Our Weekly Budget.

number of lives saved annually during the same period was 832 . Mr . R . Lewis , in his annual report , said there were 254 life boats , and the number of lives saved during the past year was 727 . Twelve silver medals , eigheen votes of thanks on vellum , and £ 3 , 289 had been granted by the society for

saving life , the number saved from the institution of the society being 23 , 790 . The receipts for the year wore £ 39 , 835 15 s 4 d , of which £ 12 , 932 9 s 6 d were special gifts towards defraying the cost of thirteen life-boats . The

expenditure , including liabilities , reach £ 39 , 395 7 s 5 d . Tlie report having been moved and adopted , and other resolutions having been agreed to , a vote of thanks to the chairman brought the proceedings to a close .

The Earl of Shrewsbury aud Talbot presided , on Wednesday evening , at the 13 th Anniversary Festival of the Royal Society of Musicians , held at Willis ' s Rooms . Over two hundred gentlemen , many of whom were distinguished musicians , were present to support his Lordship , who , in his

usual kindly and eloquent manner , advocated tho claims of the society to the support of every lover of music . The society , which has received the patronage of all the leading composers and musicians of their day , from the time of Handel downwards , grants monthly allowances ,

independent of grants for the education of children , to all worthy claimants . It also maintains and clothes the orphans of members , and apprentices them to respectable trades or professions , and further presents them with a gratuity of £ 10 for good conduct when the term of their apprenticeship has

expired . The members exceed two hundred , and there are at present eight members , forty-two widows , and fifteen children receiving funds from the institution . Seven children , also , with each of whom a premium of £ 25 was paid , have been apprenticed . The expenses for the year to 31 st

December last amounted to £ 370116 s . 10 d ., and the portion of the funeral expenses of the late Sir W . Sterndale Bennett , which had to be borne by the society , was £ 83 10 s . The musical arrangements of the evening were admirable , the services of the different artistes being rendered gratuitously .

The new French Ministry appear to be settling down steadily to their duties , and matters seemingly go on more harmoniously than wasexpected . Our violent friend , Bishop Dupanloup , however , appears to have grown very angry again , because the Minister for Public Instruction , Mr .

Waddington , has announced his intention of restoring to the state the solo power of granting degrees . This the reverend Bishop regards as a declaration of war against the Church on all points . The Emperor of Germany completed his 79 th year on Wednesday . The occasion was

generally celebrated throughout Germany , the majority of whose princes sent representatives to offer His Imperial Majesty their felicitations . Field Marshal Wrangel addressed the emperor on behalf of the army . Berlin was illuminated , and there was a grand court dinner at which

Imperial and Royal Ministers and others were present . Madrid has been the scene of grand rejoicings on the occasion of the triumphal entry of the young King Alphonso at the head of a portion of his victorious army . There seems at length to be some prospect of an armistice

between the Turks and the insurgent subjects of His Majesty the Sultan . This is said to be due partially to the decided attitude of Austria ' s representatives , as well as to the earnest exhortations of the Prince of Montenegro in favour of peace . The new Italian Ministry is not yet

completely constituted , but it is regarded as certain that Signor Depretis will be President of the Ministry and Minister of Finance , Signor Melegari will take the Foreign portfolio , and Signor Mancini that of Justice . As regards a successor to General Scheuk as Minister at the English

court , the Senate Committee have reported against the nomination by the President of Mr . Dana . Severe storms are said to have prevailed throughout the United States , and several wrecks have taken place on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts ; in other parts of the world , too , the weather

has been mo . ' - . h unfavourable , so that we in England are not the only peopU' whom tho Clerk of the Weather has been troubling of late . It is but a sorry consolation , however , that others have been suffering the same discomforts as we have . Perhaps , next week we may bo able to report some improvement ; w e hope so , at all events .

