Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott, Volume 2
by
Robert Ornsby
Part 4 out of 5
I have at all times contended that the Pope as prince ought to have the
full benefit of the public law of Europe, and have often denied the right
of the Italian Government to absorb him. But you must know that
extraordinary doctrines, wholly unknown to public law, have been held and
acted on for the purpose of maintaining the temporal power. If you keep to
public law, we _can_ have no differences. If you do not, we may: with
Abp. Manning I have little doubt we should. But that question is and has
been for years out of view, and is very unlikely to come into it within any
short period. Rational cooperation in politics would be at an end if no two
men might act together until they had satisfied themselves that in no
possible circumstances could they be divided. Q.E.D.
There in brief is my case, based on yours, and I would submit it to any
committee you ever spoke before, provided you were not there to bewilder
them with music of the Sirens.
Now pray think about it. I shall bother you no more. I wish I had time to
write about the Life of Scott. I may be wrong, but I am vaguely under the
impression that it has never had a really wide circulation. If so, it is
the saddest pity; and I should greatly like (without any censure on its
present length) to see published an abbreviation of it.
With my wife's kindest regards,
Always aff'tely yours,
W. E. GLADSTONE.
J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C.
Mr. Hope-Scott, in replying to the above letter of Mr. Gladstone's (under
date 'Abbotsford, November 4, 1868'), says:--
I fully acknowledge the compliment which you have paid me in writing at
such length at such a time, and there are some things in your letter which
I am glad to have had from yourself. But your main argument for action
fails to convince me. I cannot put 'paulo post futurum' into my pocket, and
march to the poll. For the present, then, I cannot enlist with you in
politics, but I can do so heartily in any attempt to extend a knowledge of
Walter Scott.
The following letters, of the same year, will further illustrate Mr. Hope-
Scott's view of the Irish disestablishment question, and the independent
line of politics which he adopted in his closing years:--
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to the Lord Henry Kerr._
Norfolk House, St. James's Square:
March 22, '68.
Dear Henry,--[The Archbishop] thinks that if Gladstone is serious (which he
and I both believe him to be) about the Irish establishment, he will carry
his motion, although it seems probable that Disraeli will make it a
rallying-point, and may even dissolve Parliament if beat. How he is to
manage the latter operation in the present condition of the Reform Question
I hardly see....
It is astonishing to find on all sides such proof of the progress of
opinion in Irish, and I think generally, in Catholic matters. The Fenian
blister has certainly worked well; but besides that, Ireland and the
Catholic religion offer the best field for the Liberals, as a party, to
recover the ground which Disraeli last year ousted them from. Hence it is
that my two months' absence from England seems to count as years on this
point. Indeed, Gladstone's great declaration on Monday last is supposed to
be due to the rapid progress of a few weeks, or even days....
Yours affectionately,
JAMES E. HOPE-SCOTT.
_The Same to the Same._
Dorlin, Strontian: Sept. 16, '68.
Dear Henry,--... In politics I have taken my line, and have told Curie and
Erskine that, as at present advised, I do not intend to meddle with either
Roxburgh or any other election. I trust neither party enough to identify
myself with either; and while I do not think that the demolition of the
Irish establishment is enough of a religious question to make me support
the Liberals, I think it sufficiently so to prevent me siding with the
Conservatives. On the other matters which you mention, members of both
political parties seem to be at present free to follow their own
consciences or interests, but their leaders may at any moment require
obedience, and in that case I would rather trust the necessary tendency of
the Liberals than that of the Conservatives on all home questions; and
foreign policy seems, by accord of all parties, to have now settled into
non-interference....
Yrs affly,
James R. Hope-Scott.
The Lord Henry Kerr.
In a speech at Arundel, January 5, 1869, perhaps the last Mr. Hope-Scott
made on a public occasion, he remarked that he did not think the wisest
thing had been done in remodelling the constituency by simply numbering
heads. By depriving Arundel of its member, a large interest had been left
unrepresented--that is, the Catholic interest. An intimate friend of his,
possessing excellent means of information and judgment, said to me: 'Hope-
Scott, in his latter years, was not political--not a party man in any
sense. Indeed, he got into a scrape with the Whigs when the Duke of Norfolk
voted with the Tories. This much mortified the Whigs, and they complained
to Hope-Scott of the Duke's line: he said he wished him to be of no party.
This was his line as a Catholic. Every lawyer, in fact, is Conservative.
Revolution is against all their theories of government.' This, however, so
far as it relates to the personal influence exercised by Mr. Hope-Scott,
must be balanced by the evidence of another friend, also very intimate with
him, to whom the _late_ Duke of Norfolk, while still traditionally a
Liberal, had remarked that he thought Conservatives would do more for
Catholics, and that nothing was to be expected from the Liberals.
CHAPTER XXVI.
1851-1873.
Religious Life of Mr. Hope-Scott--Motives of Conversion--Acceptance of the
Dogma of Infallibility--The 'Angelus' on the Committee-room Stairs--Faith
in the Real Presence--Books of Devotion--The Society of Jesus--Letter of
Mr. Bellasis--Mr. Hope-Scott's Manners--His Generosity--Courage in
admonishing--Habits of Prayer--Services to Catholicity--Remark of Lord
Blachford--The Catholic University of Ireland--Cardinal Newman's Dedication
of his 'University Sketches' to Mr. Hope-Scott--Aid in the Achilli Trial--
Mr. Badeley's Speech--Charitable Bequests--Westminster Missions--Repeal of
Titles Act--Statement of Mr. Hope-Scott--Letter to Right Hon. S. Walpole--
Correspondence with the Duke of Norfolk--Scottish Education Bill, 1869--
Parliamentary Committee on Convents--Services of Mr. Hope-Scott to
Catholicity in Legal Advice to Priests and Convents--Other Charities in
Advice, &c.--Private Charities, their General Character--Probable Amount of
them--Missions on the Border--Galashiels--Abbotsford--Letter of Pere de
Ravignan, S.J.--Kelso--Letter of Father Taggart--Burning of the Church at
Kelso--Charge of the Lord Justice-Clerk--Article from the 'Scotsman'--
Missions in the Western Highlands--Moidart--Mr. Hope-Scott's Purchase of
Lochshiel--'Road-making'--Dr. Newman's 'Grammar of Assent'--Mr. Hope-
Scott's Kindness to his Highland Tenants--Builds School and Church at
Mingarry--Church at Glenuig--Sells Dorlin to Lord Howard of Glossop--Other
Scottish Missions aided by Mr. Hope-Scott--His Irish Tenantry--His
Charities at Hyeres.
The reader has now been enabled to form an opinion of Mr. Hope-Scott's
character and actions in various aspects. The most important of all--his
religious life, his services to the Church, and his charities during his
Catholic period--remain to be reviewed; and that interval appears the most
natural for making such a survey, which comes just before the time when he
was visibly approaching the end of his career.
The path by which Mr. Hope-Scott was led to Catholicity has been made
sufficiently apparent. We have seen that he was principally influenced by
two reasons, affecting, on the one hand, Church order, and on the other,
dogma: the Jerusalem Bishopric, which was set up by Anglicans and Lutherans
together; and the Gorham judgment, which rejected an article of the Creed.
These reasons were, as he acknowledged, _clenched_ by his disgust at
the outcry raised against the exercise of Papal authority in the
institution of the Catholic hierarchy in England; and perhaps the greater
stress ought to be laid upon this last, as it might have been the less
expected, because his early ecclesiastical studies, and early contact with
Catholic society, were certainly not such as could have led him to views
usually classed as 'ultramontane.' On this head it may be sufficient simply
to state that, when the time of its promulgation arrived, he rendered,
without reservation, the homage of his intellect to the exalted dogma of
Infallibility, which in our days has been welcomed by the whole Catholic
world from the voice of its Chief Pastor. It is, further, only necessary to
refer to his political letter to Mr. Gladstone to see that he endeavoured
to make his influence (often so much more effective than any outward
agitation) available towards the recovery of the temporal power and the
rights of the Holy See.
As to his religious habits as a Catholic, every page of this memoir shows,
or might show, that he was a man of great faith, great earnestness, and the
most sincere intention to obey the will of God. Yet it must be remembered
that his duty called him into the very thick of the battle of life from
morning--till night: whilst so engaged (and it was the case during half the
year) it was by no means in his power either to attend daily mass or to be
a frequent communicant, though, at Abbotsford, he would communicate two or
three times a week. But a little anecdote will serve to prove that he took
care to place himself in the presence of God in the midst of the busy world
in which he moved. He told his friend Serjeant Bellasis that he found he
was just able to say the _Angelus_ in the time he took to mount the
stairs of the committee-rooms at Westminster. At home he regularly said the
_Angelus_; as was noticed by persons who accidentally entered his room
at the hours assigned to it, and used to find him standing to say it.
The one absorbing devotion of his Catholic life was undoubtedly the
adoration of our blessed Lord in the Sacrament of the altar. Few who have
seen him in prayer before the Tabernacle could forget his look of intense
reverence and recollection, the consequence of his strong faith in the Real
Presence. After the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, St. Michael was his
favourite saint; his favourite books of devotion the _Missal_ and the
_New Testament_; and, among religious orders, he was personally most
attracted by the _Society of Jesus_, with members of which order we
have already seen that he was on terms of friendship, even before his
reception into the Church.
His admiration for the society lasted throughout his life; and for more
than twenty years together, until the end, I believe that for the direction
of his conscience it was to the Jesuit Fathers that he always had recourse.
In private conversations, when expressing the great satisfaction he felt at
seeing the Society established in Roxburghshire and the Highlands, he often
said that the Jesuits seemed to him 'like the backbone of religion.' Yet
this love for the Society never led to any want of hearty appreciation of
the merits of other Orders, or of the Seculars. Thus he hoped, at one time,
to see the Dominicans at Galashiels, and showed the greatest regard for the
Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate, who were for nine years in charge of the
mission there, while, both in London, and at Abbotsford and Dorlin, the
Fathers of the Oratory and the Secular clergy were welcome and honoured
guests. The high value he set upon the Rev. P. Taggart (whom he used to
call 'the Patriarch of the Border'), and on the hard-worked Highland
priests, is well remembered. I am here, however, partly anticipating
another branch of the subject, and shall conclude what I have to say about
the personally religious aspect of his character by the following letter,
from a friend who knew him well, and which contains one or two fine
illustrations of it, and some very interesting general recollections
also:--
_Mrs. Bellasis to the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott_.
Villa Ste Cecile: Dec. 31, 1880.
My dear Friend,--You ask me [for] some of those impressions which memory
gives me of the kindest friend we ever possessed--your excellent father.
Years have rolled on, and yet the intercourse with so striking a person has
left a remembrance not to be deadened by lapse of time. The noble form--
that beautiful, intellectual countenance--the kindly tone of voice, so
encouraging in difficulty, so sympathetic in sorrow, so persuasive in
advice--who that knew James Hope-Scott could ever forget?
He had a peculiar way of listening, with the head a little bent on one
side, to the most trivial subject broached by a friend in conversation, as
if it was of the deepest importance, which pleased you with its
unintentional flattery. With true Christian politeness he never interrupted
you, but, if the subject was an important one, he would come down with some
unanswerable view which at once approved itself to the listener as the
course to be followed: 'Hope thinks so-and-so'--and it always proved the
right thing.
With regard to his generosity, it was his nature to be generous--he had
learned the pleasure of giving; and, when any principle was involved in a
gift, there was no stint. As an illustration of this, I remember on one
occasion a friend--not rich--known to us both, had given me a picture to
dispose of, as she did not care for it: it was small, and out of condition,
and of an objectionable subject, though we had not perceived its closely
veiled viciousness. I failed in persuading a picture dealer to purchase it,
and, having to return home by my husband's chambers, I there found Mr.
Hope-Scott. I mentioned my want of success, and your father at once said,
'Let us see it.' It was fetched up from the carriage, and after looking at
it attentively--'Well,' he said, 'Mrs. Bellasis, I think you must leave
this with me.' I did so, and learnt afterwards that on my leaving the room
he crushed the painting with his heel, put it on the fire, and sent me a
cheque for my friend for 30_l._
His faculty for languages was very great, and when in the south of France,
rambling daily over the pretty property he possessed at Hyeres, I used to
be amazed at the fluent way in which he talked with the workmen; whether it
was the carpenter, the plasterer, mason, or gardener, he talked with each
in the terms of their respective occupations and trades, quite
unhesitatingly. Provencal talk is certainly puzzling, but he seemed as if
born to it; and the French gentlemen told me he spoke exactly all the
niceties of their language, whether in repartee or in illustration.
