Why did men in the nineteenth century seek to enter Parliament? How many wished to stay once they had entered the “best club in London,” and how many aimed higher, eyeing a position in the ministry? In studying an age before surveys or polls, the answers to these questions must be largely indirect. But the answers are important. If members coveted admittance to the ministry, the Premier, who held the power of appointment, could establish a strong inducement to loyalty by making it clear that those who too frequently dissented would generally not receive office. Since members who sought ministerial positions usually had to acquire a certain amount of parliamentary experience – especially if they aspired to the Cabinet – they must have become at least instrumentally concerned with reelection, and a natural preliminary question concerns the number of members who sought to (and the number who did) stay in Parliament long enough to have a realistic shot at the ministry and especially the Cabinet.

Interest in reelection could stem from sources other than ministerial ambition, however, and the question of how many members were willing to put up with increasingly frequent election contests and the rigors of serving ever-larger popular constituencies is of interest in its own right. In the next section of this chapter, the desire of members to stay in office is reconnoitered. The second section turns to the question of specifically ministerial ambition and its significance for party discipline.