NOTICE.—The readers of the "HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE OF CURRENT EVENTS" are respectfully informed that
it has been decided, in the future Volumes, commencing with the ensuing month of January, to abandon the
introductory article which has hitherto formed a part of each month's number under the head of THE THREE
KINGDOMS. This alteration has been determined on, both in consideration of the advisability of separating the
expression of opinion from a faithful record of events; and in consideration of that record requiring all
the space we can allot to it.

THE THREE KINGDOMS.

THE Derby ministry have fallen in the impossible
attempt to reconcile their old beliefs to their new
necessities. In undertaking to steer the ship by
reckonings they still refused to have faith in, they
have suffered shipwreck. It is to be hoped that what
may be found worth saving from the wreck will not
be rejected by the new hands. For among the new
hands are understood to be all the very cleverest and
most experienced navigators that have passed most-
part of their lives, whether long or short, in those
stormy and dangerous seas. Lord Aberdeen is Prime
Minister, Lord Cranworth Lord High Chancellor,
and Lord John Russell Foreign Secretary and leader
of the Commons; the Duke of Newcastle is Colonial
Secretary, Lord Palmerston Home Secretary, and
Mr. Gladstone Chancellor of the Exchequer; Sir
James Graham is at the Admiralty, Sir Charles Wood
at the Board of Control, Sir William Molesworth at
the Board of Works, Mr. Cardwell at the Board of
Trade, and Mr. Sidney Herbert at the War Office;
while Lord Granville, the Duke of Argyle, and Lord
Lansdowne give also to the new Cabinet the grave
authority and eager promise of the youngest and
oldest of Whig statesmen. It may be taken for
granted that such men as these will have no false
pride in saving out of the late disaster what yet
may be found seaworthy, even though it should
involve their completing "what other men began."

For instance, we should say that Mr. Disraeli's light
dues and pilotage reforms are well worth bringing to
land. So is the abolition of the disgraceful claim of
salvage for assistance to merchantmen in distress.
So are the mitigations of compulsory modes of
impressment. So, beyond all doubt, are the Tea
Duties. And so, we should have said, was the
attempt to put some distinction between property
and income in the levy of the tax on both, if it had
not been accompanied by incidents which too plainly
revealed the drift of the attempted change.

Nowhere was it so awkwardly apparent that town
and country were to be placed in antagonism by the
defeated budget, as in its otherwise laudable arrangements
to distinguish sources of property and income.
The schedules in which the reduction of rate took
place were not only so framed as to include the tenant
farmers, but this favoured class were no longer to
have their income rated at half their rents, as at
present, but at a third. In other words, their
contribution to the state was at one stroke to be reduced
by a full half, while at the same moment, by the
simple process of extending the limits of other
taxable incomes, the deficiency was to be supplied
at the cost of all the small shopkeepers in the kingdom,
and of all the better kind of artisans. Nor
was this the whole of the mischief in that direction.
For a pretence of relief to the farmer which no one
believes would have been materially felt even by
him, and certainly by the consumer would not have
been felt in any discernible degree, not only was the
house and shop tax doubled, but its area was
extended to include the £10 as well as the £20
house; and thus, by these means, while every
rustic village in the kingdom would have been
exempted, as well as the dwellings of large numbers
of small farmers, the net of liability would have
been precisely so thrown as to disfranchise all, whom
it did not enmesh, of the dwellers in £10 houses.

No one will regret that such arrangements as these
should be thrown overboard, and sink to the
bottom. On the other hand there are some law
bills, and matters of that kind, worth bringing
ashore, with the better points of the defeated
budget. For example, the bill introduced to abolish
technical forms of action in the law courts in Ireland,
and sweep away altogether the absurdities of special
pleading, is too good to be lost; nay, it is much too
good not to be extended in fairness to England
as well. For it is wonderful how much easier, in
future, politicians are likely to find the task of
grappling with the iniquities of law. It took but
three or four lines in the Gazette to make a sound
legal reformer of the greatest as well as ablest
opponent of all legal reform; and it required not more
than two or three weeks, with a Sugden on the
woolsack, to fight victoriously the first pitched battle
with that monster of Chancery which has overridden
us for centuries. A great many more remain to be
fought; and happily there remains not one of the old
defenders of abuse to make victory uncertain or
difficult.

Indeed this, after all, is the great gain we may
reckon to have got out of the Derby Administration.
It has turned impracticable into practicable men. It
has exploded the impossible absurdities of protection,
compensation, and so forth, which have for six years
been the main obstruction in the way of all useful
legislation. It has ended a foolish as well as selfish
setting up of class against class; and has finally
taught the farmer that the only friends in whom he
may hereafter safely trust, are his own activity,
energy, and self-improvement.

These are very valuable legacies to be left us by a