Our Weekly Budget.

Hunt Cup , by Captain Middleton s Minotaur—this was however disqualified by losing a weight—and the Selling Stakes by Goldcoast , the property of Captain Soames of Scaldwell , Hon . Secretary to tho Hunt . Her Imperial Majesty left Cottesbrooke for London the day following ,

and set oil * immediately for the Continent , travelling via Calais to Vienna . Her son , the Imperial Crown Prince , was at a grand ball on Thursday , given at Kimbolton Castle , by the Duke and Duchess of Manchester . Yesterday he was to have visited the Queen at Windsor , and to-morrow , he will leave England on his return home .

Warlike preparations are being urged forward with all possible rapidity in all our dockyards and at Woolwich Arsenal . Stores are being shipped off to the Mediterranean for Malta and the fleet as fast as the transports can be loaded . Orders are being given to various contractors for the supply

of waggons , stabling , & c , & c . A Government agent has been this week at Bristol with instructions to purchase 5 , 000 horses , at , it is said , £ 50 each . All our vessels of war , ironclads and gunboats , and every class of intermediate vessel , are being got ready , and several battalions

at Aldershot are at once to receive their regimental transport such as thoy require for a campaign . The men at our dockyards are working overtime ; in fact , there is no doubt about the earnestness with which our preparations to meet all eventualities are being pressed forward , and there is

equally no doubt that a very considerable hole will be made in tbe six millions voted by the Parliament for this special service between jiow and the 31 st March . Our Mediterranean Meet , moreover , is now reinforced by the Channel squadron , consisting of four huge ironclads , the Minotaur

( flagship ) , Black Prince , [ Resistance , and Shannon . Thus , if war should unfortunately come , it will not be the fault of the Government if John Bull is not in good fighting trim , far better , indeed , than we were when the Crimean war broke out .

Of course , meetings continue to be held , the majority of them being with a view to support the Government . One took place on Saturday afternoon in Trafalgar-square , when from 2 , 000 to 4 , 000 were gathered together , and resolutions were passed in favour of the Government . One

is fixed for to-morrow ( Sunday ) in Hyde Park , and one was to have been held at the Agricultural Hall on Thursday , when Mr . Gladstone and some of his supporters were to have been present and addressed the people . However , the conveners thought it would be better to postpone it .

We think they acted wisely in so doing , for there was every probability of a shindy taking place , as is evident from the fact that the police had made great preparations , and were to be present outside the Hall in considerable force .

The Lord Mayor ancl Lady Mayoress attended in State on Saturday last at the Alexandra Palace , when a grand entertainment was given in aid of the victims of the war , the whole of the proceeds , after actual expenses had been paid being handed to the Committee acting under his

lordship for the Baroness Burdett-Coutts' Compassionate Fund . The entertainment was on a most extensive scale , and included a ballad concert in the Central Hall , dramatic performance , with the transformation scene of the pantomime —Vertumna and the Swallows—Mr . Conquest , the first act

of the Pink Dominoes , patriotic songs , the Mohawk Minstrels , and the British Army Quadrilles , which last awakened the most intense enthusiasm amongst the audience . The whole concluded with a grand display of fireworks by Mr . James Pain .

The thirteenth annual report of the Trustees of the Peabody Fund is very satisfactory . They mention that a sum of £ 12 , 065 has been received from an anonymous source towards the general purposes of the fund , the amount of which , at the end of the year 1876 , was £ 643 , 310 , and by

the end of the year 1877 bad been increased to £ 677 , 165 . £ 72 , 627 had been spent during the year in tho purchase of freehold property , and the erection of new buildings . Of this £ 25 , 000 was paid for Bochester Buildings , Old Pye Street , the property belonging to Mrs . William Gibbs , who

sold it far below its real value , as she felt it would be bettei managed by the Peabody Fund . The trustees up to the present time have provided accommodation for 2 , 3-11 families , numbering upwards of 10 , 000 persons , The weekly

earnings of the heads of these families ranged from £ 1 0 s lOd in Shadwell to £ 1 6 s 3 d in Southwark , the average rent being 4 s 2 d per week . The net income derived from the occupied buildings is about 3 j per cent , per annum upon the cost , The number of persons in residence

