Our Weekly Budget

Newcastle steamer , Ethel , on its way from Bilbao to Newport , Monmouthshire , became enveloped in a fog , and struck on tho rocks lying south of Lundy Island , filling and sinking immediately . The captain and eighteen men went

clown with her , the only survivor being the mate , who managed to get into a boat , and when that was broken to pieces , on to some portions of wreck . Ultimately he reached the shore , but in a very exhausted and bruised condition .

There appears to be a very strong probability that the Easter Monday Eeview will take place this year . Formerly this was one of the principal events of the year , but for some time past the railways have found it impossible to afford the necessary facilities for the conveyance of so

many thousands of men on a Bank Holiday , when their resources are already taxed to the very utmost . Lord Eanelagh , however , is reported to have hit upon a place

moat suitable in all respects for a review , in the neighbourhood of Dunstable , and latest reports favour this belief , that this old institution of the early Volunteer days will be revived in all its pristine glory .

Another annual event is beginning to assume its wonted degree of importance in the eyes of the British public . Not a day hardly passes but we find notes of the doings of the rival 'Varsity crews . "We are told how the places of this or that 'Varsity crew are changed , how this old

'Varsity oarsman coached from the bank , and how certain members were out all the morning in tub pairs , under the immediate eye of the president of his club . All these matters are recorded daily with the most exact minuteness , a fact which betokens that the day

of the great struggle is pretty close at hand . The race , indeed , is fixed for the 24 th prox ., and as Wednesday next will be Ash "Wednesday , why there is little difficulty in reckoning the few weeks that will intervene between the

commencement of strict practice and the race . Indeed the crews will be in training next week , and almost before we are aware of it we shall hear of their arrival in London , and their doings on the London waters .

The annual meeting of the Seamens' Hospital was held on Wednesday afternoon , at the City Terminus Hotel , Cannon Street , under the presidency of the Duke of Northumberland . According to the report that was read , the year 1876 left the society indebted to the extent of

£ 1 , 539 6 s . There had been an increaseof income denvedfrom voluntary sources , the same being close upon £ 1 , 000 above the average of the last ten years , while the receipts derived from legacies were below tho average . The expenditure had increased by £ 1 , 121 , but nearly one half of this arose

from the increased cost of provisions . Mr . S . Cave , M . P ., moved the acceptance of the report , which was duly accepted and agreed to . In doing this he pointed out that a special appeal should be made to the public in support of an institution which had existed for so many years , and

done such good work . Before the meeting broke up some £ 500 in donations were promised towards making good the deficiency of £ 1 , 500 . It is hoped the public will show their sense of good work clone by liberally supporting this useful Institution .

Of the wonderful changes that occur in the progress of an Eastern political question , we have the latest illustration in tho dismissal and banishment of the Grand Vizier , Midhat Pacha . It is but the other day he supplanted his great rival , Mahmoud Buchdi Pacha , prepared a new

Constitution for the whole Turkish empire , and firmly but politely declined to entertain even the mildest of the proposals offered by the Great Powers of Europe for Turkey ' s acceptance . Hardly , however , has he achieved this brilliant triumph , hardly have the different Ambassadors taken

leave of Constantinople , when the Minister , whom no amount of Ambassadorial prcssuro affected in the slightest degree , is turned ignominiously adrift , and sent no one knows whither . Whether the present Sultan has a taint of his uncle ' s madness or his brother ' s imbecility

about him , we know not . It seems , however , an act of sheer wantonness on his part to dismiss his most trustworthy minister at , perhaps , the most critical epoch in Turkish history . There are those who attribute this sudden change to the machinations of General Ignatief ,

who , finding Midhat tho resolute enemy of Russian intrigues , and the most capable of successfully resisting them , has been secretly at work undermining Midhat's position ,

and has , for the moment , succeeded . Wc should not be in the least surprised if this were the case . Other reasons are assigned for the dismissal of the Grand Vizier , but , whatever the true cause , wc cannot but regard the matter

Our Weekly Budget

as likely to induce further complications—not immediately perhaps , but at no very distant date . However , now that our English Parliament is in session , wo shall be in a better position to understand all the complex transactions of the past few months , and the present aspect of the question .

We have just received tho Masonic Review for December . It contains a very elaborate sketch of American Union Lodge , No . 1 , jurisdiction of Ohio , to which we may recur in some future issue . Oar present purpose is to note tho

severance of Bro . Cornelius Moore ' s connection with this magazine , after having piloted it skilfully through all those vicissitudes to which periodical literature is liable . We wish we could have ] said successfully as well as skilfully , but in such case there would have been no severance to

record . It ia the very reverse of creditable to our Ohian brethren to find that after a distinguished member of their brotherhood has devoted the energy and ability of a lifetime to promoting , as far as in him lay , the cause of Masonry ; after he has worked on the Masonic Revieio

throughout forty-eight volumes , that distinguished member should find himself under the necessity of abandoning his task to others who , though not abler or more energetic in the cause of Masonic literature , are financially in a position , to continue it . Bro . Moore , we repeat , deserves to have met with a better return for his labours than to find

himself , towards the end of a long and well-spent life , in the position he was when he was first admitted into a Lodgo of Freemasons . We are pleased to hear that he will givo the new editor , Bro . Melish , the benefit of his long

experience , and we trust , for the honour of Ohian Masonry , that the latter may experience better fortune . This , indeed , is the only amends our Ohian friends can make for their shabby treatment of Bro . Moore—namely , to support the magazine which owes its being to his energy and ability .

It appears , according to Le Monde Maqonnique , that the Grand Orient of Italy has just recognised the Prince Hall Grand Lodge and the coloured Grand Lodge of Ohio . "We learn further that the Grand Orient of Egypt , by a decree dated 1 st November 1876 , declines to recognize the Grand

Orient of France as a regular Masonic Power , unless the proposition adopted at the annual meeting of the latter in September , relative to Article I . of the Constitution , is withdrawn . Our readers will , no doubt , remember that this proposition has for its object to strike out so much of

the Article in question as declares that belief in the existence of the G . A . O . T . U . is a fundamental principle of Freemasonry ; that it was carried by a large majority of votes ; and that it only awaits confirmation by the several French lodges in order to become law at the next meeting of the Grand Orient .

The Masonic Jewel records an irreparable calamity which has recently befallen the Masonic Grand Bodies of Arkansas . On the 19 th December last a fire broke out at Little Rock , in the head quarters of Freemasonry in this State , tbe result being that all the records , jewels , and

paraphernalia , as well as of the subordinate , as of the Grand bodies , were totally destroyed , together with the Grand Lodge Library . The fire attacked the staircase , so that access to the different halls was rendered impossible . Last

year , it seems , all the printed proceedings of Grand Lodge , Chapter , and Council , were burned just when they were ready for delivery ; and the Jewel trusts that after this second and more terrible mishap our brethren of Arkansas may bo less unfortunate . We fully endorse this wish .

In the Voice of Masonry will bo fonnd a very elaborate notice by Bro . Hughan , of Bro . Smith ' s History of tho Humber Lodge , now No . 57 , published at Hull in 1855 . Bro . Hughan points out several errors which need to bo corrected , but speaks generally in hig h terms of Bro . Smith ' s

work . For the benefit of our readers we may as well mention that Humber Lodge has , at the present time , about two hundred and fifty members ; that the value of its Hall and furniture is about £ 2 , 500 ; that its " Benevolent and

Pension Funds " are in the possession of funds to the oxtent of close ou £ 5 , 000 ; and ( hat , in addition , it has a " Poor Fund " for the education of children of deceased members , ancl casual relief , and an " Independent Sinking Fund " likewise .