which took place.  Since then I have crossed swords with him too, and always I must confess with keen enjoyment.  His knowledge of railway matters was so remarkable, his mind so practiced, alert, and luminous, that it was rare excitement to undergo cross-examination at his hands.  In his book, Forty Years at the Bar, he himself says:  “I have not had many opportunities of giving evidence, but I confess that when I have been called as a witness I have enjoyed myself.”  Well, I can say that I have had many such opportunities, and can truthfully declare that I have enjoyed them all.

A few weeks holiday in Holland, Cologne, the Rhine and Frankfort, with some days on the homeward journey in Brussels, all in company of my dear delightful friend, Walter Bailey, complete the annals of this year, except that I recall a little arbitration case in which I was engaged.  It was during the summer, in July I think.  The Grand Canal (not the canal which belongs to the Midland and is called the Royal) is a waterway which traverses 340 miles of country.  Not that it is all canal proper, some of it being canalised river and loughs; but 154 miles are canal pure and simple, the undisputed property of the Grand Canal Company.  On a part of the river Barrow which is canalised, an accident happened, and a trader’s barge was sunk and goods seriously damaged.  Dispute arose as to liability, and I was called on to arbitrate.  To view the scene of the disaster was a pleasant necessity, and the then manager of the company (Mr. Kirkland) suggested making a sort of picnic of the occasion; so one morning we left the train at Carlow, from whence a good stout horse towed, at a steady trot, a comfortable boat for twenty miles or so to the locus of the accident.  We were a party of four, not to mention the hamper.  It was delightfully wooded scenery through which we passed, and a snug little spot where we lunched.  After lunch and the arbitration proceedings had been despatched, our Pegasus towed us back.

I must return again to Robertson, the Board of Works, and light railways.  Preliminary to the authorisation of light railways in Ireland, the legislation which had been passed concerning them required that the Board of Works should appoint fit and proper persons to make public inquiry regarding the merits of proposed lines, as to engineering, finance, construction, the favour or objection with which they were regarded by landowners and others, the amount of capital required, the assistance that would be given by landowners, local authorities and others towards their construction, and their merit generally from all points of view; such fit persons after they had done all this, to report to the Board of Works.  In 1897 Robertson thought that “Joseph Tatlow of Dublin, and William Roberts of Inverness, were fit and proper persons” for conducting the necessary inquiry concerning a proposed light railway in north-west Donegal, from Letterkenny to Burtonport,