works of excavation in soft soil a steam digger is used
for the bulk of the work. It consists of a large steel bucket with a
cutting edge; this is lowered by means of a crane into the excavation,
and on being withdrawn cuts off a portion of soil which is hoisted and
deposited in carts for removal to any desired position within the
radius commanded by the crane. The work of trimming the excavation to
a regular shape must always be done by manual labour.

Concrete for filling into the foundations is usually mixed by navvies;
for large works it is sometimes mixed by machinery.

In order that the work of excavating and constructing the foundations
may proceed in a water-logged site, pumps have to be employed, and
where the inrush of water is great it is usual to sink a sump hole
lower than the depth required for the foundations, and to use a steam
pump kept going day and night.

The foundation of a wall is required to be as follows in accordance
with the London Building and Amendment Acts: "The projection of the
bottom of the footings of every wall on each side of the wall shall be
at least equal to half of the thickness of the wall at its base,
unless an adjoining wall interferes, in which case the projection may
be omitted where that wall adjoins, and the diminution of the footings
of every wall shall be formed in regular offsets and the height from
the bottom of such footing to the base of the wall shall be at least
equal to two-thirds of the thickness of the wall at its base." (See
BRICKWORK.) The base of a wall is the thickness above the footing; the
footing is the brickwork built directly on the top of the concrete and
diminishing in width in every course. Thus: "The projection of the
bottom footing to be equal to one-half the thickness of wall on both
sides" means that a 13-1/2-in. wall would require to have three courses
of footings, the bottom one being 27 in. wide. "The height from the
bottom of such footing to the base of the wall shall be at least equal
to two-thirds the thickness of wall at its base" means that in the
case of a 13-1/2-in. wall the height of footings would have to be 9 in.,
or three courses of brickwork, each measuring 3 in.

The New York Building Code enters more fully into the requirements for
the foundation of walls as regards depth than that in use in London.
Section 25, Part 5, requires that every building, except buildings
erected upon solid rock, or upon wharves and piers on the water front,
shall have foundations of brick, stone, iron or concrete laid not less
then 4 ft. below the surface of the earth, on the solid ground or
level surface of rock, or upon piles or ranging timbers when solid
earth or rock is not found. Piles intended to sustain a wall, pier or
post, shall be spaced not more than 36 in. nor less than 20 in. on
centres; they must be driven to a solid bearing if practicable, and
their number must be sufficient to support the superstructure
proposed. No pile shall be used of less dimensions than 5 in. at the
small end and 10 in. at the butt for short piles, or piles 20 ft. or
less in length. No pile shall be weighted with a load exceeding 40,000
lb. When a pile is not driven to refusal, its safe sustaining power
shall be determined by the following formula: twice the weight of the
hammer in tons multiplied by the height of the fall in feet divided by
the least penetration of pile under the last blow in inches plus one.
There are also further requirements as to piles, &c., and the
commissioner of buildings must be notified when the piles are to be
driven.

The New York Code, Section 26, further goes on to say that foundation
walls shall be constructed to include all walls and piers built below
the curb level or nearest tier of beams to the curb, to serve as
supports for the walls, piers, columns, girders, posts or beams.
Foundation walls shall be built of stone, brick, Portland cement
concrete, iron or steel. If built of rubble stone or Portland cement
concrete, they shall be at least 8 in. thicker than the wall above
them to a depth of 12 ft. below the curb level, and for every
additional 10 ft. or part thereof deeper, they shall be increased 4
in. in thickness. If built of brick, they shall be at least 4 in.
thicker than the wall next above them to a depth of 12 ft. below the
curb level, and for every additional 10 ft. or part thereof deeper,
they shall be increased 4 in. in thickness. The footing or base course
shall be of stone or concrete, or both, or of concrete and stepped up
brickwork of sufficient thickness and area to bear safely the weight
to be imposed thereon. If the footing or base course be of concrete,
the concrete shall not be less than 12 in. thick; if of stone, the
stones shall not be less than 2 X 3 ft. and at least 8 in. in thickness
for walls, and not less than 10 in. in thickness if under piers,
columns or posts. The footing or base course, whether formed of
concrete or stone, shall be at least 12 in. wider than the bottom
width of walls, and at least 12 in. wider on all sides than the bottom
width of said piers, columns or posts. If the superimposed load is
such as to cause undue transverse strain on a footing projecting 12
in., the thickness of such footing is to be increased so as to carry
the load with safety. For small structures and for small piers
sustaining light loads the commissioner of buildings having
jurisdiction may, in his discretion, allow a reduction in the
thickness and projection specified for footing or base courses. All
base stones shall be bedded and laid crosswise, edge to edge. If
stepped-up footing of brick is used in place of stone above the
concrete, the offsets if laid in single courses shall each not exceed
1-1/2 in., or, if laid in double courses, then each shall not exceed 3
in. offsetting the first course of brickwork back one-half the
thickness of the concrete base, so as properly to distribute the load
to be imposed thereon. It will be seen by the foregoing that the
American acts are far more extensive than in London. The London
Building Act mentions that the footings of a wall shall rest upon the
solid ground or concrete or upon other solid substructure. The
building act amendment says: "The foundations of the walls of every
house or building shall be formed of a bed of good concrete not less
than 9 in. thick, and projecting at least 4 in. on each side of the
lowest course of footings."

_Various Types of Foundations._--The most natural foundations for
walls are those constructed where the walls are built directly upon
the ground; this is only possible where the ground is very hard or
consists of rock, and in either of these cases the ground is simply
levelled and the building commenced.