How profoundly Catholic he was those near and dear to him must know far
better than outsiders. No consideration ever closed the purse or the lips
where the interests or the honour of Holy Church were concerned. There was
no parade of piety in him; and yet, if he thought he could say the word in
season, he spoke _unreservedly_. I recollect on one occasion a very
distinguished member of the Parliamentary bar, who was, in common parlance,
a man of the world--long gone to his rest--met my husband and your father
walking together in Piccadilly. Mr. X. stopped them, exclaiming, 'Well, you
two black Papists, how are you?' 'Come, come,' replied Mr. Hope-Scott,
'don't you think it is time _you_ should be looking into your
accounts?' 'Oh, I'm all right _now_,' was the reply, half jocularly.
'Well,' said Mr. Hope-Scott, 'but how about those _past_ pages--eh?'
Mr. X., taking no offence, drew himself up and said, with great gravity, 'I
tell you what it is, Hope: I am thoroughly, intellectually convinced; but'
(he added, striking his breast) 'my heart is not touched!' and thereupon
the three parted. Had he been a Catholic, he would have used, I suppose,
the term 'will' for 'heart.' [Footnote: This courage in giving religious
admonition where he saw it was needed, is a trait which I have occasionally
observed appearing in his correspondence, and quite in keeping with his
favourite expression, _'Liberavi animam meam.'_--R. O.]
All that Mr. Hope-Scott did in religious observances was done so naturally,
so simply--whether it was in going down to the committees with my husband,
he would pull out his rosary in the cab, and so occupy his thoughts through
the busy streets; or when, in mounting the stairs at Westminster to reach
the committee-rooms, he would repeat, _sotto voce_, with my husband,
some slight invocatory prayers, or verse of a Psalm--such things were only
known to the extreme intimacy of long friendship. Such was the hidden,
deeply pious life of one who, for many years at least, though certainly in
the world, was yet not of it. I might say he was _above_ it; for who,
more than our dear friend, saw through, and so thoroughly despised its
shams, its allurements, its ambition, and modes of thought? There is one
other remembrance which is a very bright one: I allude to his ever-ready
wit. When he was in good health, and well, before he was threatened with
the coming malady, how amusing he was--such a cheery companion! I have
often thought, when we left his company, that I would put down his clever,
witty rejoinders--they were legion! and never a spark of ill-nature. I
never remember his saying an unkind word of any one.
E. J. B.
The services rendered by Mr. Hope-Scott to the cause of Catholicity may be
grouped in three great divisions:--1. The giving advice, at no small cost
of time and trouble, either on great questions affecting the interests of
the Church, or on those of a more local and personal description. 2.
Pecuniary charities. 3. The foundation of churches and missions. I will
endeavour to give some idea of each of these, though of course the very
nature of charity, but still more that of counsel, involves so much of
secrecy, that particulars which remain on record, and can be given to the
world, we may safely assume to be only specimens of many more which must
remain untold.
1. The first division includes, as we shall see, many of the great
questions affecting the Catholic Church in these countries during his
active career as a Catholic. But his services were chiefly those of a wise
and trusted adviser behind the scenes, for he never entered Parliament, and
rarely took part in public meetings. That he thus kept at a distance from a
sphere of action for which his powers so eminently fitted him, was a
subject of regret even outside of Catholic society, as will appear from a
letter of Lord Blachford's to Mr. E. S. Hope, already cited, in which his
lordship remarks:--
I have sometimes been disappointed that in joining the Church of Rome [Mr.
Hope-Scott] was not led by circumstances to adopt in England the task so
brilliantly, but so differently performed in France by M. de Montalembert--
that of asserting for English R. Catholics that political and Parliamentary
status to which their education and importance entitle them. It would have
been an advantage for all parties.
And, earlier in the same letter:--
Given a constituency, he united almost every qualification for public life.
He seized instantly the point of a matter in hand, and was equally capable
of giving it words at a moment's notice, or of working it out thoroughly
and at leisure, and that either by himself or, what is as important,
through others. He would have made no enemies, and multitudes of friends;
and his quiet tact and flexible persuasiveness, grafted on a clear grasp of
leading principles, would have made him invaluable in council.
It would be useless to speculate on the motives of this abstinence, or on
the part which he might have played in Parliamentary life in the years when
the too brief career of Mr. Lucas was drawing to its close, and a great
opportunity seemed to offer itself for a leader to step forward who should
unite, in a degree equal to his, faith and devotedness with eloquence, and
a rare talent for the conduct and marshalling of affairs. However, among
the transactions affecting Catholic interests in which Mr. Hope-Scott's
knowledge and experience were turned to account, may be named the
following:--
(1) _The Catholic University of Ireland_, which has since shown such
struggling yet persistent vitality, had been in contemplation as far back
as 1847. Serious steps were being taken towards its foundation in 1851,
when Mr. Hope's advice was immediately sought by Archbishop (afterwards
Cardinal) Cullen: he said, 'Get Newman for your Rector;' and from him the
Archbishop came straight to Birmingham. There is a letter of Archbishop
Cullen's to Mr. Hope (dated Drogheda, October 28, 1851), in which, after
thanking him for valuable advice regarding the University, his Grace says:
'I think we shall be guided by what you have suggested. For my part, I
adopt your views altogether.... If we once had Dr. Newman engaged as
President, I would fear for nothing; and I trust that this point will soon
be gained. After that, every thing else will be easy.' From a letter of Mr.
Allies to Mr. Hope (August 19, 1851) it appears that Dr. Newman regarded it
as of the highest importance for those charged with the construction of the
new University to obtain information from Mr. Hope as to the course of
studies pursued in the Catholic universities abroad; and in another letter
(August 30) Mr. Allies proposes to Mr. Hope a long string of questions as
to university legislation. What Mr. Hope looked upon as of the most
consequence may be gathered from a postscript to that letter, marked
'private:' 'J. H. N. showed me your letter, with which he entirely agrees;
and I need not say that I feel myself all the force of what you say. All
paper rules and constitutions are nothing in comparison to there being a
good selection of men, and a perfect unity and subordination in the
governing and teaching body. If this is to succeed, my belief is that the
only way is to appoint J. H. N. head, with the _fullest powers_, both
for the selection of coadjutors and the working into shape.' Mr. Allies
(with the Very Rev. Dr. Leahy, afterwards Archbishop of Cashel, and Mr.
Myles O'Reilly) was, at the time, engaged with Dr. Newman in drawing up a
report on the organisation of the University, after consulting a certain
number of persons, among whom was Mr. Hope.
In 1855 Mr. Hope-Scott presented to the new institution one of his splendid
gifts--a library of books on civil and canon law. 'Your books' (writes Dr.
Newman to him, August 1) 'will be the cream of our library.' In the
difficulties of later years, when Dr. Newman felt his duty as Rector of the
University and that as Father-Superior of the Oratory pulling him in
different directions, the congregation, not from any one's fault, but from
the nature of the case, being unable to get on without him, it was to the
same faithful counsellor he turned. I may here mention that Mr. Hope-Scott
warmly took up the idea of founding an oratory at Oxford (January 1867),
and gave 1,000_l_. towards this object, which he refused to take back
when the design was laid aside. In a conversation on the subject of this
memoir, which Cardinal Newman condescended to hold with me, his Eminence
said, 'Hope-Scott was a truly good friend--no more effectual friend--from
his character and power of advice.' He had stood by him all through as a
good friend and adviser in the difficulties of the Oratory connected with
his rectorship, and so in another critical moment relating to other
affairs. I venture to transcribe the eloquent words in which the Cardinal
has placed on record the value he had for his friendship, in the dedication
to his 'University Sketches:'--
'To James R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C., &c. &c., a name ever to be had in
honour when universities are mentioned, for the zeal of his early
researches, and the munificence of his later deeds, this volume is
inscribed, a tardy and unworthy memorial, on the part of its author, of the
love and admiration of many eventful years.--Dublin, October 28, 1856.'
(2) The assistance rendered by Mr. Hope-Scott to Dr. Newman under the
anxieties of the _Achilli Trial_ has already been briefly alluded to
(p.141). The first meeting of Dr. Newman's friends to hold consultation in
the affair was a scene, as I have heard it described, which brought out in
a striking manner Mr. Hope-Scott's talents for ruling and advising those in
perplexity. At first all was confusion, but order began to appear the
moment that he entered the room; he seemed to have a just claim to take the
lead, and placed everything in the right point of view. I find him writing
to Mr. Badeley (from Abbotsford, November 15, 1852), to ask whether it
would be _professionally_ correct for him to appear at Dr. Newman's
side on the day of sentence, adding: 'I need hardly say that I should much
like to show him any signs of respect and affection. There are, indeed, few
towards whom I feel more warmly.' This, it seems, would not have been
etiquette if he had appeared in wig and gown; and Mr. Badeley (who was one
of Dr. Newman's counsel) suggested his sitting with Sir A. Cockburn, to
assist, if not to speak. However, a motion for a new trial was made, and on
January 31, 1853, judgment was given, discharging the rule on technical
grounds, and imposing a nominal fine. There is a very interesting account
of this in the Badeley correspondence, part of which I am tempted to
subjoin. So important an event affecting Newman can scarcely be considered
foreign to Hope-Scott, and it affords also a specimen of Mr. Badeley's
familiar letters to his friend, which entered into the daily life I have
endeavoured to describe.
_Edward Badeley, Esq., Q.C. to J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C._
Temple: Feb. 1, 1853.
My dear Hope,--... Newman has been here, and seems well satisfied with the
result, and I think he has reason to be so. The judges paid him great
respect, and though Coleridge preached him an immensely long Puseyite
sermon, much of which he might as well have spared, full credit was given
for Newman's belief of the truth of his charges, and for proper motives.
You will see a tolerably correct report of it in the 'Times,' but the best
report of _the judgment_ is in the 'Morning Post.' The speeches of
counsel are _execrably_ given both in that and in the other papers. My
speech is _very incorrect_, but I have been gratified by very kind
expressions about it, particularly from my legal brethren: it was not long,
but it seemed to produce some sensation, particularly as I started by
avowing my friendship for Newman. My conclusion, as well as I remember it,
was as follows:--
'There may be some, my Lords, who seek in Dr. Newman's conviction a
malignant triumph, and who would gladly avail themselves of the sentence of
this Court, to crush the man whose writings have been their dread, as his
life has been their shame. The cry of party prejudice and of religious
bigotry may be raised in other places, and its echo may perhaps be heard
even within these walls; but your Lordships, I am confident, will disregard
it, and in the exercise of your sacred functions you will be guided only by
the dictates of wisdom and of justice; you will respect the high character
of Dr. Newman, his genius, his learning, his piety, his zeal, the purity of
his motives, the sanctity of his life; you will remember the anxiety he has
undergone, the expense which he has incurred, _the facts which he has
proved_; and bearing these in mind, you cannot pass upon him any
sentence of severity, you can but inflict a nominal punishment. 'Vestrum
est hoc, Judices, vestrae dignitatis, vestrae dementias: recte hoc repetitur
a vobis, ut virum optimum atque innocentissimum, plurimisque mortalibus
carum atque jucundissimum, his aliquando calamitatibus liberetis, ut omnes
intelligant in concionibus esse invidiae locum, in judiciis veritati.'
[Footnote: Cic. 'Pro Cluent. '71.]
There was some applause when I sat down, and all seemed highly delighted
with my quotation.... The small amount of the fine is regarded by the
_Myrmidons_ (Achilli's followers) as a heavy blow to them, and all
regard it as a triumph for us. One of the most satisfactory things,
however, is the declaration of the Court that they are not satisfied with
the finding of the jury upon the facts, and that if the question as to a
new trial had rested solely on that finding, they would have felt
themselves bound to send the case to another jury. And so ends this
important case. I think we may congratulate ourselves. Newman is gone home
to-day, and means to write to you tomorrow or next day. He was very tired
yesterday, but seems quite alive again now, and in excellent spirits. The
crowd in and about the Court was immense;... Newman was well attended by a
numerous party of friends, and cheered as he left the Court.
Ever believe me
Yours most affectionately,
E. BADELEY.
(3) _Charitable Bequests_, &c.--In a letter of the Very Rev. Dr.
(since Cardinal) Manning to Mr. Hope-Scott, dated 'Rome, March 3, 1854,'
and marked 'private and confidential,' occurs the following passage: 'I am
rejoiced to hear that you have been invited to communicate with the
Government on the charitable bequests. And I think you will be glad to know
that this fact has given, as I hear, great satisfaction to the Cardinal. In
conversation he has often named you to me, and I feel sure that he would
have selected you on his own part for such a purpose.'
I quote the following lines from a long and interesting letter of Dr.
