My meetings with the traders usually, but not invariably, resulted in
friendly settlements. The great firm of Guinness and Company were not so
easily satisfied, and offered a _stout_ resistance which correspondence
and conference failed to overcome. Under the Railway and Canal Traffic
Act a mode of dealing with the _impasse_ was provided by conciliation
proceedings presided over by the Board of Trade. This we took advantage
of, and after several meetings in London a compromise was effected. It
was then that I met for the first time Mr. Francis Hopwood, who had just
been appointed Secretary to the Railway Department of the Board of Trade.
I liked his way and thought that conciliation could not be in better
hands than his.
The Board of Trade is more or less a mythical body, but very practical I
found it on these and all other occasions. Its proper designation is, I
believe, "Committee of Privy Council for Trade." This Committee was
first appointed in Cromwell's time, and was revised under Charles II., as
"Committee of Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations," under
which title it administered the Colonies.
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