Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott Part 10

[Footnote: These words were written in a copy of the _Speculum Vitae Sacerdotalis_, given by J. R. Hope to H. E. Manning in April 1851. [Note by his Eminence Cardinal Manning.]] and we made no mistake in our long reckoning, though we feared it up to the last opening of Fr. B.'s door.

H. E. M.

The superficial impression which many of his friends had of Mr. Hope's conversion at the time will be ill.u.s.trated by the following remarks, one of them made to me in conversation with a view to this memoir: 'Mr. Hope was a man with two lives: one, that of a lawyer; the other, that of a pious Christian, who said his prayers, and did not give much thought to controversy. He would be rather influenced by patent facts. He was not at all moving with the stream, and rather laughed at X. with his "narrow views." He was a strong Anglican, an adherent of _learned_ Anglicanism. His conversion took _Catholics_ by surprise, who were not aware how far he went.' The feeling in society as to his change was marked by a tone of much greater consideration than was commonly displayed in such cases, of which proof is given in an interesting letter which I have quoted in a former page. 'As far as I know' (writes Lady Georgiana Fullerton) 'there was no attempt made, in Mr. Hope's case, to trace that act to any of the causes which, in almost every other instance, were supposed to account for conversions to Catholicism. The frankness of his nature, his well-known good sense, the sound clearness of his judgment, so unmistakably evinced in his profession, precluded the possibility of attributing his adoption of the Catholic faith to weakness of mind, duplicity, sentiment, eccentricity, or excitability.'

I reserve what may be called the domestic side of this crowning event of Mr. Hope's religious life to a future chapter. The following is the letter alluded to by Mr. Gladstone in his letter to Miss Hope-Scott, given in Appendix III., and on which he wrote the words '_Quis desiderio_.'

[Footnote: Let me balance Mr. Gladstone's _Quis desiderio_ with a note written by Pere Roothaan, Father-General of the Jesuits, to Count Senfft, on hearing of Mr. Hope's conversion:--

'Plurimam salutem nostro C. de Senfft, qui procul dubio maxima c.u.m congratulatione accepit not.i.tiam de conversione ad rel. cath. praeclari Dni. Hope, Anglicani, quem ipse comes Monachio Romam venientem mihi commendaverat. Ipsum tunc et iterum et tertio Romam intra hos tres annos venientem videram saepius, et semper vicinior mihi visus fuerat regno Dei.

Nuper tandem cessit gratiae. Alleluja!'--Given in a letter of Count Senfft's to Mr. Hope-Scott, dated Innsbruck: 1 Juin, 1851.]

_J. R. Hope, Esq., Q.C. to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P._

14 Curzon Street: June 18, '51.

My dear Gladstone,--I am very much obliged for the book which you have sent me, but still more for the few words and figures which you have placed upon the t.i.tle-page. The day of the month in your own handwriting will be a record between us that the words of affection which you have written were used by you after the period at which the great change of my life took place. To grudge any sacrifice which that change entails would be to undervalue its paramount blessedness, but, as far as regrets are compatible with extreme thankfulness, I do and must regret any estrangement from you-- you with whom I have trod so large a portion of the way which has led me to peace; you, who are 'ex voto' at least in that Catholic Church which to me has become a practical reality, admitting of no doubt; you, who have so many better claims to the merciful guidance of Almighty G.o.d than myself.

It is most comforting, then, to me to know by your own hand that on the 17th June, 1851, the personal feelings so long cherished have been, not only acknowledged by yourself, but expressed to me--I do not ask more just now--it would be painful to you; nay, it would be hardly possible for either of us to attempt (except under one condition, for which I daily pray) the restoration of entire intimacy at present; but neither do I despair under any circ.u.mstances that it will yet be restored. Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Gladstone, and believe me,

Yours as ever most affectionately,

JAMES R. HOPE.

The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, &c. &c.

The subjoined reply of Mr. Gladstone to this beautiful letter, which he has mournfully called 'the epitaph of our friends.h.i.+p,' is certainly a n.o.ble and a tender one. The very depth of feeling which he shows at his friend's refusal of what he considers 'the high vocation' before him, is, however, only a proof of that spiritual chasm which Mr. Hope more unflinchingly surveyed. After this date the correspondence soon flags, and at length sustains an interruption of years. It was practically resumed towards the close of Mr. Hope's life, and affords one more letter of great interest, in which Mr. Hope explains his own political views. This I shall give as we proceed.

