THE SOLITARY SINGER. SWEET singer! - -sweet to hear when only one Say what the burden of that patient strain It cannot but be sad- a low-tuned sigh Till evening's hush was mellowed by thy lay. It cannot all be sad - some sweet alloy Of hope would seem to tremble through thy song, And serve, when all thy mates are mute, to buoy Thy heart, though clouds across thy heaven INDEED, they have not grieved me sore, How I should make a good retreat : I found you far more lovable, Because your fickleness I saw, For I myself am changeable, And like, you know, to like doth draw: Thus neither needs to make amends; We can cry quits, and be good friends. While I was monarch of your heart, My heart from you did never range; But from my vassal did I part, When you your lady-love did change: No penalty the change attends; We can cry quits, and be good friends. Farewell! We'll meet again some day, 'Tis clear we're not each other's fate. Chambers' Journal. SONNET TO LEIGH HUNT. On hearing that Horsemonger Lane Gaol is to be From The Quarterly Review. JAMES HOPE-SCOTT.* THE writer of these volumes begins them with a short preface of apology, in which he has thought it his duty to explain to the public why Mr. Hope-Scott's life should be worth writing at all. We do not ourselves see that any such apology was necessary; and the diffidence which the biographer has felt about the interest of his subject, he had far better have reserved for his own manner of treat ing it. In saying this of Mr. Ornsby, we mean no sort of disrespect to him. He has had ample materials for his work; he has used his materials conscientiously; his style of writing is that of a scholar and a gentleman. The only faults we find with him imply no personal blame. They arise from an utter absence of any faculty for arrangement; and from a tendency, which in his position is equally natural, to regard his subject too exclusively from a Roman Catholic point of view. We are far more inclined, therefore, to thank him for what he has done, than to blame him for what he has been unable to do; and it will be our endeavor, in the course of the present article, to remedy his defects, rather than to dwell upon them. We propose, accordingly, to set before the reader our own views of Mr. HopeScott's life and character, and, so far as is possible, to give a living picture of him; and instead of quarrelling with Mr. Ornsby over the way in which he has arranged his facts, we thank him cordially, at start ing, for the laborious care with which he has recorded them. Mr. Hope-Scott, in the popular sense of the words, can hardly be said to have been a very famous man; though his name, for various reasons, was much before the public. But there are many men whose fame has been far greater, and whose names are associated forever with the destinies and the literature of nations, whose private lives have far less significance, and throw far less light on the times which their public actions have influenced. Of these men it may be said that their lives are Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott of Abbotsford. By Robert Ornsby, M.A. In 2 vols. London, 1884. written in history. Of Mr. Hope-Scott it may be said, with equal truth, that history is written in his. In following, so far as we are able, the growth of his inner nature- the balance or the conflict in it of temperament, feelings, and principles, the thoughts that led to action, the action that led to thought, the consistent though troubled devotion to what is not of this world, together with a wide knowledge of, and a constant connection with, the world, both of affairs and of society, his close intimacy with many of the greatest men of the age, his influence on them, and their influence on him in following all this in Mr. Hope-Scott's life, we seem to be looking into a kind of camera, which, in the circle of a single mind, shows us some of the greatest figures, and some of the greatest movements, of an epoch. In our opinion, however, Mr. HopeScott's life supplies us not only with a study of general interest, but with a personal example of a singularly elevating kind; and we are particularly anxious, at starting, to record this opinion plainly, because, unless we did so, we are perfectly well aware that a large part of our readers might very naturally disagree with us. Our meaning lies on the surface. The innermost history of Mr. Hope-Scott's mind is the history of his progress from the Protestant faith to Romanism; and we can hardly wonder if the English public at large should find at first sight but little with which to sympathize, in the spectacle of what cannot but seem to them as a lapse from sense into superstition, and from intellectual day into intellectual twilight. We venture to think, however, that this natural view of the case need be in no way opposed to ours. We hold that for our sympathies to be enlisted by a man's spiritual life, we need be no means agree absolutely with the formal conclusions reached by him. When we happen to do this, no doubt our interest is deeper; but an interest and a sympathy can exist independent of all such agreement. We say this from no sectarian point of view; we are waiving, for the time being, all theological prejudice. We are appealing merely to those moral convictions and perceptions, which all religious men cher ish, and which all intellectual men respect. | inherited position he united the sense If man be a spiritual being at all, any that, personally, he had his own position attempt which is made honestly to follow to make. His father, the Hon. Sir Alexthe higher life amongst the calls and cares ander Hope, one of the bravest and most of the lower, to raise the latter to be a intelligent amongst all the officers of his rational part of the former, and to find for time, was a younger son of the second such a union a theological or intellectual Earl of Hopetoun. Having entered the basis, is right so far as it goes, indepen- army in 1786, and having rapidly won the dent of the theological issue. We pro- esteem and praise of his superiors, he pose accordingly in what follows to treat was barely twenty-six when, in the action all questions of faith, wholly without refer- with the French at Buren, he received a ence to our personal views regarding wound which left him