Manning's to Mr. Hope-Scott, dated '78 S[outh] A[udley] St., January 28,
1856:' 'Do you remember a conversation, the summer of 1854, one Sunday
evening, at 22 Charles St., on the good which might be done by four or five
men living together and preaching statedly at different places, on courses
of solid subjects? The thought has long been in my mind both before and
since our conversation, and it has been coming to a point under an
increased sense of the need.'
Correspondence of this kind, which I can merely notice, would, of course,
illustrate Mr. Hope-Scott's position as a leading Catholic layman of his
time, in the confidence of the heads of the Church.
(4) _The Repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act_ is an event too
familiar in recent Church history to require much comment. The Government
in 1851, having, in compliance with popular clamour, passed a bill by which
Catholic prelates were prohibited, under many penalties, from assuming
territorial titles of sees, found itself, from the very first, obliged to
treat this enactment as a dead letter, in consequence of the legal
difficulties and complications which arose from it. Common sense suggested
its removal from the statute-book. This was not effected without
considerable effort to escape from that necessity by some less humiliating
alternative. Mr. Hope-Scott gave evidence, lasting for two days (July 9 and
16), before the Select Committee appointed in 1867 to report on the
operation of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act; and to that evidence, showing
all the luminous clearness and completeness which was so characteristic of
him, but especially to an admirable _Statement_ on the whole case
which he submitted to the committee [see _infra_, p. 208], there can,
I think, be no doubt that the final adoption (in 1871) of the only
satisfactory remedy--a total repeal of the Act--was mainly due.
A letter of the London correspondent of a Dublin newspaper of the day,
relating to Mr. Hope-Scott's examination before the Select Committee above
mentioned, contains, in the lively manner of a journalist, some particulars
worth preserving:--
It used to be said of Mr. Hope-Scott in the great days of railway
committees, ere the London, Chatham, and Dover had made its _scandalum
magnatum_, that his briefs were worth 15,000_l_. a year; but that
if he could forget some slight knowledge of the common law that he had
acquired in his youth, there was no reason why they might not mount up to
25,000_l_. The story is only worth relating as an instance of the
professional lawyer's ingrained contempt for such a tribunal as a committee
composed of five or more ordinary members of the House of Commons. But to-
day [July 16, 1867] it so happened that when Mr. Hope-Scott for the first
time in his life had to sit in a chair and be examined and cross-examined
before such a committee, his Common Law stood him in good stead. There is
something extremely impressive in the complete simplicity of this eminent
lawyer's appearance. A great natural superiority of intellect, an apt and
complete study of his subject, ample readiness and subtlety of statement,
these you expect; but not a certain direct and cogent candour, which
appears to be, and which indeed is, utterly unaffected. The success of Mr.
Hope-Scott with Parliamentary committees is, I have always thought, due to
the fact that he unites the qualities of a great lawyer with the qualities
that make a man a great member of Parliament.... His evidence was limited
to the substantiation and illustration of the legal positions laid down in
the document drawn up by him [see page 208], and of the whole case he was
evidently master to its most minute points. Mr. Walpole and Mr. Chatterton
both essayed what we may call cross-examination--it cannot be said
successfully.[Footnote: _Irish Times_, July 18, 1867.]
The following letters on this subject appear to merit preservation; it will
be seen that not all Catholic politicians of the day had so clear a view of
the case as Mr. Hope-Scott:--
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to the Right Hon. Spencer H. Walpole, M.P._
[Draft Copy.] Norfolk House, St. James's Square:
_Confidential._ June 15, '67.
Dear Walpole,--I wrote to Mr. M'Evoy from Arundel to request that he would
make an appointment with you on the subject of the Eccl. Titles Act, but,
as I have received no reply, I presume that he is still out of town.
My object, however, may be as well, perhaps better, attained if you will
read the memorandum which I enclose, and in which I have endeavoured to
state the case against the Act, in the manner in which it _must_ be
stated to the Commons' committee, should the proposed inquiry take place.
You will gather from the memorandum that R. Catholics owe a great deal to
the forbearance of the Government and the judges, and I can assure you that
they are far from desirous to requite such treatment by pointing out the
infractions of the law by which it has been accompanied.
Moreover, in the event of the Act not being repealed, it is evident that
they would greatly endanger their present immunity by showing how easily it
might be destroyed.
Under these circumstances, if I had to choose between acquiescence in the
retention of this Act, and a Parliamentary inquiry of certain inconvenience
and of doubtful result, I should naturally prefer the former; but the
question has apparently advanced too far to be now set aside, and I
therefore venture to suggest to you, and through you to the Government,
that the most just, and to all concerned the most convenient course, would
be, that the Ministry should supersede further inquiry by an avowal that
the action of the Public Departments is impeded by the Act, and should
introduce a Government bill to repeal it.
I have marked this letter and the memorandum 'Confidential' for reasons
which you will understand; but I do not mean to limit the use of them in
any case where you think they may assist the consideration of my
suggestion.
Believe me, &c. &c., J. R. H.-S.
The Right Honorable Spencer H. Walpole, &c. &c. &c.
_His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, E.M. to J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C._
House of Lords: July 28, 1870.
My dear Mr. Hope,--Monsell, into whose hands I put the affair of the Ecc.
Titles Bill, and to whom I gave your papers on the subject, says that both
O'Hagan and Sherlock see no objection in the bill. He says that he will try
and get some one to protest against the language of the preamble, but he
does not feel sure that anybody will even do that. I believe O'Hagan now
says that, though Papal instruments are declared void, in a court of law
such instruments are not called for to prove such facts as divisions of
dioceses, &c. What had we better do?
Yours affectionately,
NORFOLK.
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, E.M._
Bedford Hotel, Brighton: March 6, '71.
Dear Henry,--[After mentioning the enclosure of a rough draft of memorandum
made in 1870, and of the clause he had proposed to Mr. Gladstone (Footnote:
In 1870 Mr. Hope-Scott had proposed to Mr. Gladstone the following
_clause_ with reference to the Ecclesiastical Titles Act:--
'Before all courts, in all questions affecting the rights or property of
any religious body not established by law, or of the members of the same as
such, it shall be sufficient to prove the existence 'de facto' of any
ecclesiastical arrangement material to the inquiry, and no evidence shall
be required of the manner in which, or of the persons by whom, such
arrangement may have been originally made.') with reference to the Eccl.
Titles Bill:--]
These I now send you, and, with them, a letter which you wrote to me last
July showing how the matter then stood. In connection with this letter, I
send you likewise a print of my statement made and circulated before the
committee met in 1867, and given in evidence by me before that committee. A
reference to it will show that the view which your letter attributes to
Lord O'Hagan is certainly not correct as regards England, though there are
some circumstances in Ireland which make it more applicable there. As the
bill is now to go to a Select Committee of the Commons, there seems a fair
chance of getting a favourable alteration, and it is certainly well worth
the attempt. As I wrote to you last summer, the _clause_ I proposed
would be of the greatest practical value, and might save some amount of
feeling among Protestants by letting them fire away at the Papal authority;
but if it cannot be got, the words 'and all assumption, &c., is wholly
void' should either go out, or the whole of that recital be qualified so as
to mean _legal and coercive_, not merely spiritual, jurisdiction, &c.
I am sorry to add to the number of your labours for the Church, but at
present I am not able to take the field myself; and as you are at any rate
to be in London this week, you may take the opportunity of moving in the
matter.
Yrs affly,
James R. Hope-Scott
Remember J. V. Harting in case of need.
His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, E.M.
The whole subject has belonged to the domain of history since the Repeal
passed under Mr. Gladstone's administration in 1871. Still, I am unwilling
to dismiss it without quoting the wise and powerful words with which Mr.
Hope-Scott concludes the 'Statement' of 1867, several times referred to:--
No Act of Parliament can cause direct hardship to the subject while the
Ministers of the Crown, the judges, the magistrates, and the public concur
in disregarding it; but it is one thing to be secure by the law, and
another to be secure only by a general contempt of the law. In the latter
case a gust of popular excitement, such as occurred in 1850-1, or the
interest or prejudice of an individual, or the scruples of a single
official, or of a single judge, might at any time turn this dormant Act
into a real instrument of oppression; and therefore the grievance of the
Roman Catholics is this, and it is essentially a practical one, that,
whatever their present immunity may be, they are not, and, as the law
stands, they never can be, secure of its continuance. From this it follows,
that in all matters to which the Act may be applied, Roman Catholics find
it necessary to take the same precautions, and resort to the same
expedients, as if its application were certain. In short, they are under
the constant sense that a penal statute is at the door, and that it depends
upon little more than accident whether it shall come in or not: and thus,
if the apprehension of evil be, as it certainly is, an evil in itself, the
mere existence of the Act is a practical hardship, and there can be no
remedy short of its repeal. [Footnote: _Minutes of Evidence_ (J. R
Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.O.), p. 26.]
(5) It appears from Mr. Hope-Scott's papers that, in May 1869, he was
giving his weight to the opposition against the _Scottish Education
Bill_, as a measure, in its original form, based on the principle of
Presbyterian ascendency, and was advocating a denominational system in the
interests of Catholicity.
(6) The Parliamentary committee on _Conventual and Monastic
Institutions_ (originally designed by its mover, Mr. Newdegate, to
inquire into the '_existence, characters, and increase_' of those
institutions, but restricted, on a motion of Mr. Gladstone's, to inquire
into '_the state of the law_' respecting them) held its sittings May
17 to July 25, 1870, and Mr. Hope-Scott's attention seems to have been much
occupied with the subject. During the earlier stages of the affair he was
at Hyeres, but his correspondence shows how carefully he was kept informed
of what passed. A letter to him from the Duke of Norfolk (dated Norfolk
House, April 21, 1870) gives an idea of the line Mr. Hope-Scott had taken:
'I was very glad to receive your letter' (the Duke writes). 'It had great
weight with our committee to-day, and we decided to ask Government for
nothing, but to resist inquiry in any form.'
(7) To services like these, in which he was the trusted counsellor of those
who were acting for Catholicity in general, might be added illustrations of
the many instances in which Mr. Hope-Scott's legal knowledge and experience
were applied to the business affairs of priests on the missions, or of
convents, if such cases were not, from their own nature, uninteresting
except to those immediately concerned, and implying also the same
confidence that belongs to other privileged communications. The words of a
valuable letter, from which I have more than once quoted, are here in
point: [Footnote: Lady Georgiana Fullerton to Lady H. K.] 'What I always
admired in him was his patient charity--not so much the alms he gave,
considerable as they were, but the manner in which, busy as he was, and
often exhausted by his professional labours, he gave time and attention to
all sorts of cases of distress and perplexity, or of importance to
religion. "Consult Mr. Hope," was the advice given to numberless persons
who had no claim whatever upon him but that of needing what no one else
could so well give. One of the titles of our Blessed Lady, "Auxilium
Christianorum," might in one sense have been applied to him.' Under this
head of charity may well be included his undertaking, at the cost of time
so precious to himself, the guardianships of bereaved families, of which a
list has been given in a former chapter (p. 130).
2. Of Mr. Hope-Scott's pecuniary charities in England (in the Catholic part
of his life) I am not able to give a special account; but I may mention one
characteristic trait, that he felt it his duty to do more for Westminster
than other places, because it was there that he earned his money; following
the excellent principle of helping, in the first instance, the locality in
which Almighty God has placed one. Accordingly, at Westminster he gave
ground for Catholic _Poor Schools_, with property endowment of
50_l_. per annum; and gave great assistance to the _Filles de
Marie_, a community of religious ladies so employed in the Horseferry
Road, in the same district.
A large proportion of his private benefactions seem to have been of a
description especially in keeping with his tender and thoughtful mind, such
as giving a mother the means of going to visit a daughter whom she had
reluctantly allowed to enter a convent; enabling sick priests to go abroad
for their health; setting up a poor schoolmistress with the means of
purchasing a school; paying the expenses of a funeral; and so on.
Like all men either wealthy or reputed to be so, he was continually
importuned with petitions for pecuniary aid, sometimes asked for by way of
gift, sometimes as loans. To particularise such in any recognisable manner
would of course be impossible, for fear of wounding the feelings of persons
who were the objects of his kindness; but, avoiding this as well as I can,
I may say that there were instances in which Mr. Hope-Scott cleared people
out of overwhelming difficulties by gifts of lavish generosity--hundreds of
pounds, and in some cases as much as 1,000_l_. I could produce an
example of the former in which the prompt liberality shown was only
equalled by the delicacy and forbearance; for it may easily be supposed
that the difficulties thus relieved were not always free from blame on the
part of those involved in them. Seldom, perhaps, can it be otherwise; but
what would happen if all charity were measured by the deserts of the
recipient?
