Russell was privileged to enter politics
John Russell didn't exactly make his political debut in the manner that you might anticipate from a seasoned politician, which is one of the interesting facts about John Russell. In 1813, when he was 20 years old, Russell was elected as a Whig to the House of Commons. The future reformer won the seat because his father, the Duke of Bedford, gave the about 30 voters in Tavistock instructions to elect him as an MP even though Russell was aboard and too young at the time. Russell entered politics less out of real political ambition and more out of a feeling of duty and family heritage. The Whigs had been out of power since 1783, except for the coalition government Russell's father had served in from 1806 to 1807, thus Russell could not have had any firm expectations for a future as a minister.
When he first took office as a congressman, Russell argued in the House of Commons in June 1815 that foreign nations had no right to impose their political preferences on France. He criticized the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the freshly restored Napoleon. In 1817, he delivered his first significant speech—characteristically, a criticism of the government's decision to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. Russell left Parliament in 1817 because he was sick of the idea of constant opposition. After taking a year off from politics to travel throughout Europe, he changed his mind and ran for Tavistock in the general election of 1818.
