Soon afterwards however a man of the name of Allan, who was iu the treasury department, made a declaration that he knew and had long known that there was a deficiency of 37,000 dollars. Further examina tions took place, more deficiencies were discovered, and the result was that Hook was arrested on the 9th of March 1818; all his property was seized, and ho was sent back to England in custody. The ship reached Portsmouth in Jannary 1819, and the documents were sub mitted to the law-officers of the crown. The attorney.general's report was, that though Hook might be liable to a civil prosecution for debt, there was no apparent ground for a criminal prosecution, and he was set at liberty with only two gold mohurs in his pocket. He took a small cottage In Somers Town, and formed connections with news papers and magazines, by which he was enabled to supply himself with the present means of subsistence. He lived in obscurity, and was known only to a few of his old associates, such as Matthews, Terry, Tom MIL In 1820 Sir Walter Scott was in Londou, and, dining one day with his old friend Terry, suet there Matthews, and, for the first time, Hook. The inquiry into Hook's defalcation was still before the audit-board, and the proceedings were represented to Scott as a cruel persecution ; he was much pleased with Hook's conversational powers; they were both staunch Tories ; and Scott baying soon afterwards been applied to by a nobleman of influence to recommend an editor for a provincial news paper, ho named Hoak. Hook however was not destined for provincial celebrity. The 'John Bull' newspaper was established, with Hook for its editor. The career of the 'John Bull' is well known; its attacks upon Queen Caroline and her supporters, its virulence, its personalities, and the talent which raised its circulation to so great a height. Hook, in its prosperous state, received full 2000/. a year from it; aud though its circulation gradually diminished, he derived a considerable profit from it up to the time of his death. Meantime the Whigs took care that the inquiry before the audit-board should not be dropped ; and the result was, that at first the balance found against him was 20,0001., which on further investigation was reduced to 15,0001., and at last the extent was issued for 12,0001. Hook admitted at an early date that the deficiency was 9000/., but afterwards asserted that a strict scrutiny would have struck off 3000/. from that sum. There is no proof of actual peculation on the part of Hook ; but there is proof that he himself and his officers kept the treasury books with the most culpable and scandalous carelessness, and that the keys of the treasure.chest were frequently left with underlings while he was absent ou pleasure excursions. In August 1823 he was arrested under a writ of Exche quer, his property was sold, and realised about forty pounds, aud ho was taken to a spuuging-house in Shire-lane, Fleet-street, where he remained till April 1824, whence he was transferred to the Rules of the King's Bench, and be remained there till May 1825, when he was released from custody, but with an iutimation that the crown aban doned nothing of its claim for the debt. He then took a cottage at Putney.
Hook published his first series of 'Sayings and Doings' in February 1824, while confined in the spunging-house, and his diary records the profit to have been 2000/, and he realised sums almost as large by the novels and other works which he published in rapid succession after wards. The following is a list of the whole of them Sayings and Doings,' First Series, 3 vole., 1824; Second Series, 3 vole., 1S25 ; Third Series, 3 vols., 1828; 3 vols,, 1830; Life of Sir David Baird,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1S32; Parson's Daughter,' 3 vole., 1833; Love and Pride,' 3 vols., 1833 ; 'Gilbert Gurney,' 3 vols., 1835 ; 'Jack Brag,' 3 vole., 1837; 'Births, Deaths, and Marriages,' 3 vols., 1839 ; ' Gurney Married,' 3 vols., 1839 ; 'Precepts and Practice,' 3 vole.,
1840; 'Fathers and Sons,' 3 vols., 1840; 'Peregrine Bunco,' 3 vols., 1841; some months after his death. In 1836 he became editor of the New Monthly Magazine,' and Gilbert Gurney," Gurney Married,' 'Precepts and Practice,' and 'Fathers and Sons,' were originally pub lished in periodical portions in that work. lie also wrote 'Kelly's Reminiscences,' from Kelly's notes, in 1836, without remuneration, and merely out of kindness to his old friend.
While residing at Putney he gradually mixed more and more freely in society ; and in 1827 took a house in Cleveland Row, St. James's, which has since been the residence of a wealthy nobleman ; he became a member of divers first-rate clubs, received invitations from persons of tho highest distinction, in town and, country, and ran himself rapidly and deeply into debt, notwithstanding the largo sums which he obtained by his literary labours. By his ambitious and criminal extravagance, which he supplied at a ruiuous expense of labour of mind and body, his constitution, excellent as it was originally, was completely broken up. In July 1841, when dining at Brompton, he was observed to be unwell, and as he stood with the coffee in his hand, turned suddenly to the mirror, and said, "Ay, I see 1 look as I am ; done up in puree, in mind, and in body too at last." From that time he was confined to his house. About the middle of August he requested the Rev. Mr. Gleig, chaplain of Chelsea Hospital, who was an old acquaintance, but had never been at his house, to pay him a visit. He did so, and being known to the servant as a clergyman, was admitted without announcement. Hook was somewhat confused at being caught in dishabille, but after a moment's pause observed, "Well, you see me as I am at last—all the bucklings and paddings, and washings, and brushings,. dropt for ever—a poor old grey-headed man, with my belly about my knees." He had latterly been much made-up. He died August 24, 1841, in the fifty third year of his age. His novel of 'Gilbert Gurney' contains a sort of autobiography of himself.
While living at Somers Town he had become acquainted with a young woman, and by her he had six children : sho was respectable, and ho always behaved well to her, but ho bad not the moral courage to marry her, though, according to his diary, he had sometimes thoughts of doing so. A few huudred pounds were subscribed for her and the children after Hook's death. He was a good-natured man, and willing to do acts of kindness, but Le had no moral principle sufficiently strong to restrain the impulses of the moment.
Hook's conversational power was greater than his power as a writer. He was an admirable narrator, abounded in smart sayings, which, if not of the highest quality of wit and humour, were so said as to appear the best things ever uttered, and he could intermix serious remarks full of good sense and derived from a wide observation of life. His novels am not of a high order; they contain indeed excellent descriptions of the various forms of life with which he had been conversant, rapid but striking sketches of character, and laugh able extravagances, conveyed in a clear, fluent, and often picturesque style. He was well calculated for a popular writer, but is not likely to continue popular long. His novels will shortly share the fate of his dramatic pieces, and be forgotten. Ills satirical poems are little better than doggrel, and the potato, now that the circumstances which gave rise to them have passed away, seem very blunt indeed: his power in these poems was generally In the coarseness of his invectives, not in satirical wit, of which indeed he had little, and that of inferior quality.
(Quarterly Review, May 1842, an entertaining and instructive article, written in a fair spirit, by one who kuew Hook well, reprinted In Murray's Railway Reading; and Life and Remains of Theodore Hook, by the Item It. H. Barham.)