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 ceeded in beating his old antagonist Lamb by a majority of 446 votes, and was returned to parliament as the colleague of Sir Francis Burdett.

Hobhouse made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 9 May (Parl. Debates, new ser. i. 255–60), and thenceforth took an active share in the debates, and for some years was a strenuous supporter of every measure of reform. At Pisa in September 1822 he met Byron for the last time, who on parting touchingly said, ‘Hobhouse, you should never have come, or you should never go.’ In 1823 he became one of the most active members of the Greek committee in London. In July 1824, as one of Byron's executors, he proved the will and superintended the arrangements for the funeral at Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire, and it was upon his advice that Byron's ‘Memoirs,’ which had been given to Moore, and sold by him to Murray, were destroyed (cf., Murray, i. 443). In consequence of Byron's death the Greek committee were seriously embarrassed, and Hobhouse resolved to go to Greece himself in order to manage the loan, but ultimately Henry Lytton Bulwer went out in his place. Though the two members for Westminster were among the staunchest supporters of reform in the House of Commons, they were not included in the administration formed by Lord Grey in November 1830 (see a curious passage in, Recollections of a Long Life, quoted in the Edinburgh Review, cxxxiii. 303). Hobhouse succeeded his father as the second baronet in August 1831, and on 1 Feb. 1832 was appointed secretary at war in the place of Sir Henry Brooke Parnell (afterwards Lord Congleton), being admitted to the privy council on the 6th of the same month. He applied himself vigorously to the reform of his department, and, in spite of the opposition of the Horse Guards, succeeded in reducing the charges on the ‘dead list,’ in abolishing several sinecures, and in restricting flogging in the army to certain defined misdemeanors. On finding himself unable fully to carry out his views of war-office reform, he exchanged this post for that of chief secretary for Ireland on 28 March 1833. In the following month he refused to vote with the government against the resolution in favour of the abolition of the house and window tax, as he had frequently urged the abolition of the tax while an independent member. He therefore resigned both his office and his seat for Westminster (Parl. Debates, xvii. 757–8), but though he offered himself for re-election he found that he had lost his popularity by the acceptance of office, and was defeated by Colonel George de Lacy Evans [q. v.] by a majority of 192 votes. On Lord Melbourne's accession to power in July 1834 Hobhouse accepted the post of first commissioner of woods and forests, with a seat in the cabinet, and was returned at a by-election in the same month for the borough of Nottingham. During his short tenure of this office the houses of parliament were burnt (16 Oct.) On the dismissal of Lord Melbourne in November Hobhouse resigned with the rest of his colleagues. At the general election in 1835 he unsuccessfully contested Bristol, but was returned for Nottingham without opposition. When Lord Melbourne formed his second administration Hobhouse was pressed to resume his old post at the war office, but on his refusal was appointed president of the board of control, with a seat in the cabinet, on 29 April 1835. His first act as Indian minister was to advise the king to cancel the appointment of Lord Heytesbury [q. v.], who had been selected by Peel to succeed Lord William Bentinck as governor-general of India. Hobhouse was present at the queen's first council at Kensington Palace on 30 June 1837, and has left an interesting account of this, and of his first interview with her majesty as president of the board of control, in his ‘Recollections of a Long Life’ (Edinburgh Review, cxxxiii. 324–9). During the Russian intrigues in Central Asia he strongly supported Lord Auckland's policy in India against the remonstrances of some of his own colleagues, and he was one of Palmerston's most energetic supporters in the cabinet on the Turco-Russian question. On the resignation of Lord Melbourne in September 1841 Hobhouse retired, and was succeeded by Lord Ellenborough.

On 10 July 1846 he resumed his post at the board of control, with a seat in Lord John Russell's first cabinet. At the general election in the following year he was defeated at Nottingham, but was returned to parliament again at a by-election in March 1848 for the borough of Harwich. He was created Baron Broughton de Gyfford on 26 Feb. 1851 (Journal of the House of Lords, lxxxiii. 53), and upon his final retirement from office, on the resignation of Lord John Russell in February 1852, was made a K.C.B. From this date Broughton practically withdrew from public life, and attended the House of Lords only at rare intervals. He took part in the debates for the last time during the discussion of the Government of India Bill in July 1858 (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cli. 1561–7 and 1688). During his retirement he spent most of his time at Tedworth House, Wiltshire, and at his town house in Berkeley Square, amusing himself in literary pursuits