53G Biographical Sketch of 



mittee, and as the author of writings of the highest and most 

 practical value. 



As with agriculture, so with railways ; in the one case there 

 were old prejudices to be fought, old customs to be uprooted ; so 

 in the other there was culpable mismanagement, if not fraud, 

 there was wrong to be righted, there was confusion to be reduced 

 to order, and therefore, with characteristic energy and moral 

 courage, Mr. Thompson, being a practical man, advanced to a 

 practical attack. It is always the case, the cruel demon of greedy 

 speculation was devouring indiscriminately the substance of the 

 innocent and of the guilty — unworldly clergymen, widows and 

 orphans, were sufferers as well as the mixed mob of gamblers — 

 the dirty, the fashionable, and the vulgar. He moved the re- 

 solution which removed the late Mr. Hudson from office ; the 

 immediate object being to rescue the property of the shareholders 

 by introducing sound and honest management, and by restoring 

 to rival companies the blessings of peace. This labour at first 

 was well-described to us as " night and day work ! " Mr. 

 Thompson was not actuated by any motives of self-interest. 

 Owing to his mistrust and by his instigation the greater part 

 of the family interest had been removed from the suspected 

 undertakings. His inotives were the highest, as is proved by 

 the following familiar note, intended for no eye but one. We 

 venture to think this familiar note is one of those little literary 

 chinks that often admit floods of light upon the character we 

 study — it is just one of those things to make us proud of our 

 countrymen, and hopeful as regards the future of our country : — 

 " I send you the ' Times,' containing the Eastern Counties 

 Report ; I wish for your opinion as to my joining the direction 

 of the railway. I have said no to many people, but I am so 

 pressed. Give this the best attention you are able, and, being 

 Sunday, consider it with special reference to my duty as a 

 Christian and a gentleman." 



As Chairman of the North-Eastern Railway Company, Mr. 

 Thompson saw the good seed he had sown bring forth good fruit 

 most abundantly ; that which he undertook to lift from its 

 state of abject desolation, became under his hands one of the 

 most highly appreciated and greatest of English commercial 

 undertakings. He proposed and organised, in 1852, a Railway 

 Companies Association, of which he was Chairman ; but after 

 several years it was torn asunder by the Battle of the Gauges, 

 and long territorial contests. A second attempt, however, which, 

 like all truly British institutions, commenced with the character- 

 istic dinner, was more successful, and has not only introduced 

 moderate and give-and-take feeling between the Companies, but 

 also between the Companies and the great public it is their 



