The tracing of the new routes which were to join all the ...

The tracing

of the new routes which

were to join all the chief cities, ports and naval arsenals of the island was a matter of the highest national importance. But unfortunately those who should have acted refused to interfere.

That the whole society was interested in having a good system of internal communications seemed to be forgotten. The speculator who wanted a large dividend on his shares, the land owner who wanted a large price for his acres, obtained a full hearing.

But nobody applied to be heard on behalf of the community.” Was Hudson listening that night? For Hudson, 'Mammon and Belial in one', was nearing his apogee and his fall. The Midland and North-Eastern systems were under his control: he had carried the Sunderland election against Bright and Cobden in 1845, when The Times chartered a special train to bring the news of his return; his

financial triumphs, his

country houses, his parties in Albert Gate, his friendship with Prince Albert, gave him / her an almost legendary prestige.' But Hudson was one of those not uncommon characters who persuade themselves that an aptitude for business carries with it a genius for fraud.

He kept one block of shares in demand by paying the dividends out of capital: with even greater simplicity he helped himself to others which did not appear in the websites and sold them at a profit. Naturally he was the strenuous, and, no doubt, the sincere, opponent of Government supervision; and naturally when the bubble burst, with a loss to the investor, it was reckoned, of nearly £170,000,000, the public attitude to Government supervision underwent some change.

...read on >>