precautions which had been observed, that the attempt proved fruitless, and the inquiry fell to the ground; and Theodore Hook, after a temporary visit to the country, returned unmolested, and more famous than ever, to his usual occupations.

ready for the reception of as many "happy | tradesmen and others, who had suffered in pairs," came dashing up to the spot. Med-person or in purse, took active measures ical men with instruments for the amputa- towards bringing the charge home to the tion of limbs, attorneys prepared to cut off principal offender, who was pretty generentails, clergymen summoned to minister ally suspected. Such, however, were the to the mind, and artists engaged to portray the features of the body, unable to draw near in vehicles, plunged manfully into the mob. Noon came, and with it about forty fishmongers, bearing forty cod and lobsters, as many butchers with an equal number of legs of mutton, and as the confusion reached its height, and the uproar became terrific, and the consternation of the poor old lady grew to be bordering on temporary insanity, up drove the great lord mayor himself, with state carriage, cocked hats, silk stockings, bag-wigs and all, to the intense gratification of Hook and his two associates, who, snugly ensconced in an apartment opposite, were witnessing the triumph of their scheme.

All this, perhaps, was comparatively commonplace, and within the range of a mediocre joker of jokes. There were features, however, in the Berners Street hoax, independently of its originality, which distinguished it for wit and méchanceté far above any of the numberless imitations to which it gave rise. Every family, it is said, has its secret - some point tender to the touch, some circumstance desirable to be suppressed; according to the proverb, "there is a skeleton in every house," and as a matter of course the more eminent and conspicuous the master of the house, the more busy are men's tongues with his private affairs, and the more likely are they to get scent of any concealed subject of annoyance. Completely familiar with Lon

Not content with his success as a dramatist, Hook essayed the role of the novelist, and about the time of his majority produced "The Man of Sorrow." It was published under the pseudonym of Alfred Allendale, and failed to attract attention. The hero was represented as being the sport of fortune from his birth. The work was crude and full of faults. Thomas Moore was sketched under the character of Mr. Minus, and Sir Joseph Banks under that of Sir Joseph Jonquil. The novel contained a clever epigram on the celebrated duel between Moore and Jeffrey, which has frequently been attributed to the authors of the "Rejected Addresses." The epigram was as follows: When Anacreon would fight, as the poets

have said,

Such a salvo he should not abuse,

blank,

Which is fired away at Reviews.

don gossip, and by no means scrupulous in For the cartridge, by rule, is always made the use of any information he might possess, Hook addressed a variety of persons of consideration, taking care to introduce allusion to some peculiar point sure of attracting attention, and invariably closing with an invitation to No. 54 Berners Street. Certain revelations to be made respecting a complicated system of fraud pursued at the Bank of England brought the governor of that establishment, a similar device was employed to allure the chairman of the East India Company, while the Duke of

Hook went into residence for a time at St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. He was as full of his pranks as ever at the University, and when he went up for his matriculation, scandalized the vicechancellor by replying to the questions whether he was prepared to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles, “Oh, certainly, sir, forty if you please." After two terms, Hook managed to leave Oxford without censure, but also, it is to be feared, without honor or wisdom. The consequences of this affair threatened At this time the wit is described as to be serious, as many of the beguiled" a slim youth of fine figure, his head

Gloucester started off with his equerry to

receive a communication from a dying

woman, formerly a confidential attendant

on his Royal Highness's mother.

covered with black, clustering curls." | am sorry to say they think there's These curls he lost as he grew older, something wrong with the chest."

