The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-06 00:00:00

30,0001,—was, we repeat, the will ever impeached!
Is it credible that if there were a shadow of even a
suspicion on that will that it would have been al-
lowed to remain undisturbed ".? The thing is prepos-
terous ! It is a wicked inve aitiou, printed for the
sake of galling, insulting, and nettling Mr. Hudson ;
but it will, we are of opinion, hove a tendency to show
dto the public of the Unite Kingdom that there is
more at the bottom of all this outcry against " the
Rail way King" than meets the eye !
But having admitted that in May, 1827, Mr.
Hudson was possessed of 30,0001. and a business suf-
ficiently lucrative to enable the proprietors " to ac-
quire small fortunes," this candid representative of
the fourth estate in Yorkshire describes Mr. Hudson
in the following strain :
" They only saw a man take a leap from behind a
counter to become one of the most influential men of his
day—from a respectable tr ad esman, possessing a few
hundreds, to take rank as a. millionaire; a Member of
Parliament; a boroughmangee; the owner of lour or
five estates; and at whose ball s and soirees dukes and
nobles attended to pay court and do homage. The
nation only saw this, and ma evened!"
The parbpbleteer wishes to represent Mr. Hudson's
fortune as like the gourd of Jonah, which shot up in
one night ; but the truth is rut t his rise has been slow,
gradual, progressive, the ;toward of many years of
perseverance and steady toil.. Equally correct is the
following :
" Having, then, as we have said, by virtue of his
newly-acquired wealth, advanced in the estimation of his
party, he vtry soon began to participate in those muni-
cipal honours which that pa ra7 had the, power of con-
ferring."
What is the fact? That .he acquired his wealth in
1827, and did not participate :in any sart=ef municipal
honours till December 25,, 1835 e, lb 1835 Mr.
Thomas Wood Wilson was. lord Mayor of York.
On the 25th of December ti a first elections under
the new law took place- e Sir John Simpson
was chosen Lord Mayor,, and Mr. Hudson was
then elected a councillor. In 1836-37 'Mr. James
Meek was Lord Mayor ; and in 1837-38 Mr. Hudson
was chosen Lord Mae or. In 1838-39 he was re-
elected. Now all this was he efore the railway days—
for the York and North Mi. Hand Railway was only
opened to Castleford in Mt 1840, and the Great
North of England line was opened to Darlington in
March, 1841. Any one acqua ivted with the facts knows
that Mr. Hudson then maina: bled the same hospitality
in the Mansion-house which be afterwards did when
he was at the head of the rail way world ; he was then
considered by his party to ha• re rendered eminent ser-
vices to the Tory cause in the! city and in the North
and East Ridings, and bef ore we believe he ever
made a farthing by rails rays, he was presented
with a valuable peace of pit aas by his fellow-citizens,
and was visited by the at ietocracy of his native
county.
So tar from its being cc rrect that Mr. Hudson,
" possessing merely a few h undreds," took " a leap"
from behind a counter to be a millionaire, the truth
is that he had retired frcinsv business in College•
street as early as 1838—seven,
,years at least before he
took that leap ! But instead of retiring to the country
on the fortune he had secured, and living as a squire,
as men of vulgar minds would have done, he resolved
to employ his capital in a wt ‘y more congenial to his
temperament, and more bent ,ficial to his fellow-men.
One more sample of the honesty of the writer
whose representations have b ten palmed off on a cre-
dulous public :
" We verily believe, that if .a proposition had been
made during that period, of to [Ladling the Atlantic, or
of laying down a line to the me eon, no smile of derision
would have been raised througl lout the country. Such
was the public credulity of the age. But, anon, through
the influence and repeated we rn.lngs of the press, this
delirium abated; it was suddHnly discovered that more
railways were projected than t'ae capital of the country
(threefold) could construct. •Th 3 Stock Exchange be-
came alarmed; scrip-holders from bled and rushed breath
lessly to the market; but, alas! it was too late! The
huge bubble had burst, and prit 'es fell more rapidly than
they had risen; provisional committeemen absconded
with the funds entrusted to their custody, leaving the
thareholders to their fate:—
" The earth bath bubbles, as the water hath,
And these were of them !"
We have already said that for ahl this mischief, the wide-
spread ruin and multitudinous evils which subsequently
ensued, and which a, e even pet travelling ' their sow
length alcnq,' George Hudson, the dis-crowned Railway
Monarch, is to beheld as answerable."
We deny this utterly. So far from encouraging
these bubbler, Mr. Hudson havttriably cautioned Parlia-
ment and the public against ahem; he pointed out
the dangers of this very speculation; he predicted the
ruin that would inevitably flow from it; he warned
the holders in all the substantial lines to discourage
all the wild projects afloat; there was no one
more opposed to the (' Stags" than he was. How,
thee, with any colour of justice and truth
can he be held responsible for the ruin that men's
own rashness, recklessness, cupidity, insatiate avarice,
selfishness, folly, miscalculation, and disregard cf good
faith brought upon their own heads ? Let him be
judged of by his own acts,—if his management of the
great lines committed to his eharge was open to cen-
sure, let him be censured by all means; but in the
name of common sense let hi tn not be held respon-
sible for doings with which he bad nothing to de, and
which he actually exerted his in fluence to counteract !
The first topic on which .Mr. Hudson was exa-
mined by Mr. Sergeant Wilkie s related to his con-
nexion with the York Union Banking Company.
The imputation on Mr. Hudson. with respect to this
bank was that through his mismanagement the
manager had over-drawn his account to the extent of
16,0001. more than he was able to repay—he having,
to promote his own schemes, advanced that gen-
tleman from being a clerk, at a. salary of 2001. a year
in another hank, to be manager of the Yolk Union
Banking Company, at a salary of 1,0001. A few
words of explanation will meet this charge.
The bank was formed in 18::13, when the notion of
a railroad from York to Lore lon would have been
considered as about as practicable a scheme as a sub•
marine telegraghic communication now between
Liverpool and New York I Among many con-
didates for the office of ma:nager, Mr. Wilkinson
applied for the vacant appointment. From
his experience as a clerk at Wentworth's
and the York City and County Banks, he was con-
sidered to be a proper person, and he was appointed
at a salary of 4001. a year—c ertainly not too much
for a post of such trust. Mr. Hudson was from the
year 1833 a director of the bank ; in 1841 he became
chairman. The bank prospered.; it was regarded as
one of the best conducted Joint-Stock Banks in the
county. Many of our readers will remember the
fearful commercial crisis in 1837 a—those who do not
will do well to refer to some year-book or register of
that date ; they will find an appalling chronicle of
the effects of speculation and over-trading. The York
Union Bank passed safely through that crisis, and
again, in 1842, when the manufacturing districts
were suffering the most frightful distress, the Union
Bank, under the safe guidance of the man
who is now denounced as the moat rash

