Bulwer began his political career as a follower of Jeremy Bentham. In 1831 he was elected member for St Ives, Cornwall, after which he was returned for Lincoln in 1832, and sat in Parliament for that city for nine years. He spoke in favour of the Reform Bill and took the lead in securing the reduction, after vainly essaying the repeal, of the newspaper stamp duties. His influence was perhaps most keenly felt when, on the Whigs' dismissal from office in 1834, he issued a pamphlet entitled "A Letter to a Late Cabinet Minister on the Crisis". Lord Melbourne, then Prime Minister, offered him a lordship of the Admiralty, which he declined as likely to interfere with his activity as an author.