efficient train service and to watch the traffic expand. It was
exhilarating to engage in lively competition with carriers by road who,
for short distance traffic, keenly competed with the railway. It was
good to introduce economies and improvements in working, and gratifying
to do what one could to help and satisfy the staff--a thing, I need
scarcely say, much easier to accomplish then than now.

And so the time passed until August, 1888, when the railway world was
deeply moved by the introduction of the _Railway and Canal Traffic Act_.

This Act was the outcome of the Report of the Select Committee of 1881,
before which Mr. James Grierson gave such weighty evidence. One of the
most important measures Parliament ever passed, it imposed on railway
companies an amount of labour and anxiety, prolonged and severe, such as
I hope they may not have to face again.

The Act, as I have stated before, altered the constitution of the Railway
Commission, and also effected minor alterations in the law relating to
railways and canals, but its main purpose was the revision of Maximum
Rates and Charges. It ordered each company to prepare a revised
classification of goods and a revised Schedule of Maximum Rates, and
submit them to the Board of Trade, who, after considering objections
lodged against them, were to agree (if they could) with the companies
upon a classification and schedule for adoption; and if they failed, to
determine a classification and schedule themselves. Public sittings at
Westminster, Edinburgh and Dublin, occupying 85 days, took place, but no
agreement was reached; and in their Report to Parliament the Board of
Trade embodied a Revised Classification and a standard Schedule of
Maximum Rates for general adoption. The Schedule included Terminals. In
accordance with the Act, it then became necessary for this Revised