“Good: draw that out a little more at length, Ladislaw. That is an idea, now: write it out in the Pioneer . Put the figures and deduce the misery, you know; and put the other figures and deduce⁠—and so on. You have a way of putting things. Burke, now:⁠—when I think of Burke, I can’t help wishing somebody had a pocket-borough to give you, Ladislaw. You’d never get elected, you know. And we shall always want talent in the House: reform as we will, we shall always want talent. That avalanche and the thunder, now, was really a little like Burke. I want that sort of thing⁠—not ideas, you know, but a way of putting them.”

“Pocket-boroughs would be a fine thing,” said Ladislaw, “if they were always in the right pocket, and there were always a Burke at hand.”

Will was not displeased with that complimentary comparison, even from Mr.