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,
Appendix III.] When Anglicanism and its institutions had broken down under
him, and others not as yet come in their place, he sought in the purely
temporal works of his calling perhaps a refuge from doubts, certainly a
means of sanctification; and either alternative explains the issue. A
religious mind could never succeed in silencing religious difficulty by
earthly pursuits, but in whatever measure it sought to sanctify the latter,
would be led onwards to the faith. The following passage from a letter of
the then Archdeacon Manning (now Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster) to Mr.
Hope (dated Dec. 9, 1842) will show that this ardent and restless
application to his profession was watched at the time by Mr. Hope's friends
with some degree of anxiety and surprise. The kind and wise admonitions it
conveys, only distantly indeed bearing on the religious side of the
question, many may read with much profit:--
As a bystander I see you working too much, and looking at times
overwrought; and I ask myself, what is this man's aim? It must needs be
something very high and far off to need all this unremitting tension of
mind. I do much wish to see you more relaxed, and with more play. I know it
is a more difficult attainment to be able both to work intensely and to
relax thoroughly. But without it a man deteriorates. He becomes a keen,
case-hardened tool, and no man. Our friends the Germans are not far wrong
when they talk about developing what is universal in man, i.e. his
humanity, which is a whole, and must be unfolded as a whole to be perfect,
or even to approximate perfection. You will burn this if I go on, so I will
leave you to Lancilotti.
Believe me ever yours affectly,
H. E. MANNING.
The field finally adopted by Mr. Hope was the _Parliamentary Bar_, at
which, as we have seen, he had practised to a certain extent from the
first, though with considerable interruption from the legal and financial
affairs of his college and the Sarum Chancery, as well as other weighty
business, including in 1839 services rendered as Counsel to the Government
in the preparation of the Foreign Marriages Bill; in 1843 of the Consular
Jurisdiction Bill, the report which he furnished on which, to be seen in
the Parliamentary Records, would alone have been sufficient to have made a
great reputation in that particular line; and in 1843-44 he was engaged by
Government in the matter of the Franco-Mexican arbitration to prepare a
report on some points in dispute between France and Mexico, which had been
submitted to the arbitration of Great Britain. I presume that his retainers
in these cases would be principally due to the fact that his brother, Mr.
George W. Hope, was now a member of the Government as Under Secretary of
State for the Colonies in Sir Robert Peel's administration. But the 'fame'
that had already gone abroad regarding him, particularly for his learning
in all matters that touched ecclesiastical law, would have been sure,
independently of private interest, to have brought him early into
prominence. The Ecclesiastical Courts Bill in 1843 engaged much of his
attention, and his share in the legal business connected with troubles of
that year at Oxford has been noticed in its place. On October 26, 1843, he
took his degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. In 1844, at the suggestion of the
Bishop of London (Right Rev. Dr. Blomfield), he was accepted by the Lord
Chancellor as one of the persons to consider the chapter on offences
against religion and the Church in the proposed Code of Criminal Law.
In a short, time, however, his practice seems to have merged in the
department with which his name is principally connected, that of railway
pleading. This branch of the profession, though affording little or no
scope for those powers of oratory which his first speech before the Lords
showed that he possessed, nor yet opening those avenues to power and fame
which usually tempt minds of his class, were undoubtedly highly lucrative,
and by this time Mr. Hope's charities must have nearly exhausted his modest
patrimony. It had also one great advantage, in its business being
principally confined to the Parliamentary session, thus leaving him free to
travel six months in the year. I have seen it stated that in conversation
with a friend he gave this as his chief reason for adopting it. He may have
said so half in jest; but there can, I believe, be little doubt that a far
deeper reason was that the Parliamentary bar was likely to present fewer
cases of difficulty in point of conscience than he would have had to
encounter in the Common Law courts.
It is needless to mention, except for the sake of the few persons who may
not happen to have even that superficial acquaintance with the subject
which newspaper reading can supply, that advocates practising at the
Parliamentary bar are engaged in pleading for or against the private bills
referred to committees of Parliament, relating, for example, to railways,
canals, docks, gas-works, and the like. These are each referred to a
committee of five, supposed to represent the whole House; witnesses of
course are examined, and counsel heard on behalf of the companies or
individuals concerned. To plead before a tribunal of such a nature and on
such interests evidently demands qualifications of a special kind. Mr. Hope
possessed some external ones which are by no means unimportant. His noble
presence, in the first place, gave him a great advantage; and a known name
and known antecedents like his were also additional recommendations of
great value. Then came his tact, clearness of intellect, memory for names
and details, his moral qualities, especially his perfect sense of honour,
which gained him the ear of the committees, and, what is still more
difficult, enabled him to keep it.
Mr. Hope then very early attained to the front rank in his profession, and
on the retirement of Mr. Charles Austin, Q.C. (1848), and the deaths of
Sergeant Wrangham (_d_. March 1869) and Mr. John C. Talbot, Q.C.
(_d_. 1852), may be said to have had no rival in reputation or
practice until the present Sir E. B. Denison 'gradually began to compete
with him on not unequal terms.' Mr. St. George Burke, Q.C., Mr. Merewether,
Q.C., and Mr. Rodwell, Q.C., were other contemporaries of his, who all had
a large practice and great reputation, but were, I believe, as seldom as
possible pitted against Mr. Hope-Scott.
Early in 1849 Mr. Hope received a patent of precedence, entitling him to
rank with her Majesty's counsel; and in April of that year attended the
levee as Q.C. It was at his own request that the dignity of the silk gown
was conferred upon him in this form; and his reason was a conscientious
difficulty about taking the oath of supremacy so far as it denied the papal
authority, ecclesiastical or civil, as existing _de facto et de jure_
in the realm. He states his difficulty in a letter to Mr. Badeley (February
23, 1849), as follows:--
That the Pope _does_ exercise jurisdiction in this country is
notorious; and that he ought to do so over R. Catholics seems to be
admitted by the present state of the law as to that church. The oath, then,
cannot be taken as it was originally meant, and the only sense in which I
think it can be accepted is, that the Pope has not, nor without consent of
the Legislature ought to have, an external coercive power over the Queen's
subjects.
But this compromise did not satisfy him, and he therefore refused the silk
gown, except under the conditions previously stated, which did not require
him to take the oath of supremacy at all. His request for the patent of
precedence, and his reasons for wishing it, were conveyed through a legal
friend to the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Cottenham, who made no difficulty
whatever in granting it. The following anecdote will amuse the reader. When
the Chancellor had to report to the Premier (Lord John Russell) the various
appointments he had made, Lord John asked Lord Cottenham why he had given
Mr. Hope-Scott a patent of precedence instead of making him a Q.C. On the
Chancellor's replying that he had done it because of Mr. Hope-Scott's
scruples about the oath, Lord John exclaimed, 'That's more than I would
have done.'
Such illustrations of Mr. Hope-Scott's professional success as I have been
able to collect, either from oral sources or correspondence, may fitly be
introduced by a valuable paper on his characteristics as an advocate by Mr.
