HOOK, WALTER F. 



HOOPEK, SAMUEL. 



387 



has been unfortunate in its endeavors to pro- 

 cure funds to carry on the work. The Gov- 

 ernment, however, " continues to uphold the 

 company, in the hope that it will yet be suc- 

 cessful in its negotiations." Some 1,000 tons 

 of railway-iron at Amapala were sold to San 

 Francisco, and the proceeds were to be appro- 

 priated to the defrayal of the expenses of com- 

 pleting the third section of the line. 



It should here be mentioned that even the 

 British and French bondholders themselves 

 concurred in the suspicion that of the total 

 amount of the last two loans (say somewhat 

 less than $5,000,000) but a very small pro- 

 portion really reached the country for which 

 the loans were contracted. 



' The worst of it is (observes a recent writer) that 

 nobody can tell where the money loaned has gone to. 

 Experience and unbiased inquiry lead to the almost 

 certainty in this case that the ready money these 

 countries expect to handle for the realization of 

 schemes offered as a paying speculation, is pretty 

 well absorbed by the knowing ones in the loaning 

 country before much of it reaches the foreign field 

 of operations for which it is intended. There is a 

 strong conviction that Honduras has been victimized 

 in this way. Of course, the innocent shareholders 

 and principal sufferers loaned their money with no 

 such intention; but spit is, and so it will be, until 

 more caution is exercised on both sides. The sug- 

 gestion that Honduras ought to have a railroad, and 

 an interoceanic one, too, originated, not with herself, 

 but with people outside of the country, who deemed 

 the speculation a good and a taking one. It did take, 

 and the speeches made at the different meetings in 

 London, with the glowing terms in which the coun- 

 try, the people, and the President were described, 

 and the exhaustless riches to be dug out of the lands, 

 and to be derived from the scheme itself, were set 

 forth, would, if read at the present time, excite 

 laughter, were the consequences not so serious to 

 hard-working people in Great Britain and France, 

 who invested their surplus earnings in it. 



Such, then, is the unhappy financial condi- 

 tion of a nation groaning under the weight of 

 a loan, the greater part of which it probably 

 never came into possession of, and that to the 

 direct prejudice of its dearest interests, inas- 

 much as, with the whole of the money, the 

 Government could have completed, or nearly 

 so, its railway ; and, without it, nothing can 

 be done in that direction. With the railway, 

 the republic would rapidly rise in importance 

 by the thorough development of her agricultu- 

 ral and mining industry ; without the railway, 

 all her resources and capabilities must remain 

 undeveloped or only imperfectly developed. 



There is, nevertheless, a strong conviction in 

 Central America that an amelioration will be- 

 fore long take place in the material condition 

 of Honduras ; both the President and the Con- 

 gress have manifested a determination to do 

 well, and to do all in their power to render 

 the country at once prosperous and respected. 



Peace has remained undisturbed by any in- 

 cident of moment, either at home or abroad; 

 and public instruction continues to be the ob- 

 ject of special exertion and unremitting ener- 

 gy on the part of the powers that be. 

 1 HOOK, Rev. WALTER FABQUHAB, a dean of 



the Church of England, born in 1798; died 

 October 20, 1875. He was educated at Win- 

 chester College, and proceeded as student to 

 Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 

 1821. He was curate at St. Philip's, Birming- 

 ham, in 1827, and vicar of Trinity Church, 

 Coventry, in 1829, where he remained till 

 1837, when he was elected to the vicarage of 

 Leeds. In the year 1827 he was appointed 

 chaplain in ordinary to George IV., and con- 

 tinued in that office under William IV. and 

 Queen Victoria. On the accession of Queen 

 Victoria, Dr. Hook preached in the Chapel- 

 Royal a sermon on the text, "Hear the Church," 

 of which more than 100,000 copies were sold 

 within a month, but the sermon gave offense 

 in high quarters. During his incumbency of 

 twenty-two years at Leeds, twenty-one new 

 churches, in addition to the parish-church, 

 which was rebuilt at a cost of 40,000, thirty- 

 two parsonages, and more than sixty schools, 

 were erected in his parish. Notwithstanding 

 these clerical labors he found leisure for the 

 production of numerous valuable books. In 

 1859 he was nominated by Lord Derby to the 

 deanery of Chichester. In 1862 he was elected 

 a fellow of the Royal Society. Of his "Lives 

 of the Archbishops of Canterbury " nine vol- 

 umes have appeared. When the Queen visited 

 Leeds, Dr. Hook was unanimously elected to 

 present to her Majesty an address from 20,000 

 persons belonging to the various benefit socie- 

 ties ; and when, at one time, there was a strike, 

 the working-men, having agreed to a compro- 

 mise with their employers, appointed Dr. Hook 

 their referee. 



HOOPER, SAMUEL, a member of Congress 

 from the fourth district of Massachusetts, died 

 at Washington, February 13th, after a short 

 illness. He was born at Marblehead, Mass., 

 February 3, 1808. After receiving an educa- 

 tion in the common school, he entered early 

 the counting - house of his father, who was 

 largely engaged in trade with the West Indies 

 and Europe. As agent of the house the son 

 made several trips to the West Indies and 

 Russia, and a long visit to Spain. In 1832 he 

 became junior partner in the firm of Bryant, 

 Sturgis & Co., of Boston, where he remained 

 for ten years. He then joined another firm in 

 the same city, engaged, like the former house, 

 in the trade with China. Meanwhile he be- 

 came interested in the iron-business and its re- 

 lation to questions of political economy. He 

 served three years in the Lower House of the 

 State Legislature, but at the expiration of the 

 term in 1854 he declined a reelection. In 

 1857 he was chosen to the State Senate, where 

 he took a leading part in the legislation on 

 banking and finance. At this time he pub- 

 lished two pamphlets on currency and bank- 

 notes, which became well known on account 

 of their comprehensive treatment of those sub- 

 jects. His congressional career began in 1861, 

 when he was elected to fill a vacancy caused 

 by the death of William Appleton. He was 



