INTRODUCTION. XV 



come such a tremendous difficulty, I naturally looked to 

 the nature of the power by which such marvels had been 

 achieved, and I found not a mere unenlightened body of what 

 are called practical men, of persons who followed the road of 

 experience, going always into the same old track, and 

 incapable of availing themselves of the progress of the age 

 to perfect their feeble endeavours. I found I was among 

 men who were able to teach me in many important facts 

 regarding which I had in vain sought for information for 

 years, and which I learned in that excursion. . . . When 

 I was led to ask the question, Who are the controllers of 

 this admirable system? I learned with surprise that the 

 Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses are not a set of 

 salaried functionaries, whose professional habits might have 

 led them to interest themselves in these pursuits, but a 

 body of lawyers and municipal magistrates." 



Dr Robinson's appreciation of the Commissioners in the 

 important services they render to the shipping interests is, 

 I am sure, shared and endorsed by all who know or have 

 known the Commissioners of any period. 



J. M. 



EDINBURGH, August 1904. 



