esteemed for his ability as a manager, he was loved for his qualities as a man.  Of refined tastes, including a penchant for blue china, being a thriving bachelor, he was able to gratify them.  We were so fond of him that the best of dinners was not enough, in our estimation, to worthily mark the occasion and to give him the pleasure he wished, and we presented to him some rare blue vases which Cousin Pons himself would have been proud to possess.

By virtue of my office of Chairman of the Conference, I also, during 1910, sat as a member of the Council of the Railway Companies’ Association.  This Association, of which I have not yet spoken, merits a word or two.  As described by its present Secretary, Mr. Arthur B. Cane, it is “a voluntary Association of railway companies, established for the purpose of mutual consultation upon matters affecting their common interests, and is the result of a gradual development.”  It dates back as far as the year 1854, when a meeting of Railway Directors was held in London to consider certain legislative proposals which resulted in the Railway and Canal Traffic Act of that year.  In its present form it consists of all the principal railway companies of the United Kingdom, each Company being represented by its Chairman, Deputy Chairman, General Manager and Solicitor.  A Director of any so associated Company, who is a Member of Parliament, is also ex officio a member of the Association.  As its membership increased it was found that the Association was inconveniently large for executive purposes, and some twenty years or so ago a Council was formed with power to represent the Association on all questions affecting general railway interests.  At this moment this Council is engaged in looking after the interests of the railway companies in the matter of the great Ways and Communications Bill.  By the suffrages and goodwill of my colleagues in Ireland, who had the election of one member, I remained on the Council till the end of the year 1912.  Mr. Cane states that “The Association has always preserved its original character of a purely voluntary association, and has been most careful to safeguard the independence of its individual members.”  Also, that it has “been expressly provided by its constitution that no action shall be taken by the Council unless the members are unanimous.”  For many years Sir Henry Oakley was its honorary secretary, performing con amore the duties which were by no means light, but in 1898 it was resolved to appoint a paid secretary and to establish permanent offices, which now are located in Parliament Street, Westminster.  Mr. (now Sir Guy) Granet was the first paid secretary, Mr. Temple Franks succeeded him, and Mr. Cane, as I have already mentioned, is the present occupant of the office.

In the autumn of 1910 I visited the English Lakes and spent a fortnight in that beautiful district, in the company, for the first few days, of Walter Bailey; and during the latter part of the fortnight, with E. A. Pratt as a companion.  It was the last holiday Bailey and I spent together, though happily at various intervals we afterwards met and dined together in London, and our letters to each other only ended with his lamented death.