CHAPTER XXII.. 1839-1869.

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 assail 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 anticipated for him under such a condition. We are so much accustomed to associate 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.

He was, indeed, himself not insensible to this contrast, and had early marked off from purely secular pursuits that choice and precious portion of his time which could be reserved for higher objects. An interesting passage in a letter of his to Mr. Gladstone (dated from Lincoln's Inn, June 25, 1841) will illustrate this feeling by a phrase which I italicise, as I believe he was fond of using it: 'My reason for staying in town is to read ecclesiastical law, and to prepare (if so be) for election committees. The former branch I reckon my flower-garden, the latter my cabbage- field.' [Footnote: See letter of Mr. Gladstone to Miss Hope-Scott,