例如，当英国在十八世纪末失去美洲殖民地后，霍勒斯·沃波尔曾哀叹英国已沦落到“像丹麦或撒丁岛一样微不足道 ” 。
For example, after Britain lost its American colonies at the end of the eighteenth century, Horace Walpole lamented Britain’s reduction to “as insignificant a country as Denmark or Sardinia.”