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 Père 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 Hyères.
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 Cécile: 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.