 Cape in the meantime had opened a private school at Paddington, which was carried on until 1856 when he retired.In 1859 Cape was elected a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Wollombi, and interested himself in the educational life of the colony as a commissioner of national education, a fellow of St Paul's College of the University of Sydney, and in connexion with the Sydney School of Arts.He visited England in 1855 and was again in England 1860–1863.