side and inside casings, and a white-pine door with four plain panels. The door is to be 2 inches thick, hung with stout, loose butt-hinges, and fitted with a good lock, inside bolts, and neat and durable trimmings. Windows. All the windows inside and out, excepting those in the cellar, are to have box-frames with 2 inch sills and yokes, and 1 inch inside, outside, and back casings; and staff-beads of white pine for those in the brick walls; but no back casings or staff-beads for those in the wooden partitions. They are to have 1 inch pulley-stiles, inch inside, and inch parting beads of hard pine. Each of the above windows is to be fitted with two 14 inch white-pine sashes, moulded and coped. The lower sashes in the inside of partition-windows are to be firmly secured to the frames; the upper sashes in the said windows, and both sashes in each of the other windows, are to be hung with best flax sash-lines, steel axlepulleys, and round iron counter-weights, and fitted with bronze sash-fastenings, to cost $7 per dozen. They are to have pockets neatly cut into the pulley-stiles, and secured by brass screws. Each window is to be cased as shown by the drawings, and finished with moulded stools and moulded architraves, as therein represented. The upper sash of each and every window in all the halls and staircases is invariably to be hung and fastened. The cellar-windows are to have white-pine rebated plank frames, and a single sash each. The sashes to be hung with stout iron hinges, and fitted with neat and durable buttons and catches. The skylight frames are to be of thoroughly-seasoned, clear, white-pine stock, rebated for the sashes, put together with white lead, and finished off in a neat and durable manner. Doors. All the doors are to be made of thoroughly-seasoned, clear, white-pine stock; the outside doors to both front and rear being 2 inches thick, the principal doors in the rooms and entries 14, and the closet doors 11 inches thick. The outside doors are to be made in the forms shown on the drawings; are to be hung with three sets of 5 inch, ornamental, bronzed, loose, butt-hinges, and fitted with locks, bolts, and trimmings, to be selected by the superintendent, and to cost for such locks, bolts, and trimmings, the sum of $6 exclusive of the cost of putting on. The basement doors are to have locks, trimmings, bolts, and loose butt-hinges, to cost $5 to each door. The doors to the entries, rooms, and closets, are to have four moulded panels to each, and are to be of the sizes marked on the plans. All are to be hung with stout, iron, loose butt-hinges. Those for the storerooms, pantries between the different rooms, and the entry doors, are to have locks and trimmings to cost $5 to each door, on the average. The doors to the bedrooms, closets and to the water-closets, are to have mortised spring-latches with knobs, &c., to correspond to those to the other doors; and each water-closet is to be fitted with an inside brass bolt, neat and durable. The doors to the coal-bins are to be made of matched and mill-planed white-pine stock, battened; are to be hung with stout strap-hinges; and each is to be fitted with a The fly-doors of the vestibule are to be 14 inches thick, with plain panels. They are to be hung with loose butts, double-action springs of a satisfactory quality, brass bolts to the top and bottom of one half, and a lock to the other half. This door, or the outside door, at the option of the superintendent, is to have a lever night-lock of good quality, with fifty (50) keys. The inside doors are to be finished with hard-pine thresholds, 2 inch rebated and beaded frames of white pine, and architraves to correspond with the windowfinish in the various parts of the building. The outside doors are to be hung to 3 inch plank frames, properly dogged to the thresholds; and jambs finished inside like the inside door, and outside with staff-moulding. Blinds. - Each window (excepting those in the basement and French roof) on the exterior of the building is to have a pair of 11 inch mortised slat-blinds, made with rebated and beaded stiles, and three rails to each. They are to be hung with the best quality of blind-hinges, and fitted with satisfactory fastenings. Stairs. The stairs are to be framed with deep spruce-plank stringers and landings and winders, as shown on the drawings. They are to have white-pine string and gallery finish, hard-pine risers, treads, and balusters. The balusters to be round, and 14 inches in diameter. The posts are to be 10 inches square, and the newels 5 inches. They are to be moulded and capped, and the post panelled as per drawings. The rail is to be 3 inches in width, and of a satisfactory pattern. The posts, rails, and newels are to be of thoroughly-seasoned black walnut; and the rails are to be not less than 3 feet high. The stairs to the cellar are to be framed with plank stringers, and to be finished with planed pine-plank risers, and hard-pine treads, and plank hand-rails and supporters. Dado and Inside Finish. — The walls of the entries throughout the four finished stories, and of the kitchens and water-closets throughout the building, are to be dadoed to the height of 34 feet above the floor with narrow matched and beaded white-pine sheathing finished with a moulded capping of the form of the stool nosing. The walls of the parlors and bedrooms are to have moulded bases 10 inches high, and 14 inches thick. The other walls are to have levelled bases 8 inches high, and of an inch thick. The water-closets are to be finished off with black-walnut stock, the covers and seats being hung to raise, and all woodwork being put up with brass screws. Ventilating boxes or flues of brick are to be made for the water-closets where indicated by the drawings, carried out through the roof, and finished in a neat and durable manner. All the inside woodwork not otherwise specified is to be wrought of thoroughlyseasoned, clear, white-pine stock, free from shakes and sap, and put in in the best and most workmanlike