Childermass understands what it is that the other man fears. He understands Norrell perhaps better than the other man thinks. His fears, his desires. His understanding of his own weaknesses and the limitations he creates for himself because, for all the blustering, he does not truly believe in his own abilities all that much at all. If he did, after all, he would not be asking him for such advice on the matter.

"You are not weak," he says. "You simply did not win. You must find other means of gaining their attentions." Means that do not rely on the dubious support of the other Daybreak members, since he's obviously not doing much to appeal to the lot of them. "Have you heard nothing back from your letters?" He has written enough of them, after all, to enough people. On matters concerning things beyond simply the territory dispute that had just come to pass. Perhaps there were answers in those.