The Press. — London, England, 1853-05-07 00:00:00

fi,J?A€J, I I I ; No. I.—VoL. 1. LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1853. COALITION. 'THE state of political parties in England at the present moment is very peculiar, and, with a prosperous and tranquil surfitee, not without considerable danger. Thu administration of our affairs is carried on by a COALITION of indi viduals, who have avowedly no opinions in common, except upon a subject which is no longer a matter of public controversy, the principles of our commercial system. There are members of the Ministry who are in favour of vote by ballot; there are members of the Ministry who, having been in favour of vote by ballot, have formally renounced that conviction iwithin the last two years; there are members of the Ministry who are, and have been, always decidedly hostile to vote by ballot. If we take any of the other great constitutional questions. ‘either in Church or State, we shall find among her Majesty's principal advisers equal discre pancies of opinion and sentiment. The COALI• TION is carried on not even by a compromise, butby a mere suspension, of principle. There is no similar instance on record. The Adminis tration, therefore, is not morally, but literally, a Government without principles. They ad minister affairs, but•they represent no opinion. The excellence of representative government, • ; however, Is that it should represent opinion. . It is this quality which compensates for its inevitable and innate deficiencies. As a mere instrument of legislation, nothing can be more clumsy or cumbrous than a process which requires the sanction, and receives the sugges tions, of between five and six hundred indi viduals. It is as a means, which allows the predominant opinion of a community to stimu late or to control, that it representative govern ment bceomes powerful and beneficial. But the representative form is not merely a clumsy machine : it has a tendency to be a corrupt one. Five or six hundred individuals invested with legislative functions, and subject to the influences of a powerful executive, are capable of any miseonduct. Their very numbers divide the responsibility, and their assumed popular origin diverts and dissipates the odium. Our ancestors discovered in l'Aierv. or politi cal connection, a remedy for these injurious consequences, and a means of combining effi cient and comparatively pure government with popular authority and control. Bodies of men acting in concert, advocating particular tenets, and recognising particular leaders, were ani mated by the principle of honour as well as by a sense of duty. The reputation of the party kept up the high tone of the individual who was a member of it. and, deferring to the sure rim. judgment of the most eminent of the asso ciation, union of opinion and of action were found compatible with a multitude of counsel lots and agents. Notwithstanding some pas sages in the course of two centuries touched by the infirmity of human passion, the annals 01 English party form one of the noblest chapters in the history of man. It is not in a moment that you can dissolve the ancient political connections of this parlia mentary country, but the first dilapidation of the structure of our tree government has taken place when our affairs are administered by a Cabinet of suspended t pinions. Tradition. the sense of honour, the social influences which still prevail among the representatives of the landed constituencies. may for a while avert or nfiti. gate the consequences of this state of aflifirs but these consequences are sure, and will be ultimately fowl in a multitude without eolle4oll, emilPilsteney 01' deeolllllll of eondurt, in individual scandals. itt aggregate humilialion. in a general loss of ‘veight, city. and (diameter, which will lower the wave aristovratie, tree Parliament of England to the level of those continental assemblies whose brief and tumultuous i•areers have been alike the terror aunt tin' ridieule of the world. The most singular characteristic of this strange einkittneture is the apologetical reason that is given tar its ovearrenee. It is conve niently maintained that. in Vollse41111014•4` of the abrogation of the protective principle iu cow meree, the distinctive eharaeters of the Iwo great. parties in the eountry no longer exist. The persons who circulate this tenet are the very individuals who deprecated the Worn promising opposition of Lord George Ben tinek, oft the ground that the question which then divided the, Consorvative party was only one of thrills. and that the great principles of the Conservative clumectiim were in nowise in controversy. It would not, at. the first glance, appear that. the repeal of the corn laws, or the reduction of the sugar duties, had solved the momentous problem, what classes should be the prin cipal depositary of power in this country. The nature of the franchise, and its extent, , which depmdm on a right appreciation of its nature ;—whether the royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical should be maintained ; whether our Upper House should be a ter ito vial or an elective senate ; . whether, as an element of strength and duration, a prepon derance should be given in our polity to the landed franchise, or whether, on the contrary, the municipal