trusted with an
examination of the statutory charging powers of the Glasgow and South-
Western company, and with the drawing up of a suggested scale of maximum
rates. No similar work had yet been done in Ireland, and it was
altogether new to the Irish companies. I produced copies of the
statements which I had prepared in Glasgow, and they served as a basis
for what had to be done, saved much time and trouble and gained for me no
little _kudos_. But more than this resulted. As I have hinted before,
and as will hereafter appear, this bit of Glasgow work led to my
promotion to a greater charge than the busy little County Down, which
though I loved it well, I had begun to feel I was now outgrowing. Many
other meetings at the Clearing House followed in which I took part with
increasing confidence, and in which Walter Bailey also prominently
figured. He and I were hand and glove. Cotton, who soon discovered that
Bailey was an authority on the subject, as indeed he was on most railway
matters, was not slow to profit by his knowledge and ability. He brought
him to all our meetings, and valuable was the help that Bailey gave.

In 1889 there came into operation the _Regulation of Railways Act_. It
invested the Board of Trade with power to order any company to adopt
block working, to interlock all points and signals, and to use on all
trains carrying passengers automatic continuous brakes. Before issuing
the order the Board consented to hear any representations which the
railways desired to make. The smaller companies, upon which the
expenditure involved would press very hardly, and the circumstances of
whose traffic seemed scarcely to require the same elaborate precautions
for safety in working as the bigger and more crowded systems, banded
together and waited on the Board of Trade. Upon me devolved the duty of
presenting the case for the smaller Irish companies, and upon Conacher,
of the Cambrian, for the smaller English lines. How finely Conacher
spoke I well remember. He had an excellent voice, possessed in a high
degree the gift of concise and forcible expression, and his every word
told. But our eloquence accomplished little--some small modification
regarding mixed trains, and that was all. Many of the lines in Ireland
serving districts where population is scanty, traffic meagre, and trains
consequently infrequent, could well have been spared the costly outlay
which the Act involved. Three or four trains each