G. S. Venables, Q.C. It is obviously drawn up with great care and
reflection by a skilled observer, who had the best opportunities for
arriving at a correct judgment. I omit the two opening paragraphs, the
principal facts contained in which have been given in a former page.
CRITICISM ON MR. HOPE-SCOTT'S CHARACTERISTICS AS A PLEADER. BY G. S.
VENABLES, ESQ., Q.C.
The Bar is exempt from envy of merited success, and Mr. Hope-Scott's
undisputed pre-eminence never provoked a feeling of personal jealousy.
Though he cultivated little intimacy with his professional associates, his
courtesy and good humour never failed; and he showed due appreciation of
the services a leader requires from his junior colleagues.
His singularly attractive appearance produced its natural effect in
conciliating those around him, and the pleasant and cheerful manner which
nevertheless repelled familiarity tended to make him generally popular.
The most remarkable forensic qualities of Mr. Hope-Scott were facility,
prudence, and grace of language and manner. The subtlety of his intellect,
if it had been ostentatiously displayed, might perhaps have impaired the
confidence which he had the art of inspiring. Inexperienced members of the
tribunals before which he practised were tempted to forget that he was an
advocate, while they listened to the perspicuous statements which led up
with apparent absence of design to a carefully premeditated conclusion. It
could never be suspected from his manner that he was constantly supporting
a paradox, or that he anticipated defeat.
When he had occasion in successive contests to maintain opposite
propositions, it seemed that the circumstances of the case, not the
position of the advocate, had been changed.
In Parliamentary practice there is no room for the more ambitious kinds of
eloquence, nor can it be known whether Mr. Hope-Scott would have been
capable of elevated declamation. [Footnote: Of the latter, however, two or
three specimens are given in this memoir. See vol. i. (pp. 199, 200), vol.
ii. (pp. 115-118).] In dealing with questions of fact, of expediency, of
equitable policy, and of complicated agreement, he has probably never been
excelled. His lucid arrangement of topics, his pure polished style, and his
appearance of dispassionate conviction secured the pleased attention of his
audience. The more tedious parts of his argument or narrative were from
time to time relieved by touches of the playfulness which is more popular
than humour; but the colleagues and opponents who thoroughly understood his
object, knew that it was pursued with undeviating constancy of purpose.
In the lightest of his speeches there was neither carelessness nor
vacillation. Less finished advocates turn aside to indulge themselves in
playing with an illustration or a favourite proposition, at the risk of
betraying the distinction between their own natural train of thought and
their immediate argument. Mr. Hope-Scott was too consummate an artist to be
tempted into irrelevance or digression.
His success would not have been less complete if his practice had required
him to trace the fine analogies and close deductions of law. His intellect
was admirably adapted to the comparison of precedents and to the
application of legal principles. His acuteness was at the same time
comprehensive and minute, and he delighted in finding appropriate
expression for the nicest distinctions. When he had sometimes occasion to
spend hours in contesting the clauses of a bill, he had a surprising
faculty of averting the weariness which is ordinarily inseparable from the
prolonged discussion of details. Professional associates, who willingly
recognised his general superiority, sometimes confessed that in the most
irksome of their contests they were placed at an exceptional disadvantage
in comparison of Mr. Hope-Scott's felicitous adroitness. He excelled in
dealing with skilled witnesses, who were themselves from the nature of the
case supplementary advocates. The object of cross-examination, where there
is little serious dispute as to the facts, is to draw from the mouth of a
hostile witness the other half of the story. An accurate memory, stored by
abundant experience, enabled Mr. Hope-Scott to recall the history of every
railway company, the expressed opinions of general managers, and the
characteristics and theories of engineers. The wariest veterans needed all
their caution to anticipate the design of the friendly conversation which
gradually tempted them to damaging admissions. He was slow to resort to
harder modes of attack, of which he was at the same time fully capable.
Every facility was offered to a candid and confiding witness, and there was
still greater satisfaction in baffling the vigilance of an adversary who
was on his guard against an attack from a different quarter. A hostile
witness, after an encounter with Mr. Hope-Scott, sometimes found that his
answers formed a plausible argument in favour of the proposition he had
intended to confute. His perplexity must have been increased when he
afterwards heard his own statements reproduced in the speech of the
opposing counsel. Almost the only point in which Mr. Hope-Scott could be
charged with a want of caution consisted in his frequent affirmation of
certain general opinions, such as the common and questionable doctrine that
competition cannot last where combination is possible. An advocate who is
changing his clients is ill-advised in hampering himself with the
enumeration of maxims which may from time to time be quoted against him. In
such cases Mr. Hope-Scott almost converted a self-imposed difficulty into
an additional resource. With marvellous ingenuity he proved that any
competition scheme which he happened to support formed an exception to the
rule which he carefully reasserted; and unsophisticated hearers admired the
consistency with general principles which was found not to be incompatible
with immediate expediency.
It is almost superfluous to say that Mr. Hope-Scott never exceeded the
legitimate bounds of forensic debate. All litigated questions, and
especially this species of private legislation, have two sides, and it is
the business of an advocate to present in the most favourable light the
cause which he is retained to defend. Deliberate sophistry is as culpable
as false relations of fact; but completeness or judicial impartiality
belongs to the tribunal, and not to the representative of the litigant.
When all moral scruples have been allowed their full weight, the
qualifications of a great advocate are almost exclusively intellectual. It
is to this part of Mr. Hope-Scott's character that I have strictly
endeavoured to confine myself. It is probable that an attempt to analyse a
distinct personal impression may have produced but a vague result. I have
little doubt that, although Mr. Hope-Scott was almost unequalled in
professional ability, his real life lay outside his occupation as an
advocate. The grounds of the affection and admiration with which he is
remembered by his family and his nearest friends have but a remote
connection with the faculties and accomplishments which I have endeavoured
to describe.
Another friend (Mr. H. L. Cameron), who had continual opportunities, from
about the year 1859, of observing Mr. Hope-Scott's character in its
professional aspect, furnishes some very interesting reminiscences, on a
part of which, however, it may be worth while to observe that the
versatility and pliability of intellect which the writer so well describes
in Mr. Hope-Scott is no doubt more or less common to every great barrister,
and is a habit to which all who are actively engaged in the profession are
obliged to train their minds as they can. Still, it is equally certain that
Mr. Hope-Scott possessed this faculty in an uncommon degree; and, in order
to form a complete idea of him as he appeared in the eyes of his
contemporaries, as well as to understand the relations of one part of his
character to another, it is necessary to draw these features in
considerable detail. After noticing particularly a very pleasing trait in
Mr. Hope-Scott's demeanour as a leading counsel, shown in the kindness and
tact with which, in consultation, he took care to prevent the inexperience
or ignorance of his juniors being made apparent, and sought rather to ask
them questions on points which they were likely to know something about,
Mr. Cameron continues as follows:--
RECOLLECTIONS OF MR. H.L. CAMERON.
What made Mr. Hope-Scott so much loved by all who were brought into contact
with him was his great amiability, thorough kindness of heart: his care was
always not to hurt or wound another's feelings; and even in the heat of
debate, and under great provocation, I never heard him utter an unkind
word, or put a harsh construction on the conduct of any one, even an
adversary.