ingredient should predominate ; the rights of inheritance and the laws of tenure ;—these are the vast questions of per. raiment interest which will occupy at intervals the mind of the nation, and on which they will receive no solution or guidance from at Cabinet consisting of members who are diametrically at variance on all these important heads. It will not do to gloss over their inconsistent and incoherent position by announcing them selves the disciples of progress. We want to know of what progress they are the votaries. Is it English progress? Or is it French, or American, or German progress" A centralised administration, a tyrant majority, or a Pan theistic religion? There is no progress for a country except Hi the spirit of its national character, or which runs counter to the princi ple of its institutions. If the national diame ter be exhausted, the nation is worn out, not withstanding the price of Consols may be at par ; if the principle of its institutions no longer animates and inspires. as new nice, like the Goths in Italy, tnay establish new 111Stitli ti011f4; but an obi race will tind that what it deems progress is 414 change. and that change is only the epilepsy of (levity. For our part, we have eonfidence in the enduring character of this country. awl believe that there i.e yet an inspiring foree in the prin ciple of its free at istocracy. which may secure the continuance of ntr power. and the improve ment of our society. These ends. however, can be most surely obtained by the pa rlia !limitary government of this country being canied on by two parties with distinctive principles, eliciting in their discussions the conclusions of political truth. and giving, by their arguments and appeals, a tone to the public mind. And what prevoot% 'at Why has the constitutional habit of the realm been disturbed and discontinued? Why is the country governed neillivr by the Liberal nor by Pitlen SvinxcE. the Conservative pasiy ? From personal and petty canses only. The Chaneellor of the Ex chequer. lin ifesning high I lonservative opinions, will not from n personal feeling, eombine with the leader of the Conservative tinily in tin, !house of tluminous. The morbid vanity of Woburn Abbey must h represented without. 1111 interval ha the royal etmeils. The Whigs erish. but the Duke of liesitlird must be satisfied. To aceoinplish these noble ends, to gratify a prejudive, and to pander to sui oligarch, au austere intriguer, without may ftillowing ui the et dint ry. and without any lustre of career. is installed in the high place. Around him are clustered a motley crew of statesmen. who', magnanimously forgetting eareers 11f recrimination, and veiling their mutual aversion with minister frankness anti ii:l'ected cordiality. devote their heterogeneous energies to the Serrieli of a perplexed Sovereign 111141 1111111Ze1l e4llllltry. PAR'T'Y EQU VALEN TS. STRANtit: to say. in all the debates which have somewhat fiercely agitated the House of Com mons upon the origin of the extension of the income tax to !rebind, no notice has been taken of a ttunsaetion which it seems has re cently come to light. We allude to a pledge positively said to have been conveyed in De cember last to a section of Irish members, that if they would vote against Mr. Disraeli's budget, and so displace the Ministry of Lord Derby, the sneeessors of that Ministry would not propose tot income tax for Ireland. By this pledge it is now no secret that the votes of very many members wore obtained for the factious eon&ination of diseoutented par ties that then united to overthrovt„the late Administration. By the aid of these votes the object of their combination was accomplished, and Mr. Disraeli and his eolleagues left office to make way for the Coalition Cabinet. Let us fir a moment ask the attention of our readers to the facts whieh have been publicly stated and have not been denied. Of the truth of the narrative we apprehend no question can he milted. It throws tonne singular light upon the nature of the agencies by which, after all, the drains of great nations are influenced. In Deeember last there existed in the House of Commons a band of some forty and fifty Irish members who delighted to call them selves the Irish Brigade—pledged to each other by very stiletun obligations—returned by the same influences—pmfeasing to seek the some objects--and constituting a united and, as the House of Commons was then composed, a powerful and influential party. To gain over• the votes of that party was an object of some importance to the conspirators who were thus organising the combinations by which the late Ministry was overthrown. Nleetings of the Irish party, as they termed themselves, were held to discuss the course which that 'tarty should pursue in the division on the budget, and to one of these meetings the stsmuranee was conveyed which is said tinnily to have influenced the determination. Three Irish members stated at that meeting that they had been authorised to give an suranee that, if the votes of their party displaced the existing Ministry. the leaders of the Whig opposition, when called to power, would fil prOllnSe uu ineonw tax for Ireland. The gentle ' man who authorised them was one who had a perfect right to speak for his party. He had held office before, and he held it still. Upon