ered, were paid out of capital, and disappointment and ruin
followed. King Hudson's methods came under a fierce fire of criticism;
adulation was succeeded by abuse and he was disgraced and dethroned. A
writer of the day said, "Mr. Hudson is neither better nor worse than the
morality of his time." From affluence he came to want, and in his old
age a fund was raised sufficient to purchase him an annuity of 600 pounds
a year.

About this time, that most useful Institution the Railway Clearing House
received Parliamentary sanction. The _Railway Clearing System Act_ 1850
gave it statutory recognition. Its functions have been defined thus: "To
settle and adjust the receipts arising from railway traffic within, or
partly within, the United Kingdom, and passing over more than one railway
within the United Kingdom, booked or invoiced at throughout rates of
fares." The system had then been in existence, in a more or less
informal way, for about eight years. Mr. Allport, on one occasion, said
that whilst he was with the Birmingham and Derby railway (before he
became general manager of the Midland) the process of settlement of
receipts for through traffic was tedious and difficult, and it occurred
to him that a system should be adopted similar to that which existed in
London and was known as the Bankers' Clearing House. It was also said
that Mr. Kenneth Morrison, Auditor of the London and Birmingham line, was
the first to see and proclaim the necessity for a Clearing House. Be
that as it may, the Railway Clearing House, as a practical entity, came
into being in 1842. In the beginning it only embraced nine companies,
and six people were enough to do its work. The companies were:--

London and Birmingham, Midland Counties, Birmingham and Derby, North
Midland, Leeds and Selby, York and North Midland, Hull and Selby,
Great North of England, Manchester and Leeds.

Not one of these has preserved its original name. All have been merged
in either the London and North-Western, the North-Eastern, the Midland or
the Lancashire and Yorkshire.

At the present day the Clearing House consists of practically the whole
of the railway companies in the United Kingdom, though some of the small
and unimportant lines are outside its sphere. Ireland has a Railway
Clearing House of its own--established in the year 1848--to which
practically all Irish railway companies, and they are numerous, belong;
and the six principal Irish rai