ABSTRACT

Mr. Baxter in particular, in reference to the abortive amalgamation, had been growing wider every day. The South Yorkshire shareholders complained that in order to amalgamate with the Great Northern they had refused better offers from the Midland and Sheffield-" Do you believe it ? " jeered Mr. Denison ; " I do not, or anything of the sort " —and they forwarded resolutions to King's Cross " containing accusations," to quote Mr. Denison again, "of repudiation, and appeals to moral feeling, and such slip-slop as that." "Yes," said the Great Northern chairman afterwards to his shareholders, " I unfortunately said, 'and such slip-slop as that.' The words ' slip-slop,' it was said, ought not to have fallen from the lips of a person who had the honour to hold two or three rather prominent situations. It was thought indecent, and I don't know what besides, and a gentleman belonging to the South Yorkshire read me a lecture ; and I think his observation was that moral rectitude met with its own reward. I should have thought men of business, dealing with merchants, would have known better than to suppose that any such stuff would make any impression at all on a man at all fit to be at the head of a Railway Board."