_The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. to J. R. Hope, Esq., Q.C._

6 Carlton Gardens: June 22, 1851.

My dear Hope,--Upon the point most prominently put in your welcome letter I will only say you have not misconstrued me. Affection which is fed by intercourse, and above all by co-operation for sacred ends, has little need of verbal expression, but such expression is deeply enn.o.bling when active relations have changed. It is no matter of merit to me to feel strongly on the subject of that change. It may be little better than pure selfishness.

I have too good reason to know what this year has cost me; and so little hope have I that the places now vacant can be filled up for me, that the marked character of these events in reference to myself rather teaches me this lesson--the work to which I had aspired is reserved for other and better men. And if that be the Divine will, I so entirely recognise its fitness that the grief would so far be small to me were I alone concerned.

The pain, the wonder, and the mystery is this--that you should have refused the higher vocation you had before you. The same words, and all the same words, I should use of Manning too. Forgive me for giving utterance to what I believe myself to see and know; I will not proceed a step further in that direction.

There is one word, and one only in your letter that I do not interpret closely. Separated we are, but I hope and think not yet estranged. Were I more estranged I should bear the separation better. If estrangement is to come I know not, but it will only be, I think, from causes the operation of which is still in its infancy--causes not affecting me. Why should I be estranged from you? I honour you even in what I think your error; why, then, should my feelings to you alter in anything else? It seems to me as though, in these fearful times, events were more and more growing too large for our puny grasp, and that we should the more look for and trust the Divine purpose in them when we find they have wholly pa.s.sed beyond the reach and measure of our own. 'The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.' The very afflictions of the present time are a sign of joy to follow. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, is still our prayer in common: the same prayer, in the same sense; and a prayer which absorbs every other. That is for the future: for the present we have to endure, to trust, and to pray that each day may bring its strength with its burden, and its lamp for its gloom.

Ever yours with unaltered affection,

W. E. GLADSTONE.

J. R. Hope, Esq.

The following letter, written on the same occasion by another celebrated person, will be read with a very painful interest:--

_The Rev. Dr. Dollinger to J. R. Hope, Esq., Q.C._

Munich: April 22, 1851.

My dear Sir,--Allow me to express the sincere delight which I have felt and am still feeling at the intelligence which has reached me of your having entered the pale of the Church. This is indeed 'a consummation devoutly wished' ever since I had the good luck of making your acquaintance. How often when with you did the words rise to my lips: _Talis c.u.m sis, utinam noster esses!_ I knew well enough that in voto you belonged already to the one true Church, but I could not but feel some anxiety in reflecting that in a matter of such paramount importance those who don't move forward must needs after a certain time go backward. Then came the news of your marriage, and I don't know what put the foolish idea into my head that you would probably get connected with the 'Quarterly Review' and its principles, and that thereby a new barrier would interpose itself between you and the Church, and that perhaps your feelings for your friends in Germany would not remain the same. Happily these _umbrae pallentes_ have now vanished, and I trust we will make the ties of friends.h.i.+p closer and stronger by establis.h.i.+ng between us a community and exchange of prayers.

I can but too well imagine how severe the trials must be to which you are now exposed--especially in the present ferment, when a vein of bitterness has been opened in England which will not close so soon, and when the hoa.r.s.e voice of religious acrimony is filling the atmosphere with its dismal sounds. With the peculiar gentleness of your disposition you will have to encounter the fierce attacks of the [Greek: Ellaenes], as well as of the [Greek: Hioudaioi], I mean of those to whom the Church is a [Greek: skandalon], as well as of those to whom it is [Greek: moria]. I can only pray for you, and trust that He who has given you the first victory of faith will also give you _robur et aes triplex circa pectus_, for less will scarcely do....

Yours entirely and unalterably,

J. DOELLINGER.

Mr. James R. Hope, Queen's Counsel.

I have not met with any later correspondence of Dr. Dollinger's with Mr.

Hope-Scott than this, excepting a mere note. He visited Abbotsford in 1852.

There is a letter of Count Leo Thun's to Mr. Hope (dated Wien, den 7. Juli 1851), in which, after expressing the joy he had felt at the news of his having become a Catholic, he remarks, 'I know how slowly, and on what sure foundations the decision came to maturity in your soul.' Two letters of Mr.

Hope's to Mr. Badeley, though not coincident in point of time with the event before us, contain pa.s.sages so closely connected with it as to find their place here. Though Mr. Badeley's Anglicanism was scarce hanging by a thread, he held out for a time, but became a Catholic previously to July 15, 1852.

_J. R. Hope, Esq., Q.C. to E. Badeley, Esq._

Abbotsford: Oct. 25, '51.

