Our Weekly Budget.

• who have been addressing their constituents must be mentioned Mr . Bright , whose speech was a very long one , and was well received by his audience , and Mr . Forster , who spoke at Bradford , directing his attention chiefly to the purchase of the Suez Canal Shares , an act which he most strongly condemned .

On Friday last , a Mr . R . B . Oakley was brought before the Lord Mayor and Alderman Sir Robert Garden , on a warrant charging him with having obtained certain sums of money and valuable securities from a Mr . H . R . Snellgrove , of Exeter , and a lady residing in Wales . The defendant is

the proprietor and manager of the Co-operative Credit Bank , and it is alleged the amount of his defalcations will reach the very considerable figure of £ 40 , 000 . Having heard a certain amount of evidence , the prisoner was remanded for a week , the Lord Mayor declining to admit him

to bail in the meantime . A Mr . William F . Dyer , a clerk in the employ of the North London Railway Company , has also been remanded to the next Session of the Central Criminal Court , for having uttered counterfeit coin to the passengers by that line . The Treasury have undertaken

the prosecution , and the Company ' s servants have rendered every facility in their power , for which the Treasury Solicitor publicly expressed his thanks in open court . Another alleged case of fraud has been before the Police

Magistrate at Worship-street , a Mr . John Greaves being charged with having obtained , within four months of his bankruptcy , goods on credit from various persons , and disposed of them in other than the ordinary course of business . Mr . Greaves was further remanded on the same bail

as before . The Clio has been lent by the Government to the Marine Society to replace tho Warspite . It has arrived off Woolwich from the Meclway , but Captain Phipps has not yet taken possession , nor , it is said , will he do so till she is

safely moored m the berth assigned for her at or near the dockyard . The Ordnance Store Department is reported to be averse to her lying there , on the score that with her draught ( 17 feet ) of water she will ground every tide , and cause damage to her hull .

The Royal Naval School at Greenwich , which has , hitherto , regularly fed , clothed , and educated eight hundred boys for the Navy , will , by a recent decision of the Lords of the Admiralty , be enlarged , so as to provide accommodation for an additional two hundred .

If we except , perhaps , the terrrible Abergele accident , the disaster at Abbott ' s Ripton , about four miles from Huntingdon , on the great Northern Railway , appears to be one of the most terrible that ever happened , ancl unpunctuality appears to have been at the bottom of the

affair . A mineral train was being shunted when the up express clashed into some of the waggons , and immediately the passengers were jerked to ancl fro , and several received severe contusions . The down express was known to be clue , and the engine of the mineral train went up

the line to prevent , if possible , a further catastrophe , but unfortunately the driver of the down express had an insufficient brake power , ancl the consequence was , it clashed into the overturned waggons ancl carriages , smashing them as though they were matchwood , ancl killing and

wounding a considerable number of the passengers . We believe already fifteen deaths have occurred , among them being a young Mr . Boucicanlt , the son of the actor of that name , while the injuries which many have received have been very fearful . The Great Northern line is said to be

worked on the block system , but it is clear the block system is inefficacious to prevent accidents . Considering , too , there are several powerful brakes in existence , it is strange that trains should be allowed to make a journey without being furnished with one strong enough to stop a train in

a quarter of a mile . We remember about two years since having inspected a model of the Heberlein continuous self-acting brake , so named after the inventor , and used on a great many German , Austrian and Russian lines . The evidence of the value of this brake was very strong

indeed , and its effect when applied was almost instantaneous . Existing carriages and engines could easily be fitted with the necessary apparatus , while the expense , if we remember rightly , was not very consicWablc . It could be applied to every carriage , or only to the engine

and front and hind carnages of all , while the apparatus for working was very simple , a mere pull of the connecting line or the moving of a handle being all that was required to apply it . We believe it is used on a section of the JNovth London Railway , and found to answer admirabl y .

Our Weekly Budget.

Then , too , there is the Westinghouse air brake , an American invention , and several others , any of which would havo been useful to have prevented such a terrible calamity . It is time something was done to reduce danger from railway travelling to a minimum . Life is too precious to be

sacrificed to the niggardliness of directors . A brake that will not act in a quarter of a mile is comparatively useless , and there is no excuse for using too little brake power , for the competition last summer showed there were several sorts of brakes it would be possible to have which would act

sufficiently in stopping a train even when going at a very high rate of speed . It is further said , with reference to this dreadful accident , that the Great Northern officials were neither courteous nor willing to render that assistance and information which the urgency of the case demanded . An

uncle of young Mr . Boucicanlt bitterly complained at the inquest of the cruel delays interposed by the authorities at King ' s Cross , at a time when both the nature and extent of the accident were fully known . We know officials are by

nature reticent , and it is quite right they should not be too communicative ; but the line must be drawn somewhere , and when it is known that a great calamity has happened , it seems to us to be a matter of policy to state all particulars .

We are , it seems , to have a Woman ' s Whisky War in England , as they have already had in the United States . Intemperance is an evil of the first magnitude , and one which , in the interests of society , it is desirable should be repressed as much as possible . But people are not likely

to be made sober by Act of Parliament , nor do we think that any violent action on the part of any class , or of the female sex , will be productive of lasting good . If people are forbidden to go into public-houses , they will simply drink on the quiet . For our part , we see a great objection to

violent measures . A crusade against whisky—or any other kind of liquor—drinking will be sure to fail of accomplishing any great amount of good . If tho system of licensing were subject to greater stringency , if houses , that is to say ,

were less easily licensed for the sale of drink , there would be a greater chance of the evil being diminished . Perhaps , too , if spirituous liquors were more costly , were regarded more as luxuries than as necessaries , we should have an abatement in the amount of drunkenness and the crime

which it leads to . But while every form of intemperance should be as much as possible discouraged , while all laudable attempts should be made to cure the national evil , we fear that any thing like a war it entrance against the liquor traffic will do harm rather than good .

The condition of the Shakers appears to be somewhat more prosperous . They have erected a fifth tent at their encampment at Hordle , the four they already possess being very substantial erections . They have had many hardships to endure during the winter , but there is no illness amongst them .

There are still several vacant seats in the House of

Commons , ancl the number has been increased within the last few days by the lamented death of Bro . Callendar , the second member for Manchester . Bro . Callendar was very

generally esteemed for his many eminent qualities , and by the Masons of his province especially , among whom he had held high provincial rank , his death will be very generally regretted .

It is said that the various Magna Charta Associations throughout the country will be invited to meet outside the house of Dr . Kenealy , in Tavistock Square , for the purpose of escorting the member for Stoke to the House of Commons on the opening day of the Session . We hope no such

tomfoolery will be permitted . Imagine what the state of London would be if every M . P . were escorted by his admirers to Palace Yard . If Dr . Kenealy has any common sense he must see that such public processions will not advance the cause he has chosen to advocate . To pass from Dr .

Kenealy to the convict Orton is not a particularly abrupt transition , and wc note that Mr . Cross , tho Home Secretary , has been memorialised by Mr . A . F . Bidclulph , of Greville Place , Kilburn , to receive a-deputation from the Release Association , relative to the case of the Claimant , but Mr .

Cross declined to do so . Mr . Bidclulph then wrote again to the Secretary , enclosing affidavits by Charles Orton , Mrs . Jury , and Mrs . Tredgett , to the effect that tlie man

convicted as Art hur Orton was not their brother . Tlie reply of Under Secretary Liddell is a neat specimen of the laconic style of writing . It runs thus : " Sir , —I am directed by Mr . Secretary Cross to acknowledge the receipt of your letter , forwarding affidavits of Charles