overland, for time demanded
that we should go back much quicker than we came.

We broke our journey for two days at Buda-Pesth, and looked on the
Danube; at Vienna we stayed a little longer, and found that gay city hard
to leave. We drove and rode in the Prater, and horseback exercise in
such a place was, I need not say, delightful. We stopped at Frankfort,
enjoyed its opera and other things, then, _via_ Ostend, wended our way to
London.

CHAPTER XXVI.
A CONGRESS AT PARIS, THE PROGRESS OF IRISH LINES, EGYPT AND THE NILE

"Will you undertake to report on the subject of Light Railways for the
International Railway Congress at Paris?" This question was put to me in
the year 1899, and although I was busy enough, without shouldering
additional work, I at once said "Yes," and this was how I came to spend
part of my 1900 annual holiday in the beautiful but crowded capital of
France. Crowded it was almost to suffocation, for 1900 was the Great
Exhibition year, and all the world and his wife were there. The Railway
Congress took place in September. The business part of the proceedings
came first, and I did not stay for the festivities. When my Report was
made and discussed (a reporter was not allowed to read his paper, but was
required to speak from notes), I made, with three railway friends from
Dublin, tracks for Switzerland. It had been a strenuous year and
mountain air and exercise were needed to restore one's physical strength
and jaded faculties.

"_Means of developing light railways. What are the best means of
encouraging the building of light railways_?" This was the text for my
paper, as sent to me by the Congress, and my Report, I was told, should
be confined to the United Kingdom, Mr. W. M. Acworth having undertaken a
report on the subject for other countries.

In my Report I first disposed of Ireland, concerning which and its light
railways I have already written with some fullness in these pages; and my
readers, I am sure, will not be surprised to hear that, as regards that
country I answered the question remitted to me by saying that the only
practical means I could see of further encouraging the construction of
light railways in Ireland was by the wise expenditure of additional
Government Grants, while as regards England, I pointed out that she had
for long preferred to dispense with light railways, that, as forcibly
expressed in _The Times_, she alone of civilised countries had but one
st