The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-25 00:00:00

THE PLEASURES OF HOPE.

The Hon. Cre•rles is not ti e only Hope deferred to
be fulfilled at last. His namesake, Lord Justice
General and President of the Court of Session in Scot-
laud, has resigned in favour of his own son with a haste
which, in its defiance of common decency, eloquently
proves how hard must have been the endurance, how
hot the impatience, through which the old gentleman
held out till the proper hour. Indeed, he had no I
agreeable task in thus resolutely biding his time.
Throughout the profession of the law, among the public
at large, in Parliament, wherever an interest was felt
in and a voice could be lifted on the subject, loud
were the complaints that one who had outlived the
faculty of exercising to the public benefit his important
duties (he had been on the Bench since 1804) should
persist in retaining his seat. The people imagined a
vain thing :—the louder the storm raged -against
him without, the firmer he clutched his mace, and
the more determinedly' did he hold out the fortress
of his family inturests,;- till Sir Robert should come
to his relief. Indeed, to give him his due, the old
man had much more blood in him than could have
been anticipated ; and' though he showed the im-
patience of age, and a decay of the ordinary phy-
sical powers, very detrimental to the public in the
routine duties of his laborious office, yet when
great public efforts were required—and there were
several such occasions latterly—he showed that his
intellect was still untouched, and the courage and
spirit of his early days unimpaired. Most coura-
geous
and most spirited, however, of all the acts of
his long public life, has been the manner in which
he has held out for the benefit of his '..an. Thus
have the Tories had, earlier we sue:pect than Sir
Robert Peel anticipated, re-est..:ultshed the good
old rule of hereditary successio'ir in Scotland. An offi-
cialsomewhat startled a Com-
who died the other day
eo.mations by an answer to a
mittee of the House,...:,
have you held your office ?"
que.tion—How,
" Ever since my father died." The
Promptly sav;:og,
'.:ach answers are returning.
days for
Prat it will be effectually objected to all this that
Mr. Hope, jun., does not succed his father, as we
here give reason to suppose. Quite true—the
method of managing the business is this. The
Court of Session consists of two divisions. The
Lord President presides over the first. The Lord
Justice Clerk, next to him in rank, presides over
the second. Mr. Boyle, who has been Justice Clerk,
is gazetted Lord President, and Mr. Hope, junior,
succeeds as Justice Clerk ; ergo, Mr. Hope does not
succeed his father ; Q. E. D. The defence, however,
the Lord precisely this. It is said that
come ord President had made up his
hitherto
what taken
might up,
h
mind to resign in the month of September 1841—no
sooner and no later ; and he was not to change his
mind because Sir Robert Peel came into power. " Why
do you laugh when I punt" was the question put by
the irritated man to the satirist he saw evidently sneer-
ing at him. " Why do
you pun when I laugh ?" was
the rejoinder. " Why did you hold out just till the
Whigs resigued ?" say the public. "Why did the
Whigs hold out just till 1 was going to resign ?" is the
answer of the friends of Hope. It is, indeed, a very
wonderful coincidence.—.E.raininer.

ssiicle 1113 to
oorf
t'.(l.:liseeciocnoouri-elialdw
tCootthne-
.
Royal College of Surgeons, in the Medical Gazette, con-
ut.illioc
A letter from Mr. Guthrie, the
the
Secretary of State for the Hume Department that no
capital operations in surgery
vinelysssiotlitieurfsolL%inlgviiiiiiinfogriymeautincssetiQ"
is not duly qualified to act as a physician and surgeon,
or as a surgeon and apothecary, and they have acceded
person shall be employed in charge of
to their being paid in a fair and reasonable manner, the
competition by tenders being abolished. They have also
agreed to pay liberally for
and for serious accidents ; and .1 believe 1 may say
they
will allow half a guinea for every case of midwifery in
which the assistance of a medical man is necessary, and
two guineas for every case of really difficult labour in
which the attendance of the surgeon is protracted:,
SINGULAR FAcr.—A few days ago, a woman
residing in the village of Stevenston, who had for some
time been affected with : severe swelling in the thigh,
applied to Dr. Brown,of -Saltcoats, in order, to get the
pans alleviated. After minutely examining the 3 wollen
part, the doctor comas:lice& to operate, and ..succeeded,
after
considerable labour in-extracting a sewing neidle,
about an inch and a half long, which the, patient had
swallowed nearly 30 years C ago.—_alcdoniun Mercury.