Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland | Page 6

Joseph Tatlow
so christened by Sydney

Smith. Mr. Hudson in 1844 was chairman of the first shareholders'
meeting of the Midland Railway. Prior to that date the Midland
consisted of three separate railways. In 1849 Mr. Hudson presided for
the last time at a Midland meeting, and in the following year resigned
his office of chairman of the company.
The story of the meteoric reign of the "_Railway King_" excited much
interest when I was young, and it may not be out of place to touch upon
some of the incidents of his career.
George Hudson was born in 1800, served his apprenticeship in the
cathedral city of York and subsequently became a linendraper there and
a man of property.
Many years afterwards he is reported to have said that the happiest days
of his life passed while he stood behind his counter using the yardstick,
a statement which should perhaps only be accepted under reservation.
He was undoubtedly a man of a bold and adventurous spirit, possessed
of an ambition which soared far above the measuring of calicoes or the
retailing of ribbons; but perhaps the observation was tinged by the
environment of later and less happy days when his star had set, his
kingly reign come to an end, and when possibly vain regrets had
embittered his existence. It was, I should imagine, midst the fierceness
of the strife and fury of the mania times, when his powerful personality
counted for so much, that he reached the zenith of his happiness.
[George Hudson: hudson.jpg]
Whilst conducting in York his linendraper business, a relation died and
left him money. The railway boom had then begun. He flung his
yardstick behind him and entered the railway fray. The Liverpool and
Manchester line and its wonderful success--it paid ten per cent.--greatly
impressed the public mind, and the good people of York determined
they would have a railway to London.
A committee was appointed to carry out the project. On this committee
Mr. Hudson was placed, and it was mainly owing to his energy and
skill that the scheme came to a successful issue. He was rewarded by

being made chairman of the company.
This was his entrance into the railway world where, for a time, he was
monarch. He must have been a man of shrewdness and capacity. It is
recorded that he acquired the land for the York to London railway at an
average cost of 1,750 pounds per mile whilst that of the North Midland
cost over 5,000 pounds.
On the 1st July, 1840, this linendraper of York had the proud pleasure
of seeing the first train from York to London start on its journey.
From this achievement he advanced to others. He and his friends
obtained the lease, for thirty-one years, of a rival line, which turned out
a great financial success. His enterprise and energy were boundless.
It is said that his bold spirit, his capacity for work and his great
influence daunted his most determined opponents. For instance, the
North Midland railway, part predecessor of the Midland, was involved
in difficulty. He appeared before the shareholders, offered, if his advice
and methods were adopted, to guarantee double the then dividend. His
offer was accepted and he was made chairman, and from that position
became chairman, and for a time dictator, of the amalgamated Midland
system. Clearly his business abilities were great; his reforms were bold
and drastic, and success attended his efforts. He soon became the
greatest railway authority in England. For a time the entire railway
system in the north was under his control, and the confidence reposed
in him was unbounded. He was the lion of the day: princes, peers and
prelates, capitalists and fine ladies sought his society, paid homage to
his power, besought his advice and lavished upon him unstinted
adulation.
In 1845 the railway mania was at its height. It is said that during two or
three months of that year as much as 100,000 pounds per week were
expended in advertisements in connection with railway promotions,
railway meetings and railway matters generally. Scarcely credible this,
but so it is seriously stated. Huge sums were wasted in the promotion
and construction of British railways in early days, from which, in their
excessive capital cost, they suffer now. In the mania period railways

sprang into existence so quickly that, to use the words of Robert
Stephenson, they "appeared like the realisation of fabled powers or the
magician's wand." The Illustrated London News of the day said:
"Railway speculation has become the sole object of the world--cupidity
is aroused and roguery shields itself under its name, as a more safe and
rapid way of gaining its ends. Abroad, as well as at home, has it proved
the rallying point of all rascality--the honest man is carried away by
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