The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-17 00:00:00

AN EX-TRADESMAN OF YORK,

how i.uw, iww now? wilat ,Ay :he eitiv,ll,?'
Richard 111.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sia,—Long before ttie insatiable railway mania pos•
sessed the greedy souls of men, and at a time when the
worthy, yet unwontedly cautious, citizens of old Ebor
preferred paying forfeit to accepting the honoured
though somewhat costly post of chief magistrate to the
ancient city, it was my good fortune to see one of our
tradesmen princes step forward from behind his counter
and—after fulfilling the duties of Lord Mayor in a stale
well worthy the craft to which he belonged, on their de-
volving upon him in rotation—volunteer to repeat the
onerous task of dispensing law and venison in the magni-
ficent old Mansion-house of York,

The tradesman to whom I allude, and who so man-
fully refilled the magisterial chair from motives of pure
liberality and good citizenship, at a time when the post
seemed likely to go Legging, was Mr. George Hudson;
and I venture to assert, that to no man was there ever
accorded a more unanimous expression of approval and
admiration at his uniform impartiality, courtesy, and
kindliness, whether presiding on the bench, or at that board
where hospitality reigned unbounded, than was justly
bestowed upon his bluff and burly Lordship.
To a mind and manner equally and eminently based
upon common sense and good feeling Mr. Hudson, at the
time I write of; was liberal, patriotic, and open-hearted
in the extreme; and, though unflinchingly consistent in his
political principles, to no public functionary could there
possibly attach less imputation of party bias or undue
exercise of influence at any of the severely contested
elections in which he took part, than to the subject of
our short memoir, or reminiscence.
And when—in the variable hemisphere of L. S. D.—
" The winter of our discontent was made
Glorious summer by this son of York,"
as it was to thousands, solely by the power of his com-
prehensive views and utter contempt for unworthy pecu-
niary considerations, when comingin juxta-position with
vast undertakings—aye! to thousands upon thousands
without any reference to the speculating fraternity—
that locust herd of sunshine who gave their flattery but
not their friendship in return for the bounty scattered
through his genius—then the plaudits that had erewhile
resounded over the hospitable board of the Mansion-
house swelled into an anthem of Mammon• worship and
hateful sycophancy, as nauseating to a manly mind as it
has been proved fickle and worthless in the sequel.
For, it is evidently to the sad fact, that—
" All the clouds that lower'd upon our house *
Have (not) been quite in the deep bosom of the ocean
buried,"
and that " merry meetings," and joyous dividends on
railway stock, are not quite so rife as of yore, that the
main outcry against Mr. Hudson is to be attributed,
rather than to any frivolous, yet reprehensible irregu-
larity in accounts, to be laid to the charge of his staff,
but to which, in the multiplicity of engagements and in-
cessant dunning at brain the chief was necessarily sub-
jected to, I opine, even Joe Hume himself could have
but afforded an occasional glance, but nothing like a
daily and efficient scrutiny.
With this I have little concern, and from the facts of
the case as they appear on paper and in figures, imagine
Mr. Hudson need have quite as little. But, in testifying
to a long career of good fellow and citizenship, active
benevolence, gratuitous service to many a friend in rail-
way matters, and the unaffected, manly traits of a suc-
cessful (ergo. vituperated!) British tradesman and loyal
gentleman, I can only hope you will pardon the liberty
I take in addressing you so familiarly, and believe me,
Sir, your most obedient servant,
SYLVAN US.
Normandy, April 14, 1849.

