CHAP. xii. j NEWS FOE THE CLUB.

effect, he spoke again; Pitt praising him, and telling his \m.
friends to set proper value on the " acquisition they had it
" made; " and when the struggle for the repeal was over, after
the last victorious division on the memorable morning of the
aSnd of February,, and Pitt and Conway came out amid
the huzzaings of the crowded lobby, where the leading
merchants of the kingdom whom this great question so
vitally affected had till" almost a winter's return of light"
tremblingly awaited the decision, Burke stood at their side,
and received share of the same shouts and benedictions.*

Extraordinary news for the club, all this; and again the
excellent Hawkins is in a state of wonder. " Sir," exclaimed
Johnson, " there is no wonder at all. We who know Mr.
" Burke, know that he will be one of the first men in the
" country." f But he had regrets with which to sober this ad-
mission. He disliked the Bockinghani party, and was zealous
for more strict attendance at the club. " We have the loss
" of Burke's company," he complained to Langton, " since
" he has been engaged in the public business." Yet he cannot
help adding (it was the first .letter he had written to Langton
from his new study in Johnson's-court, which he thinks
" looks very pretty" about him) that it is well so great a
man by nature as Burke, should be expected soon to attain
civil greatness. " He has gained more reputation than

" eloquence should be assigned. It was indeed a splendid sunset and a splendid
1' dawn." Assays, iii. 517. Burke himself, as though unconscious of his own more
commanding greatness, speaks in a precisely similar strain of the sudden burst of
Charles Townshend on the scene, as Pitt was magnificently retreating. "Even
"then, sir, even before this splendid orb was entirely set, and while the western
"horizon was in a blaze with his descending glory, on the opposite quarter of the
" heavens arose another luminary, and for his hour became lord of the ascendant."
Works, i. 482. I may refer the reader who desires to have a notion of Burke's
manner as he spoke in the House of Commons in later life, to a lively and minute
description in Wraxall's Hist. Mem. ii. 35, &c.

* Burke's Works, i. 473. t Soswell, vi. 80.subject was resumed, when Johnson, less disposed