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

THE PLEASURES OF HOPE.

The Hon. Charles is not V e only Hope deferred to
be fulfilled at last. His namesake, Lord Justice
General and President of the Court of Session in Scot-
land, 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
agreeable task in thus resolutely biding his fme.
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 compl iints 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 scat. 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 intorest,, 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 son. Thus
have the Tories had, earlier we suspect than Sir
Robert Peel anticipated, re-established the good
old rule of hereditary succession in Scotland. An offi-
cial who died the other day, somewhat startled a Com-
mittee of the House of Commons by an answer to a
question—How long have you held your office
Promptly saying, " Ever since my father died." The
days for such answers are returning.
But it will be effectuany 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. L'oyie, 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,
hitherto taken up, is nit precisely this. It is said that
come what might the Lord President had made up his
mind to resign in the month of September 1841—no
sooner and no later; and he was net to change his
mind because Sir Robert Peel came into power. " WI)S'
do you laugh when I pun ?" 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 ?' wastle
W i
the rejoinder. " Why did you hold out just till
th e
Whigs resigned ?" say the public. " Why ,di
~ d. the
Whigs hold out just 01 I was going to resign
"
answer of the friends of Hope. It is, indeed, a very
wonderful coincidence.—Examiner.
ng—Work-
Ntrtiv Courts for
metl:HarEe
now
COURTSactively
the sittings of the two new ice-ChuJustice
Act,
for expediting
- CHANCERY
.c„-t
under the Administration of
__!leery. The site se-
the business of the Court of
Inn, at the back of the
Lincoln':
leered is 01d square,
Lord Chancellor's Court.
LORD AND LADY HOLLAND
CONVERSION OF
TO THE CATHOLIC „
e rejoice to announce the
conversion o
f Lord and Lady Holland to the (Roman)
gratifying event took"
Catholic faith, which_place in
Rome the latter end of last month. In connection with
such a circumstance, it is highly interesting, that the
.. intelligence, has been brought by ayoung English gentle-
man, who went “oroaa a .erotestant layman, and returns
a Catholic priest.—Cork Examiner.