Soon there came a change; disaster followed success; securities fell; dividends diminished or disappeared altogether or, as was in some cases discovered, 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 railways are members of the London Clearing House.

The English house, situated in Seymour Street, Euston Square, is an extensive establishment, and accommodates 2,500 clerks.  As I write, the number under its roof is, by war conditions, reduced to about 900.  Serving with His Majesty’s Forces are nearly 1,200, and about 400 have been temporarily transferred to the railway companies, to the Government service and to munition factories.