Republics (1892); T. R. Lombard, The New Honduras (New York,
1887); H. Jalhay, La République de Honduras (Antwerp, 1898);
Perry, Directorio nacional de Honduras (New York, 1899); H. G.
Bourgeois, Breve noticia sobre Honduras (Tegucigalpa, 1900).
HONE, NATHANIEL (1718–1784), British painter, was the
son of a merchant at Dublin, and without any regular training
acquired in his youth much skill as a portrait-painter. Early
in his career he left Dublin for England and worked first in
various provincial towns, but ultimately settled in London,
where he soon made a considerable reputation. His oil-paintings
were decidedly popular, but he gained his chief success by his
miniatures and enamels, which he executed with masterly
capacity. He became a member of the Incorporated Society
of Artists and afterwards a foundation member of the Royal
Academy; but he had several disagreements with his fellow-members
of that institution, and on one occasion they rejected
two of his pictures, one of which was regarded as a satire on
Reynolds and the other on Angelica Kauffman. Most of his
contributions to the Academy exhibitions were portraits.
The quality of his work varied greatly, but the merit of his
miniatures and enamels entitles him to a place among the ablest
artists of the British school. He executed also a few mezzotint
plates of reasonable importance, and some etchings. His
portrait, painted by himself two years before his death, is in
the possession of the Royal Academy.
HONE, WILLIAM (1780–1842), English writer and bookseller,
was born at Bath on the 3rd of June 1780. His father brought
up his children with the sectarian narrowness that so frequently
produces reaction. Hone received no systematic education,
and was taught to read from the Bible only. His father having
removed to London in 1783, he was in 1790 placed in an attorney’s
office. After two and a half years spent in the office of a solicitor
at Chatham he returned to London to become clerk to a solicitor
in Gray’s Inn. But he disliked the law, and had already acquired
a taste for free-thought and political agitation. Hone married
in 1800, and started a book and print shop with a circulating
Library in Lambeth Walk. He soon removed to St Martin’s
Churchyard, where he brought out his first publication, Shaw’s
Gardener (1806). It was at this time that he and his friend,
John Bone, tried to realize a plan for the establishment of popular
savings banks, and even had an interview on the subject with
the president of the Board of Trade. This scheme, however,
failed. Bone joined him next in a bookseller’s business; but
Hone’s habits were not those of a tradesman, and bankruptcy
was the result. 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 condition of
lunatic asylums led again to business difficulties and failure,
but he took a small lodging in the Old Bailey, keeping himself
and his now large family by contributions to magazines and
reviews. He 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, who was executed on a
charge of poisoning. From February 1 to October 25, 1817,
he published the Reformer’s Register, writing in it as the serious
critic of the state abuses, which he soon after attacked in the
famous political squibs and parodies, illustrated by George
Cruikshank. In April 1817 three ex-officio informations were
filed against him by the attorney-genera, Sir William Garrow.
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
(1817), was before Mr Justice Abbot (afterwards Lord Tenterden);
the second, for parodying the litany and libelling the prince
regent, and the third, for publishing the Sinecurist’s Creed
(1817), a parody on the Athanasian creed, were before Lord Ellenborough
(q.v.). The prosecution 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
political; 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 courage and ability, speaking on each of the three days
for about seven hours. Although his judges were biassed against
him he was acquitted on each count, and the result was received
with enthusiastic cheers by immense crowds within and without
the court. Soon after the trials a subscription was begun which
enabled Hone to get over the difficulties caused by his prosecution.
Among Hone’s most successful political satires were The Political
House that Jack built (1819), The Queen’s Matrimonial Ladder
(1820), in favour of Queen Caroline, The Man in the Moon
(1820), The Political Showman (1821), 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, of 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. In 1826 he published the Every-day
Book, in 1827–1828 the Table-Book, and in 1829 the Year-Book;
all three were collections of curious information on manners,
antiquities and various other subjects. These are the works
by which Hone is best remembered. In preparing them he had
the approval of Southey and the assistance of Charles Lamb,
but pecuniarily they were not successful, and Hone was lodged
in King’s Bench prison for debt. Friends, however, again came
to his assistance, and he was established in a coffee-house in
Gracechurch Street; but this, like most of his enterprises, ended
in failure. Hone’s attitude of mind had gradually changed to
that of extreme devoutness, and during the latter years of his
life he frequently preached in Weigh House Chapel, Eastcheap.
In 1830 he edited Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes, and he contributed
to the first number of the Penny Magazine. He was also
for some years sub-editor of the Patriot. He died at Tottenham
on the 6th of November 1842.
HONE (in O. Eng. hán, cognate with Swed. hen; the root
appears in Skt. çána, ço to sharpen), a variety of finely siliceous
stone employed for whetting or sharpening edge tools, and for
abrading steel and other hard surfaces. Synonyms are hone-stone,
whetstone, oilstone and sharpening stone. Hones are
generally prepared in the form of flat slabs or small pencils or
rods, but some are made with the outline of the special instrument
they are designed to sharpen. Their abrading action is
due to the quartz or silica which is always present in predominating
proportion, some kinds consisting of almost pure quartz,
while in others the siliceous element is very intimately mixed
with aluminous or calcareous matter, forming a uniform compact
stone, the extremely fine siliceous particles of which impart a
remarkably keen edge to the instruments for the sharpening
of which they are applied. In some cases the presence of minute
garnets or magnetite assists in the cutting action. Hones
are used either dry, with water, or with oil, and generally the
object to be sharpened is drawn with hand pressure backward
and forward over the surface of the hone; but sometimes the
stone is moved over the cutting edge.
The coarsest type of stone which can be included among hones is the bat or scythe stone, a porous fine-grained sandstone used for sharpening scythes and cutters of mowing machines, and for other like purposes. Next come the ragstones, which consist of quartzose mica-schist, and give a finer edge than any sandstone. Under the head of oilstones or hones proper the most famous and best-known qualities are the German razor hone, the Turkey oilstone, and the Arkansas stone. The German razor hone, used, as its name implies, chiefly for razors, is obtained from the slate mountains near Ratisbon, where it forms a yellow vein of from 1 to 18 in. in the blue slate. It is sawn into thin slabs, and these are cemented to slabs of slate which serve as a support. Turkey oilstone is a close-grained bluish stone
