" Well, I can say that I have
had many such opportunities, and can truthfully declare that I have
enjoyed them all.
A few weeks holiday in Holland, Cologne, the Rhine and Frankfort, with
some days on the homeward journey in Brussels, all in company of my dear
delightful friend, Walter Bailey, complete the annals of this year,
except that I recall a little arbitration case in which I was engaged. It
was during the summer, in July I think. The Grand Canal (not the canal
which belongs to the Midland and is called the Royal) is a waterway which
traverses 340 miles of country. Not that it is all canal proper, some of
it being canalised river and loughs; but 154 miles are canal pure and
simple, the undisputed property of the Grand Canal Company. On a part of
the river Barrow which is canalised, an accident happened, and a trader's
barge was sunk and goods seriously damaged. Dispute arose as to
liability, and I was called on to arbitrate. To view the scene of the
disaster was a pleasant necessity, and the then manager of the company
(Mr. Kirkland) suggested making a sort of picnic of the occasion; so one
morning we left the train at Carlow, from whence a good stout horse
towed, at a steady trot, a comfortable boat for twenty miles or so to the
_locus_ of the accident.
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