ly was a busy, but
never seemed an overworked man, due I suppose to some constitutional
quality he enjoyed. Added to a good professional business of his own, he
was Solicitor to the Midland, Crown Solicitor for County Armagh,
Solicitor to the Galway County Council, and, in _his leisure hours_,
farmed successfully some seven or eight hundred acres. He had a fine
portly presence, and though modesty itself, could not help looking as if
he were _somebody_, like the stranger in London, accosted by Theodore
Hook in the Strand, who was of such imposing appearance that the wit
stopped him and said: "I beg your pardon, sir, but, may I ask, are you
anybody in particular?"

At Monte Carlo we both lost money but revelled in abundant sunshine, and
contemplated phases of humanity that to us were new and strange. Soon we
grew tired of the gaming table and its glittering surroundings, bade it
adieu, and explored other parts of the Riviera, moving at our ease from
scene to scene and from place to place.

Kilkelly was an excellent travelling companion, readily pleased, and
taking things as they came with easy philosophy. But never more shall we
travel together, at home or abroad. A year ago, at the age of 82, he
passed from among us on the last long journey which we all must take.

_Requiescat in pace_!

CHAPTER XXVIII.
VICE-REGAL COMMISSION ON IRISH RAILWAYS, 1906-1910, AND THE FUTURE OF
RAILWAYS

In previous pages I have spoken of the manner in which the railways of
Ireland had long been abused. This abuse, as the years went on, instead
of diminishing grew in strength if not in grace. The Companies were
strangling the country, stifling industry, thwarting enterprise; were
extortionate, grasping, greedy, inefficient. These were the things that
were said of them, and this in face of what the railways were
accomplishing, of which I have previously spoken. Politics were largely
at the bottom of it all, I am sure, and certain newspapers joined in the
noisy chorus. At length the House of Commons, during the Session of
1905, rewarded the agitators by adopting the following resolution:--

"_That in the opinion of this House, excessive railway rates and
defective transit facilities, generally, constitute a serious bar to
the advancement of Ireland and should receive immediate attention from
the Government with a view to providing a remedy therefor_."

This Resolution bore fruit, for in the ensuing year (