MR. HUDSON AND THE COM-

MITTEE OF INVESTIGATION. —
(From the Era.)
In the extraordinary history of Mr. Hudson, whose
name will always be associated with British enterprise,
no event has excited public attention more than a charge
which first appeared in the Times newspaper, and bas
since undergone official investigation—a charge of
having sold to the company of which he was the
chairman his own shares at prices above the market
quotations. The outcry against Mr. Hudson has been
bit-
ter. veryA loud,
first
rasntd,
publicthe
ecommentscondemnation
nuaptoi
ennhis
was
osnoduct ver
stronglyy beixt
lour etshsoerdi ,ty,seemed to b
that hisvery existence, w
septwaasay, and
the greatest
his
pr
railway
to
condemnn defence,
anyand
tm
a n
character for honesty seemed threatened. But at that
time
is
notDl
the
r .l udso❑n
custom i
n this country r iny
was not
heard
before he is tried.
There are penalties attending all great successes, and
c o his ow
great is the envy which prosperity excites in those who
have been less fortunate. It is not, therefore, to be won-
dered at that the first accusation against the honour and
integrity of so influential an individual and so lucky a
person as Mr. Hudson, should be readily taken up by the
hworld," or "fortune," has
dealt less favourably, and echoed by the million of petty
"
multitude, with whom the
mortals who are at all times delighted at the downfal of
Sir. Hudson's high position and wealthy state—the num-
greater, and, it may be, better people than themselves.
ber of his shares, the number of his acres, his mansion at
Albert-gate, his seat in Parliament, his chairs at Rail-
way Boards, his distinguished friends, and his political
compeers—these were all calculated to make him liable
to attacks from those who saw, or fancied they saw, a
vulnerable spot in his character, and we wonder that he
has not suffered,fromlthe slings and arrows of the multi-
tude before this. But George Hudson must be no com-
mon man to have gained his present strength, and it will
be no common assault that will overcome it. Nothing
but his own mideeds can give his natural adversaries the
advantage over him, and now for the first time his trans-
actions have been brought into question and disrepute.
Let us see what he has done.
T
into
hteheCosmubmjeiettteehaovfe
madelnv theirappointedestigationreport,
andtowinquire
consider tho malignant rumours and the grave charges
which have, during this investigation, been made against
Mr. Hudson, and when, moreover, we consider the hos-
tile feelings which pervaded the minds of the majority of
the committee against him, we are considerably relieved
by the perusal of the report, which although it is unfa-
vourable in many
respects, completely exonerates him
from the grave charges which were so industriously pro-
pagated against him.
The fact is, that Mr. Hudson has mistaken the duties
of a trustee; and, en passant, we may observe, that if the
strict duties of trustee, as the law interprets them, were
to be enforced, we would venture to state that very few
trustees would be found who have strictly performed
their duties; and certain we are, that no railway director
or trustee could be found who would pass unscathed
through the ordeal. As Mr. Hudson himself observes in
his address to the shareholders of the York, Newcastle,
and Berwick Railway:—
" So far from considering myself in the light of a trus-
tee, and thereby disqualified from acting in any other
character, I may say with truth, that
of personal that I have never hesi-
tated to take upon myself any
re-
sponsibility the interests of the company might require;
and I trust I may be forgiven for calling this to mind
when I am charged with having, in the character of a
trustee, made a profit of the company.
Mr. Hudson very properly observes, that if the strict
duties of a trustee are to be enforced, he must lose, not
the precise amount he obtained for selling his shares to
the company, but cancel the transaction altogether, re-
gardless of the heavy loss in which the altered circum-
stances of the times would involve him; and this he
offers to do; and it now remains to be seen whether the
shareholders will be so ungenerous as to take advantage
of his offer.

The Times, who first raised this tumult, has the ho-
nesty to say, " Neither the other officials nor the share-
holders must hope to escape censure under the cover
of a personal onslaught upon Mr. Hudson. The system
is to blame. It was a system without rule, withoutecotrade ble,
without even a definite morality.
men did monstrous things, and were
thnwhich they
clever. Thousands rejoiced in piemieuretrick, col-
believed to have been puffed up by n?
- that " equity is an
lesion, and imposture." We admit
' ' l " and that Mr. Hudson has made
instinct and a principle," e,
e himself expressed his conviction that there
awamsisstoamkeet:hhing wrong in the transaction
In
1845.
ruegiapt very
immediately
after it was completed, and that was in 1846. Let us
turn to the investigation. The money paid to him was
131,7671. 9s. 31, and the profit he made was 7,1851., out
of which he returned 2,8741. The shares which Mr.
Hudson sold were valued by a Mr. Plews, an official, and 1
Mr. Close, the secretary, states:—
" Mr. Plows was requested, at a board meeting of this
company, by Mr. Hudson, to furnish a valuation of the
value of the Great North of England shares to this com-
pany. Mr. Plews sent me a document (exhibited) giv-
ing the value of the shares. I added the commission and
the stamps of my own accord, but Mr. Hudson was not
aware of it. The money was paid to Mr. Hudson's ac-
count at the York Union Bank, the date of payment 27th
of October, 1646; first payment, 81,100/. on the 27th of
payment, the
the 27th of November,
the account. Mr. Hudson
500 c, October; ;,s
.3 secondd., which
came to me some time in the month of January last,
and stated to me that, as times were so materially
changed, in making up the accounts of the Great North
of England purchase, I must deduct any profit ho had
reeeived on that transaction. He afterwards said, be-
fore I had the accounts made up, that he had recon-
sidered the matter, and that the account was not to be
altered, in consequence of his having advanced out of
his private account a sum of upwards of 16,0001. on
behalf of this company, in the purchase of ' West Dur-
hamcurit of
per s shares,' for which he had no sanction of the pro-
prietors; and on the 19th of February last, being the
day before the meeting, Mr. Hudson came to me and
was
tthe
e t o
11. debit
shares
hisar e s account
on
the
with I
said he was sure there was something wrong in the ac•
othe
15h4a share uncalled har
e s ;tha t
o I n
2,874 shares which he had sold to the company, and
that, after the meeting, he would go into the account
with me."
Mr. Hudson says to the committee:—

