between us in 1857. In the meantime, it is true, he had had my name
brought before him during his term of office pending the Crimean War
Some one had suggested to the Government to send me out to the Crimea
to take charge of the Stores Department, at a time when all was
confusion and mess, out there, and I was asked to call on the Minister
about it. It seemed to me, however, a duty impossible of execution by a
civilian, unless the condition of "full powers" were conceded,--and the
matter came to nothing.

In 1856 I was the Manager of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire
Railway. In that year a reckless engine, travelling between Shireoaks
and Worksop, threw out some sparks, which set fire to the underwood of
one of the Duke's plantations--for he was then Duke--and he wrote to
the Chairman of the Railway, the then Earl of Yarborough, in what
appeared to me a very haughty manner. I therefore felt bound to defend
my chief, and I took up the quarrel. In a note addressed from the
Library of the House of Commons, I asked for an interview, which was
somewhat stiffly granted. This was the note which led to our
interview:--


"CLUMBER,
"1 Decr. 1856.

"MY DEAR YARBOROUGH,

"Instead of placing the enclosed extraordinary production in the hands
of my Solicitor, I think it best, in the first instance, to send it to
you as Chairman of the M. S. & L. Railway, because I cannot believe
that either its tone or its substance can have been authorized by the