The next and most universally recognized method, which might safely be
said to be adopted in 95% of all modern buildings, is the system of
placing a bed of concrete under the walls, digging trenches where the
walls are to come until a solid bottom is reached, and in these laying
the concrete. The London Building Act requires this concrete bed to be
at least 4 in. wider than the bottom course of footings on each side
of the wall, but it is generally made 6 in. wider on each side and in
general circumstances the depth of the concrete is varied according to
the weight placed upon it.

Where a site is in close proximity to a river or old water-course,
&c., where deep basements are excavated, or where the ground lies low,
naturally water is met with, and where water is the ground is soft. It
is here that special foundations are required.

Concrete piers, legs, or stilts.

In certain cases it is necessary to use concrete legs or stilts. These
are placed in such positions as to take the weights of the building,
and sunk to depths of 40 ft. more or less as the case may require
according to the nature of the ground; and on the tops of these stilts
concrete arches or lintels are turned over (fig. 3). As an example of
the stilt principle, mention may be made of some premises at Stratford
and a church at South Bermondsey, London, in which concrete piers were
sunk at 12 ft. centres apart and 4-1/2 ft. square, in pot holes dug
out of made ground; then concrete arches were formed over the
intervening untrustworthy ground with a minimum thickness of 18 in. or
the piers were connected by concrete lintels 3 ft. thick in which
steel joists were embedded. At Sion College, Victoria Embankment,
London, the foundations were formed with cement concrete stilts or
piers 8 ft. square, and going down to the London clay; from the tops
of these stilts brick arches were turned, spanning the spaces between
the piers, and upon these arches the walls were built.

Pile foundations.

Pile foundations, used in the case of soft ground, for small works,
consist either of stout scaffold poles or of timbers varying from 6
in. to 12 in. square according to requirements (fig. 4). The bottom
ends of these timbers have an iron shoe with a point, so as to be
easily driven into the ground, and the tops of the timbers have an
iron band round, so that when the timbers are being driven in the
band prevents them from splitting (fig. 5). The methods of driving
these piles are various. The usual plan is to erect a temporary
structure, upon one side of which is a guide path faced with
sheet-iron so as to give a smooth face. Up and down this guide path a
heavy iron weight, called a monkey, is worked; the monkey is hoisted
to the top of the guide path by means of a crab worked by hand or
steam, and when released descends with a good force, and so drives the
piles into the ground. The monkey usually weighs from 2 cwt. to 10
cwt. and is allowed a drop of 15 to 40 ft.

Piles are driven all round under the walls at varying intervals or
under piers where the weights of a building are to be concentrated. In
the erection of the Chicago public library four Norway pine piles,
each with an average diameter of 13 in., were driven to a depth of
52-1/2 ft. and loaded with a dead load of 50.7 tons per pile for a
period of two weeks, and no settlement taking place 30 tons per pile
was adopted as a safe load. The following are some examples of loads
used in practice: passenger station, Harrison Street, Chicago, piles
50 ft. in length, each carrying 25 tons; elevator, Buffalo, N.Y.,
piles 20 ft. in length, weight 25 tons; Trinity church, Boston, 2
tons; Schiller building, Chicago, 55 tons per pile, but in this case
the building settled considerably. All timber grillage and the tops of
all piles should be kept below the lowest water level, and be capped
with concrete or stone. In Boston it is obligatory to cap with blocks
of granite.

Concrete piles.

Another form of foundation takes the shape of Portland cement concrete
blocks, and is used chiefly for bridges and in marshy land, &c. In
some cases cylinders of brickwork are built, and the centres are
filled with blocks of concrete and grouted in. The Yarmouth destructor
cells and chimney shaft were built in this way; the cylinders were
constructed of 9 in. brickwork built in Portland cement, the lower 4
ft. being encased in a wooden drum with cutting edge sunk into the
gravel and sand at least 2 ft. The cylinders were sunk by the aid of
a grab, the bottom being levelled and the concrete blocks laid by a
diver. Use is also made of piles consisting of Portland cement
concrete having steel rods embedded in it, and provided with iron
shoes and head for driving (fig. 6).

Cast iron screw piles (fig. 7) used in very loose sandy soils, consist
of large hollow cast iron columns with flat screw blades cast on the
lower ends. The projection of this screw from the pile may vary from 9
in. to 18 in. with a pitch of from one-quarter to one-half of the
projection, the blade making a little over one turn round the shaft.
For most requirements a diameter of screw from 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 ft. will
be found sufficient, a sandy foundation requiring the largest. The
lower end of the tube is generally left open, the edge being bevelled
and occasionally provided with teeth to assist in cutting into and
penetrating the soil.

Another system of piling known as sheet piling (fig. 8), consists in
driving piles into the ground at intervals, and between these, also
driven into the ground, are timbers measuring 3 in. by 9 in., which
form a wall to keep the soft earth up under the building. In this way
the earth is prevented from spreading out and so causing the building
to settle unevenly.

Plank foundations.

Another kind of foundation, known as plank foundation (fig. 9),
consists of elm planks, about 9 in. by 3 in. laid across the trench
and spiked together; on the top of these are laid similar planks but
at right angles to the last, and upon the platform thus formed the
wall is built. This method is used in soft ground.

Caissons.

Caissons are usually employed by engineers for the construction of the
foundations of bridge piers, but instances of their use in foundations
for buildings are to be found in the American Surety and the Manhattan
Life Insurance buildings, New York City. The latter building is 242
ft. high to the parapet, and the dome and tower rise 108 ft. higher.
The building is carried on 16 solid masonry piers, taken down 54 ft.
below the street level to solid rock, and these piers support the 34
cast iron columns upon which the building is erected. The piers to
each building were constructed by the pneumatic caisson process (see
CAISSON).

Well foundations.