What may have been the actual amount of Mr. Hope-Scott's charities during
his life it would be very hard to conjecture; but this much I can state, on
the testimony of one who knew the fact from his own personal knowledge,
that in twelve or thirteen years (from 1859 or thereabouts) he gave away,
in charity of some form or other, not less than 40,000_l_. It is right
to observe that, quite towards the close, as he was retiring from his
profession, there was a great diminution in his charitable expenditure;
for, instead of the ample, though merely professional, income he had
enjoyed for a great part of his life, he had become, relatively speaking, a
person with very limited means. Believing it still to be his duty to
provide for his 'son and heir,' and for his other children, of course he
had no longer the power of doing all that he had done under circumstances
altogether different.
Missions on the Border; Galashiels, Kelso, &c.
Mr. Hope-Scott's zeal for the support of Catholicity was naturally felt
most by places near him in the Highlands or on the Border, where he built
churches and schools, and aided struggling missions. Of those on the
Border, the most important was the Church of Our Lady and St. Andrew at
_Galashiels_, which, as a manufacturing town, has a large Catholic
population. True to his organising genius, he intended it should be a
centre for smaller out-missions around it, as _Selkirk, Jedburgh, Kelso,
&c._ It was completed gradually, and the following extract from a letter
of his to Father Newman (dated Abbotsford, December 30, 1857) shows, in a
pleasing and simple manner, the heart which Mr. Hope-Scott threw into the
work he was offering to Almighty God:--
I hope that ten days or so will render [the church] fit for use in a rough
way; and I hope it will be so used, and that I shall not be hurried in the
decorative part, which I cannot afford to do handsomely at present, and
which I think will be done better when we have become used to the interior,
and have observed what is to be brought out and what concealed. The shell I
am well pleased with. It is massive and lofty, no side aisles, but chapels
between buttresses--and no altar-screen--more like a good college chapel
than a parish church. The whole plan, however, has not been carried out, so
the proportions cannot be fairly judged of. Some day perhaps I may finish
it, or some one else instead; and to keep us in mind that more is to do, we
have a rough temporary work at the west end (not really west), with square
sash windows of a repulsive aspect.[Footnote: There are readers who will be
glad of the preservation of the following dates connected with Galashiels
Church. The plans were completed July 1, 1856; first payment, November
1856; last account rendered, February 1858; the church was opened on
Candlemas Day, February 2, 1858, by Bishop Gillis; finished finally in
1872, and opened in August 1873.]
Mr. Hope-Scott lived to finish it, and the work, I have heard, can hardly
have cost him less than 10,000_l_. He also gave to the Jesuit Fathers
at Galashiels a library of books, chiefly on civil and canon law, in value
about 500_l_. The last cheque he signed with his failing hand was one
for 900_l_. in discharge of the last debt on Galashiels Church. The
mission at Galashiels was held at first by the Oblate Fathers, but from the
end of July 1863 by the Jesuits.[Footnote: There is a letter of Father Jos.
Johnson, Provincial S. J., to Mr, Hope-Scott, dated February 24, 1859, from
which it appears that the Society, in consequence of the many demands upon
them, were unable to accept the mission of Galashiels at that time.] The
following letter (worthy of preservation also because of the writer) will
show that Mr. Hope-Scott had wished, almost immediately on finding himself
a Catholic, to have a Jesuit Father at _Abbotsford_:--_The Pere de
Ravignan, S.J. to J. R. Hope, Esq., Q.G._
Voici, Monsieur, ce que le T. R. P. General, m'ecrit de sa maison de Rome
le 10 Juin:
'Je desire bien que M. Hope sache combien j'ai ete console a la bonne
nouvelle.--Jamais je ne l'avois oublie--il m'avoit inspire tant d'interet!'
Pour ne point oublier non plus, je vous demande la permission de vous dire
ici que le R. P. Provincial d'Angleterre a accueilli, avec le plus grand
desir de vous satisfaire, la priere que vous avez bien voulu me
communiquer, d'etablir un de nos Peres chez vous en Ecosse. Le P.
Etheridge, provincial actuel, doit arriver demain a Londres.
Ce matin nous etions tous heureux pres de cet autel. Benissons le Seigneur
de tant de graces.
Veuillez agreer toutes mes tendres et profondes sympathies in Xto Jesu.
X. DE RAVIGNAN, S.J.
Londres: 16 Juin 1851.
The chapel at _Selkirk_, dedicated to Our Lady and St. Joseph, was a
purchase of Mr. Hope-Scott's.
The mission of _Kelso_, where he built the Church of the Immaculate
Conception, would furnish many instructive pages for a history of the re-
settlement of the Catholic Church in those very desolate regions. A letter
of the Rev. Patrick Taggart,[Footnote: Compare page 193 of this volume.] to
Mr. Hope-Scott, dated Hawick, September 3, 1853, contains some details
which, in connection with later events at Kelso, are full of interest. They
show how deeply felt is the spiritual isolation of such localities, and how
unexpectedly great is the number of Catholics often to be found in them,
left to themselves. Father Taggart first speaks of the great kindness which
he had received from Sir George and Lady Douglas, of Springwood Park, near
Kelso, and then goes on to say:--
Lady Douglas is a genuine Catholic, just as a daughter of old Catholic
Spain should be. Her sister is staying with her just now.... I think they
do not like the idea of attending Divine service in a public hall. I told
them that Father Cooke would be delighted to afford them any assistance in
his power under present circumstances. I also told them that I thought
that, if possible, a small church would be built at Kelso in the meantime;
and that the time was not far distant when perhaps the Bishop would be able
to give to Kelso a resident priest. This news so delighted them that they
could not find words to express their joy.... I do not know of any part of
this district that is at present more destitute of the ministrations of a
priest than Kelso and its environs. The mission extends twenty miles north-
east of Kelso--that is, forty miles from Galashiels and from Hawick; and
there is not a village in that, I might almost say, immense tract of
country that does not contain its ten and twenty poor Irish Catholics. I
attended Kelso, once in the month, for nearly five years, and I am the
first priest who offered up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at Kelso since
the days of the so-called Reformation. I therefore know its geography and
its wants....
PATRICK TAGGART.
Accordingly, a church was built for Kelso at the expense of Mr. Hope-Scott.
It could hardly have been finished more than a year or two, when, on the
night of August 6-7, 1856, it was attacked by a Protestant mob, set fire
to, and burned to the ground, with the schoolhouse and dwelling-house
adjoining, including books, vestments, and furniture, the property of Mr.
Hope-Scott. Four of the ringleaders were put on their trial on November 10.
In charging the jury, otherwise fairly enough, 'the Lord Justice-Clerk
remarked that, as to whether it were necessary that Mr. Hope-Scott should
build the Roman Catholic chapel at Kelso or not, the jury might have very
considerable doubts, as it appeared that the priest did not live there, but
some miles distant at Jedburgh; but that was a matter which the prisoners
had nothing to do with, as every one was at liberty to build such a place
of worship if he chose; neither did it matter whether the attack upon the
chapel was made in consequence of any attempts to proselytise Protestants
to the Catholic faith. In going over the evidence, his lordship said he
could have wished that Mrs. Byrne, the schoolmistress, had given timely
notice to the police of what she had heard as to the resolution to fire the
chapel, as that would have been a better course than quitting the chapel.
However, they could not blame the poor woman; and _perhaps, being a
Catholic, she might not like to make an appeal to the police_.' (Quoted
from the report in the 'Scottish Press,' November 11, 1856. [Footnote: I
italicise the last sentence, which at first sight gives a curious idea of
the practical equality of legal protection existing for Catholics at the
time; though probably all that was intended to be conveyed is the strange
impression that Catholics might entertain a scruple about appealing to the
police.--R. O.])
The jury's verdict would surprise any unprejudiced reader who studies the
evidence. They found the charge of wilful fire-raising not proven against
the prisoners, but found three of them guilty of mobbing and rioting, but,
in respect of their previous good conduct, recommended them to mercy. The
three got off with eighteen months' imprisonment and hard labour. I quote
the following remarks on the affair generally, and on the Lord Justice-
Clerk's charge, from an article in the 'Scotsman,' republished by the
'Northern Times' of November 15, 1856: [Footnote: I have not met with any
_letter_ of Mr. Hope-Scott's to the _Scotsman_, but this article
is probably from his pen.--R. O.]--
In the town of Kelso there is, it seems, a more or less considerable colony
of Irish; and it needs scarcely be said that the mixture of that element
with the border material does not work together for the promotion of
harmony and good order. At St. James's Fair, held at Kelso on 5th August
last, a Scotch butcher-boy quarrelled and fought with an Irish mugger.
Scotch and Irish rallied round these champions of the two countries, and in
the melee which ensued, a young Scotchman was unhappily and barbarously
killed. The Kelso crowd, in very natural rage, burned the muggers' camp,
threw their carts into the Tweed, and drove them from the neighbourhood of
the town. But there remained the resident Irish of the town, and it seems
to have been deemed fitting to hold them guilty as art and part. It is not
clear that any of them were in the fight--at least, no person among them
was charged with the murder; but there is a short cut through all these
difficulties. Most Irishmen are Roman Catholics--Kelso has a Roman Catholic
chapel--let it be burned. Accordingly, after considerable talk and
preparation (which seems to have included getting drunk), a mob assembled
the next evening, and did burn the chapel with perfect ease and effect....
Some mystery may dwell in readers' minds as to how such an affair could be
arranged and completed without any one but the rioters themselves having
any voice thereanent. And the mystery is not quite cleared away by the
evidence. The woman that lived under the chapel heard, on the day of the
fair and the fight (i.e. the day before the incendiarism), that the chapel
was to be burned, and slept out of her house, so as not to be in the way;
coming back the next day she heard the same rumour, and left again at
night--when it happened as she had been foretold. But though other
witnesses, some of whom had witnessed the burning, testified that the
design had been talked about all day, the chief magistrate mentions in his
evidence that he 'had not had the slightest expectation of a disturbance;'
the superintendent of police was in the same state of information, and the
police constable 'had not taken any alarm.' All this, however, is of little
consequence, seeing that when the alarm was taken, there was no result but
that of disturbing two or three people who might as well have gone to bed.
The guardianship of the town is confided to one county policeman, who must
be a tumultuous sort of person himself, since he seems to require a
'superintendent' to keep him in order. The said superintendent, when he did
know what was going on, first tried a little moral suasion, with the result
usual in such cases: 'I cautioned them against proceedings of that kind,
and advised them to go to their homes--they disregarded me.' His disposable
force, condensed in the person of the 'police constable,' took the same
course. '_We_ warned them'--the answer was a volley of stones. 'We
retired, and went to all the magistrates.' 'By the time we got back the
chapel was completely destroyed.' It would be unreasonable to blame the
superintendent and his 'force' for not successfully fighting several
hundred men, although we do think they might have done more as to
identifying the ringleaders: the real blame lies with the authorities, who
appear to have failed to provide decently adequate means for preserving the
public peace. The use of a local police force must be measured, not by what
it detects and punishes, but by what it prevents, or may reasonably be
supposed to prevent....
So wide-spread is [the feeling that Roman Catholic chapels are somehow an
intrusion and an offence] that it would almost appear as if the very bench
were not placed above its influence. The Lord Justice-Clerk made some very
sound and strong remarks on the nature of the outrage; but he added:
'Whether it was necessary on the part of Mr. Hope-Scott to build this
chapel--which it scarcely seemed to be, seeing the priest did not live
there, but at Jedburgh--or whether it was a prudent proceeding to attempt,
by the erection of this chapel, to win converts to the Roman Catholic
faith--was of no importance here.' Since it was of no importance, the
expressed doubt and the implied censure had, we very humbly think, have
been better avoided.... Though there had not been a single Roman Catholic
in or near Jedburgh, Mr. Hope-Scott had a perfect moral as well as legal
right to spend his money in building a chapel, without either having it
burned down by a mob, or himself pointed at from the bench. As a matter of
fact, however, there does appear to have been a congregation as well as a
chapel. The Lord Justice-Clerk was pleased to add that the Roman Catholic
school attached to the chapel 'could not but have been of the utmost use;'
and we could thence infer that, Roman Catholic children having parents,
there must have been use also for the chapel. The fact relied on, of the
priest 'living at Jedburgh,' is evidence, we should think, not of a want of
hearers, but of a want of funds to pay two priests. But look where we
should be landed, on this hand or on that, if others than those that choose
to provide the money are to decide where church-building is 'necessary' or
is 'prudent.' The extreme chapel-attendance of Episcopalians in the county
of Roxburgh was shown by the census to be 454; and for the accommodation of
that number the county contains five chapels. Four of them might be
pronounced not 'necessary,' and all of them not 'prudent.' Or, to go from
the country of the rioters to that of the rioted upon. In our humble
opinion, seven-eighths of the churches belonging to the Establishment in
Ireland are utterly unnecessary, and every one of them very imprudent.
