In July 1810, he was appointed to the command of the escort at Hyderabad, and also took temporary responsibility for the residency's business until his brother, Sir Henry Russell, 2nd Baronet arrived from his post at Poona.
[2] Alongside his brother, Henry, Russell was implicated in a corruption scandal where Lord Hastings, a Governor-General of India, was alleged to have acted partially on behalf of Palmer and Company, a Hyderabad banking house.
The Russells were found to have to have been involved in and profited from the firm's dealings with the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Akbar Ali Khan, directly from Hastings' 1816 decision to exempt the house from a ban on lending money to native princes.
Henry Russell launched a defence of himself and his brother, Charles, titled Letter to the Court of Directors, arguing the allegations had arisen from "acrimonious party spirit" and complaining that no opportunity had been granted to defend themselves.
Charles offered to stand for the seat in Henry's place, noting he would resign from the race if it resulted in a contest, if this would ensure the Hyderabad affair was not raised in parliament, but he was "not very solicitous about it" and did not mention this idea to their father.
[2] Brother Henry vetoed the idea, regardless, arguing there was too high a risk of being involved in a difficult contest, especially against the Radical sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Daniel Whittle Harvey, who had previously attacked their father in 1820 and had since become interested in the Hyderabad affair—and was likely to exploit it in order to "defame" Charles.
Despite this, Henry recommended Charles to seek election at any other "close seat at a fair price", not seeing the Indian scandal as a barrier to a political career.
"At the same general election, but at Reading, Henry Russell and his wife actively supported the canvas of Tory candidate George Spence, who opposed Catholic emancipation, in a bid to remove the sitting Whig MP Charles Fyshe Palmer.
Henry intervened in a bid to, at some point, also stand for the borough, but Charles warned him to procee cautiously and avoid being "drawn into the town set".
At a celebration dinner in July of that year, Henry professed support for Catholic emancipation, and accused Fyshe Palmer and John Monck—a radical Whig MP for the borough—of seeking to obstruct a liberalising government.
I think you have very judiciously shown your opinions on the Catholic question and your coincidence with the liberal part of the administration"The following year, Charles accompanied his brother on a tour of Flanders, Germany, Switzerland and France.
He was then approached by a stockbroker cousin of Southampton Tory MP Abel Rous Dottin to purchase a £63,000 property in an unnamed borough, which was said to guarantee the occupier command of 214 electors of both seats.
"He sought to convinced moderate Whigs that "we are no more enamoured than they are of a despotic power, but that we would only so temper our love of civil liberty, as to prevent freedom from degenerating into licence, anarchy and revolution".
Upon hearing of this, Russell observed to his brother that "my troubles begin to thicken on me" and that the petition was "hard under a declining revenue to force on a minister speciic repeals of taxation".
Russell also avoided an anti-slavery petition organised by local quakers, pleading he had a prior engagement in London, and adding:[2] "I am aware that my answers in both these cases will be held to be evasive, but they are no more so than prudence requires and than all my declarations have invariably been.
[2] Russell did not take his seat in the House of Commons until October 1830, and immediately shared in the belief that the government had acted "foolishly" on cancelling the royal visit to the City of London on 9 November of that year.
In an explanation to his brother, Russell said:[2] "It seems to me that after professing in every speech I made at Reading opinions favourable to the late ministry, I should have been guilty of the grossest inconsistency, if, on the first important division, before they had time to develop any of their plans, I had lent my hand to cut their throats.
[2] He continued to contemplate a speech on the assessed taxes and whether to present a scheme for their modification, and regarded the Chronicle article as "capital", but disregarded an idea by his chief agent, Alfred Compigne, that he should justify his vote in a public letter to constituents.
His brother advised him and Monck to make a plea to the Home Secretary Lord Melbourne to provide clemency to the so-called 'Swing' rioters who had been sentenced to death at a recent special commission.
Russell later told his brother that the proposed reform scheme was "gigantic in its dimensions, and it is impossible to contemplate such vast changes without anxiety and alarm.
[2] Nevertheless, Russell continued to be "alarmed at the magnitude of the changes" but believed the country would "never be satisfied till they are carried" and would therefore support the bill "on public... as well as on personal considerations".
Compigne was, however, adamant that it would be electorally advantageous, causing Charles to complain to this brother:[2] "I have got amongst a set of cormorants, and, though I have not said it to a human being, I think I shall probably consult both my happiness and my interest by giving up Parliament.
Charles told his brother:[2] "The ground on which I rest my vote is that the present bill, with great and alarming tendencies, yet has many securities; and that with the impulse which the measure has received from the authority of government, it is better to take it as it is and not wait till we shall get it on worse terms.
[2] Yet, Russell felt parliament would have to be dissolved, regardless of whether the bill passed, noting he was unable to reconcile "how Lord Grey is to carry on the business of the country with the present house" while "Peel would probably shrink from forming a new administration on the unpopular basis of a reform short of that now proposed".
Again, he feared early dissolution of parliament if the House of Lords rejected the bill, and he asked his brother to put in order their election accounts so that they could avoid "the wasteful and exorbitant expenditure" foisted on them in 1830.
[2] Russell then missed a meeting in Reading called by Monck and local radicals to address William IV on the issue of reform, as he received the invitation too late.
[2] He was again struck ill in the autumn from a "deranged stomach, a dry hacking cough" and reported that "the secretions of my bowels are slimy and unhealthy" and used this as an excuse to avoid attending a dinner in Reading to pay tribute to Monck on 22 November.
"On 22 February, he was appointed to the select committee on the East India Company's affairs, a day after his brother had given evidence to its political and foreign sub-committee—which also happened on 30 March, and in the military sub-committee on 19 April.
[2] Ahead of the dissolution of parliament, Russell wrote to the chairman saying these was no reason to worry about his absence, noting his votes provided the "best proofs of his sincerity in the cause of reform".