As regards his talents, they are so universally known and admitted, that I
can say very little you have not heard already. Westminster has rarely--
never certainly in later years--heard such an advocate. The secret of his
great success at the bar, beyond his intellectual power, lay, I think, in a
peculiar charm and fascination of manner--a manner which could invest the
driest and most technical matters with interest, and compelled the
attention of the hearers to the subject under discussion. The melody of his
voice was, to me, one of his greatest attractions. Then, again, what a
noble presence! and that goes a long way at the Bar. I can look back, and
see now, as he used to walk into his room to attend some consultation, how
vigorous, handsome, and stately he always appeared, bringing the force of
his powerful intellect at once to bear upon the subject under
consideration, doing all in such a genial manner, without any attempt at
showing his mental superiority to those around him.
In those busy times he would perhaps be engaged in twenty different cases
on the same day; the competition to engage him was most keen: it was almost
the first thing one thought about when clients came to consult upon a new
scheme. He would go from one committee to another, by some extraordinary
means always being at the place where he was most needed. It was marvellous
how he kept all these matters distinct in his brain; he was never in
confusion or at fault. In one room he would open a case, say an Improvement
Bill, with a brilliant speech setting forth all its merits, a speech which
would probably immediately impress the committee and carry the case,
whatever after arguments might be urged against it, or speeches made by
other counsel. Then he would go into another room, and cross-examine a
skilled witness in a railway case, showing his intimate knowledge of
engineering, and beating the witness perhaps on his own ground. Then he
would take an Irish case, or a Gas and Water Bill, or landowner's case,
whose property was about to be intersected, a ratepayer's, a carrier's,
each case being thoroughly gone into, and thoroughly mastered and
understood. After all this, and late in the day, when any one else would
have felt fatigued and exhausted, in mind at any rate, if not in body, he
would go into a room where an inquiry had been going on perhaps for weeks,
and reply on the whole evidence. Those who know what labour this entails
can alone appreciate such a capability.
No one at the bar whom I have ever heard reasoned with such perfect
lucidity. He would explain a case which his client the solicitor would have
wrapped up in fifty or sixty brief sheets, and involved in as much
obscurity as it were well possible, to a committee in a few minutes; and I
have often thought his clients never understood their own cases until he
had explained them. It was wonderful how he could make a committee
(sometimes composed of by no means the highest specimens of mankind)
understand a case; and his persuasive power with those tribunals was also
marvellous.
One word more on his character in his business life, and that is as to his
entire conscientiousness. No case did he ever consider insignificant or
beneath his notice. He gave the same attention to the humblest client that
he would to a duke. He never left anything he had to do _half_ done:
his work was thorough, complete, good. Time, which he considered his
client's, was never wasted; and to enable him to get through his work he
would rise at four or five o'clock in the morning, and he would be engaged
either getting up a case, attending consultations, or in committee until
five or six o'clock in the evening. His life was an exact fulfilment of
that precept, 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.'
[Footnote: Mr. H.L. Cameron. Letter to Miss Hope, October 28,1877.] To what
has now been expressed by critics so competent, I shall add the only
passage which I have been able to discover, in which Mr. Hope-Scott has
left on record any opinion relating to himself in connection with his
professional experience in an intellectual point of view. In pleading
before the Select Committee of the Lords, on behalf of Eton College, on the
Public School Bill of 1865, after stating his objection to the notion of
such subjects as natural philosophy playing so very large a part in early
education as some persons would have them do, he goes on to say:--
I, if I may venture here to speak of myself, have observed enough in a life
which has been tolerably devoted to business to know this, that the
possession of knowledge upon any one subject is worthless compared to the
possession of a power of using it when you have got it. My Lords, in my
profession, though not in my part of it, there are many men who will take
up a patent case, or a mining case, without the slightest previous
knowledge of the natural sciences relating to it, and who will make
statements to a jury which the scientific men at hand will stand aghast at;
what does that mean? It means that they have been so trained in the
acquisition of knowledge when presented to them, that it becomes to them a
mere matter of get-up, in many instances, to acquire an amount of knowledge
which would absolutely electrify many a learned society. [Footnote: _Min.
Evid. Sel. Com. Public Sch. B._ p. 209.]
Notwithstanding the qualification under which Mr. Hope-Scott here speaks,
it will be seen from a case I shall presently cite (the 'Caledonian
Railway,' p. 110) that he describes a faculty he was of course aware that
he himself possessed. He said, I believe, in conversation, that there was
hardly any subject which he had not had occasion to look up in his
profession, and this was one of the reasons which made him so fond of it.
It will perhaps give pleasure to those whose affection for Mr. Hope-Scott's
memory has suggested this record, if I note down some particulars of his
daily round of occupations during the most active period of his life,
principally supplied me (with other interesting details) by the kindness of
Mr. John Q. Dunn, who, from the year 1859 until the end, was Mr. Hope-
Scott's confidential clerk, continually about him in the most unreserved
trust, made out his daily _agenda_, and was intimately acquainted with
all his habits and ways.
Mr. Hope-Scott rose early, between five and six o'clock, made his coffee,
and then went through his devotions, a black ebony crucifix, with the
figure of our Lord in brass, on the table before him. Wherever he went he
had this carried with him. [Footnote: This particular crucifix, however,
was only used by Mr. Hope-Scott after his first wife's death. It was the
one which she held in her hands when dying.] His next employment was his
brief, which he read with great rapidity, [Footnote: 'Bellasis says you
never read even a brief, but divine its contents in half the time
required.'--Bishop Grant to Mr. Hope-Scott, November 19, 1852.] making
notes as he went on. This lasted till about eight, when he dressed and
breakfasted. He then drove from his private residence, or from Norfolk
House, to attend consultations in Chambers at 9.30. Each consultation
lasted five or ten minutes, sometimes fifteen, never more, until eleven
o'clock, not a minute being wasted. Public business then commenced, in the
Lords at eleven, in the Commons at twelve. His papers having been taken
over to the various committee-rooms, he would go from room to room, making
a speech here, or cross-examining witnesses there, as the occasion might
require, throughout the day. He was always cool and business-like, never in
the slightest degree flurried. This, which was only due to his immense
self-control, made people _imagine_ that the work was excessively easy
to him. Business before the committees lasted till four, when the bags were
collected (which were a porter's load); and in Chambers another series of
cases ensued, from four to five or six. In the intervals of business he
would dictate, with surprising exactness and calmness, letters on his
private affairs, such as the management of his Highland estate--minute
directions for painting outhouses it might be, or the like small matters.
At six he went home in a cab, tired and exhausted; dinner followed, after
which he invariably went to sleep for two hours, waking up about ten, when
he read his prayers. He commonly slept sound, and got up next morning
bright and fresh. Clients sometimes came as early as six or seven, and had
undivided attention for three-quarters of an hour: these audiences
amounted, in fact, to fresh verbal briefs, but were never charged for, as
the arrangement was made for his own convenience.
