HUDSONISM.
MORE flings we see at Mr. Hudson l In various railway com- panies, inquiries into Mr. Hudson's peculiar system have been going on, and as each newly uncovered instance of his con- trivance is exposed there is a fresh burst of indignation; as if the mere multiplication of the details could add anything to the gravity of the charge implied in the simple enunciation of the method by which Hudson brought about the apparent prosperity of self and companies. Now it is a mass of shares belonging to the Hull and Selby Railway which he is found to have been selling to the York and North Midland Company, on such terms that a committee of the shareholders demand a cancelling of the bar- gain, and make him refund 40,0001.; and already people are exulting in the prospect of his being actually ruined.
We cannot deem the exultation at Mr. Hudson's fall more moral than the adulation at his rise. It is the same feeling 1 converse. The change of circumstances which has taken place since the change in his fortunes is not so great as it seems, nor so decisive as to warrant the change of demeanour towards him. People have found out that his contrivance for raising the price of shares, and for pocketing part of the profit, was not more re- markable for cleverness than for honesty. But it would not have succeeded if the public had not made itself a party to the delu- sion, by wilfully shutting its eyes to the conduct of the great juggler. Until the loss began to recoil upon itself, the managing class preferred to avoid a scrutiny of the plan, lest their tender consciences should he wounded, and they be forced to condemn that which was making their property rise in the market. And even that part of the public which was duped was a party to so much of the misdeed as lay in ascribing to the manceuverer some golden secret. The very pretence ought to have excited sus- picion ; but the public preferred to endow the millionaire with the deserts as well as the fruits of success; and hence a very shallow device, in the way of buying up shares and selling them again with a factitious Hudsonian value, became possible. But what has Mr. Hudson lost which takes away with it the favour of society ? He is the same man that he was before ; there is not the least evidence that he has undergone any change.
If he had any name, it was given to him by the gratuitous.sumption of the public. There was no manifestation of ability,
except the accumulation of wealth ; and how little that implies, has been learned from the sequel. The sole attribute pecu- liar to him was the possession of money, and to that people flocked like flies to a treacle-pot. The cash is understood to he dispersed, and the people disperse, like flies after the treacle has gone. The abandonment is the same thing as the servile follow..
jog—the same motive acting a converso. They are not to be blamed for their conduct : there was no law to keep them away from a Hudson, none which can fasten them to him ; but if there is any degradation, it is in the liking to do such things. That does indeed indicate a very low order of mind.
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