legal career had been hindered by his marriage to Jane, Hogg hoped to receive a legal appointment from a politically connected acquaintance. This was not an immediate option because the Whig party was in opposition, but in the summer of 1827 Henry Brougham promised Hogg a future position as a professor of civil law at the newly created University College London. Hogg embarked on a course of study in preparation, but the professorship was not established owing to a lack of funds. This setback upset Hogg greatly, and he became very bitter about it. A lecture that he had intended to give at his inauguration was published in 1831. Hogg had also hoped that his friend Thomas Love Peacock, who worked for the East India Company, would recommend him for a position there. To Hogg's dismay Peacock would not help him, although several years later Peacock did help Hogg's stepson gain employment with the company. Hogg published Shelley at Oxford, an account of his memories of Shelley in The New Monthly Magazine in 1833. The article was heavily edited after its submission, which irritated him greatly. The editing was effective however, and many reviewers were very impressed by the finished product. He also contributed articles to the Edinburgh Review. One notable article was a review of the first volume of Barthold Georg Niebuhr's Römische Geschichte. The editor of the Edinburgh Review, Macvey Napier, chose another writer to review the second volume, which infuriated Hogg. Henry Brougham became Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom after a Whig election victory. In 1833 he appointed Hogg to a lucrative position on the royal commission to examine the municipal corporations. Hogg became a fierce critic of the resulting Municipal Corporations Act 1835; he preferred a more deliberate and less ideological approach than most of his fellow commission members, and was considered by many to be an unusually conservative Whig. His commission work required him to be away from home for an extended period, which proved to be very difficult for Jane. She knew that Hogg was free to abandon her at any time because they were not legally married. After receiving his appointment, Hogg finally visited Norton House after a seven-year absence, but his family had not altered their opinion of his relationship with Jane. After his service on the commission ended, Hogg resumed practising law in Northern England, where his brother John had