by Hudson personally of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. He guaranteed the M&CR a dividend of 4%. The offer was accepted by a shareholders' meeting from which the press were excluded. As the means by which Hudson had made his money and gained control of so many railways began to be exposed, and to unravel, the Bill authorising lease of the M&CR and the N&CR by an East Coast company was rejected by the Commons as an attempt to monopolise traffic between the North-East and Scotland, and from 1 January 1850 those companies reverted to their own managements' control. The exposure of Hudson's misdeeds elsewhere, and the renewed necessity to make the M&CR pay its way following the repudiation of Hudson's lease led to an investigation of the affairs of the M&C by a committee from which directors were excluded. The committee reported multiple failings of previous and current directors of the company, in some cases involving 'open disregard of the law': borrowing before the specified number of shares had been fully paid; misbooking of interest on working capital to capital rather than revenue; failure to identify and book outstanding liabilities against the revenue account; failure to make any allowance for depreciation; appointing company officers on the basis of nepotism, cronyism and patronage rather than fitness for the post; favouritism in the setting of rates for coal traffic (the wisdom of colliery owners being directors - and of allowing directors to influence specific negotiations - was questioned ); failure to state clearly the roles and responsibilities of company officers;division of Company legal work piecemeal between too many solicitors (with the result that "no one person seems to have had a full and accurate knowledge of ...transactions involving the Crown Street station") Trouble with termini - the Crown Street affair The original Act of Parliament gave the M&CR no powers to deviate from its connection to the N&CR to a more convenient Carlisle terminus. At this time, the route for the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway and its partner the Caledonian Railway were being prepared, and the proposed main line to Scotland was arranged to pass to the west of Carlisle (and very close to the Crown Street site) to allow a common central station to serve all the Carlisle railways. The Maryport Company preferred to proceed with its own station at Crown Street on Botchergate. The Act authorising this received the