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

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