Our Weekly Budget.

at the end of last year was 8 , 058 , and the death rate 20 " 3 per 1 , 000 . Cabinet Councils wore held on Saturday , Monday , Tuesday , Wednesday , and Thursday , and no wonder , considering how critical a state of things prevails in the political world , and

that at any moment we may wake up and find ourselves engaged in war with Russia . However some silly people , like Sir Wilfrid Lawson , the Parliamentary temperance leader , may try to ridicule the efforts of Ministers to steer the vessel of the State through the perils to which she is

surrounded , there is little doubt the great majority of the nation have the greatest confidence in their zeal and anxiety to preserve the honour and interests of Old England . Somo of the most influential Liberals have given their adhesion to the Government .

Pope Pius IX . is dead , and another Pope , by the title of Leo XIII ., occupies tho Chair of St . Peter in his stead . The neAv Pope was chosen on Wednesday , the Cardinals having met in secret conclave the day previous . The Pope

Elect is Cardinal Pecci , and according to the different accounts we have seen , His Holiness appears to be a man admirably suited , by birth , culture and mind , for the exalted position he is to hold . Leo XIII . was born in 1810 , and is therefore in the full maturity of his powers .

The speech of Prince Bismarck on Tuesday in the German Parliament was looked forward to with amazing interest by the whole of Europe , but now it has been uttered , no one seems to know exactly what to make of it . Or rather , perhaps , everybody may read it any way he

chooses to interpret it . The gist of the speech appears , so far as it is possible to probe it , that he is friendly with Austria , and has no feeling of antagonism towards England . Peace , he thinks , will come , and he is resolved to do nothing , and will advise the Emperor to do nothing , but watch , as

heretofore , over German interests . It will be only when these are affected that the Prince will feel it his duty to counsel his Imperial Master to draw the sword in their defence . The same day the Austrian Keichstag and the Hungarian Diet met , and in both houses the Ministers present

expressed the views of the Emperor as to the crisis . In both these speeches , there will be noticed the greatest clearness and precision . Both Prince Auersperg in the Reichstag , and Herr Tisza in tho Diet , declared there were certain of the peace preliminaries which it would be

impossible to reconcile with the safety of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy , and that no conditions would be accepted which in any way affected the security of the people . Now it is certain that as the peace preliminaries

stand now , Austro-Hungary would be ruined if they were permitted to remain . It is possible , therefore , that though Austria may not make common cause with this country , she has yet further and greater complications for her with Russia in store .

As to the state of things in the East , peace negotiations between Russia and Turkey are still in progress , though the latter can do little but sign any terms that may be demanded cannot but he very clearly seen . Constantinople is at the mercy of the invader , for the lines , which might have offered a strenuous resistance for some months to

come , have been virtually surrendered to the enemy , or rather , the Turks have given up all idea of defending them , and the Czar ' s forces are so close at hand that there is nothing to prevent them advancing and taking possession of them without firing a shot . Meanwhile , there is no

doubt that Russia is continually pouring fresh troops into Roumania , that she is hastening the manufacture of torpedoes , supplying her armies in Bulgaria and Roumelia with fresh ammunition and supplies of all kinds . Where her money comes from is not very material . Either that

or credit must be at her disposal , or the efforts she is making could not last a week . In Asia the latest news is that tho Turks had gained some advantages , but intelligence had at length arrived of the signature of the armistice , and military operations were therefore immediately stopped .

However , it is the political not the military aspect of things which is uppermost in the minds of every class of people , and there is no good attempting to shut our eyes to the fact that , to use a common expression , there will be a pretty kettle of fish to fry . Roumania , who came so

gallantly forward to assist the Czar in his greatest difficulties last summer , is growing more and more v "' .-.-rttisned with the treatment she is receiving back . There is no concealment that Russia will take back Roumanian Bessarabia if Austria will allow it . Moreover , the Roumanian railways

arc virtually taken possgssion of by Russia , and the Czav a