Findlay said I had done well. This was praise enough for me.
Then he gave his evidence in his usual masterly convincing way and I
listened in admiration.
We made a good fight I know, the odds were in our favour and success
seemed assured. Our opponents then presented their case, and still we
felt no doubt; but Fortune is a fickle jade and at the last she left us
in the lurch. On the eighth day of the proceedings the Chairman
announced: "The Committee are of opinion that it is not expedient to
proceed with the Bill." This was the _coup de grace_. No reasons are
ever given by a Committee for their decision and the contending parties
are left to imagine them. The losing side sometimes has the hardihood to
think a decision is wrong. I believe we thought so; and I know that
_Ennis_, who was thus doomed to a further period of single blessedness,
thought the same.
In a previous chapter I have spoken of the _Parcel Post Act_ of 1882, and
mentioned the share of the receipts apportioned to the railway companies
of the United Kingdom. The Act also prescribed the manner in which this
share was to be divided amongst the respective railways.
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