[By Macdonald.]
480.* William Hulme Hooper. Naval Officer.
[Born in London, 1826. Died there 1854. Aged 27.]
One of the intrepid Arctic explorers, whose spirit of enterprise has impelled them to invade the ocean, in his sternest and most terrific domain, through hope to solve the mystery hanging over the fate of Sir John Franklin. Lieutenant Hooper commanded the second cutter in the remarkable voyage of the boats of Her Majesty’s ship “Plover” from Icy Cape to Cape Bathurst. Lost for three days and nights in an Arctic snow storm, quartered two long and lonely winters away from his ship in log-huts with a few of his men, under every privation, he brought home the fastened malady of the lungs which so early cut short his ardent career.
[This bust is by David Dunbar.]
PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS.
481. Cardinal Wolsey. Minister of State.
[Born at Ipswich, 1471. Died at Leicester, 1530. Aged 59.]
A butcher’s son, with an inordinate appetence for place, power, and money. A magnificent pluralist, whose insatiable desire for wealth was redeemed only by the noble uses to which he applied a portion of his worldly goods. His revenues almost equalled those of the crown, and many of his acts were princely, as became the rival of a king. Wolsey founded several lectures at Oxford, built Christ Church in that University, and erected Hampton Court, which, in his splendid generosity, he presented to Henry VIII. He owed his first advancement to Henry VII., who sent him on an embassy to the Emperor of Germany, and afterwards made him Dean of Lincoln. His rise was, thenceforwards rapid. He became, under Henry VIII., Cardinal, Lord Chancellor, and Pope’s Legate. His fall was headlong. Offending the king by refusing to sanction his divorce, he was disgraced in an hour, and compelled to disgorge his enormous acquisitions. He was arrested at York, but, falling sick on his way to London, died at Leicester. Much of Wolsey’s wealth was, no doubt, ill-gotten; his ambition knew no bounds; his insolence was intolerable;—but he had in many respects a grand and royal mind, and the benefits conferred by him upon learning are never to be omitted in a history of his remarkable life.