Such, too, is notoriously the opinion of all but a fraction of the
population among whom, and out of whose funds, these churches are built and
maintained. The late lamented Roman Catholic chapel at Kelso was
immeasurably less unnecessary and offensive than these; for not only had it
a congregation, but was paid for only by those that used it or approved of
it. Of course, the Lord Justice-Clerk did not mean that his opinion or that
of any other man as to the chapel being unnecessary was any justification
of the outrage--his lordship said the contrary very impressively; but his
remark, though not what is called a fortunate one, is useful as indicating,
in however faint and refined shape and degree, the feeling which on such
topics is apt to lead us all more or less astray.
MISSIONS IN THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS: MOIDART.
The purchase by Mr. Hope-Scott of the estate at Lochshiel, in the wilds of
Moidart, his 'Highland Paraguay,' as Cardinal Manning calls it, in an old
letter to him (January 28, 1856), was attended, as I have already hinted
(p. 150), by some noteworthy circumstances. In the first place, the
condition of the Catholic remnant in the Highlands is, perhaps, little
known even to Catholic readers. An interesting letter to Mr. Hope-Scott,
dated October 12, 1854, from the Rev. D. Macdonald, in charge of the
mission of Fortwilliam, furnishes a statistical table, from which it
appears that in 1851, in the Highlands and insular districts within the
range of his knowledge, there was but one single school, where, to do
justice, considering the scattered population, there ought to have been
twenty-six. The people were so miserably poor, that out of thirteen
missions, only one could afford their priest 50_l_. per annum; one,
35_l_.; three, 30_l_.; and the rest, ranging from 25_l_.
down to as low as 12_l_. per annum. Of course the priests could not
subsist on these incomes without some other aid, and this was obtained by
taking small farms, from which they endeavoured to eke out a living.
'In Moidart' (I here copy from another well-informed correspondent) 'a
severe crisis had just passed over the people. The cruel treatment which
has depopulated the greater portion of the Highlands, and converted large
tracts of country into sheep-farms and deer-forests, had overtaken them.
Dozens of unfortunate families occupying the more fertile portions of the
estate were ruthlessly torn from their homes, and shipped away to Australia
and America. Their good old priest, the Rev. Ranald Rankin, broken-hearted
at the desolation which had come over his flock, accompanied the larger
portion of these wanderers to the shores of Australia. His impression at
the time was, that the whole of the country, sooner or later, would share
the same unhappy fate; for in bidding farewell to his Bishop, the late Dr.
Murdoch, Vicar-Apostolic of the Western District, he assured his lordship,
who felt at a loss how to supply his place, that it was a matter of little
or no consequence, as the mission was practically ruined already. The
Bishop's reply was characteristic: "Moidart has always been a Catholic
district; and so long as there remains one Catholic family in it, for the
sake of its old steadfastness, I shall not leave it unprovided."'
In the meantime, Mr. Hope-Scott, having already become a landed proprietor
in Ireland, in the county Mayo, much wished to possess also a Highland
property. Lochshiel was offered to him; but, after consideration, he
decided against taking it. In 1855 the estate was again in the market, but
Mr. Hope-Scott had not heard of it. The owner, Macdonald of Lochshiel, was
a Catholic, and, it may be presumed, a devout one, since he had the Blessed
Sacrament and a priest in his house. He had been obliged to sell, and the
property had been bought by a brother-in-law of his, named Macdonell, who
added to the house. He, too, found himself obliged to sell, and this time
the estate was on the point of passing into the hands of people from London
who would have rooted out the Catholic population from the land. Hearing
that it had been actually sold to Protestants, two old ladies of the same
family, living at Portobello, went to the lawyer, and asked him, if
possible, to postpone the signature of the deeds for nine or ten days, to
give another purchaser a chance. He agreed to do so. They then commenced a
novena that a Catholic might buy it. (I ought perhaps to explain, for the
benefit of some of my readers, that Catholics have great faith in the
efficacy of prayer persevered in for nine days when there is some important
object to be gained.) The ninth day came, and Mr. Hope-Scott purchased the
property, for the sum of 24,000_l_., without even having seen it. His
attention had been drawn to it by the late Mrs. Colonel Hutchison, of
Edinburgh, a lady well known among Scotch Catholics for her shrewd good
sense and innumerable good works. He certainly was induced to purchase by
the fact that Lochshiel had never been out of Catholic hands, and that all
the population were Catholic, with the personal motive, however, of
providing his wife with a quiet and pleasant change of residence.
'On his arrival, the character of the people, and the wild and glorious
scenery of the place, made a favourable and lasting impression on his mind;
[Footnote: How deeply the Highland scenery impressed his imagination may be
seen from the beautiful verses, 'Low Tide at Sunset on the Highland Coast,
which will be found in Appendix IV.] but the state of the country might
have appeared to him as little more advanced than under the earlier
Clanranald chiefs three or four centuries ago. The peasants generally were
in a state of great poverty. Their cottages were miserable turf cabins,
black and smoky; agriculture was imperfectly understood among them, and the
small patches of moorland upon which they tried to raise crops of oats and
potatoes were inadequate to the maintenance of themselves and their
families. There was no demand or employment of labour. There was no school
upon the estate. The principal building assigned to religious worship, and
which served as the central chapel for Moidart, was a miserable thatched
edifice, destitute of everything befitting the service of religion. The
want of good roads was severely felt. It was difficult to get into "the
_Rough Bounds_" as this part of the Highlands was aptly styled by the
more favoured districts, and, once in, it was more difficult still to get
out.
'Mr. Hope-Scott lost no time in trying to improve matters. It was a
fundamental maxim with him that, in a neglected estate like this, no
improvement was more sensible, or paid better, than the construction of
good roads. These occupied his attention for several years, and gave most
beneficial employment to the tenants. The cost in some instances was very
great; for, in constructing the present beautiful carriage drive from Sheil
Brude to Dorlin House, hundreds of yards of solid rock had to be blasted;
part of the river Sheil had to be embanked; huge boulders between the
cliffs and the sea-shore had to be cleared away, while a considerable line
of breastwork had to be erected as a protection against the waves of the
Atlantic, which, in a southwest gale, beat with great fury against the
coast. The other roads were carried to those parts of the estate where the
tenants were principally clustered, and were a great boon.
[These road-making operations in the Highlands were evidently in Mr. Hope-
Scott's mind in one of his last letters to his dear friend Dr. Newman. The
great Oratorian, then busy with the 'Grammar of Assent,' writes to him on
January 2, 1870: 'My dear Hope-Scott,--A happy new year to you and all
yours--and to Bellasis and all his.... I am engaged, as Bellasis knows, in
cutting across the Isthmus of Suez; and though I have got so far as to let
the water into the canal, there is an awkward rock in mid-channel near the
mouth which takes a great deal of picking and blasting, and no man-of-war
will be able to pass through till I get rid of it. Thus I can't name a day
for the opening. Ever yours affectionately,--JOHN H. NEWMAN.'
Mr. Hope-Scott's reply is--'Hotel d'Orient, Hyeres (Var), France, January
12, 1870.--Dear F. Newman,--(After giving an account of Serjeant Bellasis's
health, then seriously ill, and anxiously asking for masses and prayers for
him,) That rocky point in your enterprise is a nuisance--more especially as
rocks lie in beds, and this may be but the "crop" of some large stratum. As
a road-maker, I know what it is to have to come back upon my work, and to
strike a new level to get rid of some seemingly small but hard obstacle....
Yours ever affectionately,--JAMES E. HOPE-SCOTT.']
'The improvement of the tenants' own condition was a subject of anxious
consideration. It was impossible to build new houses for every one; but
great facilities were offered by the proprietor to such as were willing to
build for themselves. Wood and lime were placed at their disposal free of
charge, and a sum of 10_l_. or 12_l_. was added to help in
defraying the expenses of the mason-work. A few cottages of a superior kind
were built at the entire expense of the proprietor; but the cost was out of
all proportion with the rental of the estate, and this attempt had to be
abandoned for a time. Mr. Hope-Scott's kindness towards the smaller tenants
was very marked. Besides helping them to better houses, he frequently
assisted them with considerable sums of money towards increasing their
stock of cattle, or towards repairing losses from accidents and disease. In
some cases his generosity extended to the poorer tenants on neighbouring
estates, when, for instance, they felt themselves at a loss for means to
purchase a new boat or to provide themselves with fishing-nets. [Footnote:
Mr. Hope-Scott had formed schemes for the employment of the people in
working the salmon fisheries, and, when the salmon was out of season, the
deep-sea fishing, and enabling them to dispose of their fish.] To encourage
a spirit of independence among them, he used to grant sums of money on
_loan_; but when, at the end of a successful season, the borrowers
came back with the money, he invariably refused to accept it, or he would
give instructions to have it passed to some other poor person in
difficulties.' His efforts to induce them to extend cultivation have been
elsewhere noticed. 'He never left the country towards the end of autumn
without leaving a few pounds for distribution among the poorer classes. The
clergyman of the district had always strict injunctions to report any case
of hardship, or illness, or distress, and to draw upon his purse for what
was required. The habits of the people soon showed signs of real
improvement. A more orderly or respectable class of tenants are not to be
found in any other part of the Highlands. From the day of his coming among
them until now the rents have remained the same, greatly to the prosperity
of the tenants. With the rest of the proprietors residing in and near
Moidart he was very popular. His relations with them were invariably
pleasant and happy.
'In 1859, Mr. Hope-Scott commenced the erection of a school at Mingarry,
with ample accommodation for scholars and teacher. It was completed in
1860. This was an improvement very acceptable to the tenants. Hitherto the
Catholic children had to cross over to a neighbouring estate, where the
Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge had established a
school-house and teacher, or they had to frequent another school, often
very irregularly, in Ardnamurchan. The secular teaching in both of these
schools was excellent of its kind. But, although the most cordial relations
have, for generations past, existed between the Catholics on the north and
the Presbyterians on the south side of the river Sheil, it was always a
subject of regret among the former that they had no means of educating
their children nearer home, and under Catholic teachers. After the school
was successfully opened, Mr. Hope-Scott supplied funds to defray the
teacher's salary.
'In 1862, he erected, at a cost of about 2,600_l_., the present church
and presbytery at Mingarry, within a few hundred yards of the school; but,
to his grief, this was the least satisfactory of all his undertakings from
one cause or another, neither church nor presbytery coming up to his
expectations; and the former was for years a continual source of trouble
and expenditure.' He built also another, at Glenuig, mentioned already.
To complete the history of Dorlin, so far as it is connected with Mr. Hope-
Scott: when, towards the close of his life, he had completely given up
practice, he made up his mind to part with it, great as he acknowledged the
wrench was--but to a Catholic purchaser--and sold it to Lord Howard of
Glossop, the present proprietor, who worthily carries out the admirable
example bequeathed him by his predecessor. [Footnote: Lord Howard of
Glossop died as these sheets were passing through the press, December 1,
1883. R. I. P.]
The missions of _Oban_, and, on the other side of Scotland, _St.
Andrews_, [Footnote: He had been otherwise interested in St. Andrews,
during the years 1846-51, when associated with Sir John Gladstone (father
of the Premier) in a scheme for developing that town as a bathing-place,
building houses, &c. This, however, was a speculation on which it would he
needless to enlarge, even if I had the details. In a letter to Miss Hope-
Scott (May 25, 1867) he observes, 'St. Andrews is the best sea quarter in
Scotland, I believe (and you know I have property there, which proves
it).'] must also be named as either created or largely assisted by Mr.
Hope-Scott; and, among Scottish religious houses, lastly, but not least,
St. Margaret's convent at _Edinburgh_ (the Ursulines of Jesus), as a
cherished object of his benefactions, and kind counsel and help.
MR. HOPE-SCOTT'S IRISH TENANTRY.
Of Mr. Hope-Scott's dealings, as a Catholic proprietor, with his Irish
estates (co. Mayo), what has appeared in a former chapter gives a pleasing
idea, quite borne out by other letters that have come before me. The Rev.
James Browne, writing to him on June 12, 1856, to acknowledge a donation
for the chapel and school of _Killavalla_, says of his tenantry there:
'They all look upon it as a blessing from God that they have got a Catholic
landlord, who has the same religious sympathies that they have themselves.'
