MY WORK, STAFF, AND CHIEFS 51 



Parliament that he had at his fingers' ends was 

 endless; but Mr. Culley kept mastery of it all, 

 and during all the early days of the Committee 

 met their every point, and, by his frankness in 

 producing and anticipating every possible return 

 or figure that could be asked for, became the 

 friend and ally of the Committee instead of an 

 hostile witness, as he was regarded when he first 

 entered the witness chair. 



This Committee originated partly in a mare's 

 nest. There had just been a considerable scandal 

 with regard to the Board of Works, and certain 

 wiseacres had jumped to the conclusion that 

 something of the sort was to be unearthed with 

 respect to the office of Woods, especially with 

 regard to the management of the London pro- 

 perty, from which most of the income is derived. 



In about two sittings the whole of this idea 

 was exploded. Mr. Culley so openly produced 

 every return, document, or account, that, as far 

 as those matters were concerned, the Committee 

 had everything in their hands, and had nothing 

 left to inquire into. 



It was immensely to the credit of Sir John 

 Fowler, afterwards Lord Wolverhampton, that 

 directly he found that the theory of malad- 

 ministration, with which the Committee was 

 at first imbued, was an erroneous one, he com- 