partially lame for them; not to argue whether they are true life, and by which his right arm was comor untrue, but merely to record the atti- pletely paralyzed. The young man's sertude of a certain mind with regard to vices, however, had been of so signal a them, and to show the steps by which they nature, that even his disablement marked came to be to it symbols severally of truth for him a new departure in his promotion. or falsehood. We shall endeavor, in a He was appointed successively, during word, to treat Mr. Hope-Scott's religious the four following years, governor of history, not, as Mr. Ornsby does, like a Tynemouth and of Clifford's Fort, lieucontroversialist, but with the studied im tenant-governor of Edinburgh Castle, and partiality of the merely ethical student; deputy-adjutant to the forces under the and we conceive that we are making no Duke of York. Some years later he beunreasonable demand, if we ask the reader came deputy quartermaster general, and to approach it in the same spirit. about 1812 governor of the Royal Military College, which was first established temporarily at Marlow, and shortly afterwards removed to Sandhurst, at which place it was organized under his sole superintendence. We trust, then, that our meaning will not be mistaken, if we say of a man who was notorious as a convert to Romanism, that he stands before us as one of the most prominent secular figures which have illustrated, during the last half century, the religious life of England. We say secular figures, and we lay stress on the word, because it is mainly to the fact of h.s secular character that this prominence we attribute to Mr. Hope-Scott is due. Within the ranks of the clergy it is, of course, needless to say that there are many others of more importance than he, such as Pusey, Hurrell Froude, Charles Kingsley, and Cardinal Newman; but Mr. Hope-Scott differs from these in having been essentially an active man of the world; and amongst men of the world we can name no one whose life is marked so deeply and distinctly with the traces of the religious struggles and the religious aspirations of his epoch. In point of birth, he possessed what is perhaps the greatest advantage possible for a man of such powers as his. He came of a distinguished family, and he was not the heir to a fortune; and thus to the best qualities produced by a sense of It was during Sir Alexander's short residence at Marlow that his third son was born - James Robert Hope, afterwards Hope-Scott. He was a child of singular beauty, much of which he inherited from his mother, especially — as is narrated by one who had seen him in his childhood - "the entire blackness of his hair, and the depth of his dark eyes." But more characteristic even than the child's face itself, was the expression it wore at times. The same observer, who knew all the family well, has said that the looks' of none of them remained in after years in her mind so vividly as that of the little James at church, with "his eyes never lifted during the service, and his young head bent in reverential devotion." He was not sent to school till he was nearly eleven years of age, but one of the most valuable parts of his education be gan when he was between seven and eight. Sir Alexander at that time retired from his post at Sandhurst (though he resumed it subsequently at the Duke of York's re- | which are found as a rule only in the request), and removed with his family for matured man of the world; but he had two years to the Continent - for the first betrayed also, in his careless intercourse year to Dresden, and for the last to with his friends, such a quickness in ar Florence. During this period James de- gument, and such a fluency in speaking, veloped one talent at least a singular that he earned upon one occasion the talent as a linguist; and when at Florence name of "Jem the lawyer." he was delirious from typhus fever, he surprised his attendants, whether French, German, or Italian, by instinctively speaking to each in his or her own lauguage. Leaving Eton when he was about sixteen, he at once matriculated at Christ Church; but did not go into residence till some time later. He was something, as we have seen, of a man of the world already; and now, in the interval between school and college, the events of his life tended to make him more so. In com Lady Hampden, he went to Paris on a visit to the Duchesse de Gontaut, who was at that time honored with the care of the two royal children - the then heir to the throne, since called Henri Cinq (Comte de Chambord), and his sister Louise de Bourbon, afterwards Duchess of Parma. The Duchesse de Gontaut had private apartments in the Tuileries; and young Hope, who at once became her favorite, was constantly there received by her in company with her royal charges. Through her means he was presented at court, and became acquainted with the court circle; and there are some, we believe, still alive, who remember the sensation caused by the graceful boy from Scotland, in his antique court dress, and ruff -a costume now, as Mr. Ornsby says regretfully, known only in pictures and at the Vatican. Thus when the Etonian returned to England, and began his life at Oxford, he went to Christ Church as a freshman, with his memory enriched and with his manners polished by an experience, that now is no longer possible to any of us, of the last days of the an cien régime in France. Returning home the boy saw a new phase of life. He was taken with his family to Hopetoun House, and was present at an entertainment, in its own way memorable, which his uncle, Lord Hope-pany with his mother, and with his aunt, toun, gave to George IV. A few months later he was sent to a school near Durham; in the following year he was transferred to another, at Greenfield, with a special view to his being prepared for Eton; and in the year following that he entered Eton itself. In his Eton career, so far as his studies went, there was nothing very remarkable. He acquitted himself fairly well, but his scholarship was not brilliant; and just before he was leaving Eton for Christ Church his tutor, who was much attached to him, was forced to own reluctantly that his construing was inaccurate, and that his composition was in poor taste, and confused. But though in point of academic