ABSTRACT
Ministers expected the Parliamentary Session that opened on January 23, 1810 to be one of peculiar difficulty, and events justified their worst expectations. Formidable attacks on their record and their measures began on the very first day, and if they were repelled in divisions of 92–144 in the Lords and 167–263 in the Commons, those very figures gave proof that Opposition, encouraged by much outside clamour against Ministers, was mustering strongly enough to have good chances of defeating Government when the most questionable parts of the Ministerial record came up for detailed discussion. A serious Parliamentary defeat of the Ministers became steadily more improbable as “Burdett and his mob” became more troublesome. Indeed, in the latter stages of the Session, a Ministry as little respected, inside the House or out, as any that had been known for generations, was winning its divisions with ease.
