1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Coalition

COALITION (Lat. coalitio, the verbal substantive of coalescere, to grow together), a combination of bodies or parts into one body or whole. The word is used, especially in a political sense, of an alliance or temporary union for joint action of various powers or states, such as the coalition of the European powers against France, during the wars of the French Revolution; and also of the union in a single government of distinct parties or members of distinct parties. Of the various coalition ministries in English history, those of Fox and North in 1782, of the Whigs and the Peelites, under Lord Aberdeen in 1852–1853, and of the Liberal Unionists and Conservatives in Lord Salisbury’s third ministry in 1895, may be instanced.