Note 694 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (continued 4)

I believe that Burke himself was present part of the time, and that he was the gentleman who 'talked of retiring. On May 19 and 21 he had in Parliament defended his action in restoring to office two clerks, Powell and Bembridge, who had been dismissed by his predecessor, and he had justified his reforms in the Paymaster's office. 'He awaited,' he said, the 'judgement of the House. ...If they so far differed in sentiment, he had only to say, Nunc dimittis servum tuum.' Parl. Hist. xxiii.919.