384 GEOEGE HUDSON, CHAP. XVII. 



worthless, which were issued at a premium also. Thus he 

 shortly found himself chairman of nearly 600 miles of rail- 

 ways, extending from Kugby to Newcastle, and at the 

 head of numerous new projects, by means of which 

 paper wealth could be created, as it were, at pleasure. 

 He held in his own hands almost the entire administra- 

 tive power of the companies over which he presided : 

 he was chairman, board, manager, and all. His ad- 

 mirers for the time, inspired sometimes by gratitude for 

 past favours, but oftener by the expectation of favours 

 to come, supported him in all his measures. At the 

 meetings of the companies, if any suspicious inquirer 

 ventured to put a question about the accounts, he was 

 summarily put down by the chair, and hissed by the 

 proprietors. Mr. Hudson was voted praises, testimo- 

 nials, and surplus shares, alike liberally ; and scarcely a 

 word against him could find a hearing. He was equally 

 popular outside the circle of railway proprietors. His 

 entertainments at Albert Gate were crowded by syco- 

 phants, many of them titled ; and he went his round of 

 visits among the peerage like a prince. 



Of course Mr. Hudson was a great authority on rail- 

 way questions in Parliament, to which the burgesses of 

 Sunderland had sent him. His experience of railways, 

 still little understood, though the subject of so much 

 legislation, gave value and weight to his opinions, and 

 in many respects he was a useful member. During the 

 first years of his membership he was chiefly occupied in 

 passing the railway bills in which he was more particu- 

 larly interested ; and in the session of 1845, when he 

 was at the height of his power, it was triumphantly said 

 of him, that " he walked quietly through Parliament 

 with some sixteen railway bills under his arm." One 

 of these bills, however, was the subject of a very .severe 

 contest we mean that empowering the construction of 

 the railway from Newcastle to Berwick. It was almost 

 the only bill in which George Stephenson was that year 



