ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a significant part of Byron's life during his London years and to indicate some of the characteristics of the Westminster environment in this period that led him to conclude, many years later, that he was not made for what you call a politician. In fact, British Parliament was an especially large club in this period. Comparatively large though this club was, however, Byron's role as a peer meant that he was one of only 300 from a population of some 16 million entitled to sit in the House of Lords. Several commentators have described Byron's youthful determination to be an orator, and his early enthusiasm for, and then increasing disillusionment with, parliamentary politics. David V. Erdman, in the 1940s, outlined Byrons changing relationship with the various Whig factions, including that of Lady Oxford, and carried out an admirably thorough analysis of the Journals of the House of Lords and the Hansard publications.