but his eloquent eye, rich and mellow In January, 1819, he was summoned voice, joyous smile, and expressive to appear before the Board of Colonial play of feature, remained to the last. Audit. A searching examination took Hook was elected a member of the place, and in 1821 a report was drawn "Eccentrics " on the same night as up showing a balance against him of Sheridan, Lord Petersham, and others. £12,885. There was nothing to couHe soon became intimate with his dis- nect Hook with the appropriation of tinguished associates, and through the the money; and however irregular and agency of the Marchioness of Hertford improper his conduct had been, a crimhe was presented to the prince regent.inal prosecution could not be sustained. Politically, Hook was a high Tory, and But he was arrested for debt, and cona somewhat bigoted one. He and the fined first in a sponging-house near Rev. Edward Cannon, a sharp-tongued Temple Bar, and afterwards in the chaplain of the prince, had many an King's Bench. As the result of an encounter of wits together. Cannon appeal which Hook addressed to the lost all his aristocratic friends and pa- Earl of Liverpool, further inquiry was trons through his acerbity, which ex-made into his case, and in May, 1825, tended even to ladies, including Mrs. the attachment was removed from his Fitzherbert. person, and he was set at liberty, but In 1813, Hook, who was impecunious with the distinct declaration that he and in debt, was lucky enough to se- was "in no degree exonerated from his cure the appointment of accountant-liability to the debt, if he should heregeneral and treasurer at the Mauritius, after have the means of discharging worth about £2,000 per annum. He it." From a portion of his indebtedwent out, and found plenty of society ness he was subsequently relieved, and amusement in the island, which owing to favorable testimony being he described to Mathews as "this para- forthcoming on his behalf, but as redise, and not without angels." With Governor Farquhar, Hook got on well, but in the year 1817 the former was compelled to return to England in consequence of ill-health, and his place was taken by Major-General Hall, mar-real delinquent. tinet and a severe administrator, who Undeterred by his difficulties, Hook soon became unpopular throughout the presented a cheerful front to the world, colony. He was as unfriendly towards and was well received by many friends, Hook, whom he did not understand, as including John Wilson Croker, General his predecessor was indulgent. An in- Phipps, and Lord Canterbury. Hook quiry into the state of the treasury figured with Lord Canterbury in the chest revealed that there was a great H. B. sketches. On being released deficit, and Hook was arrested and from the King's Bench, the humorist ordered home by the governor under a established himself in a comfortable charge of defalcation. Every article house at Putney. He threw off a jeu he possessed was sold, the total amount d'esprit entitled "Tentamen, or an realized being £3,407, and he was sent Essay towards the History of Whittingon board, deprived of every comfort, ton, some time Lord Mayor of London, and almost without the necessaries by Dr. Vicesimus Blenkinsop." It or decencies of life. After a rough was really an attack on Alderman passage he reached England. At St. Wood, and it speedily ran through sevHelena he met Lord Charles Somerset, eral editions. Next, in conjunction who said to him, "I hope you are not with his friend Daniel Terry, he going home for your health, Mr. started a periodical called the ArcaHook?" "Well," said Theodore, "Idian, the name being suggested by the

gards the remainder, he was unable to shake it off to the last. The question of the deficit, in some of its aspects, still remains shrouded in mystery, aud Hook always denied that he was the

Burlington Arcade. Only two numbers | political libels; Mrs. Ramsbottom sucof this vehicle of light satire were pro- ceeded to Mrs. Muggins, and Hook duced, and the printer had great dif- abandoned himself to the full flow of ficulty in obtaining "copy" for those. his natural humor. Up to the time of Hook now returned to the drama, and his death Hook received a fixed salary produced the favorite stockpiece," as editor of the paper, but the propri· Exchange no Robbery," whose copy- etorship early passed into other hands. right he sold for £60. In 1824, Hook published the first The most important event in Hook's series of his collection of tales entitled literary career, however, was the estab-" Sayings and Doings." They were lishment of the John Bull newspaper unquestionably brilliant, but when his at the close of 1820. It was a staunch | biographer asserts that they "placed Tory sheet, and one of Hook's main him at once in the highest rank of the objects as editor was the extinction novelists" he asks too much to be of the Brandenburgh House party. It reasonably granted. It requires somesoon became a most formidable antag- thing more than Hook possessed to the onist to the queen. Hook brought all making of a great novelist. However, his sarcastic wit and fiery and unscru- the success of the tales was well warpulous zeal to bear against causes to ranted by their decided cleverness. which he was opposed, and there was the first three volumes no fewer than quickly a great demand for the paper. six thousand copies were sold; and in Hook had made application to his old addition to the original sum of £600 publisher, Miller, to take the pecu- paid for the copyright, Colburn, on niary risk; but Miller, knowing his completing the purchase of the second man, entertained strong opinions on series for one thousand guineas, very the question of "fine and imprison- handsomely presented the author with ment," so, as Hook said, all argu- a cheque for £150, to which he subsements with him proved Newgate-ory, quently added another for £200. In and a new printer named Shackell 1829 the third series was published, for which also Hook received one thousand guineas. Some of the tales in "Sayings and Doings are witty, and others are painfully realistic in their delineation of human passions.

