The defiant Mrs Partington took on the full might of the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1831, the House of Lords rejected a Bill on the reform of Parliament, sent over from the House of Commons. Sydney Smith was strongly in favour of this Bill, but told a political meeting in Taunton that he was not too worried, as the Lords had set themselves a task even harder than Mrs Partington set herself in 1824. Mrs Partington? Let the Revd Mr Smith explain...
Sydney Smith warned ordinary Americans that encouraging the hawks in Washington would cost them more than blood.
In 1820, Sydney Smith interrupted his review of a recent book on the US economy to reflect on the price of military adventure. America had clashed with Britain in the War of 1812, and some in Washington were eager to renew hostilities against their old colonial master. Smith urged ‘brother Jonathan’ (the ordinary American, counterpart to John Bull) to think hard about what it would mean.