On first undertaking to write this memoir, the idea naturally suggested
itself whether it might not be possible to give something like a connected
history of Mr. Hope-Scott's practice at the bar, especially considering the
great social interest of the whole subject of railway construction in these
countries, of which it really forms part. But I was assured by those
thoroughly conversant with the matter, that such a task was not to be
thought of. Legal arguments, occupying many hours for days together,
however extraordinary they no doubt were as efforts of talent, and however
important to those concerned at the time, who, perhaps, might be seen
expecting, with white faces, the long-pending decision of committees for or
against them, cannot, after the lapse of a generation, nay, after a far
shorter interval than that, be even understood without an amount of labour
which few would be inclined to devote to them. It may, indeed, be said that
railway law is the creation of such great advocates as Mr. Hope-Scott, who
reigned supreme in their own province at the time of its formation; and no
doubt suggestions of counsel may have been adopted into law. But how to
assign to each his share in the mighty structure? or guess to whom any
particular change may have been due? It would at all events be the office,
not of the biographer, but of the historian of jurisprudence. I shall
nevertheless so far venture to deviate from the advice to which I have
referred as to notice five or six cases, not as being in every instance of
special and remembered celebrity, but merely as specimens of the kind of
practice in which Mr. Hope was engaged. Two of these will also give me the
opportunity of quoting some clever articles from the contemporary newspaper
press, serving to show what the opinion about Mr. Hope-Scott was at the
time, as the criticisms of his professional friends already given convey to
us a distinct idea of the impression which he produced on his brethren of
the Bar. I take first a case in which the Caledonian Railway Company were
concerned, as it is very clearly and concisely explained by Mr. Hercules
Robertson (better known as Lord Benholme, his title as Lord of Session),
one of the counsel associated in it with Mr. Hope-Scott, in a letter which
has been kindly communicated to me:--
1. _The Caledonian Railway_.--'We were associated together as counsel
for the Caledonian Railway Company in supporting several important bills
upon Parliamentary committees, involving difficulties of no ordinary
magnitude. One very important object that Company had to attain was leave
to alter their entrance into Glasgow by lowering their access by many feet
of perpendicular elevation. Their bill proposed to effect this by a tunnel
which had to be interposed between the canal above, on the surface, and the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway beneath. Our tunnel had to pass between these
hostile undertakings just at the point where the former of these lay above
the other with a very scanty space between. The difficulty was to induce
the committee to believe that the thing was possible--that it was in the
power of engineering to thread a way for the Caledonian Railway so as not
to bring down the water of the canal on the one hand, or to break into the
other railway by destroying its roof on the other. Mr. Hope-Scott had a
power of persuasion that owed its efficacy not more to his commanding
talents than to his straightforward ways and his honest and candid manner,
which seemed to afford a satisfactory pledge that he would not seriously
and anxiously advocate anything that was not true and possible. By his
powerful assistance the Caledonian Company carried their bill, and in the
course of the proceedings I had a full opportunity of estimating the
elements of success in Mr. Hope-Scott's career which made him one of the
most popular of Parliamentary counsel. I need hardly say that his kindness
and courtesy to myself were all that I could expect or wish from one with
whom I was otherwise so closely connected.--H. J. RORBETSON.'
2. _Award by Mr. Hope-Scott and Mr. R. Stephenson_.--In 1852 Mr. Hope-
Scott was associated with Mr. Robert Stephenson, the celebrated engineer,
in making an important award upon certain questions in difference between
the London and North-Western and North Staffordshire Railway Companies.
This document, dated October 6, 1852, appears in the newspapers of the day;
but either to quote from or analyse it would not be of the slightest
interest to my readers. A letter of Mr. R. Stephenson's to Mr. Hope-Scott
on some private business of later date is of more value for our purposes as
showing the opinion which this great engineer had formed of Mr. Hope-Scott
in his own field, and also that these two remarkable men were by that time
on the terms of intimacy that might be expected where minds of such
calibre, and so capable of understanding each other, met in the conduct of
affairs.
_Robert Stephenson, Esq., C.E. to J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C._
24 Great George Street: 2 Feb. 1855.
My dear Hope-Scott,--I have a sketch, in hand for your bridge. Your
specification is excellent. I know what you want exactly. If I had not
finished my engineering career, I should certainly have been jealous of
your powers of specification. I do not know that it is sufficient to base a
contract upon that would hold water in law; nevertheless, it is sufficient
for me. I cannot offhand state the cost; but when the sketch and estimate
are made, you shall see them; and if the cost exceeds your views, there
will be no harm done; on the contrary, I shall have had the pleasure of
scheming a little for you by way of pastime.
Yours faithfully,
EGBERT STEPHENSON.
James Hope-Scott, Esq.
3. The Mersey Conservancy and Docks Bill.--The speeches delivered by Mr.
Hope-Scott in this case (June 23 and 24,1857) on behalf of the Corporation
of Liverpool against the Mersey Docks and Conservancy Bill, were considered
as among his greatest forensic efforts. His engagement in it was originally
due to an accident, the brief having been given in the first instance to
Mr. Plunkett, in whose chambers, as already mentioned. Mr. Hope had been a
pupil. Mr. Plunkett having been prevented by illness from taking the brief,
it was placed in the hands of Mr. Hope-Scott, who made a brilliant use of
the opportunity. To place the reader in possession of the main question, it
may be sufficient to state that the object of the Bill was to consolidate
the Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks into one estate, so as to vest the whole
superintendence of the Mersey in one body, principally elected by the Docks
Ratepayers for the time being. This was felt by the Corporation of
Liverpool as an unjust interference with their local rights, and the case
is argued by Mr. Hope-Scott (when he comes upon general grounds) as one in
which the commercial was being sacrificed to the jealousy of the
manufacturing interest, and the principle of local government to that of
centralisation. The reasonings as to matters of fact and business which
make up the great bulk of these speeches are quite outside of our range,
which can only deal with that which is more popular and rhetorical. Two
specimens in the latter style I venture to quote--one of them appearing an
excellent example of the genial humour he knew so well how to throw around
the driest of arguments; the other a highly coloured view of the history
and position of Liverpool in the commercial world, and of the danger of
disturbing it in obedience to the clamour of its manufacturing rivals. The
treatment of the subject rather reminds us of Burke's manner, and it is
easy to see that Mr. Hope-Scott's own political feelings, always
constitutionally conservative, would here assist his eloquence, as, in a
far higher degree, the same sympathies had added splendour to his early
display before the House of Lords. In the case before us it is hardly
necessary to say that millions of money were concerned. An exciting scene
is remembered in connection with it, the secretary of the Birkenhead Docks
fainting away during the proceedings. Mr. Hope-Scott is _said_ to have
received a fee of 10,000_l_.; but a friend, likely to be well
informed, thinks this is a fable.
THE PARLIAMENTARY HUNTING-DAY: A CHANGE OF MOUNT.
[After describing the provisions of an earlier centralising scheme proposed
by Government in 1856, Mr. Hope-Scott proceeds:]
Well, sir, all this set the game fairly afoot; and such a day's sport could
hardly have been anticipated since the days when--
Earl Percy of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the
Scottish woods Three summers' days to take.