Thirteen years later (May 9, 1869) the same priest writes: 'I have been
holding stations of confession among your people at Balliburke, Gortbane,
and Killadier. I was glad to find them happy and contented, the houses
neat, and the people most comfortable.'
CHARITIES AT HYERES.
At Hyeres I can say from my own knowledge that Mr. Hope-Scott's support of
a chaplain is to be numbered among his charitable and fruitful deeds. The
arrangement was made with all his usual thoughtfulness; it enabled a most
excellent priest, who was in a slow decline, but could still hear
confessions and do much good, to spend a few winters in a warm climate. The
Rev. Edward Dunne acted also as confessor to the little English colony at
Hyeres, as well as to the family of Mr. Hope-Scott. It often happens that,
in such a watering-place, strangers whose case is hopeless come for a last
chance of life. Sometimes they are Catholics, or needing instruction, and
willing to receive it; sometimes they are in distressed circumstances.
Father Dunne's great prudence and charity well fitted him for these
ministrations, and he was equally beloved by Catholics and Protestants. The
good which such a priest does is shared by the benefactor who places him in
the position where he has the means of doing it. The following passage from
a letter of Father Dunne's to Mr. Hope-Scott (May 26, 1869), which must
have been one of his last, will interest the reader as an example:--
You will be glad to know that my being at Hyeres was a great blessing to a
poor young man who died there towards the end of April. He had been at sea,
and was for years without receiving the sacraments. His poor mother, a very
pious woman, was in the greatest anxiety about him. He could not speak
French, and it would have been impossible for him to make his confession if
I, or some other English-speaking priest, was not there. I mention this, as
I know it will be a consolation to you to know that your charity and
benevolence were, under God, the means of saving a poor soul, and will
secure for you the prayers of a bereaved mother, and three holy nuns, aunts
of the poor young man.
CHAPTER XXVII.
1868-1873.
Mr. Hope-Scott's Speech on Termination of Guardianship to the Duke of
Norfolk--Failure in Mr. Hope-Scott's Health--Exhaustion after a Day's
Pleading--His Neglect of Exercise--Death of Mr. Badeley--Letter of Dr.
Newman--Last Correspondence of Mr. Hope and the Bishop of Salisbury
(Hamilton)--Dr. Newman's Friendship for Mr. Hope-Scott and Serjeant
Bellasis--Mr. Hope-Scott proposes to retire--Birth of James Fitzalan Hope--
Death of Lady Victoria Hope-Scott--Mr. Hope-Scott retires from his
Profession--Edits Abridgment of Lockhart, which he dedicates to Mr.
Gladstone--Dr. Newman on Sir Walter Scott--Visit of Dr. Newman to
Abbotsford in 1872--Mr. Hope-Scott's Last Illness--His Faith and
Resignation--His Death--Benediction of the Holy Father--Requiem Mass for
Mr. Hope-Scott at the Jesuit Church, Farm Street--Funeral Ceremonies at St.
Margaret's, Edinburgh--Cardinal Newman and Mr, Gladstone on Mr. Hope-Scott.
Mr. Hope-Scott's duties as trustee and guardian of the Duke of Norfolk had
lasted altogether eight years, when they terminated of course on the Duke's
attaining his majority, on December 27, 1868. The speech made by Mr. Hope-
Scott, at the banquet given by the Duke in the Baron's Hall at Arundel
Castle, to the Mayor and Corporation of Arundel, on the following day, was
a striking and beautiful one. I copy a few lines of it from the summary
given in the 'Tablet' of January 16, 1869:--
Mr. Hope-Scott paid a well-merited tribute to the virtues of the Duchess
when he said that if they observed in the Duke earnestness and yet
gentleness, strict justice and yet most liberal and charitable feelings,
neglect of himself and attention to the wants of all around him, let them
remember that his mother brought him up. The guardianship being now over,
the ward must go forward on the battle-field of life, depending not upon
his rank or property, but upon his own prudence, his own courage, but above
all, his fidelity to God. It was true that his path was strewn with the
broken weapons and defaced armour of many who had gone forth amidst
acclamations as loud and promises as bright, but the groundworks of hope in
his case were the nobility of his father's character, the prayers of his
mother, the strong domestic affections which belong to pure and single-
minded youths, great powers of observation, great vigour of will, and the
daily and habitual influence under which he knew that he lived, of well-
reasoned and well-regulated religion.
The celebrations at Arundel were, I believe, the last occasion, unconnected
with his profession, at which Mr. Hope-Scott ever spoke in public. He had
already, for some years, showed signs of failing health. It used to be
supposed, as has been previously mentioned, from the facility of his manner
in pleading, that he got through his work with little trouble. People
little knew what commonly happened when he reached home, after the day's
pleading was over. Such was his state of lassitude, that he would drop,
like a load, upon the first chair he found, and instantly fall into a
profound sleep: sometimes he was half carried, thus unconscious, to bed, or
sometimes placed at table, and made to swallow a little food. Even when the
prostration was not so overpowering, the chances were that he would fall
fast asleep, at dinner or at dessert, in the middle of a sentence. All this
resembles very closely what Thiers related of himself to Mr. Senior. The
French statesman, after a day of Parliamentary battle, had often to be
carried to his bed by his servants, as motionless and helpless as a corpse.
This strange torpor, after extreme intellectual exertion, seems to have
been observed in Mr. Hope-Scott from a very early stage in his career,
during the great railway excitement of 1845. It was probably connected with
the shock given to his constitution, in his infancy, by the fever at
Florence. There was always a kind of struggle going on in his system.
Unfortunately, throughout his professional life he never took proper
exercise. It was, however, in vain to advise him on this point. He said he
could not _both_ work hard and take exercise also, or would playfully
insist that he had sufficient exercise in pleading. 'Why don't you go out?'
asked a friend. 'Don't you think,' replied Mr. Hope-Scott, 'that the work
in committee gives a man sufficient exercise? Cicero considered making a
speech was exercise.' This great mistake was the more to be wondered at in
Mr. Hope-Scott, as he had had the advantage of an early initiation into
field sports.
He never, indeed, seems to have liked riding. He used to say he had
_once_ been out on a steeplechase at Arundel, and sometimes he went
out shooting there, but these were exceptional occasions. His chief active
amusements, gardening and architecture, were insufficient to compensate the
depression caused by the tremendous strain of half the year at Westminster.
In the year 1856 he was exceedingly unwell, and the failure in his health
became very appreciable, his physician telling him that he had 'the heart
of an overworked brain.' Within two years after this, the violence of his
grief at Mrs. Hope-Scott's death further disordered him. He had an illness
in 1865, and again a serious one in 1867, which, however, he got over, and
went on as usual, but became more unwieldy, and suffered much from impeded
circulation.
It happened also, soon after this, that the breaking up of some very dear
associations, or sure signs of it, began to give warning that the end of
all things was at hand. On March 29, 1868, rather suddenly, died Mr.
Badeley, the most affectionate and faithful friend of so many years. On
hearing of his illness Mr. Hope-Scott had hastened home from Hyeres to
assist him, and was with him each day till the last. Dr. Newman wrote the
following letter on this occasion:--
_The Very Rev. Dr. Newman to J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C._
Rednall: March 31, 1868.
My dear Hope-Scott,--What a heavy, sudden, unexpected blow! I shall not
see him now till I cross the stream which he has crossed. How dense is
our ignorance of the future! a darkness which can be felt, and the keenest
consequence and token of the Fall. Till we remind ourselves of what we
are--in a state of punishment--such surprises make us impatient, and
almost angry, alas!
But my blow is nothing to yours, though you had the great consolation of
sitting by his side and being with him to the last. What a fulness of
affection he poured out on you and yours! and how he must have rejoiced to
have your faithful presence with him while he was going! This is your joy
and your pain.
Now he has the recompense for that steady, well-ordered, perpetual course
of devotion and obedience which I ever admired in him, and felt to be so
much above anything that I could reach. All or most of us have said mass
for him, I am sure, this morning; certainly we two have who are here.
I did not write to you during the past fortnight, thinking it would only
bother you, and knowing I should hear if there was anything to tell. But
you have been as much surprised as any one at his sudden summons. I knew it
was the beginning of the end, but thought it was only the beginning. How
was it his medical men did not know better?
I suppose the funeral is on Saturday. God bless and keep and sustain you.
Ever yours most affectionately,
JOHN H. NEWMAN.
The year had not yet come round when the last correspondence passed between
Mr. Hope-Scott and another dear friend, Dr. Hamilton, Bishop of Salisbury,
his brother-Fellow at Merton so many years before.
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to the Eight Rev. Dr. Hamilton (Bishop of
Salisbury)_.
Hyeres: March 10, 1869.
My dear Friend,--I have watched the papers with anxiety, and learnt all I
could from home about your health, but have been unwilling to trouble you
with a letter. However, Manning has just been here, and we naturally spoke
with our old affection of you, and joined in hopes for your welfare; and I
thought you might like to know that two of your oldest friends have been so
engaged. Hence these few lines. May GOD keep you!
Yours ever affectionately,
JAMES E. HOPE-SCOTT.
_The Right Rev. Dr. Hamilton (Bishop of Salisbury) to J. R. Hope-Scott,
Esq., Q.C._
33 Grosvenor Street: March 13, 1869.
My dearly loved Friend,--I have received your note, _non sine multis
lachrymis_, and though I am too weak to write or answer myself, I must
dictate a few words of thankfulness to it. Few trials of my life I have
felt with such keenness as my separation from two such friends, from whom I
have learnt so much, and whom I have loved and love so dearly as Manning
and yourself. Perhaps this feeling for you both has helped to prevent my
doing that which it has been my daily aim not to do, namely, to hinder
either by word or deed that object which I venture to say is as dear to me
as to you--the reunion of Christendom. May GOD forgive me anything which
has led me to lose sight of this in all my ministrations! Nothing, however,
would tend more to forward this than a just and charitable estimate of the
claims of the Church of England on the part of the authorities of your
communion. I have dictated these few words, and my chaplain, Liddon, has
written them exactly as I have dictated them, and I beg you to receive them
as a legacy of affection and deep respect from your old brother-Fellow.
W. K. SARUM.
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q. C. to the Rev. Canon Liddon_.
Villa Favart, Hyeres: March 17, 1869.
My dear Sir,--Accept my grateful thanks for the letter which you added to
that of my very dear friend the Bishop. To him I do not write, for it is
plain that he should make no exertion that can be avoided; but I trust to
your kindness to assure him that I was indeed deeply moved--more than I can
well say--both by his love for me and by his sufferings, and that my
prayers, and those of others far more worthy than myself, are offered to
GOD for him.
Yours very truly,
JAMES R. HOPE-SCOTT.
And another twelvemonth had not been completed before Mr. Hope-Scott's
attached friend and familiar neighbour of many years (both in London and at
Hyeres), Serjeant Bellasis, was visibly nearing his departure. [Footnote:
He lingered till January 24, 1873.] The following letters witness, in a
most touching manner, to their mutual affection, and to that of Dr. Newman
for them both:--
_The Very Rev, Dr. Newman to J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C._
The Oratory: March 3, '70.
My dear Hope-Scott,--After writing a conversational letter to Bellasis
yesterday, I heard at night so sad an account, which I had not anticipated,
of his pain and his weakness and want of sleep, that I not only was
distressed that it had gone, and felt that it would harass him to receive a
second letter so soon, and, as he would anticipate, as unseasonable as the
former. Therefore I enclose with this a few lines to him, which you can let
him have when you think right.
I do not undervalue the seriousness of your first letter about him, and
have had him constantly in my mind; but I did not contemplate his pain, or
his sudden decline. I thought it would be a long business, but now I find
that the complaint is making its way.
What a severe blow it must be to you! but to me, in my own way, it is very
great too, though in a different way; for, though I am not in his constant
society as you are, he has long been _pars magna_ of this place, and
he has, by his various acts of friendship through a succession of years,
created for himself a presence in my thoughts, so that the thought of being
without him carries with it the sense of a void, to which it is difficult
to assign a limit. Three aequales I shall have lost--Badeley, H. Bowden, and
Bellasis; and such losses seem to say that I have no business here myself.
It is the penalty of living to lose the great props of life. What a
melancholy prospect for his poor boys! When you have an opportunity, say
everything kind from me to Mrs. Bellasis. I shall, I trust, say two masses
a week for him. He is on our prayer lists. What a vanity is life! how it
crumbles under one's touch!
I hope you are getting strong, and that this does not weigh too heavily on
you....
Ever yours affectionately,
JOHN H. NEWMAN.
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to the Very Rev. Dr. Newman_.