manner. Closets. Each pantry and china-closet is to be fitted with a case of four drawers made in a neat and substantial manner. One set of drawers in each tenement to have strong tumbler-locks, and each drawer to have two drawerpulls. These closets are to have shelves and cupboards as directed, and each is to have cleats of cast-iron (single) hooks. The bedroom closets are to have cleats of double cast-iron clothes-hooks placed 6 inches apart on three walls of each, and are to be shelved round over the clotheshooks. The cupboards above mentioned are to have brass thumb-slides, strong tumbler-locks and drawer-pulls. - Floors. The floors to the halls and corridors are to be laid with thoroughlyseasoned, clear, hard-pine stock, not exceeding 5 inches in width, laid close, and thoroughly nailed and smoothed. All the other floors in the four finished stories are to be laid with thoroughly-seasoned, kiln-dried, spruce floorings, selected for clearness and soundness. They are not to exceed 6 inches in width, and are to be laid close, thoroughly nailed and smoothed, and put down as soon as taken from the dryhouse. Sinks. Each kitchen is to have soapstone set in a pine-plank frame. The sinks are to be 3 feet long, and 1 foot high, and 18 inches wide inside, and are to be finished beneath in a neat and durable manner, with cupboards. They are to be backed up with pine, and fitted to receive the plumbing. Each sink is to have a composition cesspool. Coal-Bins. - There are to be coal-bins finished off in the cellars, one for each tenement. Each bin is to be fitted inside the door with two separate compartments capable of holding 1 ton of coal to each compartment, and with another to take 2 barrels of kindlings. The exterior woodwork is to be of pine, mill-planed, and the interior partitions of spruce; these latter being fitted with sliding gates, and boxings around them to keep the coal from the floor. All the above work is to be done in the most thorough and workmanlike manner. Bells. The outside door to each tenement is to be fitted with a bell leading to the kitchen. It is to have a handle to correspond with the door-knobs. Each tenement is to have a bell to the porter's room, fitted with a bronze slide. All the abt ve are to be gong-bells with tubed wires, and put in the most perfect manner. CHAPTER VII. CONSIDERATION. SECTION I. THE NEED OF A CONSIDERATION. Ir is an ancient and well-established rule of the common law prevailing in this country, that no promise can be enforced at law, unless it rests upon a consideration; by which word is meant a cause or reason for the promise. If it do not, it is called a naked bargain, and the promisor, even if he admits his promise, is under no legal obligation to perform a promise that he made without a considera tion. There are two exceptions to this rule. One is when the promise. is made by a sealed instrument, or deed; (every written instrument which is sealed is a deed.) Here the law is said to imply a consideration; the meaning of which is that it does not require that any consideration should be proved. The seal itself is said to be a consideration, or to import a consideration. The second exception relates to negotiable paper; and is an instance in which the law-merchant has materially qualified the common law. We shall speak more fully of this exception when we treat of negotiable paper. The word "consideration," as it is used in this rule, has a peculiar and technical meaning. It denotes some substantial cause for the promise. This cause must be one of two things; either a benefit to the promisor, or else an injury or loss to the promisee sustained by him at the instance and request of the promisor. Thus, if A promises B to pay him a thousand dollars in three months, and even promises this in writing, the promise is worthless in law, if A makes it as a merely voluntary promise, without a consideration. But if B, or anybody for him, gives to A to-day a thousand dollars in goods or money, and this was the ground and cause of the promise, then it is enforceable. And if A got nothing for his promise, but B, at the request of A, gave the same goods or money to C, this would be an equally good consideration, and the promise to pay B would be equally valid in law. This requirement of a consideration sometimes operates harshly and unjustly, and permits promisors to break their word under circumstances calling strongly for its fulfilment. Courts have been led, perhaps, by this, to say that the consideration is sufficient if it be a substantial one, although it be not an adequate one. This is the unquestionable rule now, and it is sometimes carried very far. In one case an American court refused to inquire into the adequacy of the consideration, or whether it was equal to the promise made upon it, and said, if there was the smallest spark of consideration it was enough, if the contract was fairly made with a full understanding of all the material facts. Still, there must be some consideration. SECTION II. WHAT IS A SUFFICIENT CONSIDERATION. THE law detests litigation; at least courts say so; and therefore they consider any thing a sufficient consideration which arrests and suspends or terminates litigation. Thus the compromise, or forbearance, or mutual reference to arbitration, or any similar settlement, of a suit, or of a claim, is a good consideration for a promise founded upon it. it. And it is no defence to a suit on this promise, to show that the claim or suit thus disposed of would probably have been found to have no foundation or substance. If there be an honest claim, which he who advances it believes to be well grounded, and which within a rational possibility may be so, this is enough; the court will not go on and try the validity of the claim or of the suit in order to test the validity of a promise which rests upon its settlement; for the very purpose for which it favors this settlement is the avoidance of all necessity of investigating the claim by litigation. But for reasons of public policy, no promise |