The Queen herself had not indeed made a vow, but had announced the hunting
from the throne. The Royal Commissioners had driven the whole country for
game, and there was a large field, nearly all the counties of England being
interested spectators; the hounds in good condition--very skilful whips--
everything seemed to promise a fine day's sport: and what would have been
the issue is not very easy to foresee, had it not been for what I may be
allowed to term (pursuing the metaphor) the very unfortunate riding of the
gentleman who, upon that occasion, acted as huntsman. It appears from his
own statement at the outset that he had very little previous acquaintance
with the country; but he went off with very considerable confidence upon
'the shipping interest,' and there seemed to be every prospect of his
having a pleasant ride; but as he got along, he seems to have found the
ground deeper and the fences stiffer than he had reckoned upon, and,
moreover, that 'the shipping interest' had been a good deal exhausted in
the service of the department before.
So about the middle of the day (it is more easy to give a description of
personal events in the form of analogy than from direct representation)--
about the middle of the day he seems to have changed his mount; and when he
was next seen he was going at a tremendous rate across country, firmly
seated upon the 'natural rights of man.' As you may suppose, he very soon
made up for lost ground upon so splendid a creature. But the difficulties
began when he came up with the hunt; for the horse in question is a
desperate puller, very awkward to manage in old enclosures, and not at all
accustomed to hunt with any regular pack, least of all with her Majesty's
hounds. The consequence was what might have been expected. He was hardly up
with the hounds when he was in the middle of them, rode over half the pack,
and headed the whole; and so there was nothing for it but for the master of
the hounds to call them off, and declare he would not hunt that country
again until he had had a further survey made of it.
Now I have endeavoured to give, in as gentle a manner as I can, an account
of that which caused the principal disaster on this famous sporting day. It
was stated that further information was necessary. But another member of
the Government described the difficulty in a good deal broader terms. Mr.
Labouchere declared that 'the sons of Zeruiah had been too strong for
them.' However that may be, a select committee was appointed. [Footnote:
_Report: Mersey Conservancy and Docks_, Westminster, 1857, p.46.]
COMPARISON OF LIVERPOOL WITH MANCHESTER.
What has made Liverpool? Manchester says it has made Liverpool. Sir, the
East and West Indies, America and Africa and Australia have made Liverpool,
just as they have made Manchester. We know that for a long time that
western side of the kingdom was far behind the eastern portions of it; that
it had no wool trade, which was the old staple of the country; that South
Lancashire was covered with forests; that in Edward the Second's time there
was but one poor fulling-mill in Manchester: and what has been the eventual
result? After long waiting, after long delays, a new continent in the far
west, and a new British Empire founded in the far east, have come to the
relief of that portion of the country; that, concurrently with the
development of that system, a Brindley, a Watt, an Arkwright, a George
Stephenson arose. And so it is that Liverpool became what it is; and so it
is that Manchester became what it is. But who was watching this great
design of Providence in its small beginning? Who was fostering the trade?
Who was promoting the internal communications with Manchester? Who was
spending money and giving land for the benefit of the infant trade? It was
the corporation of Liverpool.... Where was representation and taxation
then, sir?... You cannot have it till the port is made. You cannot have it
till the risk has been run, till the ratepayers have been created. Then, no
doubt, you may turn round upon the body who have made the port, made the
ratepayers, made them what they are; and you may insist upon dethroning
them from that position which they have occupied, at so much risk and so
much labour, up to the time when the full development of the trade takes
place. Now, sir, that is the case with Liverpool. It is the case with
nearly all the remarkable ports of this kingdom. And then, forsooth, when
all this has been done, and when Liverpool has nursed from its infancy the
rising trade of the Mersey, watched it, developed it into a system which is
unequalled, I venture to say, in the habitable world, we are to have
gentlemen from Manchester coming down upon us to tell us that the true
nostrum to make a port is taxation and representation, and to turn out
those who, before there was any trade to tax, taxed themselves in order to
create it.
* * * * *
Apart from the Great Western Company's intervention this is a case of
Manchester against Liverpool; in other words, it is a struggle between a
manufacturing and a commercial interest. Now, sir, what is called the
balance of power in the British Constitution, meaning as it does the
equipoise caused by conflicting interests and passions, is a principle
which is not confined to constitutional forms, but works out throughout the
whole body of society; and we find a gradual tendency in latter days to
conflicts between classes, and classes which were before allied together
against other classes. We know the distinctions between land and trade,
speaking generally, and the conflicts which have ensued. In these latter
days we have had trade subdivided into manufactures and commerce.... What
you are asked to do now is to humble a commercial interest at the instance
of a manufacturing interest.... There can be no doubt, sir, that if we
contrast the habits of mind of different classes, commercial pursuits give
a different tone and a different feeling. I am not saying it is better, I
am not saying it is worse--that is not my question--but a different tone
and feeling from what manufacturing pursuits do. I will not even analyse
the cause of it; but I may state this much, that commerce has that which
manufacture has not. It has its traditions and its history upon a higher
and very different footing: it has even its romance and its poetry. A
profession exercised within a port which is associated with such names as
those of Tyre, of Byzantium, of Venice, of Genoa, of the Hanse Towns, and
many of the chief cities of history, may be said to have some liberal
features which I do not say are beneficial; I am merely saying that they
are different from those which arise out of the associations of
manufacture. Images of greatness and of splendour are connected with the
one much more than with the other, and the term 'merchant princes' is a
term which neither historians nor orators would treat as otherwise than
properly applied to many of the chief men of the cities which I have named
in former days, and many of the chief men of the cities with which we are
now dealing. Moreover commerce brings the parties engaged in it into
connection and contact with almost the whole known world. Liverpool is not
the Liverpool of Lancashire only, or of Cheshire only, or of England only;
Liverpool is the Liverpool of India, of China, of Africa, of North and
South America, of Australia--the Liverpool of the whole habitable globe;
and she has her features of distinction; she has her habits of thought and
feeling, her traditions of mind fostered by influences such as these. There
she sits upon the Mersey, a sort of queen of the seas; and Manchester, her
sister, looks at her and loves her not. _She_ too is great, and
_she_ too is powerful--but she is not Liverpool, and she cannot become
Liverpool. At Liverpool she is lost in the throng of nations and the
multitude of commerce; she is merely one of the many customers of the port.
Well, as she cannot equal Liverpool, what is the next thing? It is to pull
down Liverpool; to make Liverpool, forsooth, the Piraeus of such an Athens
as Manchester! That, sir, will suit her purpose, but will it suit yours?...
No commercial interests can act, sir, more than any other interests,
without some local association, without some united home, such as is
afforded in the constitution of our own port.... To found upon injustice,
and to proceed by agitation, to put down a rival whom they cannot help
admiring though they cannot love--that, sir, is a process neither worthy of
them nor likely to accord with the views of the constitutional politician,
who is willing indeed that, according to the natural force of circumstances
and the development of time, every interest should acquire its legitimate
position in the balance of power under the constitution, but who certainly
would not lend his aid to destroy by anticipation and violently any of
those great commercial landmarks which remain--and long may they remain--in
this country, standing monuments of the past, and affording in the present
working of different political passions and interests a counterpoise, the
loss of which would soon be felt, and would lead every one to regret the
legislation which had converted this bill into an Act. (Pp. 213, 214, 221-
4.)
