e
machinery was wound up, and the result was as I have described it.

I give one more instance of his ready wit and rapid power of rhyme. He
had been idle for a fortnight, and had written nothing for the "John
Bull" newspaper. The clerk, however, took him his salary as usual, and
on entering his room said, "Have you heard the news? the king and queen
of the Sandwich Islands are dead," (they had just died in England of the
small-pox.) "and," added the clerk, "we want something about
them."--"Instantly," cried Hook, "you shall have it:--

"'Waiter, two Sandwiches,' cried Death.
And their wild Majesties resigned their breath."

The "John Bull" was established at the close of the year 1820, and it is
said that Sir Walter Scott, having been consulted by some leader among
"high Tories," suggested Hook as the person precisely suited for the
required task. The avowed purpose of the publication was to extinguish
the party of the Queen,--Caroline, wife of George IV.; and in a reckless
and frightful spirit the work was done. She died, however, in 1821, and
persecution was arrested at her grave. Its projectors and proprietors
had counted on a weekly sale of seven hundred and fifty copies, and
prepared accordingly. By the sixth week it had reached a sale of ten
thousand, and became a valuable property to "all concerned." Of course,
there were many prosecutions for libels, damages and costs and
incarceration for breaches of privilege; but all search for actual
delinquents was vain. Suspicions were rife enough, but positive proofs
there were none.

Hook was of course In no way implicated in so scandalous and slanderous
a publication! On one occasion there appeared among the answers to
correspondents a paragraph purporting to be a reply from Mr. Theodore
Hook, "disavowing all connection with the paper." The gist of the
paragraph was this:--"Two things surprise us in this business: the
first, that anything we have thought worthy of giving to the public
should have been mistaken for Mr. Hook's; and secondly, that _such a
person as Mr. Hook_ should think himself disgraced by a connection with
'John Bull.'"

Even now, at this distance of time, few of the contributors are actually
known; among them were undoubtedly John Wilson Croker, and avowedly
Haynes Bayly, Barham, and Dr. Maginn.

In 1836, when I had resigned the "New Monthly" into the hands of Mr.
Hook, he proposed to me to take the sub-editorship and general literary