THEODORE EDWARD HOOK, one of the great “wits” of the times of the Georges, left little that belongs to permanent literature. His celebrity rests largely on his “improvisations,” but in his essays, sketches, and novels there are frequent flashes of the brilliancy which made him such a favorite at court that he was appointed Governor of Mauritius, where he remained from 1812 to 1817. As a result of a defalcation for which he may not have been responsible, he was recalled to England and imprisoned. Some of his best work was done in jail; and he would have been fortunate had he remained there, as on his release he spent the rest of his life largely in the attempt to work all day and drink all night,—dying as a result of it, August 24th, 1841, “done up in purse, in mind, and in body too,” as he said of himself just before his death. It is said that he is the original of Thackeray’s “Mr. Wagg.”