Note 197 — Chapter XIV

The numbers were, Fenwick, 1527; Lindsay, 1292; Hudson, 790. The contest was between Mr. Hudson and myself; but, though Mr. Hudson, better known as the “Railway King” during the fleeting days of his transitory power, was a strong Conservative, he had done so much for Sunderland through the railways which he brought into the town, and the magnificent docks constructed entirely through his influence, that I felt regret, at having been the instrument of his political expulsion from the representation of a port, where he had rendered such marked and valuable services. But I fear it is too true, that popular constituencies are sometimes as inconsistent as they are fickle. Henry Fenwick, whom Sunderland on that occasion, and deservedly so, returned at the head of the poll, and who was one of the best of members and the manliest of men, soon afterwards lost his seat, because the Government of the day, appreciating his many good qualities, had appointed him the Civil Lord of the Admiralty.