The Formation of the Coalition Cabinet of 1852

Abstract

‘Quel grand ministère!’ wrote Princess Lieven to Lord Aberdeen on 26 December 1852. ‘Mais quel curieux spectacle, vous, Lord John, Lord Palmerston! Qui est le fou qui eût osé prédire cette trinité?’The princess's surprise at this alliance was shared by her contemporaries, among whom the old Tory Lord Londonderry could hardly contain his indignation, writing of it to Clarendon as ‘this grandissima Coalition-Composition (which either seems to have dropped from the skies or been conjured in the regions below)’, and adding that ‘so utterly meretricious … and apparently indelicate and inexplicable alliance was never before contemplated, much less seen’. It is true that some form of alliance had long been expected as the logical solution to the problem of weak minority government that had persisted since 1846, but it was not envisaged in the form, which it ultimately took in December 1852, of an all-embracing union of the Whigs and the former followers of Peel. As late as February 1852 Gladstone had spoken of union with the Whigs as the ‘least natural position’ for Peel's followers, and his opinion was shared by others.