The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-21 00:00:00

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in the lust. An ill-informed wit might draw
an amusing parallel between the damned au-
thors who gallop to oblivion through Pater-
noster-row, and the ei-devant dandies escorting
belles of ten seasons in the ride at Rotten-row.
He might run his parallel through the book-
shop and the ballroom, and wittily descant
upon philosophers and pretty girls most un-
fairly criticised, upon divines whose sermons
are never cut open for perusal, and dandies
neglected by ton from one end of the season to
the other. With hut a little fancy, he might
trace a grotesque analogy between style and
dress, and oracularly re eount how poetry and
long petticoats are fashionable in one age, how
Byron and Brummell were eontemporaries,
how statistics and small bonnets came in at the
same time, how George Canning shone in the
senate, while Count D'Orsay sparkled in the
clubs. But though the wit might be an
amusing one, as we have suggested, he would
betray want of information in pretending that
the laws of literature are ruled by caprice.
The true laws of criticism are the same in all
ages, and there are always good reasons, if we
but search for them, why one style of composi-
tion is popular in one period, and an opposite
one at a different time. Thus, for example,
when we take up this lively, brisk, and read-
able pamphlet, called " Coalition Cabinets,
Past and Present," we may ask how comes it
that the age for pamphlets seems past away,
that publishers exclaim, " Pamphlets seldom
sell !" and that leading publie characters,
unlike the St. Johns Mal the Pulteneys. now
rarely commit their thoughts to the form of an
essay ? But the answer is obvious. Journal-
ism has almost as effeetually put an end to
pamphleteering as Waterloo-bridge destroyed
the occupation of the Surrey side ferry-boats.
The age, from a variety of moral and physical
causes, is favourable to collective energy : it
pays homage to the principle of assoeiation,
and prefers the " we" of journalism to the
"I " of pamphleteering. I: Estrange or Sir
Charles Banbury Williams themselves in our
day.; would have no more chance against the
" leaders" of a journal than the old Margate
hogs against the ocean steamers.
We confess, however, to a liking for pam-
phlets when they are, as this one before us is,
sharp, clear, and strong. A good pamphleteer
can give his subject that artistic wholeness of
view which by at journalist can only he effected
through repetition. Thus within the limit of a
sheet of letterpress we have here demon-
strated the important principle in our British
That. no Coalition Cabinet has ever
yet suereeded." No doubt the Aberdeen-Russell
Coalitionists fondly hope that their Cabinet
will prove that rule by being the exception to
it : but this spirited writer dissects its compo-
sition, and proves that in the w‘orst, points only
it. resembles the former Coalition Ministries,
while, in the attributes of genius and public
Api;it, he draws damaging comparisons with
those Ministries in which at Chatham, a Fox. a
Burke, a iirenville, and a Canning filled high
posts. Ile drives home the point of his argu-
ment with force to the conclusion—" if truly
great men like these failed to make the coali-
tion principle successful, how could men like
these prevail in doing so r He is pungent and
caustic in declaring his opinion of the Aberdeen
Coalition, taken collectively or individually.
and very aptly applies to them (what might,
have served as an epigraph in his titlepnget—
the words of Junius—" a submissive Adminis-
tration grmlually collected from deserters of all
parties, interests, and eonnectionm." He thus
expands his definition into description
with n Presbyterian Prime Minister of England anal at
Roman Catholic Solieitoptieneral of Ireland. with a Whig
at the Foreign and n Tory at the Colonial office. a hispyite
et the Exchequer and at philosophic Radical at the Board
of Works, we look in vain for a single bond of sympathy
;between any two of your lordship's colleagues. The only
,evideuce anion hitherto displayed was shown by the
Preaident of the liaktral of Control and the First tonl of
the Admiralty, in tloir warlike llama:4lles at Halifax and
Ott tin severe aipl snceessful castigation. so
justly inflicted upon these eminout roams by Mr. Ns.
raeli. will probstAy prevent the exhibition of any limber
unanimity et en on this point. The attempt to weaken or
disarm the Opposition, 1.% stirring up at genuine in.kasion
ruin, was a device ad once ingenions wad bold. Perhaps,
ifike the ballot. it was an open on In the
the uar-cry from the north hndquesti proved toweessful,Cabinet. it
.aright have found a ready eelto front every member of the
Aui,,try ; but, ass: welly failed, its indiscreet promoters