john hoppus's lectures at ucl earned the institution high acclaim. described as "thorough and exhaustive" they covered rené descartes, nicolas malebranche, baruch spinoza, gottfried leibniz, johann gottlieb fichte, john locke, christian wolff, friedrich wilhelm joseph schelling, immanuel kant and post-kantian idealists, and the ethical systems of ralph cudworth, thomas hobbes, bernard mandeville, clarke, price, butler, jeremy bentham and james mill. several of his students went on to earn great distinction, including william sheen (m.a. medalist in 1842), and walter bagehot (medalist in 1848), richard holt hutton (medalist in 1849), and john clifford(class prize, history of philosophy, 1868).