was found. In six weeks the sale of John Bull was a thousand, while the first five numbers had been frequently reprinted. Various actions for libel arose out of Hook's trenchant but sometimes truculent articles, and in May, 1821, the Whigs made a determined effort to crush the paper. Proceedings were instituted for a libel on the Hon. Henry Grey Bennett, a brother of Lord Tankerville; but Hook was as wily as he was witty, and no legal "discovery" could be made of the editor or the real authors of the libel. By impudently repudiating all connection with himself in his own paper, Hook escaped, and the journal went on with unabated audacity. After the death of the queen, the tone and temper of the John Bull changed, but its editor still continued to fasten upon Joseph Hume, whom he continually held up to ridicule. But except as regards Hume and a few others, the lampoonist became moderately quiet. Samuel Rogers's puns took the place of

Of

To the "Christmas Box," an annual for children, Hook contributed some amusing verses against the practice of punning. Entick's Dictionary, by publishing "a table of words that are alike, or nearly alike in sound, but different in spelling and signification," had given distinct provocation to the evil of punning:

For instance, ale may make you ail, your
aunt an ant may kill;
You in a vale may buy a veil, and Bill may
pay the bill.

Or if to France your bark you steer, at
A peer appears upon the pier, who, blind,
Dover, it may be,
still goes to sea.

Thus one might say when to a treat good
friends accept our greeting,
meet that men who meet to eat should

'Tis

eat their meat when meeting.

Brawn on the board's no bore indeed, al- | satirized the humors of the Mansion

though from boar prepared ; Nor can the fowl, on which we feed, foul feeding be declared.

House, when a rough, uncouth tradesman could be hob-and-nob with a prince of the blood on the 9th of November, and descend into an ungrammatical and vulgar obscurity on the 10th. Occasionally, the author had a really tender touch, as when he described the anguish of his hero, Gilbert Gurney, upon the death of his idolizing but misprized mother.

And so on, through a great number of stanzas. "Maxwell, one of Hook's best novels, and the most perfect as regards plot, was published in 1830. It was succeeded three years later by "The Parson's Daughter" and "Love and Pride," both in three volumes. The writer alternated his novels with How true it is [exclaims Gurney] that the "Memoirs of Kelly," the actor, when those we have adored are goneand his "Life of Sir David Baird,' when those lips we have loved are sealed in works of real merit, and still the only silence, and can no longer speak a pardon biographical records we possess of for our indiscretions or omissions-we those well-known men. In 1836, Hook reproach ourselves with inattentions and became editor of the New Monthly unkindnesses, which at the time they were Magazine, at a salary of £400 per an- committed would, perhaps, have been matnum, exclusive of the sums to be paid ters of indifference or even jest. for original contributions. Here he began the issue of his very popular novel, "Gilbert Gurney." This story contains many of the author's own adventures, and it is full of the most uproarious fun.

It would be a great mistake, nevertheless, to suppose that this humorous writer never had a serious purpose. Even in this most rollicking of books, "Gilbert Gurney,” we find him playing the part of a social reformer. His scathing and painful denunciation of the abuses of the Old Bailey in the olden times remains indelibly fixed upon the memory. He shows us how judges delivered scandalously unjust charges, frequently jumbling up the evidence of witnesses for the prosecution and the defence together; while the juries had a regular system of finding prisoners guilty or not guilty by rotation. The consequence was that innocent persons were sometimes sent into penal servitude for offences which they never committed, and the most perjured villains escaped punishment altogether. It is matter for rejoicing that this travesty of justice in criminal trials is now a thing of the past. The Old Bailey has been purged, and it possesses at this day a very different appearance and a very different character from what it did in the early part of this century. Hook also admirably

In 1836 appeared Hook's novel, "Jack Brag." As the name implies, the hero was a vulgar, vain, and impudent fellow, whose delight it was to be a hanger-on of shady members of the aristocracy. His rise and fall afford room for curious reflections. This story was succeeded by one with the curious newspaper title of "Births, Marriages, and Deaths." In spite of its curious title, it was a novel with an ambitious aim, but it is not to be met with now. Precepts and Practice," which was the last of its author's efforts, was published in 1840. Hook has been compared with Dickens, but the points of difference are far greater than the points of resemblance, and Dickens is far superior to his brother humorist both in originality and minute study of character.

Hook's early pecuniary success led him to give up the house at Putney in 1827, and to take a large and fashionable mansion in Cleveland Row. Dazzled by what he regarded as his brilliant prospects, he was lavish in his hospitality and his modes of life generally, and disastrous consequences ensued. Becoming embarrassed, he fell into the meshes of usurers and bill discounters. Yet his society was cagerly sought after in fashionable circles, and he was a member of the Athenæum, Crockford's, and the Carlton.