Sir, there is one Mrs Macaulay in this town, a great republican. One day when I was at her house, I put on a very grave countenance, and said to her, 'Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind are upon an equal footing...' (Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791). Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water - Title of a collection of essays published by the leftwing novelist H. G. Wells in 1939.