4. _The L. B. & S. C. Company--the Beckenham Line_.--In this great
case Mr. Hope-Scott was retained by the London, Brighton, and South Coast
Railway Company to oppose a bill by which it had been sought to construct
a new and rival line by Beckenham, and, with his usual address, succeeded
in turning it out. The question was one of considerable local importance,
and on its decision a clever article appeared in the 'West Sussex Gazette,'
written by the editor of that paper, the late Mr. William Woods Mitchell,
in whose sudden death in 1880 the public press of England lost a most able
and talented journalist, who (I may remark in passing) had as considerable
a share as any one in carrying the principle of unstamped newspapers. His
description of Mr. Hope-Scott's style of pleading is interesting, as
conveying the impressions of a very sharp-sighted spectator, and, so to
speak, placing before our bodily vision what such refined criticism as that
of Mr. Venables has addressed rather to the eye of the mind.
To one of an impulsive temperament Mr. Hope-Scott's unconcern and _sang-
froid_ is perfectly irritating. It is amazing how he remembers minute
points and names. From the highest questions of policy down to Mr. Ellis's
cow and ladder case he was 'up' in detail, never lost for a word, and not
to be astonished at anything. If the House of Commons were on fire he would
ask the committee simply if he should continue until the fire had reached
the room, or adjourn on the arrival of the engines. Whilst he delivers his
speech he is keeping up a little cross-fire with the clerks behind, who
scratch out the evidences and papers as he requires them. Now he will drink
from the water-glass, now take a pinch of snuff, then look at his notes, or
make an observation to some one; but still the smooth thread of his speech
goes on to the committee: but it is smooth, and says as plainly as
possible, 'My dear friend, I am not to be hurried, understand that if you
please.' When, however, Mr. Scott has a joke against his learned friend he
looks round, and his dark eyes twinkle out the joke most expressively....
There was a slight twinkle as he said to the committee, 'Now I come to the
question of gradients.' It was amusing to see the five M.P.s twist in their
chairs, and how readily the chairman told Mr. Scott the committee required
to hear nothing further about gradients. Had the question of gradients been
entered upon, one might have travelled to Brighton and back ere it was
concluded. Mr. Hope-Scott had the advantage of a good case, and he
'improved the occasion.' He further had the advantage of the three shrewd
gentlemen at his elbow, Messrs. Faithfull, Slight, and Hawkins, who allowed
no point to slumber. The great features in favour of the Brighton Company
were--first, that their line was acknowledged by all to be well connected;
secondly, that Parliament had never granted a competing line of as palpable
a character as the Beckenham; thirdly, that it had been shown by a
committee of inquiry that competing lines invariably combine to the
detriment of the public; and lastly, that the opposition line was not a
_bonâ fide_ scheme, and not required for the traffic of the district.
Mr. Denison replied at a disadvantage. [The chairman announced:] 'The
committee are unanimous in their decision that the preamble of the bill has
_not_ been proved.' The B. and S. C. has won the race. Another victory
for _Scott's lot!_ [Footnote: _Scott's lot_. There was a
celebrated trainer of the day, named Scott; and this expression was very
familiar in the records of the turf.] The Beckenham project thrown out.
[Footnote: _West Sussex Gazette_, June 18, 1863.]
The same writer (I have been told) also remarked that Mr. Hope-Scott
succeeded with the committee by making an exceedingly clear
_statement_ of the case, thereby making them think that they knew
something about it--and that was half the battle. When it was over, Mr.
Hope-Scott observed to a friend, 'It is very likely I shall hear of that
again; and very probably I shall be on the other side.' In fact, the affair
got mixed up with the South-Eastern, from which company Mr. Hope-Scott
received a prior retainer, and carried the Beckenham line against the L.
and B. On that occasion he met the probable production by the opposing
counsel of the statement from his previous speech by showing that
circumstances alter cases, and that two or three years make a great
difference. These latter particulars, however, I only give as
conversational. To prevent any adverse impressions which might be given by
such random talk, I would remark in passing, that a case like the foregoing
is not a question of right or wrong, truth or falsehood, but of a balance
of _expediency_, which it is a counsel's business in each instance to
state, though certainly not to _overstate_. Further on (p.124) the
reader will find evidence of Mr. Hope-Scott's resolute conscientiousness in
the matter of fees.
5. _Scottish Railways: an Amalgamation Case_.--A bill for the
amalgamation of certain Scottish railways was one of the great cases in
which Mr. Hope-Scott was concerned in the Parliamentary Session of 1866. A
correspondent of the 'Dundee Advertiser' takes occasion from it to
contribute to that journal a sketch of Mr. Hope-Scott's personal history
and professional career, with sundry comments on his style as an advocate.
From this article I shall quote so much as refers in general to the
Scottish part of his practice, and particularly to the case above
mentioned. It will be perceived that the writer takes a comparatively
disparaging view of Mr. Hope-Scott's manner of pleading; but this only
shows the coarse drawing which those who write for the people often fall
into, like artists whose pictures are to be seen from a great distance. For
convenience of arrangement I make a transposition in the passage which I
now place before the reader.
Mr. Hope-Scott in pleading his cases has a peculiarly easy style of speech,
which can hardly be called oratory, because it would be ridiculous to waste
high oratory on a Railway or a Waterworks Bill. But he has an apparently
inexhaustible flow of language in every case he takes up, and every point
of every case. He has little gesture, but is graceful in all his movements.
He fastens on every point, however small--not a single feature escapes him;
and he covers it up so completely with a cloud of specious but clever
words, that a Parliamentary committee, composed as it is of private
gentlemen, are almost necessarily led captive, and compelled to view the
point as represented by him. It was eminently so in the Amalgamation case.
The specious excuses for unmitigated selfishness there put forth were
poured into the ears of the committee with such an air of innocent candour,
and with such a clever copiousness, that the committee was, as it were,
flooded and overwhelmed by his quiet eloquence; and though Mr. Denison with
the keen two-edged sword of his logic cut through and through the watery
flood in every case, it was just like cutting water, which immediately
closed the moment the instrument was withdrawn. I am not doing Mr. Scott
injustice when I say that in the Amalgamation case his tact was at least in
as much demand as his ability, and that for downright argument his speeches
could not for one moment be compared to those of Mr. Denison. But having a
bad case to begin with, and having to make a selfish arrangement between
two railway companies appear a great public advantage, he certainly, by his
quiet skilful touches, turned black into white before the committee with
remarkable neatness. His reply on the whole case was another flood of
rosewater eloquence, which rose gently over all the points in Mr. Denison's
speech, and concealed if it did not remove them. It was like the tide
rising and covering a rock which could only be removed by blasting. Mr.
