No, he isn't looking for a change in career paths. If he were he would have done so a long time ago. But he has been in Norrell's employ for two decades, give or take. He would not just walk off the job like this, simply because he does not approve with how the man is handling his business, his politics lately.

"Would you disapprove of the idea that I'd simply fancied a look around?" he asks, with a shrug. "We did not have such an Institute as this, in the North." Perhaps he might have attended it, instead of going into Norrell's employ, if there had been. Of course, that is if they would have accepted one such as himself, without so much as a penny to his name. Certainly no honest penny, at least.