CHAP. XVII. GEORGE HUDSON. 381 



neither. In another instance, two lines were projected 

 through a barren country, and the Committee gave the 

 one which afforded the least accommodation to the public. 

 In another, where two lines were projected to run, 

 merely to shorten the time by a few minutes, leading 

 through a mountainous country, the Committee gave 

 both. So that, where the Committee might have given 

 both, they gave neither, and where they should have 

 given neither, they gave both." 



Amongst the many ill effects of the mania, one of the 

 worst was that it introduced a low tone of morality into 

 railway transactions. The bad spirit which had been 

 evoked by it unhappily extended to the commercial 

 classes, and many of the most flagrant swindles of recent 

 times had their origin in the year 1845. Those who 

 had suddenly gained large sums without labour, and 

 also without honour, were too ready to enter upon 

 courses of the wildest extravagance ; and a fake style 

 of living shortly arose, the poisonous influence of which 

 extended through all classes. Men began to look upon 

 railways as instruments to job with. Persons, some- 

 times possessing information respecting railways, but 

 more frequently possessing none, got upon boards for 

 the purpose of promoting their individual objects, often 

 in a very unscrupulous manner; landowners, to pro- 

 mote branch lines through their property; speculators 

 in shares, to trade upon the exclusive information which 

 they obtained; whilst some directors were appointed 

 through the influence mainly of solicitors, contractors, 

 or engineers, who used them as tools to serve their own 

 ends. In this way the unfortunate proprietors were, in 

 many cases, betrayed, and their property was shame- 

 fully squandered, much to the discredit of the railway 

 system. 



One of the most prominent celebrities of the mania 

 was George Hudson, of York. He was a man of some 

 local repute in that city when the line between Leeds 



