User:Chuckhoffmann/sandbox/Ch10

The difficulty of finding employment for a magician is the tenth chapter of Susanna Clarke's history of the return of English magic, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It takes place in October of 1807. Summary Ever the politician, Sir Walter intends to introduce the subject of magic slowly to the other ministers, but finds they are as a whole greatly in favour of finding a use to which magic can be put. Lord Castlereagh, needing soldiers for the war, suggests that Mr Norrell enchant three or four thousand men from Lincolnshire with a sudden fervour to fight the French. Norrell cautions that the spell employed might not be sufficiently precise, and the proposition of unintentionally depopulating the county — and its surrounding areas — leads to the idea being dropped.

The ministers next propose reviving several recently great — and recently deceased — men of England. Both Lord Nelson and Mr Pitt are put forward as candidates, but they are not sufficiently recently deceased that their reanimation would be desirable or their society enjoyable.

The idea of sending Norrell to the Netherlands or Portugal to do magic there is proposed, and an embassy of an old admiral and a young captain is sent to evaluate Norrell's fitness. The young captain, confronted with a man who inconsistently complains of the consistency of the cream in his tea, rather than the dashing warrior magus of his imagination, is sorely disappointed. It is clear that Norrell is unfit to bear the burdens of martial service, and that neither the Army nor the Navy is willing to bear the burden of Mr Norrell's presence.