a British diplomat, politician and writer. Smith joined the British Army in 1790 as an ensign, later promoted to lieutenant. When France declared war on Britain in February 1793 he was in Turkey with his elder brother, Sidney Smith, who obtained a position for him in the British embassy in Constantinople. Smith left Constantinople in 1801 and arrived in England just in time to be invited to stand for Parliament for the borough of Dover in the United Kingdom general election of 1802. Smith withdrew from Dover at the general election of 1806 and soon afterwards settled in Normandy where he wrote on a variety of scholarly subjects.
