egarded railways, would be out of
his reach. Then he would find another gentleman on the directory, one
day the idol and leading speaker of every meeting, called on the next a
'strife-engendering-judge,' and his place filled by another on the board.
Presto! and this same gentleman, again turns up trumps! A professional
gentleman is the pet of the whole company, but speedily a woe is
pronounced upon lawyers. Again the wheel turns round, and the
solicitor's great exertions and painstaking attention to the interests of
the line are acknowledged." {34}

"Our historian would next discover 'much talkee' (as John Chinaman would
say) anent a certain, or rather uncertain, 'blighting influence' which
arrested the progress of some of the works, and to get to the bottom of
which a 'committee of investigation' was appointed. He would open his
eyes when he saw the revelations made by that committee, and would wonder
how in the name of fortune--or misfortune--the shareholders could be such
'geese' (to apply a term used by one of the best directors the line ever
had) as to allow affairs to go on as they had done. He would find that
committee triumphant in the praises of the people, but snubbed by another
committee who conducted the ceremony of cutting a first sod that would
not have been cut this century but for them. When the investigation
committee's work was ended (but not finished!) he would find rival
claimants for honour:--Mr. Soandso here, Mr. Whatshisname there, and
other gentlemen elsewhere discovering that they were the 'saviours of the
line'--'unravellers of the mystery' while the line was yet in jeopardy,
and the mystery as dark as Erebus. He would then go on to disputes with
contractors and engineers, a law suit commenced here, and threatened
there,--directors retiring, and shareholders well-nigh at their wits end.
Lawyers are again at a 'Premium' and three are appointed to lay their
heads together in order to make heads of agreement, for the guidance of
new contractors, while the old ones, who the shareholders were afraid
would sack the company, were themselves sacked!"

That, indeed, is the usual fate of those who attempt to follow dead
controversies through their never-ending labyrinths. A sentimental
historian has said that "the world is full of the odour of faded
violets"; but, in looking back over these yellow pages of the past, the
scent which greets us is sometimes hardly as fragrant; and were it not
for p