My assistant was James Pinion, afterwards my successor, and later on Manager of the Cheshire Lines Committee at Liverpool.  Being a capable fellow and a hard worker, it was only natural that he felt disappointed at not being made general manager of the County Down instead of imported me; but any sign of soreness soon disappeared.  The kindness, the consideration and the confidence I had received at Mr. Wainwright’s hands, as his assistant, were not forgotten and I felt pleasure in endeavouring to treat my assistant in the same way.  It was not long before its effect appeared.  He told me one day that it was a new experience for him to be so frankly trusted and so freely consulted, but it made him happier and imparted a greater zest to his work.  Certainly he served me with enthusiastic zeal and fine loyalty.  Throughout a long period of railway management I have been most fortunate in securing the goodwill and ready help of the staff, and in many instances their strong personal attachment.  There are men no doubt whose natures are proof against kindness and consideration, but my experience is that they are few and far between.  I have found also that if one refrains from fault-finding, gives praise where praise is due, and overlooks small or venial faults, when reproof becomes necessary, if it be temperately administered, it is always effective and productive of good.  But even such reproof may be carried too far as on one occasion I found to my dismay.  Pinion, one forenoon, came into my room to tell me he had discovered that the man in charge of the cloak room was guilty of peculation; had been tampering with the tickets, and appropriating small sums.  I sent for him, talked to him very severely, sent him home, and told him he should hear what would be done.  An hour later, I heard he was dead:  that on his way to his home he had purchased a bottle of laudanum and swallowed the contents!

In Scotland a railway manager was rarely worried by outside interference in the management of his men.  Well intentioned people either credited him with the possession of good sense and decent feeling, or, themselves resentful of any inter-meddling in their own affairs, refrained from meddling in his.  But it was different I found in Ireland, even in Belfast where Scottish traditions and Scottish ways were not unknown.  Exceeding good nature, I suppose, is largely accountable for the readiness with which people in the sister isle espouse, often with little consideration, the cause of any railway employee who has or fancies he has a grievance.  A rather ridiculous instance of this occurred soon after my installation at the County Down.  One of my first duties was to examine the line and the employees at each station.  At one small station I found in charge a station master in poor health and well advanced in years—­in fact quite beyond his work.  I learned that he possessed a small property in land and was quite willing to retire if given a few weeks