HONE, William (1780–1812), a political satirist and a writer on antiquarian and miscellaneous subjects, was bom at Bath, June 3, 1780. His father, a man of deep spiritual experience in that time of religious revival, brought up his children in strictness and reverence, but not without the sectarian narrowness that so frequently produces reac tion. The parodist of the litany aud of the Athanasian cieed was taught to read from the Bible only. Hone received no systematic education. His father having removed to London in 1783, he was in 1790 placed in an attorney s office. Becoming connected with the London Correspond ing Society, which was given to freethought and to political agitation, he was removed by his father to the office of a solicitor at Chatham, but after two years and a half he returned to London and became clerk to a solicitor in Gray s Inn. Having no liking for the study of the law, and apparently no hope of succeeding in it, Hone, being then married, started in 1 800 a book and print shop and a circu lating library in Lambeth Walk, and he soon after removed to St Martin s Churchyard, where he brought out his first publication, Shaw s Gardener, and suffered much loss from a fire. It was at this time that Hone matured and with a friend endeavoured to realize a plan for the establishment of popular savings banks, and even had an interview on the subject with the Right Hon. George Rose, then presi dent of the Board of Trade. This scheme, however, fell through from lack of support. His partner in the savings bank became next his partner in a bookseller s business ; but Hone s habits were not those of a tradesman, and bankruptcy wa< the result. After several removals, having compiled an index to Lord Berner s translation of Froissart, he was in 1811 chosen by the booksellers as auctioneer to the trade, and had an office in Ivy Lane. Independent investigations carried on by him into the con dition of lunatic asylums led again to difficulties and failure, but, struggling bravely under his burdens, he took a small lodging in the Old Bailey, and kept himself and his now large family by contributions to magazines and reviews. H j hired a small shop (or rather box) in Fleet Street, but this was on two separate nights broken into, and valuable books lent for show were stolen. In 1815 he started the Traveller newspaper, and endeavoured vainly to exculpate Eliza Fenning, a poor girl, apparently quite guiltless, executed on a charge of poisoning. From February 1 to Oclober 25, 1817, he published the Reformist s Register, writing in it as the serious critic of the state abuses, to which ho soon after applied the lash of satire in those political squibs and parodies that made his name known throughout the land, and that first gave notoriety to George Cruikshank, who was his artistic collaborator. In April 1817 three ex officio informations were filed against him by the attorney-general, Sir Villiam Garrow, and he was seized while reading in the street and hurried to the lock-up. Three separate trials took place in the Guildhall before special juries on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of December 1817. The first, for publishing Wilkes s Catechism of a Ministerial Member, was before Mr Justice Abbot (after wards Lord Tenterdeu) ; the second, for parodying the litany and_ libelling the prince regent, and the third, for pub lishing the Sinecurisfs Creed, a parody on the Athanasian creed, were before Lord Ellenborough. The prosecuting officials, among whom we must include the judges, took the ground that the prints were calculated to injure public morals, and to bring the prayer-book and even religion itself into contempt. But there can be no doubt that the real motives of the prosecution were poliiical ; Hone had ridiculed the habits and exposed the corruption of the prince regent and of other persons in power. He went to the root of the matter when he wished the jury " to understand that, had he been a publisher of ministerial parodies, he would not then have been defending himself on the floor of that court." In spite of illness and exhaustion Hone displayed great coinage, ability, dignity, and presence of mind. On each of the three days he spoke on an average seven hours. Notwithstanding the powerful prosecution and the bias of the judges, he was acquitted on each count, and the result on each occasion was received with enthusiastic cheers by immense crowds within and without the court. Soon after the trials a public meet ing, in which Alderman Waithman, Sir F. Burdett, and Lord Cochrane took part, was held, and a subscription was begun, by which a large sum was soon collected to enable Hone to get over the difficulties caused by his prosecution.
Hone s most successful political satires were published within a few years after his trial. Among them we may mention The Political House that Jack built, The Queen s Matrimonial Ladder (in favour of Queen Caroline), The Man in the Moon, The Political Showman, all illustrated by Cruikshank. Many of his squibs are directed against a certain " Dr Slop," a nickname given by him to Dr (afterwards Sir John) Stoddart, a writer in the Times. In researches for his defence he had come upon some curious and at that time little trodden literary ground, and the results were shown by his publication in 1820 of his Apocryphal New Testament, and in 1823 of his Ancient Mysteries Explained. He proposed in 1820 to write a History of Parody, but this never appeared. In 1820 he published the Every-day Boole, in 1827-8 the Table-Book, and in 1829 the Year-Book; all three were collections of curious information on manners, antiquities, and various other subjects.[1] These are the works by which Hone is best remembered. In preparing them he had the warm approval of Southey and the assistance of Charles Lurnb, but pecuniarily they were not successful, and Hone was lodged in King s Bench prison for debt. Friends, how ever, again came to his assistance, and he was established in a coffee-house in Gracechurch Street; but this again, like most of his enterprises, ended in failure. Hone s attitude of mind had gradually changed to that of ex treme devoutness, and during the latter years of his life he frequently preached in W 7 eigh House Chapel, Eastcheap. In 1830 he edited Strutt s Sports and Pastimes, and, on the starting in 1832 of the Penny Magazine, he contributed to the first number. He was also for some years sub-editor of the Patriot. He died at Tottenham, 8th November 1842.
- ↑ According to a recent writer in Notes and Queries (6th S. i. 171), Hone remarked in conversation that he took the idea of the Everyday Book in 1814 from Defoe s Times Telcscvpc.
