THE NEW HUDSON TESTIMONIAL.
THE Hudson investigation by the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway Company, is the complement to the Hudson testimonial. The testimonial was presented to the honourable gentleman to typify the delight of the subscribers at the manner in which he led the rapid way to riches ; and the investigation at York does no more than lay that way open to view.
Mr. Hudson was believed to manage well, so he was deputed to manage the purchase of the Great North of England Railway for the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Company ; and the affair was managed with extraordinary adroitness. To pay for the pur- chase, the York Company created new shares to the amount of 3,500,00014 and when that arrangement caused money to flow in, Mr. Hudson was suffered to buy up the new shares for the York Company. Ultimately it turned out that the transaction had been conducted so as to bring a peculiar share of profit to Mr. Hud- son: he sold a number of shares to the company of which he was chairman ; sold them above the market rate; and charged the company brokerage, at a rate of which the fairness is disputed. The company does not accuse him of malversation in applying the money subscribed by the shareholders for a ready money transaction, to a speculative investment in shares based on that very transaction, but for the complication of charges made in his own person : Mr. Hudson was chairman, shareholder, broker, and banker; and at each turn, in one capacity or other, be would make a claim upon himself in some other capacity, and satisfy his claim in the first capacity, without the necessity of appeal to any second party.
This, then,' was the way in which he amassed riches ; and helped others who aided him in the process to amass some riches for themselves. The company. complains that it was overreached ; but we cannot discover any real distinction between the mode in which the directors wished him to treat the public and the mode in which he treated the directors. Of course the honest value of shares must coincide with the intrinsic value of the thing re- presented by the shares ; and when the directors connived at a secret purchase of shares, they intended that the value should in some way be influenced by the secrecy ; the substantial object being to keep up the value of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick shares. But whether shares were raised or depressed unduly, some persons must lose, early or late ; and who were they ?—The holders of shares. More money was to be amassed by those who were "wide awake," collected from the numerous class of those who are not wide awake—the public in general; amongst them, the small investers, the thrifty, the widow, and the orphan. And when the loss came, by whom was it to be sustained, by whom the default paid ?—Not by those who could employ a Hudson to "hedge" their purchases and sales, even though he should charge them brokerage but by the same class of those not wide awake—paid for out of their privation. The towering mansions of great railway speculators are paid for out of the widow's mite, the orphan's loaf, the labourer's savings. There have been more railways in shares than in iron, many railways of greater value in shares than in iron' all had their chairman, directors, and staff of paid servants—a thriving crew; and we now see the manner in which they thrived.
What is the object of this struggle through dirty ways ? The object is twofold ; luxury, and distinction. And both are attained. Your great railway chairman shall give his wife a necklace worth thirty thousand pounds—shall be a guest at the house of the greatest statesmen in the land—shall be the party colleague of a party leader in the councils of the nation. This was the scrt of success that the subscribers to the Hudson testimonial worshiped ; and it is not gainsaid by what has hap.. pened. On the contrary, its certainty of attainment is tested. The testimonialists might make the twenty thousand pounds forty thousand.
The cool manner in which the company that complains of be- ing overreached passes over the wholesale process of overreaching implied in all these gambling share transactions, edifies the un- initiated. It shows how peculiar a state of morals has grown up among our commercial successes. When two silversmiths were tried, the other day, under a criminal prosecution, for evading the goldsmith's stamp, and were let off on a technicality, the audience in court applauded ; and at the trial most respectable persons had deposed that the defendants were men of "the high- est possible character"; circumstances which would be inexpli- cable except for the influence which railway affairs have had upon our morals.
The Hudson tribute is the most illustrious of testimonials ; the last money tribute is the testimonial to which some goodhearted people are subscribing for Eliza Chestney. A most proper tri- bute. In the person of that humble maid, human suffering is consecrated by many noble qualities—faithful affection, great courage, and an engaging display of moral beauty. The effect which her aspect had upon the beholders in the Assize Court at Norwich—her weakness as she was borne into court upon a litter, the memory of her wound and her courage, the sound of her sweet voice—does credit to the nature that could be thus affected : the metal of human nature was struck, and despite all these tar- nishes and blemishes cast upon it by trading baseness, you hear the genuine ring. To the young female, disabled perhaps for life, in poor circumstances, the help will bring comfort and consolation and a just pride in the memory of suffering courageously endured. But is the " testimonial "for Eliza Chestney to be confounded with the testimonial for George Hudson; or distinguished from it only by its humbler amount and humbler incidents ? Alas ! it is so. We are all equal in the sight of God, but not of testimonialists. Men will subscribe their five or ten guineas to the Chestney testimonial in quittance of all claims on their chivalry ; and Eliza Chestney will not be the "distinguished" guest at distinguished mansions. Do not say that "social distinctions must be maintained," and that she cannot be admitted to society for which she has not been trained. You know that a millionaire, though he have the man- ners of a butler and his wife those of a cook, shall walk into manor or senate as of right. The sole distinction in his favour is the wealth—the mass of money, attained by the means sanctioned in that monster testimonial.
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