Fixing the Membership of the Lords and Commons: The Case of Sir John Cam Hobhouse and the Nottingham By-Election, 1834

Beckett, John

Abstract

© 2020 The Author. Parliamentary History published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. on behalf of Parlimentary History Yearbook Trust. When Melbourne replaced Grey in 1834 he looked to recruit men with experience to join his government. He enlisted Sir John Cam Hobhouse, but Hobhouse needed a seat in the Commons. This was achieved by a writ of acceleration, whereby Viscount Duncannon, one of the sitting MPs for Nottingham, was called into the Lords in his father's lifetime to release a seat in the Commons. Writs had normally been used to strengthen the power of the government in the Lords, and the resentment in Nottingham at this political fix was expressed in a full-scale contest with accusations that the town was being turned into a government nomination borough. Hobhouse might have hoped for a free run as he had already been appointed to the cabinet. Rather, he was forced to fight for the seat, and to go through most of the activities more frequently associated with general elections.

Citation

Beckett, J. (2020). Fixing the Membership of the Lords and Commons: The Case of Sir John Cam Hobhouse and the Nottingham By-Election, 1834. Parliamentary History, 39(1), 205-219. https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-0206.12485

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 18, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 10, 2020
• Publication Date: Feb 10, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jul 9, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 11, 2022
• Journal: Parliamentary History
• Print ISSN: 0264-2824
• Electronic ISSN: 1750-0206
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 205-219
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-0206.12485
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science; History
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2291618
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1750-0206.12485