Hotel d'Orient, Hyeres, Var, France:
March 6, '70.
Dear F. Newman,--I received yours yesterday evening, but withhold the
enclosure for Bellasis, as I think it might do him harm. [After giving a
somewhat better account of his friend's health:]
Masses and prayers I am sure he has many, and I know how grateful he is for
your deep interest in him.... Should he be able to get out, I hope for more
progress: but, with slight exceptions, he has now been confined to the
house for weeks. However, his patience helps his greatly, and when, as
lately he has often been, free from pain, his cheerfulness revives, and
with it his interest in the works he has undertaken, and the subjects which
have long interested him.
I am sure that the dedication of your new work [the 'Grammar of Assent'] to
him affects him, as that of your poems did Badeley, in a very soothing way.
Few have such extensive means of testifying to their friendships as you
have.
Yours affectionately,
JAMES E. HOPE-SCOTT.
Repeated griefs of this kind would not be without their effect on Mr. Hope-
Scott's own already failing health. By 1870 the physicians pronounced that
there was functional, though not organic, disease of the heart, the valve
losing its power to close. He spoke of this himself to a near relative at
the time, adding that he had immediately asked whether he might expect the
end to come suddenly; but had been told that in all probability it would
not, and that he would have warning of its approach. He now began to talk
of retiring, and did take the first step, by giving up a certain number of
causes. But he said to a professional friend: 'I own I dread giving up; it
is almost like the excitement of racing, and the reaction would be so
strong, life so flat, when such an interest is lost, and the stimulus
over.' Before this happened, meeting another friend in the street, who had
wisely retreated in time, Mr. Hope-Scott asked him how he got on? 'Oh, very
well; I fall back on my old classics--don't you do the same?' 'Oh no,'
replied Mr. Hope-Scott; 'when I go to the country, I find it indispensable
to allow my mind to lie entirely fallow. I live in the open air, go on
planting, and do no mental work whatever.'
This was the state of things when he had suddenly to meet a new sorrow, and
the last. A son, indeed (James Fitzalan), was born to him on December 18,
1870, thus replacing the long wished-for blessing which had been given and
withdrawn; but Lady Victoria's health had for years been enfeebled, a fever
came on, and, after lingering for a time between life and death, she
expired at Norfolk House on December 20, aged only thirty, leaving three
little girls, besides the newly born babe. It happened on this occasion, as
so often in Mr. Hope-Scott's life, that he had persuaded himself that
things would be as he wished they should. He never believed that Lady
Victoria was dying, though she was in her agony, and had been senseless for
ten days; nay, he could hardly be made to think it, even at the last
moment; and this time he never recovered the shock. The morning after the
funeral [Footnote: Lady Victoria Hope-Scott was laid beside her father and
her two infant children in the vault at Arundel Castle.] he said that he
considered he had had a warning that night--the disease had made a stride.
He had never contemplated surviving his wife, and had made all arrangements
on the supposition that he was to die before her. On the very night that
followed he altered his will. He sent for his confidential clerk, destroyed
quantities of papers, and, in short, evidently considered himself a dying
man. He now definitively retired from his profession, and, though he
survived for more than two years, what remains to be told is little more
than the story of a last illness.
The years 1871 and 1872, indeed, passed tranquilly enough, as if there was
a lull and a silence after the storm. Mr. Hope-Scott resided chiefly at
Abbotsford, and devoted part of his leisure in the first year to preparing
an edition (the Centenary) of the Abridgment of Lockhart's 'Life of Scott.'
[Footnote: _The Life of Sir Walter Scott, Earl., abridged from the larger
work_, by J. C. Lockhart, with a Prefatory Letter by James R. Hope-
Scott, Esq., Q.C. Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1871.] He also thought
that it was time for the larger 'Life' to be revised, and the extracts from
letters to be compared with the originals, &c., and actually began the task
after the republication of the Abridgment, but, I believe, very soon gave
it up. He dedicated the Abridgment to Mr. Gladstone, whose letter in reply
to his proposal to do so is subjoined:--
_The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. to J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C._
11 Carlton House Terrace, S.W.
March 25, '71.
My dear Hope-Scott,--...I learn with pleasure that you now find yourself
able to make the effort necessary for applying yourself to what I trust you
will find a healthful and genial employment.
You offer me a double temptation, to which I yield with but too much
readiness. I am glad of anything which associates my name with yours; and I
feel it a great honour to be marked out in the public view by your
selection of me as a loyal admirer of Scott, towards whom, both as writer
and as man, I cannot help entertaining feelings, perhaps (though this is
saying much) even bordering upon excess.
Honesty binds me to wish you would do better for your purpose, but if you
do not think any other plan desirable, I accept your proposal with thanks.
Believe me
Affectionately yours,
W. E. GLADSTONE.
J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C.
From the letter of dedication, which I should have been glad, if space had
permitted, to give as a whole, I subjoin the opening and closing
paragraphs, with notices (inclusive of some critical remarks) of the deeply
interesting pages which intervene:--
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P._
Arundel Castle: April 10, 1871.
My dear Gladstone,--Although our friendship has endured for many years, and
has survived great changes, it is not on account of my affection for you
that I have desired to connect these pages with your name. It is because
from you, more than from any one else who is now alive, I have received
assurances of that strong and deep admiration of Walter Scott, both as an
author and as a man, which I have long felt myself, and which I heartily
agree with you in wishing to extend and perpetuate. On my part, such a
desire might on other grounds be natural; on yours it can only spring from
the conviction, which I know you to entertain, that both the writings and
the personal history of that extraordinary man, while affording
entertainment of the purest kind, and supplying stores of information which
can nowhere else be so pleasantly acquired, have in them a great deal which
no student of human nature ought to neglect, and much also which those who
engage in the struggle of life with high purposes--men who are prepared to
work earnestly and endure nobly--cannot pass without loss.
[After quoting passages from Mr. Gladstone's letters to himself, showing
the hold which Walter Scott had over his friend's mind, Mr. Hope-Scott
states his reasons for abandoning his original idea of having a new Life
written, and for preferring to publish an Abridgment of it, and the
Abridgment by Lockhart himself:--]
A work of art in writing is subject to the same rules as one in painting or
in architecture. Those who seek to represent it in a reduced form must,
above all things, study its proportions, and make their reduction equal
over all its parts. But, in the case of written compositions, there are no
mechanical appliances as there are in painting and architecture, for
varying the scale; and there is, moreover, a greater difficulty in catching
the leading principle of the design, and thus establishing the starting-
point for the process which is to follow. Hence, an abridgment by the
author himself must necessarily be the best--indeed, the only true
abridgment of what he has intended in his larger work; and I deem it very
fortunate that Cadell's influence overcame Lockhart's repugnance to the
task....
There is [however] an abiding reason why Scott's personal history should
not be too freely generalised, and an abstract notion be substituted for
the real man.... In Scott, if in any man, what was remarkable was the
sustained and continuous power of his character. It is to be traced in the
smallest things as well as in the greatest; in his daily habits as much as
in his public actions; in his fancies and follies as well as in his best
and wisest doings. Everywhere we find the same power of imagination, and
the same energy of will; and, though it has been said that no man is a hero
to his _valet-de-chambre_, I am satisfied that Scott's most familiar
attendants never doubted his greatness, or looked upon him with less
respect than those who judged him as he stood forth amidst the homage of
the world. In dealing with such a character, it is hardly necessary to say
that the omission of details becomes, after a certain point, a serious
injury to the truth of the whole portrait; and if any man should object
that this volume is not short enough, I should be tempted to answer, that
if he reads by foot-rule, he had better not think of studying, in any
shape, the life of Walter Scott.
[In what follows, Mr. Hope-Scott speaks of 'the depth and tenderness of
feeling which Lockhart, in daily life, so often hid under an almost fierce
reserve,' and regards it as matter of thankfulness that he was spared the
suffering he would have felt in the death of his only daughter, 'whose
singular likeness to her mother must have continually recalled to him both
the features and the character of her of whom he wrote' those touching
words in the original Life which Mr. Hope-Scott quotes, with evident
application to his own bereavement, to which he makes a short and sad
reference. He concludes:--]
And now, my dear Gladstone, _vive valeque_. You have already earned a
noble place in the history of your country, and though there is one great
subject on which we differ, I am able heartily to desire that your future
career may be as distinguished as your past. But since it is only too
certain that the highest honours of statesmanship can neither be won nor
held without exertions which are full of danger to those who make them, I
will add the further wish, that you may long retain, as safeguards to your
health, your happiness, and your usefulness, that fresh and versatile
spirit, and that strong sense of the true and beautiful, which have caused
you to be addressed on this occasion by Your affectionate friend,
JAMES R. HOPE-SCOTT.
The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
Dr. Newman's letter, on receiving from Mr. Hope-Scott a copy of the
Abridgment, is full of interest:--
_The Very Rev. Dr. Newman to J. R. Hope-Scott., Esq., Q.C._
The Oratory: May 14, 1871.
My dear Hope-Scott,--Thank you for your book. In one sense I deserve it; I
have ever had such a devotion, I may call it, to Walter Scott. As a boy, in
the early summer mornings I read 'Waverley' and 'Guy Mannering' in bed,
when they first came out, before it was time to get up; and long before
that, I think, when I was eight years old, I listened eagerly to the 'Lay
of the Last Minstrel,' which my mother and aunt were reading aloud. When he
was dying I was continually thinking of him, with Keble's words--'If ever
floating from faint earthly lyre,' &c. (Sixth after Trin.). [Footnote:
Compare a letter of Dr. Newman's to J. R. Hope in 1852. See _ante_, p.
143.]
It has been a trouble to me that his works seemed to be so forgotten now.
Our boys know very little about them. I think F. Ambrose had to give a
prize for getting up 'Kenilworth.' Your letter to Gladstone sadly confirms
it. I wonder whether there will ever be a crisis and correction of the
evil? It arises from the facilities of publication. Every season bears its
own crop of books, and every fresh season ousts the foregoing. Books are
all annuals; and, to revive Scott, you must annihilate the existing
generation of writers, which is legion. If it so fares with Scott, still
more does it so fare with Johnson, Addison, Pope, and Shakespeare. Perhaps
the competitive examinations may come to the aid. You should get Gladstone
to bring about a list of classics, and force them upon candidates. I do not
see any other way of mending matters. I wish I heard a better account of
you.
Ever yours affectionately,
JOHN H. NEWMAN.
During all this time Mr. Hope-Scott's health continued steadily to fail;
yet he suffered rather from malaise than from any acute symptoms. Now and
then there were gleams in which he seemed better for a space, but they were
but as the flickerings of the flame in the socket. In March 1872
Bournemouth was tried. In the summer of that year he was in Scotland, and
in July had the great happiness of receiving a visit of about a fortnight
from Dr. Newman at Abbotsford, which revived the memories of twenty years--
for so long was the interval since his former visit. This, I suppose, was
the last occasion of Mr. Hope-Scott's entertaining guests. He was able to
move about quietly; old times were gently talked over, and there was
nothing to show that the great separation was very imminent. It was even
possible, the doctors had told him when the disease was first apparent, to
linger under it for twenty years. Thus the last days at Abbotsford looked
as if lit up by the setting sun. He fell off, however, a day or two after
Dr. Newman left; went first to Luffness, and in October, whilst staying in
Edinburgh, the heart affection becoming worse, he seemed, for a time, in
immediate danger; yet rallied, and removed to London by easy stages,
halting first at Newcastle and then at Peterborough. Owing to the
thoughtful kindness of Mr. H. Hope, of Luffness, he was accompanied by Dr.
Howden, the family physician at Luffness. It was, however, a most anxious
journey, and it often seemed doubtful whether he would reach his
destination alive. Soon after his arrival in London he had a dangerous
attack, and received the last sacraments, with the Holy Father's blessing.
This was at No. 7 Hyde Park Place, a house which he had taken conjointly
with his widowed sister-in-law, the Hon. Mrs. G. W. Hope; and here, under
her affectionate care, and that of his daughter, Mary Monica, Mr. Hope-
Scott spent the few months that remained to him.