cf all speculators, weathered the storm, while the
Yorkshire Agricultural and Commercial Bank, with
a capit3l of 400,0001., broke, involving its un-
happy shareholders in liabilities to the amount of
201,6981.95. 5d., which utterly ruined several families.
The proprietors of the York Union Bank were natu-
rally satisfied with the vigilance of their directors and
managers, and on three succrtssive occasions, as the
business of the establishment increased, step by step,
the salaries of the officers were all increased together,
till at length the manager's salary was 1,000/.:a year !
Mr. Hudson's railway connexion brought a large
amount of business to the bank, and although the
shareholders then knew that he could bestow little
more than a nominal superintendence over the affairs
of the bank, they were but too glad to have the pres-
tige of his name as chairman, and the profit of his
connexion. Well, in the beginning of this present
year, it is discovered that the manager is in debt to
the bank 16,0001., and the Yorkshireman publishes a
paragraph attempting to fix the responsibility of the
defalcation principally on Mr. Hudson ! Prom the
evidence, however, of Mr. Wilkinson himself and of
Mr. Hudson, it appears that 16,0001. of the amount
overdrawn was taken by the manager during the last
twelve months, the greater part of which time Mr.
Hudson was in London, and that Mr. Hudson had
nothing directly or indirectly to do with the defal-
cation. _

Mr. Hudson, in his evidence, in answer to the
questions of Sergeant Wilkins, thus explains the
course of business at the bank in reference to ad-

vances :
" Q. When advances were made by the bank to any
partied, were net they made under your control and
directions?
" A. Under my directions jointly with Mr. Scawin;
and, under particular circumstances, with the advice of
the entire board of directors.
" Q. Was it not your duty to exercise your discretion,
and take care that these advances were made on proper
security ?
." A. Jointly with sty colleagues.
• "Q. D 3 you mean to tell me that no advances were
ever made on your own responsibility, without the
sanction of your colleagues?
" A. I do not think that I ever sanctioned any ad-
vanced without the concurrence of Mr. Scawin, except
when he was absent at the time they were mach, /then then I
acted on my own responsibility.
" Q. Tell me, sir, is it not the fact that you frequently
inside advances without the knowledge of Mr. beavvin,
without his being personally present?
" A. I occasionally made advances in his aluence; I
may have made advances without consulting him ; I
would have done so in a 50/. ease, but not to any large
amount; but no advances could be made without his
being aware of them. They must have come to his
knowledge from the counter-book.
" Q. When you gave your sanction to advances, did
you alwa3 s communicate that to Mr. Scawia ?
" A. Certaial3 ; if the amounts were large I certainly
would tell Lieu. I believe I have done so in every in-
stencs; but lfe certainly must have known of every
advance." •

During the fifteen er sixteen years Mr. Hudson
bad been on the directorate of the bgnk the concern