he was returned to Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme. On the formation of Canning's Administration, Mr. Denison was appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty.
At this time the question of Roman-Catholic emancipation agitated the rival political parties of the day, and Mr. Denison was a constant adherent to the claims of the Roman Catholics.
The death of Canning led to a change of the Administration; and Mr. Denison relinquished his post at the Admiralty Board. Preferring an independent political career to the responsibilities of office, he remained in privacy, although several Administrations sought his services.
In 1830 Mr. Denison was returned for Hastings. In 1831, after the lamentable death of Mr. Huskisson, he was invited to stand for Liverpool; and, at the general election of 1831, he was returned for that borough, and also for the county of Nottingham; but he elected to sit for the latter.
During two Parliaments he represented the borough of Malton; and in 1857 he was returned for North Nottinghamshire, for which place he has since continued the member. Mr. Denison took an active part in the conduct of the private business of the House, and, as we have just mentioned, on the retirement of Mr. Shaw Lefevre he was, in 1857, unanimously chosen Speaker; being afterwards unanimously elected in 1859 and in 1866.
Mr. Denison married, in 1827, the third daughter of the Duke of Portland.
The emolument of the Speaker, it may be added, consists of a furnished house in the New Palace at Westminster, and a standing salary of 5000l. a year, besides other collateral advantages in the way of valuable pieces of Crown patronage which fall to his disposal from time to time.
Mr. Denison, on retiring from the Speakership, was raised to the peerage, with the title of Viscount Ossington, of Ossington, in the county of Notts.
