A man of considerable wealth, he devoted much of his life to improving the conditions of working-class people in his native city, mainly by providing education and encouraging abstinence from alcohol.

[5] Under the League's auspices, he organised and financed free evening classes for young working-class men and women who might not otherwise have had access to education, at a cost to himself of some £3,000 per year.

[2] In July 1851, he organised a huge rally in Holyrood Park which attracted about 20,000 children and 3,000 adults from all over Scotland to demonstrate their support for the temperance movement.

[10] Hope played an active role in the formation of the Scottish Reformation Society, which saw itself as "a defender of British and Protestant liberties from the threats of Rome".

[10] In 1851, he helped organise a series of public meetings and lectures in Edinburgh, addressed by the noted anti-Catholic preacher, John Cumming, and by the Irish-born writer and cleric, Richard Blakeney.

He argued for an extension of the franchise, but only for Protestants, declaring that Catholics were unfit to vote because "they were not qualified to rule, not being civilly or religiously free, but in subjection to priests, bishops, and Pope.

Although a Tory in his politics, he described himself as a "social reformer", actively supporting schemes for improving living and working conditions among the poor of the city.

Although his funeral was, at his request, kept private, a large number of people who were involved in his various religious and temperance organisations assembled in the churchyard to pay their respects.

In a celebrated legal action, the relatives alleged that he had suffered delusions, as demonstrated by his attitudes towards alcohol and the Roman Catholic church.

[3] The case was eventually settled out of court, with the relatives receiving a total of £15,000 and agreeing to withdraw the allegations they had made regarding Hope's sanity.