Until the autumn of 1888 nothing occurred to disturb the even tenor of my way, and I pursued in peace my daily work at the County Down.  It was interesting work and pleasant to become personally acquainted with the customers of the company, many of whom lived in towns and villages some distance from the railway, and to gain their good will.  It was interesting and also satisfactory to gradually establish an improved and 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 Classification and Schedule to be confirmed by Parliament.  Against them petitions were lodged by both railways and traders, and the whole matter was referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses.  This Committee sat in 1891 from April till July; but it was not until January, 1893, that all was completed and the Revised Classification and the new rates brought into force.  Little time was afforded to the companies for their part of the work.  The whole system of rates was changed.  New rates had to be calculated on the new scale; thousands of rate books had to be compiled, and millions of rates altered and revised.  It was a colossal task; impossible of fulfilment in the time allowed.