Memoirs of James Robert Hope Scott, Volume 2 by Robert Ornsby

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This, then, is the reason why, seeking for a party, I cannot accept the
present action against the Irish establishment as materially affecting my
choice; but I must add that the Church question does not, in point of
statesmanship, appear to me to be either the most important or the most
difficult of the Irish questions.

That of Land Tenure exercises a wider influence among the people, and calls
for a higher science of government.

Now, upon this most difficult and most delicate subject, there are
prominent men among your supporters who have put forth views which I am
forced to call in the highest degree crude, if not extravagant.

The law of demand and supply renders one class dependent upon another to an
extent little short of slavery, not only in contracts for land in Ireland,
but in all questions which, in free countries, turn upon the possession by
one man of what another cannot or will not do without. The scale of wages
of the agricultural labourers in some counties in England, and the rates
paid for the worst lodgings by the poorest classes in our large towns, are
full of the same meaning as the difficulties of the Irish tenant farmer.

But, more than this, the Irish land question itself is not exclusively
Irish. It is to be found also, smaller of course in extent, but identical
in its main features and in some of its worst consequences, in the West
Highlands of Scotland; and I, who am a proprietor in both countries, can
hardly be expected to put much trust in the political physicians who, to
cure a disease in Mayo or Galway, propound remedies the first principles of
which they would deem inapplicable to the same disorder in Argyle or
Inverness.

That I am hopeless of any reasonable mode of relief being found, I will not
say; but, if it is to be safe, it certainly cannot be speedy; and if it is
to be permanent, it must depend upon a change in the habits of a race
rather than upon a new distribution of landed property by Parliament.

And now, turning from Irish to general policy, I profess that I accept your
principles of finance and commerce with entire satisfaction, and with a
confidence in your power of applying them which I give to no other man.

I enter heartily also into your schemes for the material improvement of the
labouring classes, and admire the wisdom as well as the kindness of what
you have done.

With regard to the Franchise, I have no fear of Household Suffrage, and I
prefer it to the more limited measure which you formerly advocated, because
it brings into play a greater variety of interests; and, if it is liable to
the objection that it gives votes to the ignorant and the profligate, I
answer that your bill would have bestowed still greater, because more
exclusive and more concentrated power, upon a class which comprises not
only the Lancashire operative, but the Sheffield rattener.

Moreover, I believe that all which is worth defending in our social and
political state in England and Scotland, has better guarantees in the
spirit of the people than in any provision of the law. When Talleyrand said
that England was the most aristocratic country in the world, because there
was scarcely any one in it who did not look down on somebody else, he
touched the keystone of our society. I have already met with amusing
instances of the effect on Scotch middle-class Liberals of the recent
enfranchisement of those below them; and my conviction is, that the more
you widen the base, the more closely will you bind the superstructure
together.

What I fear more than democracy is the strife between capital and skilled
labour. This appears to me to be among the most pressing questions of the
day, and I shall think well of the statesman, whoever he may be, who, with
a just but firm hand, shall regulate the relations of these forces.

On Education I hope we are agreed; at any rate, I feel sure that you will
not intentionally divorce it from religion; but I have yet to learn what
measure your party would support.

There remains one subject of home policy which with me is paramount. At the
time when I became a Catholic the so-called Papal Aggression was the great
topic of the day; and while the ignorance and violence of the majority,
both in and out of Parliament, greatly assisted my conversion, the steady
reason and justice of Lord Aberdeen, and of those who, like yourself, acted
with him, drew from me a greater feeling of respect than I have ever been
sensible of on any other political occasion, or towards any other political
men. I felt that they were determined honestly to carry out the principles
of Catholic emancipation, amidst great popular excitement, and without
reference even to their personal prejudices, far less to their political
interests, and I honoured them with no stinted honour.

In the same direction much still remains to be done, and I wonder to myself
whether you will ever head a party which will venture its political power
in a contest with county magistrates and parish vestries on behalf of the
Catholic poor.

I wonder too sometimes, but with less of hope, whether yours will be a
party which will be content to forego that political propagandism which
seems chiefly favoured in England when applied to the weaker countries
which profess the Catholic faith, and which, in those countries, seems to
impair religion much more than it increases temporal prosperity; and,
lastly, whether it will have enough moderation to admit that the protection
of the public law of Europe ought not to be denied to the States of the
Church, merely because a neighbouring power demands them in the name of
Italian unity.

Such, my dear Gladstone, are the thoughts of a somewhat indolent, but not
indifferent observer of what is going on around him. They are put before
you neither to elicit opinions nor to provoke controversy, but to explain
how it is that an old friend, who loves and admires you, should withhold
his support, insignificant as it is, at the very moment when, as the leader
of a party, you might be thought to have justly earned it.

Yours aff'ly,

JAMES R. HOPE-SCOTT.

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

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

Hawarden, N.W.: Nov. 1, '68

My dear Hope-Scott,--Everything in your handwriting is pleasant to read,
and I thank you sincerely for your letter.

* * * * *

When I come to the _gros_ of your letter touching politics, I own it
appears to me that we have a moral title to your serious and even strenuous
aid.

I hope you will not think my writing to say so a bad compliment, for, as
far as the value of the aid is concerned, even such as yours, I assure you
I cannot afford to buy it at the present moment by personal appeals in
writing.

But you praise _justly_ the 'moderation and wisdom' of the R. C.
clergy on the question of the hour--why do you not imitate them?

Simply because you cannot trust those who are acting with me in the
_paulo post futurum_. Is that a sound rule of political action? You
think much, as I do, of the importance of the Land Question. You see a
great evil--you do not see any other man with a remedy--you hold off from
us who made a very moderate proposal in 1866, because eminent men among our
supporters have made proposals which you think extravagant or crude, and to
which we have never given any countenance.

Now I will not indulge myself here by going over the many and weighty
matters in which we are wholly at one; all that you say on them gives me
lively satisfaction.

I will only, therefore, touch the one subject on which you anticipate
difficulty as possible--that of political propagandism, meaning the
temporal power of the Pope: for I do not suppose you mean to censure
English pleas for civil rights of the United Greeks in Poland against the
Emperor of Russia, though touching their religion.

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.

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