the attributes and much of the influence of a real general manager. But
the system was unsatisfactory, led to jealousies, weakened discipline,
and was not conducive to efficient working. Happily it no longer exists,
and for some years past each Irish Railway has had its responsible
_General Manager_. Something that happened, in the year 1889, gave the
old system the first blow. In that year a terrible accident to a Sunday
school excursion of children occurred on the Great Northern Railway near
Armagh, and was attended with great loss of life. This led the company
to appoint a General Manager, which they did in June, 1890, Thomas
Robertson, of the Highland Railway of Scotland, of whom I spoke earlier
in these pages, being the capable man they selected.

Curious certainly was the method which up to then prevailed on the Great
Northern system. Three different _Managers_ exercised jurisdiction over
separate sections of the line, and the _Secretary_ of the Company, an
able man, stationed in Dublin, performed much more than secretarial
duties, and encroached, so I often heard the managers complain, upon
their functions. This divided authority was a survival of the time
before 1877, when the Great Northern system belonged to several
independent companies; and, in the words of the Allport Commission of
1887, "its continued existence after ten years could hardly be defended."

Very pleasant and very interesting I found my new avocation on the County
Down, which for short the Belfast and County Down Railway was usually
called. My salary certainly was not magnificent, 500 pounds a year, but
it was about 100 pounds more than the whole of the income I earned in
Scotland, and now for the 500 pounds I had only my railway work to
perform. Now I could give up those newspaper lucubrations, which had
become almost a burden and daily enjoy some hours of leisure. The change
soon benefited my health. Instead of close confinement to the office