“The Political Mrs. Partington” from “Fun” (1893)

The Political Mrs. Partington

John Gordon Thomson (1841-1911)

Fun 57-58 (19 April 1893): 161

Text beneath the main caption: “The gallant attempt to sweep back the Irish Sea.”

Source: Hathi Digital Library Trust web version of a copy in the University of Minnesota library. A bearded figure shouts “Total ruin of the Hempire.”

The poem that accompanied the cartoon repeats the legend but dos not identify the satirized figures, one of whom is Joseph Chamberlain.

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A quick online search for Mrs. Partington produces quite a few allusions to the woman from Sidmouth, England, who tried to keep back the Atlantic Ocean with her broom. “Mrs Partington and her mop: Victorian meme,” traces both the tale of Mrs. Partington and its application to conservatives trying to block liberal reform back to Sydney Smith in 1831 (JS Blog — Journal of a Southern Reader). Pointing out that it is a "clone" of a famous story told about King Canute, JS Blog quotes the following passage from Smith’s speech:

"I do not mean to be disrespectful but the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs Partington on that occasion.

"In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town - the tide rose to an incredible height - the waves rushed in upon the houses, and everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea water and vigorously punching away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused.

"Mrs Partington's spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs Partington. She was excellent with a slop or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest."

Smith, a famously witty man, seems to have been the one who created this very popular political trope that has been repeated in newspapers and magazines throughout the English-speaking world. For example, writing in 1831 about the battle over the first Reform Bill, Fraser’s magazine, which seems to have opposed extension of the right to vote, commented that “the swell of the sea that swept down the houses of Sandwich was more than an antagonist ... Are the reformers mighty as the Atlantic – we, weak as Mrs. Partington?” In 1832 William Lloyd Garrison refers specifically to the Parliamentary debate about the Reform Bill in a footnote to his Thoughts on African Colonization. In 1868 Thomas Nast “portrays Democratic presidential nominee Horatio Seymour as Mrs. Partington sweeping back the sea,” and in 1880 a cartoon in Harper’s Weekly “portrays Democratic presidential nominee Winfield Hancock as Mrs. Partington sweeping back the sea.” Similar mentions appear in the 1915 New Republic, and Kippy Myers at Freed-Hardman University found more than fifteen cartoons using Mrs P. — George P. Landow

Last modified 5 February 2016