y the way,
Michael's dinner! Michael's dinner!"

Alluding to a dinner-party which kept several Members from the House on
the occasion of an important division.

Among his political songs may be reckoned "The Invitation" (from one of
the Whig patronesses of the Lady's Fancy Dress Ball,)

"Come, ladies, come, 'tis now the time for capering,
Freedom's flag at Willis's is just unfurled,
We, with French dances, will overcome French vapouring,
And with ice and Roman punch amaze the world;
There's I myself, and Lady L----, you'll seldom meet a rummer set,
With Lady Grosvenor, Lady Foley, and her Grace of Somerset,
While Lady Jersey fags herself, regardless of the bustle, ma'am,
With Lady Cowper, Lady Anne, and Lady William Russell, ma'am.
Come, ladies, come, &c."

There is a sort of polite social satire running through Theodore Hook's
works, but it does not exhibit any great inventive powers. In
"Byroniana," he ridicules the gossiping books written after Byron's
death, pretending to give the minutest accounts of his habits and
occasional observations--and generally omitting the names of their
authority. Thus Hook tells us in a serio-comic tone:--

"He had a strong antipathy to pork when underdone or stale, and
nothing could induce him to partake of fish which had been caught
more than ten days--indeed, he had a singular dislike even to the
smell of it. He told me one night that ---- told ---- that if ----
would only ---- him ---- she would ---- without any compunction:
for her ----, who though an excellent man, was no ----, but that
she never ----, and this she told ---- and ---- as well as Lady
---- herself. Byron told me this in confidence, and I may be blamed
for repeating it; but ---- can corroborate it; if it happens not to
be gone to ----"

The following written against an old-fashioned gentleman, Mr. Brown, who
objects to the improvements of the age, is interesting. It is amusing
now to read an ironical defence of steam, intended to ridicule the
pretensions of its advocates.

"Mr. Brown sneers at steam and growls at gas. I contend that the
utility of constructing a coach which shall go by hot water, nearly
as fast as two horses can draw it at a trifling additional expense,
promises to be wonderfully useful. We go too fast, Sir, with
horses; besides, horses eat oats, and farmers live by selling oats;
if, therefor