" Before I made the sale or fixed the price at which I
would dispose of the shares of the company, Mr. Plews
and Mr. Oxley were requested by me and the board to
furnish an estimate at what price it would be advantage-
ous for the company to purchase the shares, to the best
of my belief and conviction I charged them at a lower
price than that estimate; I did not then think, nor do I
now think, that, in as much as the company were corn
pelted to be purchasers in 1850, my position did prevent
me being a seller, at a proper price, as any other indivi-
dual, and I also felt I bad strong claims on the company
for the best price they could afford to give, inasmuch as
I had given up to the company a very large sum, guaran-
teed, which I held in my own right, amounting to 3,2501
a year, which would have produced me a very consider-
able income."
Again, he adds:—
" Experience has taught me that in attempting to buy
any large quantity of good shares, it is utterly impos-
sible to obtain them without materially advancing the
price."

We have no more space for extract, but there is much
to pureedse for motile:, ;Loll toe ift•we was tie .0
Mr. Hudson. That he had the right to sell, is evident,
and that ho had the right to make a profit is the only
question;-but who ever cared as to how their profits
were made by railways ? Mr. Hudson's error
has been a want of prudence in considering
hasno t
nficdsaeouoydelni
tee;
bov,
uaabttfiettohehnri eps,
auacltini cr,
dtei
oriucstmhhu
timasshptaseettrhcaeotnedi
feoi ehntp
aitsrmhwsaiudon
insui
stol
eldnbaoywev
—:inrno:otdplrl.:oo7l
p aiaonvriges.
his position. Had any other person done what
beenho
moret iroenatteoms tho
per-
haps, strict equity, entitled him to ; but is not that more
the fault of those who gave him such advantage !
Now, let us ask, what good has resulted, or is likely
to result, to the shareholders, from this attempt to
damage Mr. Hudson ? has it, or will it improve the
value of their property to break up confidence in public
men, and especially a man who has been raised
to such a pinnacle as Mr. Hudson ? On the con-
try, it must, we should think, have a very damaging
effect on railway property, and we must beg emphati-
cally to impress on candid minds, how very different a
transaction appears under altered circumstances. Things
were done and sanctioned in the heyday of railway pros-
perity which now would not bear investigation. We put
it to the shareholders of the York, Newcastle, and Ber-
wick Railway, whether, if such a transaction which has
now taken place, had been proposed to be investigated in
the glorious days of 1845 and 1846, the proposer
would not have been ejected, not from the door, but
from the window of the room in which he had the har-
dihood to moot the question. But now times are
changed—dividends have sunk from ten per cent. to six,
shares from 100 prem. to discount; and this is Mr. Hud-
son's real crime—he has ceased to be able to make the
fortunes of his shareholders, and therefore he has ceased
to be an angel in their eyes.
Such is the fate of every one who experiences a tran-
sition from prosperity to adversity. The very share-
holders, whose throats were hoarse with receiving Mr.
Hudson with acclamation, and would receive him again
with acclamation if he could raise their dividend from six
to ten per cent., will now perhaps be most vociferous in
his condemnation; we say, perhaps, because it is just
possible that a true sense of their own interests may in-
duce them, at the next meeting of the shareholders of the
York, Newcastle and Berwick line, to receive the report
of the Committee of Investigation but refuse to adopt it.
Let them remember that Mr. Hudson has never hesi-
tated to incur any amount of personal responsibility
whenever the interests of the company were concerned;
and if, in times of adversity, they forget past services,
and because a man is discovered by a hostile committee
to be, after all, but human, this is no reason
siesrvicceaabl
spaes,
front
his
sudvsaonst
knowledge
has
and experience, of rendering to the railway world, are to
ren-
dered,
n
.be cast aside. And we do hope, for the sake of the rail-
dwehrye d , s uaenhd
rail-
way interest generally, and for that of the shareholders
of his lines especially, that a decided stand will be made
against any attempt to injure Mr. Hudson any further
than he offers to injure himself, via., by taking upon
himself the obligation as well as the duty of trustee. Let
the shareholders be generous as well as just. for no good,
rely on it, will arise from carrying hostility beyond
what the actual circumstances of the case will
justify. Let shareholders remember that directors
are, after all, but mortals ; and that, in nine cases
out of ten, it is the fault of shareholders themselves
if matters go wrong, by their not exercising sufficient
vigilance and control ; and that it is most detrimental
to their interests, and speaks but little in their favour
as men, that they were willing to take all the good they
could from the bands of Mr. Hudson so long as he could
bestow it, but the moment a day of adversity arises they
torsake him, and verify the adage, that " gratitude is
but a lively sense of favours to come."
_ _