The regular meeting of the Grand Lodge of Benevolence ¦ was held on Wednesday , the 22 nd inst ., at Freemasons ' Ball , Great Queen-street . Bro . James Brett P . G . P . in the chair . There were 34 cases . Grants to tho amount of £ 238

previously voted were confirmed , and fresh cases to the amount of £ 536 were relieved . There were present Bros . J . Smith , E . P . Albert , S . Rawson , Hyde Pullen , J . Wright , H . Dicketts , F . Binckes , A . Cottebrune , J . Boyd , T . Cubitt , J . Hervey , H . G . Buss , W . C . Crick ,

W . H . Myers , H . Bartlett , S . Poynter , Griffiths Smith , W . Mann , W . Wiggington , M . Suffield , E . Harris , J . Cox , T . Colin , W . Stephens , J . J . Perry , J . A . Barnard , C . F . Hogard , E . Budden , M . Chubb , B . Clegg , C . Burmeister ,

E . H . Stanwitz , W . H . Hemsworth , M . Higgs , J . Carnaby , R . Grigg , C . Martin , E . H . Honeyman , E . King , J . Barnes , Ward , J . Green , W . Buck , C . W . Kent , A . Vanderlyn , P . Wagner , C . Pulman , George Lambert , J . Burt , J . Watts , B . Swallow , J . Cox , H . M . Levy , & c , & e .

On Thursday , the 30 th instant , the ordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the Crystal Palace District Gas Company , of which Bro . Magnus Ohren is Secretary , will be held . From the Directors' report for the half-year to 31 st December 1875 , which will then be presented , it

appears that the general working of the Company has greatly improved during that period , and the directors have accordingly resolved to reduce the price of gas to four shillings per 1 , 000 cubic feet . They will also recommend that out of the balance of profit and loss , amounting to

£ 9 , 060 7 s Id , the following dividends be paid , namely : — at 6 per cent , per annum on preference capital ; at 7 per cent , per annum on the ordinary 7 per cent , capital ; at 10 per cent , per annum on the original capital ; at 7 per cent , per annum on the converted 7 per cent , capital , and at 10

per cent , per annum on the converted 10 per cent , capital ; all to be paid less income tax . This will absorb £ 8 , 085 7 s 6 'd , and leave £ 374 19 s 7 d to be carried forward to the profit of the succeeding half-year . The capital account of the company shows a total of receipts to 31 st December of

£ 229 , 504 , and a total expenditure of £ 214 , 745 15 s 6 d , leaving a balance of £ 14 , 7 o 8 4 s 6 d . The revenue account shows receipts amounting to £ 48 , 5 G 1 19 s Id , and expenditure £ 38 , 277 9 s 9 d , leaving a balance carried to profit and loss account of £ 10 , 284 9 s 4 d . The profit and loss account

shows receipts £ 10 , 622 Gs 9 d , of which £ 1 , 500 is carried to reserved fund , and £ 01 19 s 8 d has been paid as interest on temporary loans , ancl loans on bonds accrued to 31 st December , leaving a balance of net profit , as already stated , of £ 9 , 060 7 s Id .

It is not our custom to take note of matters which relate to the action or influence of any religious denomination . But the claims to supremacy over the civil power advanced by the Pope and certain Romish dignitaries on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church are so preposterous , that , we

are in no wise surprised tho Protestant Alliance should be anxious to draw attention to the pecuniary aid afforded to Roman Catholicism by the State in the United Kingdom and its dependencies . From a paper we have received we gather that a sum exceeding three quarters of a million

sterling is granted annually in England to the Roman Catholic church , while in Canada the annual value of Roman Catholic endowments exceeds a quarter of a million . Thus the section of Christianity which claims to lord it over all other Christian sects , as well as over the power of

the State , derives no small proportion of its means from the government grants . There are some who justify this expenditure , on the ground that education and religious instruction of any kind have a tendency to repress crime , but the statistics contained in this pnper . show unmistakabl y

that of the sum expended in England in 1875 for the repression of crime , one-fourth was occasioned by Koman Catholics , whereas , according to population , it should only have been about one-twentieth . In Ireland , the expenditure under the same head of service exceeded a million and

a quarter ; it should have been somewhat less than three quarters of a million . In Scotland , it considerably exceeded a quarter of a million , whereas it should have been only a low hundreds over £ 75 , 000 . We have taken the

figures furnished in this paper as correct , and we cannot but acknowledge that , having due regard to the action of Roman Catholicism , the Protestant Alliance is fully justified in bringing these matters as prominently as possible under the notice of the British public .

The ceremony of consecration and installation will be worked in the Islington Lodge of Instruction , Crown and