George Hudson Bentinck introduced a bill to build a railway network in Ireland. The cost of the proposal was £16 million which George Hudson, no doubt sensing an opportunity, supported. The government did not support the bill which was ultimately defeated. In the run up to the 1852 general election Hudson – who by this time was in severe financial difficulty – spoke on several issues including a repeal of a timber tax and on a corrupt practices bill. He was re-elected by 54 votes in the election but with his railway career in decline and drinking heavily he presented rather a
George Robert Smith (MP) George Robert Smith (MP) George Robert Smith (2 May 1793 – 22 February 1869) was an English banker and Whig politician. His great-grandfather was Thomas Smith, founder of Smith's Bank; his father George Smith (1765–1836) was a director of the East India Company. His uncle Lord Carrington was patron of the pocket borough of Midhurst in Sussex, for which his father was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1830 to 1831. George Robert was returned as MP at the 1831 general election, but the Reform Act abolished most of the family's pocket boroughs, and Smith was left without a seat