Dear B.,-- ... As for you, I hold your intellect to be Catholic. You cannot help it, but your habits of feeling will give you, as they gave me, more trouble than your reason. How can it be otherwise, considering how many years of training in one posture we both of us underwent? But I pray and hope for you, and that speedily, that freedom of life and limb which has been vouchsafed to me. Freedom indeed it is, for it is to breathe in all its fulness the grace and mercy of G.o.d's kingdom, instead of tasting it through the narrow lattices of texts and controversies. To believe Christ present in the Eucharist, and not adore Him--not pray Him to tarry with us and bless us. To hold the communion of saints, and yet refuse to call upon all saints--living and departed, to intercede for us with the great Head of the body in which we all are members. To accept a primacy in St. Peter, and yet hold it immaterial to the organisation of the Church. To acknowledge one Church, and then divide the unity into fragments. To attribute to the Church the power of the keys, and then deny the force of her indulgences while admitting her absolutions. To approve confession, and practically set it aside. To do and hold these and many other contradictions--what is it but to submit the mind to the fetters of a tradition which, if once made to reason, must destroy itself?... Yrs ever affly,

JAMES R. HOPE.

Abbotsford: July 16, 1852.

Dear Badeley,--I received your most kind letter yesterday. I well knew that I should hear from you, for you are an accurate observer of my birthdays-- not one for many years having escaped you. This one does indeed deserve notice in one sense, as being the first on which you and I could salute each other as Catholics. May G.o.d grant that this His great gift may be fruitful to us both! Forty years of my life are already gone--of yours, more. Let us try to make the best of what may still remain. We have now all the helps which Christ's death provided for us, and all the responsibilities which come with them. 'Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.

Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina!... Yrs most affly, JAMES R. HOPE.

E. Badeley, Esq.

To the above correspondence, the following sc.r.a.p from a letter of Mr. David Lewis, congratulating Mr. Hope on his conversion, may form an appropriate _pendant_, as showing Mr. Hope's influence in the Catholic direction previously to that event: 'I may add that I owe in part my own conversion to conversation with you, which turned me to a course of reading the end of which I did not expect. It is therefore no small joy to me to see you in the same harbour of refuge' (May 15, 1851). Some years later (in spring, 1855) it was a subject of intense joy to Mr. Hope-Scott when the news came from Rome that William Palmer had been received into the Church by Father Pa.s.saglia.

CHAPTER XXII.

1839-1869.

Review of Mr. Hope's Professional Career--His View of Secular Pursuits-- Advice from Archdeacon Manning against Overwork--Early Professional Services to Government--J. K. Hope adopts the Parliamentary Bar--His Elements of Success--Is made Q.C.--Difficulty about Supremacy Oath--Mr.

Venables on Mr. Hope-Scott as a Pleader--Recollections of Mr. Cameron--Mr.

Hope-Scott on his own Profession--Mr. Hope-Scott's Professional Day-- Regular History of Practice not Feasible--Specimens of Cases: 1. The Caledonian Railway interposing a Tunnel. 2. Award by Mr. Hope-Scott and R.

Stephenson. 3. Mersey Conservancy and Docks Bill, 'Parliamentary Hunting- day,' Liverpool and Manchester compared. 4. London, Brighton, and South Coast and the Beckenham Line. 5. Scottish Railways--An Amalgamation Case-- Mr. Hope-Scott and Mr. Denison; Honourable Conduct of Mr. Hope-Scott as a Pleader. 6. Dublin Trunk Connecting Railway. 7. Professional Services of Mr. Hope-Scott to Eton--Claims of Clients on Time--Value of Ten Minutes-- Conscientiousness--Professional Income--Extra Occupations--Affection of Mr.

Hope-Scott for Father Newman--Spirit in which he laboured.

On taking the step of which I have just related the history, Mr. Hope had not to encounter the usual array of external ills that a.s.sail the convert's life. Although he was now a Catholic, his eloquence had lost none of its magic, and railway directors were not very likely to indulge their bigotry at the expense of their dividends. He lost not, I suppose, a single retainer, and his practice at the bar went on as before. His conversion, however, affords us a convenient point at which to turn aside and review his professional career, contrasting so singularly with what the ordinary observer would have antic.i.p.ated for him under such a condition. We are so much accustomed to a.s.sociate religious doubts or convictions with an unworldliness which is rarely visible where great worldly success is attained, that on leaving the cloisters of Oxford, and entering with him the committee-rooms of the Houses of Parliament, we seem to behold the curtain raised all at once, and the same actor appearing in a totally new character, with hardly a feature left that can identify him with the previous representation.