Denison has the keen logical faculty which enables him to bore his way
through the hardest argument, and blast it remorselessly and effectually as
the gunpowder the rock. Mr. Scott, again, prefers to chip the face of the
rock, to trim it into shape, to cover it over with soil, and to conceal its
hard and rocky appearance under the guise of a flower-garden, through which
any one may walk. And with ordinary men this style of thing is very
popular. I do not mean that Mr. Scott is incapable of higher things. Far
from it. I believe that had he to plead before a judge few could be more
logical and powerful than he; but it is a remarkable evidence of the
'Scottishness' of his character, if I may coin a phrase, that when he has
to plead before a committee of private gentlemen who have to be 'managed,'
he should deliberately select a lower style of treatment for his subjects.
* * * * *
From his birth and social position, his mixing with the noblest and best
society in the land, and his versatility and quick perceptive powers, Mr.
Hope-Scott is so thoroughly master of the art of pleasing that a committee
cannot fail to be ingratiated by him; and is certainly never offended, as
he is gentlemanly and amiable to a fault. His temper is unruffled, and his
speeches brimful of quick wit and humour; and when a strong-minded
committee has to decide against him, so much has he succeeded in
ingratiating himself with them that it is almost with a feeling of personal
pain the decision is given. I remember seeing the chairman of one of the
committees look distinctly sheepish as he gave his decision against Mr.
Scott, and could not help thinking how much humbug there was in this system
of Parliamentary committees altogether.
* * * * *
Mr. Hope-Scott has had a great deal to do in regard to Dundee and district
business in Parliament. He represented the Harbour Trustees when they
obtained their original Act, and he has had a hand in forwarding or
opposing most of the railways in the district. He was employed by Mr. Kerr
at the formation of the Scottish Midland; and I may mention that he was
also employed in regard to the original Forfar and Laurencekirk line. In
his conduct of the latter case a characteristic incident occurred which
shows the highly honourable nature of the man. It was at the time of the
railway mania, when fancy fees were being given to counsel, and when some
counsel were altogether exorbitant in their demands. Mr. Hope-Scott was to
have replied on behalf of the Forfar and Laurencekirk line, but intimated
that he would not have time to do so, he being engaged on some other case.
It was supposed, as fancy fees were being freely offered to secure
attendance, that Mr. Scott was dissatisfied with his, and accordingly an
extra fee of 150 guineas was sent to him along with a brief and a request
that he would appear and make the reply. Mr. Scott sent back the brief and
the cheque to the agents, with a note stating his regret that they should
have supposed him capable of such a thing, also stating that he feared he
would not have time to make the reply; but requesting that W. Kerr, of
Dundee, should be asked to visit him and prepare him for the case, that he
might be able to plead it if he did find time. This was done; he did find
the time, he pleaded the case, but would not finger the extra fee! How
different this conduct from that of some of the notorious counsel of those
days, who, after being engaged in a case, sometimes stood out for their
1,000-guinea fees being doubled before they would go on with it!'
[Footnote: I have heard of even a stronger case at that period than those
alluded to by this writer--of a brief of 300_l_. being returned by the
counsel and agents backwards and forwards till it reached 3,000_l_.]
('Dundee Advertiser,' July 2, 1866.)
6. _Dublin Trunk Connecting Railway_.--This was a case of some
interest in 1868 or 1869, when schemes were in agitation for the connection
of lines and the construction of one great central station for Dublin.
Seven bills had been proposed, two of which their supporters had great
hopes of carrying: the Dublin Trunk Connecting line few had thought would
pass, when Mr. Hope-Scott went into the committee-room one afternoon,
examined some witnesses, and made a speech which carried all before it;
and, to the astonishment of all, the bill passed. The project, indeed, was
never realised, but all agreed that Mr. Hope-Scott's single speech before
the committee had snatched the affair from the hands of all the other
competing parties.
7. His professional services to his old College of Eton in one important
case (the Public Schools Bill of 1865) have already been more than once
referred to. [Footnote: See vol. i. p. 17, and the present vol. ii. p.
106.]
But he similarly assisted Eton on other occasions also. One of these was a
contest it had with the _Great Western Railway Company_ in 1848, and
which did not terminate in complete success; but his exertions (which were
gratuitous) called forth a most emphatic expression of thanks in an address
to him from the head-master (Dr. Hawtrey) and from the whole body of the
masters. They say:--
It would indeed have been impossible by any such payment to have diminished
our debt. For we feel that you spoke as if you had a common interest in our
cause, and the advocate was lost in the friend. Nothing was wanting in our
defence which the most judicious eloquence, combined with the sincerest
regard for Eton, could supply:--
Si Pergama dextra Defendi possent, etiam hâc defensa fuissent.
But if the great object of our wishes could not be obtained against an
opposition so powerful, restrictions have been imposed on the direction of
the Great Western line, which would not have been granted but for the
earnestness of your address to the committee; and whatever alleviations
there may be to the evils which we expected, we shall owe them entirely to
your advocacy.
I have little to add to what has now been brought together, yet a few
scraps may still interest the reader.
Mr. Hope's first general retainers (as already stated) date in 1844; but by
the time he retired he was standing counsel to nearly every system of
railways in the United Kingdom (not, however, to the Great Western, though
he pleaded for them whenever he could--that is, when not opposed by other
railways for which he was retained). With the London and North-Western he
was an especial favourite. It is believed that on his retirement his
general retainers amounted to nearly one hundred--an extraordinary number;
among which are included those given by the Corporations of London,
Edinburgh, Dublin, Liverpool, and others. There was, in fact, during his
last years, constant wrangling among clients to secure his services. The
cry always was 'Get Hope-Scott.' That there may have been jealousy on the
part of some as to the distribution of time so precious, may easily be
supposed. I find a hint of this in a book of much local interest, but which
probably few of my readers have met with, 'The Larchfield Diary: Extracts
from the Diary of the late Mr. Mewburn, First Railway Solicitor. London:
Simpkin and Marshall [1876].' Under the year 1861 Mr. Mewburn says (adding
a tart comment):--
The London and North-Western Railway Company had, in the session of 1860,
twenty-five bills in Parliament, all which they gave to Mr. Hope-Scott as
their leader, and he was paid fees amounting to 20,000_l_., although
he was rarely in the committee-room during the progress of the bills.--
'Larchfield Diary,' p. 170.
As to this, it must be observed that the companies engaged Mr. Hope-Scott's
services with the perfect knowledge beforehand that the demands on his time
were such as to render it extremely doubtful whether he could afford more
than a very small share of it to the given case. They wished for his name
if nothing else could be had; and, above all, to hinder its appearing on
the opposite side. It was also felt that his powers were such, that a very
little interference or suggestion on his part was very likely to effect all
they wished. People said, 'If he can only give us ten minutes, it will
_direct_ us. We don't want the chief to draw his sword--he will win
the battle with the glance of his eye.' In reference to one case I have
described (No. 6) a client exclaimed, 'Even in ten minutes he put all to
rights. We should have gone to pieces but for those ten minutes.' One is
reminded of the exclamation of the old Highlander who had survived
Killiecrankie: 'O for one hour of Dundee!' With these facts before us, and
the astonishing unanimity of the best informed witnesses, as to Mr. Hope-
Scott's straightforwardness and high sense of honour, I think Mr. Mewburn's
objection is sufficiently answered. A remark, however, may be added, which
I find in an able article in the 'Scotsman' (May 1, 1873): 'Often unable to
attend his examination of minor witnesses, Mr. Hope-Scott nevertheless took
care to possess himself of everything material in their evidence by careful
reading of the short-hand writers' notes, and he always contrived to be at
hand when the examination of an important witness might be expected to
prove the turning-point in his case.'
