HUDSON, GEORGE, English railway director and speculator, was b. in 1800, and apprenticed to a linen-draper in the city of York, where he subsequently carried on business for himself. He took an early share in railway speculation, and was appointed chairman of the North Midland company. His plans of management were carried out; schemes of railway annexation and extension were undertaken, embarrassed lines were relieved, and rivals were subdued. He was elevated into the dictatorship of railway specu lation; everything he touched turned into gold; and Hudson was everywhere known as " the railway king." The shares of the lines with which he consented to become con1 netted went up, and he was said to have made £100,000 in one day. He bought large estates; was three times elected lord-mayor of York; was sent to parliament by the electors of Sunderland; and found his acquaintance courted by persons of the highest rank. When the railway mania was at its height a statue to Hudson was proposed, and names were put down for £25,000; but before the money could be collected the popularity of the "railway king" was on the wane. His connection with the Eastern
Counties railway led to some exposures. The accounts had been "cooked;" matters' had been "made pleasant;" and dividends had been paid out of capital. Suspicions were excited in regard to his direction of other companies, shares fell, the bubble burst, the railway monarch was deposed, and encountered nothing but invective from quarters which had pursued him with adulation. Every board-room was closed against him, and his suddenly acquired gains were almost swept away. The constituency of Sunderland, however, continued to elect him as their representative until March, 1859. He after wards resided abroad, in comparatively narrow circumstances, and died Dec. 14, 1871.