hindsight

From a little book I picked up at the library this week:

The British government even tried this tea tax on the American Colonies, but the Americans would have none of it. At an enormous fancy-dress tea party in Boston in 1773, where the guestss came dressed as Red Indians, they decided to renounce tea in favour of Independence. Pitt the Younger then reduced the tax on tea in 1784, a classic example of locking the door after the horse has bolted.

by Helen Simpson