The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

THE RUMOURED COALITION.

WHAT is the object of those rumours so in-
dustriously propagated just now of a Coalition
between the Leaders of the Conservative
party and Mr. GLADSTONE and Mr. BRIGHT ?
Do they proceed from ignorance or design ?
The parties who circulate them must be
grossly misinformed or very malignant.

The rumour is indeed natural, considering
the quarter from which it proceeds. For a
number of years past the Whigs have never
moved without intrigue. Their policy has
been conspiracy. They have arranged their
plans in secret conclave, and have upheld
their rule by infamous combinations. At one
time they have plotted with Irish Romanists,
and at another with English Tories. With
reckless disregard of principle, they have only
considered how they could obtain a majority
in Parliament, and they now imagine that
their opponents must be employed in turning
their own tactics against them. Poor crea-
tures ! their fright is pitiable. The very
thought of a Coalition inspires them with
panic, blinds their eyes, and berefts them of
sense.

In one and the same breath they assert that
the Coalition which their fears suggest would
be a bidding for place, and would be scouted
by the whole nation. Its imagined authors
would hope to seize the government by a
combination which would meet with little or
no support in Parliament, and would be
universally reprobated by the nation. What

SATURDAY,

is to be apprehended from a Coalition which
we are vehemently told would be without
character, without influence, without even
numbers to support it, When politicians
coalesce, they act with tolerable certainty of
immediate success ; their policy may not be
very longaighted, but it is quite keen enough
to count noses, and make up a safe book for
the division-list.
The Conservatives are to bid for place by a
policy which must inevitably close to them
the doors of office. Is it to be supposed that
they are really so silly? Why, the experience
of the men who run open-mouthed about the
clubs venting their alarm by the propagation
of the rumour might teach them better. When
men discard prineitile, they do so from a cool
calculation of profit. The history of Coali-
tions in this country is a history of imme-
diate success followed by decisive discomfiture
and of long and withering disgrace. Are the
quidnuncs satisfied ?
We are not surprised that our opponents
have not the most remote conception of a
policy which, calmly contemplating all the
circumstances of the war and the state of
Europe, looks on the real dignity and welfare
of England, irrespective of all those mean
and dirty motives which fill the minds of
mere place-holdeis and place-hunters. Inca.
pable of the slightest elevation of view, they
measure other men's thoughts by their own
grovelling instincts, and fall into the most
ludicrous errors simply through the baseness
of their own notions.

There is no analogy between a Coalition
formed by men of opposite opinions for selfish
ends and that unanimity of action which
springs from identity of sentiment on leading
questions of the time. We believe that there
is a general agreement among the soundest
heads of the nation that the purpose for which
the war was undertaken may now be accom-
plished ; and it would be a fortunate circum-
stance if the whole body of Conservatives,
sinking minor differences, could be brought tb
act together on this point, and re-establish
that union which never has been, and never
can be, broken, without throwing the State
into confusion, and destroying the healthy
action of our government.