Miss Hope-Scott (now the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott), during those months,
kept a diary, commencing March 13, 1873, of all that passed, which she has
kindly placed in my hands. At first the entries were usually of 'a good
night,' and 'tired,' or 'very tired,' during the day, though he is
occasionally able to go into the library, to talk a little with his infant
children in their turns, and to see near relatives from time to time. Soon
the nights get less good, the days more languid, and he is seldom able to
leave his room. For about a fortnight (April 4-17) there seemed a slight
improvement, but this did not last, and on April 28 there was a great
change for the worse. Sir W. Jenner, Sir W. Gull, and Mr. Sims held a
consultation, and pronounced very unfavourably. Father Clare, S. J.,
brought the Blessed Sacrament, and spent the night in the house. The
following morning, Tuesday, April 29, he heard his confession, and gave him
Holy Communion. It was the morning on which he usually received. The two
physicians hesitated about Extreme Unction being administered, for fear of
causing excitement. But, on the priest's asking him what he wished, the
reply at once was, 'Dear Father, give me all you can, and all the helps
which Holy Church can bestow.' During the administration of the sacrament
he answered all the prayers himself; and the physicians, on leaving the
room, said there had not been the least excitement. I take these
particulars from a letter of Father Clare's to the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott,
in which he also says: 'During the whole of his illness I never knew him to
show the slightest impatience, I never heard one murmur; but in all our
conversation there was _invariably_ a cheerful resignation to the holy
will of our good God. His lively faith and wonderful fervour in receiving
Holy Communion, which was at least twice a week, I have never seen
surpassed.'
The Duke of Norfolk was telegraphed for from Arundel. He arrived about 2
P.M. Mr. Hope-Scott was able to see him, spoke of the blessing which his
church would bring on him (the splendid church of St. Philip's, Arundel,
just completed by the Duke), and promised to pray for him the next day,
when it was to be opened. Sir William Gull now left hardly any hope. The
ceremony of the opening of the church was deferred, and all the Arundel
party arrived that night. The following is the last paragraph in the
diary:--
'In the afternoon, dear papa, after taking something, said out loud his
favourite prayer, "_Fiat, laudetur_." [Footnote: This prayer is as
follows: _Fiat, laudetur, atque in aeternum superexultetur, justissima,
altissima, et amabilissima voluntas Dei in omnibus. Amen._] Then,
looking at me, he said, "God's will be done," and asked me to say some
prayers. I said the _Angelus_, in which he joined, and the "Offering."
Father Clare comes about five, and goes out, to return about seven, meaning
to spend the night again. A little before seven I was in the library with
Aunt Lucy and Uncle Henry. Aunt Car. suddenly called me, and we all went
in. I gave dearest papa the crucifix to kiss, and Uncle Henry read the
prayers. Edward [Footnote: The persons mentioned by their Christian names
in this paragraph of the diary are--Lady Henry Kerr, Lord Henry Kerr, the
Hon. Mrs. G. W. Hope, and her son, Mr. Edward Stanley Hope, nephew to Mr.
Hope-Scott, and now (1883) one of the Charity Commissioners for England and
Wales.] was there too, Mr. Dunn, &c.
'He died very peacefully and calmly, about seven.'
To this is only to be added that there was conveyed to Mr. Hope-Scott on
his death-bed the special blessing of his Holiness Pope Pius IX.
Shortly after death, the body having been laid out, according to Catholic
custom, with lights round the bed and flowers upon it, a sudden change was
observed to have come over the face of the deceased, which assumed a
totally different expression. All signs of sickness or pain seemed to
vanish, and in one minute he had become like what he used to be in very
early years. Readers who may perhaps have witnessed a change of the kind,
which is not unfrequent, will understand the striking remark made by a
friend on this occasion: 'It is sometimes given to the dead to reveal their
blessedness to the living.'
The following particulars of the Requiem Mass for Mr. Hope-Scott, and of
the funeral, are taken, with alterations and omissions, from newspapers of
the day (the 'Tablet' of May 10; 'Scotsman,' May 6 and 8; and 'Edinburgh
Courant,' May 8, 1873).
The Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of the late Mr. Hope-Scott,
Q.C., took place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street,
on Monday, May 5, at eleven o'clock. The coffin was removed, on the
previous evening, from Hyde Park Place, and laid on a splendid catafalque
in the church. The mass was celebrated by the Very Rev. Fr. Whitty,
Provincial of the Jesuits, _coram Archiepiscopo_; and the sermon was
preached by the Very Rev. Father (now his Eminence Cardinal) Newman (by
whose kind permission it is placed in the Appendix to this volume).
Cherubini's Second Requiem in D minor, for male voices only, was used. Weak
with old age and sorrow, Father Newman had almost to be led to the pulpit,
but the simple vigour of language and the lucidity of style so peculiarly
his own remained what they had ever been. When, towards the conclusion of
his discourse, he came to speak of the last hours of the deceased, Father
Newman almost broke down, and for a moment it seemed that his feelings
would prevent him from finishing. The solemnity of the occasion--the church
draped in black, the old man come so far purposely to pay the last offices
to his friend--produced such an impression on those who witnessed it as
they are not likely to forget.
Among the clergy and laity present were--Mgr. Weld, the Hon. and Rev. Dr.
Talbot, Revs. E. G. Macmullen, C. B. Garside, Father Fitzsimon, S. J.,
Father Clare, and the Fathers, S. J., of Mount Street; Father Coleridge, S.
J., Father Amherst, S. J., Father Christie, S. J., Father Dalgairns, of the
Oratory, the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the
Marquis and Marchioness of Lothian, Cecil, Marchioness Dowager of Lothian,
the Marchioness of Bute, Lord and Lady Howard of Glossop, Lord Henry Kerr,
Mr. Hope of Luffness, Mr. Edward S. Hope, Mr. Herbert Hope, Field-marshal
Sir William Gomm and Lady Gomm, Lord Edmund Howard, the Earl of Denbigh,
Lady Herbert of Lea, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Mr. Allies, Mr. Langdale,
&c.
The Dowager Duchess of Norfolk and the Ladies Howard, Mr. Hope-Scott's
daughters, the Hon. Mrs. George W. Hope and Misses Hope, and Lady Henry
Kerr, occupied a separate tribune.
On Wednesday, May 7, the remains of Mr. Hope-Scott, Q.C., were interred in
the vaults of St. Margaret's Convent, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh. The coffin
had been conveyed from London on Tuesday, and was placed on a catafalque
within the choir of the chapel, where several sisters of the community
(Ursulines of Jesus) watched until the morning. The catafalque was draped
in black, surrounded by massive silver candlesticks hung with crape, and
lit up with numerous wax candles. The altar, sanctuary, organ, and choir
gallery were hung with black cloth. The east aisle of the chapel was
occupied by the relatives and friends of the deceased; the west aisle by
the young ladies of the convent school, about fifty in number, dressed in
white, and with white veils, and the household servants from Abbotsford;
whilst at the south were persons who had received special invitations. In
the stalls of the choir were the clergy, and the sisters of the convent in
their accustomed places.
The ceremonies commenced at eleven o'clock, when a procession, consisting
of the cross-bearer and acolytes, the clergy in attendance, and the Right
Rev. Dr. Strain, Bishop of Abila, V.A. of the Eastern District of Scotland,
entered the chapel at the great south door, and marched slowly up the
centre of the choir to the sanctuary, the organ sounding whilst the bell
was heard tolling in the distance. The Bishop was attended by the Rev.
George Rigg, St. Mary's, and the Rev. Mr. Clapperton. The Rev. W. Turner
acted as master of the ceremonies; the Rev. Father Foxwell, S. J., said the
Mass, which, by the express desire of the deceased, was a Low Mass,
although accompanied by music (Father Foxwell, stationed at Galashiels,
frequently said Mass at Abbotsford). During the Mass, among other exquisite
music sung by the choir, was the _Dies Irae_. The Rev. W. J. Amherst,
S. J., Norwich, a great personal friend of Mr. Hope-Scott's, preached the
sermon (which, by his kind permission, is placed in the Appendix to this
volume).
Bishop Strain then read the Burial Service in front of the bier, and
concluded by giving the absolution. The procession was then formed, and
during the singing of the _Dies Irae_ emerged from the church, and
walked to the vault, in the following order:--cross-bearer and acolytes,
the young ladies of the convent school, the _religieuses_ of the
community of St. Margaret's, the clergy and Bishop, then the coffin, borne
shoulder-high, and attended by the pall-bearers, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord
Henry Kerr, Mr. H. W. Hope of Luffness, and Dr. Lockhart of Milton
Lockhart. The ladies who followed the coffin were Miss Hope-Scott, the Hon.
Mrs. G. W. Hope, Lady Henry Kerr, and Mrs. Francis Kerr. Then followed the
relatives and friends, servants, and tenant-farmers of Abbotsford.
The procession marched slowly from the quadrangle in front of the chapel
northwards to the entrance to the vaults, the sisters of the community
chanting the psalm _Miserere_. It opened up at the mortuary door, and
the coffin was borne into the vault, and placed in the recess assigned to
it beside the coffin of his first wife, and under those of his two
children. A short service here took place, the _Benedictus_ was sung,
and the funeral service terminated.
The outer coffin, which was of richly polished oak, bound with brass
ornaments, had a beautiful crucifix on the lid, and beneath, a shield,
bearing the following inscription:--
'JAMES EGBERT HOPE-SCOTT, THIRD SON OF GENERAL
SIR ALEXANDER HOPE, OF LUFFNESS AND RANKEILLOUR. BORN JULY 15, 1812. DIED
APRIL 29, 1873. MAY HE REST IN PEACE.'
I have now placed before the reader the materials from which he will be
enabled in some measure to judge what Mr. Hope-Scott was, and how he
appeared to those around him. But to all beauty of character there belongs
a lustre, outside of and beyond it, which genius alone can portray. This
task has fortunately been performed by two of his most intimate friends, of
whose genius it is needless to say a word--Cardinal Newman and Mr.
Gladstone--by whose kind permission their respective papers on his life
will be appended to this volume. With reference to certain expressions on
religious subjects in Mr. Gladstone's Letter, it will be remembered that it
here appears as a biographical and historical document, and therefore
without omissions--a remark which I feel assured that the illustrious
writer will not misinterpret, and that both will accept the gratitude and
admiration due from all surviving friends of Mr. Hope-Scott, for the
splendid tribute which each of them has given to a memory so dear.
APPENDIX I.
_Funeral Sermon by his Eminence Cardinal Newman, preached at the Requiem
Mass for Mr. Hope-Scott, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm
Street, May_ 5, 1873.
I have been asked by those whose wish at such a moment is a command, to say
a few words on the subject of the sorrowful, the joyful solemnity which has
this morning brought us together. A few words are all that is necessary,
all that is possible; just so many as are sufficient to unite the separate
thoughts, the separate memories, the separate stirrings of affection, which
are awakened in us by the presence in our midst of what remains on earth of
the dear friend, of the great soul, whom we have lost,--sufficient to open
a communication and create a sympathy between mind and mind, and to be a
sort of testimony of one to another in behalf of feelings which each of us
has in common with all.
Yet how am I the fit person even for as much as this? I can do no more than
touch upon some of those many points which the thought of him suggests to
me; and, whatever I may know of him and say of him, how can this be taken
as the measure of one whose mind had so many aspects, and who must, in
consequence, have made such distinct impressions, and exercised such
various claims, on the hearts of those who came near him?
It is plain, without my saying it, that there are those who knew him far
better than I could know him. How can I be the interpreter of their
knowledge or their feelings? How can I hope by any words of mine to do a
service to those who knew so well the depths of his rare excellence by a
continuous daily intercourse with him, and by the recurring special
opportunities given to them of its manifestation?
I only know what he was to me. I only know what his loss is to me. I only
know that he is one of those whose departure hence has made the heavens
dark to me. But I have never lived with him, or travelled with him; I have
seen him from time to time; I have visited him; I have corresponded with
him; I have had mutual confidences with him. Our lines of duty have lain in
very different directions. I have known him as a friend knows friend in the
tumult and the hurry of life. I have known him well enough to know how much
more there was to know in him; and to look forward, alas! in vain, to a
time when, in the evening and towards the close of life, I might know him
more. I have known him enough to love him very much, and to sorrow very
much that here I shall not see him again. But then I reflect, if I, who did
not know him as he might be known, suffer as I do, what must be their
suffering who knew him so well?
1. I knew him first, I suppose, in 1837 or 1838, thirty-five or six years
ago, a few years after he had become Fellow of Merton College. He expressed
a wish to know me. How our friendship grew I cannot tell; I must soon have
been intimate with him, from the recollection I have of letters which
passed between us; and by 1841 I had recourse to him, as a sort of natural
adviser, when I was in difficulty. From that time I ever had recourse to
him, when I needed advice, down to his last illness. On my first intimacy
with him he had not reached the age of thirty. I was many years older; yet
he had that about him, even when a young man, which invited and inspired
confidence. It was difficult to resist his very presence. True, indeed, I
can fancy those who saw him but once and at a distance, surprised and
perplexed by that lofty fastidiousness and keen wit which were natural to
him; but such a misapprehension of him would vanish forthwith when they
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