Neither shareholders nor company will, it is clear,
receive any pecuniary damage from the share transac-
tions of Mr. Hudson; and the shareholders, if they are
wise and wish to benefit their property, will not be made
the tools of an interested clique, whose only object is
to depreciate the shares, and profit by sowing distrust
broadcast. At the same time, the duties of directors
should be more clearly defined; and it would be highly
beneficial to joint-stock companies generally, if directors
were made to feel that they are but trustees, and that in
future the duties of trustees will be strictly enforced.
(From the Sunderland 7 imes).
The committee appointed by the proprietors of the
York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway, at the general
half-yearly meeting at York on the 20th February last,
to investigate the Great North of England Purchase ac-
count, have at length made their report, a copy of which,
along with the evidence upon which it professes to be
based, we give at length in our present number. It is
obviously impossible to enter into a minute discussion of
all that passed in review before that committee. and it is
the less necessary owing to the salient points of the whole
case, which the discriminating reader will have no diffi-
culty in separating from the mass of verbiage in the
mazes of the volummious report having been ably taken
up and disposed of by a metropolitan contemporary, in
a couple of articles, which we have much pleasure in ex-
tracting into our own columns, and whose testimony is
the more valuable, inasmuch as it cemes from a quarter
politically opposed to Mr. Hudson, and from an autho-
rity, moreover, whose honesty of purpose is as unques-
tionable as are the ability and point of its observations.
On the most careful and dispassionate examination, we
can come to no other rational conclusion than that the
whole resolves itself into an unprecedented case of much
to do about nothing. But, withal, it is difficult to re-
strain the workings of a just indignation on witnessing
the consummate effrontery and painful pertinacity with
which the committee strove, after having already ar-
rived at all the material facts respecting which they were
appointed to inquire, and after those facts had unques-
tionably exonerated Mr. Hudson, strove to elicit, not-
withstanding, meeting after meeting, extending over ten
days, matter which they hoped might afford them a han-
dle to deliver a criminatory report. The main accusers
were both judges, prosecutors, witnesses and jury. The
whole, in fact, turns out to be the scheme of the stock job-
ber from London who occupied the chair, and his scarcely
less suspicious coadjutor, Mr. Love, to damage in public
estimation a man whom they would have been better
employed in imitating than in seeking by a species of
interminable and relentless persecution to browbeat and
condemn. Finding they could not extract anything to
suit their malevolent purpose from the ample materials
for investigation furnished by Mr. Hudson, they at-
tempted, in succession, but unsuccessfully, to prey into
the private affairs of certain respectable share brokers in
London, and overhaul the accounts of the York Union
Bank and the Great North of England Railway. "No-
thing," in short, " was too small for their rapacity;
nothing too large for their ambition." Even the chair-
man of the committee did not think it beneath him
to become a vindictive witness rather than leave any
stone unturned that gave the chance of procuring a con-
viction against the man into whose conduct he, being
the accuser, was so improperly appointed to inquire.
And what, after resorting to all the expedients which
the fertile malignity of Messrs. Prance and Love could
dictate, have they accomplished ? Why, the direct
effect is to place the character of Mr. Hudson higher
than it stood before. A verdict of acquittal from an un-
biassed, or even friendly, committee could not have done
half so much for him, as the fact that a committee,
whose chief members were avowedly hostile partizans,
have, after doing their worst, over a protracted inquiry