distinction he was far surpassed by many of his inferiors, not only were there signs even in his unsatisfactory scholarship, which showed, as his tutor said, that there was something out of the common in him; but in other points, apart from the merits of the schoolboy, he was already a distinguished, and even a commanding figure. "His first appearance," said his tutor, "won my heart; for added to great beauty of face and person, was remarkable sweetness of expression, and more than usual grace of His career at Christ Church began with manner. At the time of his entrance he a marked social success. His first year spoke Italian freely, and German with a at Eton had been a time of great misery peculiarly good accent; and even then to him; and the art of living with his evinced that niceness and correctness of schoolfellows he seems to have learnt but taste in matters of art, for which he was gradually. Before he left, however, he so conspicuous in after life." Nor was had become highly popular, and on enterthis all. Not only did he thus exhibit in ing Christ Church he was at once surhis boyhood the tastes and accomplish-rounded and welcomed by the most brilments, the charm and the self-possession, liant circle which that brilliant college could boast. Amongst his special friends, | merated the advantages attending the study of the following may be mentioned: James philosophy, and from thence proceeded to give Ramsay, subsequently Marquis of Dal- advice to those of his hearers who might early housie; James Bruce, subsequently Earl be called to the exercise of offices connected of Elgin; and the Hon. G. Canning, sub- with their own blessed Constitution; and told them very impressively that, unless they ap. sequently Lord Canning; all three of plied themselves to useful knowledge, the whom, by-and-by, were to be governors lower classes would get over their heads; in general of India; Sir Francis Hastings short, that the scouts would become gentleDoyle, afterwards professor of poetry at men commoners, and the bed-makers countOxford, and many others. There was esses, unless they could keep that start by another undergraduate whom Mr. Hope education which they had gained by rank and knew then but slightly, but with whom, affluence. He then proceeded to recommend eventually, he was to be memorably inti- a course of study, consisting of some hard mate. That undergraduate was Mr. Glad- Dutch authors, and wound up by a thorough stone. The foregoing were all Christ His language is very beautiful, and I take his knowledge of Blackstone's "Commentaries." Church men. We may add to their num- word for the philosophy being sound. ber a few from other colleges: Samuel Wood, a brother of the present Lord Halifax; Sidney Herbert, afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea; Sir Frederick Rog. ers, now Lord Blachford; and Roundell Palmer, now Earl of Selborne. Of what his own reading was during his first year at Christ Church, and how far he put in practice Mr. Mills's beautiful philosophy, there are no traces left us; and we think it highly probable that there Such was the society into which, in his were not many to leave. During the foleighteenth year, James Hope was lowing year, however, the case is differlaunched; and with a light heart he gave ent. Records then begin of a serious himself up to the pleasures of it. The course of study; and we have many evistrong religious feeling, which had dences, as Mr. Ornsby justly points out, marked him in his childhood, seems dur- that his deeper nature was slowly coming ing his Eton days to have sunk somewhat to the surface again. The world had satinto abeyance, and when he came to isfied him for little more than a year, and Christ Church to have no longer distin- he began to be conscious of wants and guished him. The delightful indepen- longings beyond and apart from anything dence of his own position, the possession that he had found it able to offer him. of his own rooms, and the excitement of Sir Francis Doyle describes this transihis success in society, not unnaturally tion as follows: "A change came over made the cup of life sparkle for him, and him, and he fell into a condition of gloomy his bright nature was for a time satisfied thought and self-introspection, the result with the succession of careless triumphs of which was that he separated himself a which the world so freely offered him. good deal from his acquaintances, and This state of happy exhilaration is vividly lived with only a few men. I was one expressed by him in his letters of that of these few; Charles Wordsworth, the date to his sister. "I know no luxury," Scotch bishop, was another; Mr. Leader, he writes to her, "equal to the indepen- the ci-devant member for Westminster, dence of 'one's own rooms,' except fall was a third; Robert Curzon, the late Lord ing asleep after dinner, and one or two de la Zouche, was perhaps a fourth; and other similar indulgences. I can abso- there may have been one or two more." lutely hardly sit still in them, but must Sir Francis goes on to observe "that this needs go pacing up and down, and sitting disquiet and dissatisfaction with life had on every chair in turn, to satisfy myself not at that time assumed a distinctly relithat I am actually lord and master." A gious character;" and there is evidence few weeks later, in the same buoyant collected by Mr. Ornsby which would spirit, not untouched with something of a have led us to the same conclusion. It mundane cynicism, he gives us the follow- was the spirit of the philosopher rather ing glimpse of his studies, and how he than the spirit of the Christian that was took to them: beginning to trouble his mind with its sad him face to face with the deeper problems and obstinate questionings, and bringing of existence. The following verses, which were found in one of his note-books, not only display considerable literary merit, but form a singular fragment of moral autobiography. Their subject is the real Mr. Mills [he writes] has been pounding away at the origin of ideas, sensations, impres sions, subjective and objective qualities, till he has thoroughly mystified all my undergraduate friends, who are, however, in general very much delighted with anything they can't understand. In his first public lecture he enu |