The same writer goes on to say:--
Mr. Hope-Scott was not classed as a legal scholar, nor did his branch of
the profession, which was the making, not the interpreting of laws, demand
that accomplishment. His power lay, first, in a strong common sense and in
a practical mind; next, in a degree of tact amounting to instinct, by which
he seemed to read the minds of those before whom he was pleading, and
steered his course and pitched his tone accordingly; and lastly, in being
in all respects a thorough gentleman, knowing how to deal with
gentlemen.... Though sincere and zealous in [religious] matters, Mr. Hope-
Scott never, in his intercourse with the world and with men of hostile
beliefs, showed the least drop of bitterness, or fell away in the smallest
degree from that geniality of spirit which marked his whole character, and
that courtesy of manner which made all intercourse with him, even in hard
and anxious matters of business, a pleasure, not only for the moment, but
for memory.
The following anecdote will serve to show that Mr. Hope-Scott was not the
man to abuse the power which of course he well knew that he possessed, of
'making the worse seem the better cause.' Once when engaged in consultation
with a certain great advocate, they both agreed that they had not a leg to
stand upon. ---- said that he would speak, and did deliver a speech which
was anything but law. Mr. Hope-Scott being then called, bowed, and said
that he had nothing to add to the speech of his learned friend. 'How could
you leave me like that?' asked the other. 'You had already said,' replied
Mr. Hope-Scott, 'that you had no case.'
In his latter years Mr. Hope-Scott was thought to have become rather
imperious in his style of pleading before the Parliamentary committees: I
mention this, not to pass over an impression which probably was but
incidental. Of an opposite and very beautiful trait see an example in Mr.
Gladstone's 'Letter' (Appendix III.).
It is obvious that Mr. Hope-Scott's professional emoluments must have been,
as I have already said in general, very great. Notwithstanding his
generosity and forbearance, it was no more possible for him, with his
talents and surroundings, to avoid earning a splendid income than (as
Clarendon says of the Duke of Buckingham) for a healthy man to sit in the
sun and not grow warm. Into the details of his professional success in this
point of view I must refrain from entering. Although, considering the great
historical interest of the era of 'the railway mania,' the question of the
fees earned by a great advocate of that period can hardly be considered one
of merely trivial curiosity, still, the etiquette and let me add the just
etiquette, of the profession would forbid the use of information, without
which no really satisfactory outline of this branch of my subject could be
placed before the reader, least of all by a writer not himself a member of
the profession. The popular notion of it must, I suppose, have appeared not
infrequently in the newspapers of the day--an example may be found at p.
204 of this volume--and but very recently a similar guess appeared in a
literary organ of more permanent character. But to correct or to criticise
such vague statements on more certain knowledge, even if I possessed it, is
what can hardly be here expected. Indeed, I ought rather to ask pardon for
mistakes almost certainly incident to what I have already attempted.
In concluding the present subject I may remark that Mr. Hope-Scott's
professional labours by no means represent the whole work of his life.
Nominally, he was supposed to be free for about half the year, but in
reality this vacant time was almost filled up by other work of a business
nature undertaken out of kindness to friends or relations--precisely what
the old Romans called _officia_. Such was the charge of the great
Norfolk estates, and of the long-contested Shrewsbury property; [Footnote:
Bertram Talbot, last Earl of Shrewsbury of the Catholic branch, had
bequeathed considerable property to Lord Edmund Howard (brother-in-law to
Mr. Hope-Scott), on condition of his assuming the name of Talbot. His right
to make this bequest was disputed by his successor, and a protracted
litigation ensued in 1864 and the next few years, throughout which Mr.
Hope-Scott acted as friend and adviser of the Howards, to whom he was
guardian. The importance of this _cause célèbre_ here consists chiefly
in the self-sacrificing labours by which Mr. Hope-Scott succeeded in saving
something for his relative out of the wreck, when to rescue the whole
proved to be hopeless. I am not aware that it need be concealed that he had
a very strong opinion against the justice of the decision.] such was
another trust, on a considerable scale, for connections of his family in
Yorkshire, involving, like the former, a great deal of travelling, for he
was not satisfied with merely looking at things through other people's
eyes. Such, too, his guardianship of his elder brother's eight children
[Footnote: Mr. George W. Hope died on October 18, 1863--a great sorrow to
Mr. Hope-Scott, to whom for years, in the earlier part of his career, his
house had been a home, and who regarded him throughout with deep
affection.] for about ten years before his death. A fourth may be added,
that of the family of Mr. Laing, solicitor at Jedburgh, a convert who died
young, requesting Mr. Hope to protect the interest of his seven children. A
fifth, too--the guardianship of the children of his old legal tutor, Mr.
Plunkett. The four first-mentioned guardianships occupied Mr. Hope till
nearly the end of his life. And, on the top of all this, add a most
voluminous correspondence, in which his advice was required on important
subjects by important persons--and often on subjects which were to them of
importance, by very much humbler persons too.
Of the spirit in which he laboured, the following passage of a letter of
his to Father (now Cardinal) Newman gives an idea. Like some other letters
I have quoted, it almost supplies the absence of a religious diary of the
period. It is an answer to a letter of Dr. Newman's, presently to be given
(p. 143).
_J. R. Hope-Scott, Esq., Q.C. to the Very Rev. Dr. Newman._
Abbotsford: Dec. 30, 1857.
Dear Father Newman,--... And now a word about yourself. I do not like your
croaking. You have done more in your time than most men, and have never
been idle. As to the way in which you have done it I shall say nothing. You
may think you might have done it better. I remember that you once told me
that 'there was nothing we might not have done better'--and this was to
comfort me; and it did, for it brought each particular failure under a
general law of infirmity, and so quieted while it humbled me. And then as
to the future: what is appointed for you to do you will have time for--what
is not, you need have no concern about. There! I have written a sermon.
Very impudent I know it is; but when the mind gets out of joint a child may
sometimes restore it by telling us some simple thing which we perhaps have
taught it. Pat your child then on the head, and bid him go to play, while
you brace yourself up and work on, not as if you must do some particular
work _before_ you die, but as if you must do your best _till_ you
die. 'Alas! alas! how much could I say of my past, were I to compare it
with yours! And my future--how shall I secure it better than you can yours?
But I must not abuse the opportunity you have given me.... With all good
wishes of this and every season,
Yours very affectionately,
JAMES R. HOPE-SCOTT.
The Very Rev. Dr. Newman, Birmingham.