386 FALL, OF THE RAILWAY KING. CHAI*. XVII. 



they afterwards shook hands, and Mr. Stephenson de- 

 clared that all was forgotten. 



Mr. Hudson's: brief reign soon drew to a close. The 

 speculation of 1845 was followed by a sudden reaction. 

 Shares went down faster than they had gone up ; the 

 holders of them hastened to sell in order to avoid pay- 

 ment of the calls, and many found themselves ruined. 

 Then came repentance, and a sudden return to virtue. 

 The betting-man who, temporarily abandoning the turf 

 for the share-market, had played his heaviest stake and 

 lost ; the merchant who had left his business, and the 

 doctor who had neglected his patients, to gamble in rail- 

 way stock, and been ruined ; the penniless knaves and 

 schemers, who had speculated so recklessly and gained 

 so little ; the titled and fashionable people, who had 

 bowed themselves so low before the idol of the day, and 

 found themselves deceived and " done ;" the credulous 

 small capitalists, who, dazzled by premiums, had in- 

 vested their all in railway shares, and now saw them- 

 selves stripped of everything were grievously enraged, 

 and looked about them for a victim. In this temper 

 were shareholders, when, at a railway meeting in York, 

 some pertinent questions were put to the Railway King. 

 His replies were not satisfactory, and the questions were 

 pushed home. Mr. Hudson became confused. Angry 

 voices rose in the meeting. A committee of investiga- 

 tion was appointed. The golden calf was found to 

 be of brass, and hurled down ; Hudson's own toadies 

 and sycophants eagerly joining the chorus of popular 

 indignation. Similar proceedings shortly after occurred 

 at the meetings of other companies, and the bubbles 

 having by that time burst, the Eailway Mania came to 

 a sudden and ignominious end. 



While the mania was at its height in England, rail- 

 ways were also being extended abroad, and George 

 Stephenson was requested on several occasions to give 

 the benefit of his advice to the directors of foreign 