of ten days, been unable to elicit anything detrimental
to his position or derogatory to his character and fair
fame. The opinions given in the report are indeed hostile
to Mr. Hudson in more than one instance; but the ex-
pressions of such opinions, dictated as they are in every
line by the spirit of the vindictive partizan,
can only be regarded as a last desperate attempt to
accomplish, by a ferocious ipse dixit, what the absence
of all criminatory evidence had rendered them
hopeless of doing in any other way. Even those
passages of the report which, in express words, acquit
Mr. Hudson, could not be allowed to go forth without
being interspersed with insulting and groundless
inuendos. The publication of the evidence, however,
enables the public to judge for itself of the correctness of
the conclusions of the report. For our own part, after a
careful examination, we feel satisfied that there are few
indeed who will fail to perceive that those parts of the
report which impute blame to Mr. Hudson, and for the
most part to the directors also, as they are utterly un-
supported by anything in the evidence, must be taken
for neither more nor less than the simple opinions of
hostile partizans upon a matter which the publication of
the evidence enables the entire proprietory of the rail-
way to judge of as well as the committee themselves.
Entrusted, as Mr. Hudson is, with the management
of interests so immense that no single individual can
enter into all their intricate details, much of the
minutiw is necessarily entrusted to the care of as-
sistants, one of whom, in the case of the 151. shares,
which is the principal item in Mr. Hudson's sales,
undoubtedly did commit an error in assigning to Mr.
Hudson a price 31. more than was paid to others in the
open market; but it is admitted, even by the men most
anxious to construe everything to Mr. Hudson's disad-
vantage, that this error, which was wholly uninten-
tional, is no degree casts the slightest suspicion of im-
proper motive upon any of the parties interested; indeed
it transpired that prior to the meeting Mr. Hudson had
himself noticed the error and put it in the way of being
rectified, and this would have been done though Mr.
Prance had never spoken, and though no committee had
been heard of. This head and front of the offending,
the prime point which was to engage the investigations
of the committee, thus, by 'universal admission, Mr.
Hudson's "enemies themselves being judges," being
explained, what remains upon which to hang a charge
detrimental to the Honourable Gentleman? Why, in
the other classes of shares sold by Mr. Hudson to the
company, a tabular statement is exhibited in order to
show that, basing the figures upon Mr. Plews's
calculations, Mr. Hudson had fixed the rate so as to re-
ceive a few hundred pounds for his shares above the
market price. Even the committee, however, are not
agreed that on this point blame attaches to either Mr.
Hudson or Mr. Plows, and they accordingly content
themselves with reporting what they call the facts to the
shareholders. But whether the facts are correctly stated
is questionable. It is easy to say the rate fixed by Mr.
Hudson and Mr. Plews was above the market price ;
.but
a market price is an exceedingly arbitrary _tahiong:
Nothing is more common than for no shares mbe
tainable at what is stated as the marketpriac a; the market
And even
though we admit that the prices alleged w
prices, still if, on the showing of the report, the purchase
of these shares by Mr. Hudson enhanced the market quo-
tation, the purchase of them by the company it was evi-
dent must necessarily have enhanced it also; and when to
this we add that Mr. Hudson was no needy speculator,
obliged to sell at any price, and that a
price considerably above what he received in
1846 was guaranteed to him in 1850, then it
will not appear at all surprising that, though no-
minally above the market price, the quotation given to
Mr. Hudson by the company might not unlikely in re-
ality, be below it. Any real ground of complaint being
thus obviated, these judicial aecusers resort to the for-