The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-10-09 00:00:00

FATHER HYACINTHE.

Carm.elitea

The General of the Order of Barefooted
to which pre Hyacinthe belonged, has written a letter
nnleriug him to return to the convent within ten days,
pain of excommunication. The superior entreats
his' reverend father," by a "heroic resolution," to
repair the grave scandal he has caused, and to "console
the Church, his mother, whom he has so greatly
afflicted."

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under

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One of the Paris papers gives some interesting par- I
fielders respecting the tint appeandice of Father Ilya- I
clothe. It appears that the free-thinking tendenciee
of the ecclesiastic do not date from yesterday. It
was in the year lii62 that Father Hyacinthe, on the
iniitation of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, for
the tirst time ascended the pulpit of the church of St.
Nizier, at Lyons, as idilettitute for Father Hermann,
who enjoyed considerable fame as a preacher, but was
then attacked by illness. Father Hyacinthe confined
himself at first entirely within the limits of the instrac-
none given him by his superiors ;the comrneneement of
his discourse was cold and unimpassioned, and failed to
excite any enthusiasm in his audience; suddenly, how-
ever, he followed his own inspiration, and uttered an
eloquent apostrophe on the want of brotherly love in
the present assembly and in the Church, and on the
universal selfishness which prevailed in its place. This
latter portion of his discourse caused no little surprise,
and was the subject of muck comment.
In a second sermon he announced quite plainly a
preference for morality over dogma. "I have
wandered over the world," he said, " and have every-
where found only genus of intelligence, and atoms of
understanding. I have entered the cloister anti have
there only met with abortive saints." 'rhe Archbishop
of Lyons, Cardinal Bonald, heard this sermon
preached. and was highly offended at it. In the first
burst of his indignation he sent for Father Hyacinths
and forbade him to preach in any church of his diocese.
The urgent representations of the highest society in
Lyons induced him to withdraw this prohibition. He
again sent for Father Hyacinths, and in a mild and
uncommonly forbearing manner put before him the
harm he would do to the Church if he went on with his
violent attacks upon it. Father Hyacinthe could not
resist this friendly address, and promised to control
himself in future. It was not until lately that he
' found himself unal le to keep this promise any longer.

SHOCKING DOUBLE MURDER AT
WOOD-GREEN.
A tragedy of a very shocking character took place
at Wood-green, a suburb of London, on Monday even-
ing. The victims are a young woman named, Maria
Death, and a gentleman named William Boyd; and
their murderer is a young carpenter of the name of
Hinson, who cohabited with Death. Hinson and Boyd
had both separated from their taiives, and were living
with other women. Their gardens were contiguous ;
and the intimacy of Boyd with Death gave use to a
feeling of jealousy on the part of Hinson, which led to
the murder.
Mr. William Boyd, who is reported to be a man of
considerable wealth, lived in a Minn of his own, called
Elder Cottage, and Hinson and Death lived in a cot-
tage, made out of a summer-house in a garden at the
back of Netter Cottage. The gardens of the two houses
were contiguous, and an intimacy sprang up between
Boyd and Death which waa most assiduously cultivated
by the former. No sympathy whatever is expressed in
Woml-green at the death of Boyd, who lo tlescribed as
a man of the most licentious character whose constant
topic of conversation was the conquests he had made.
He lived in good style; and had been separated from
his wife for ten or twelve years.
Hinson has been living apart from his wife about six
years, and during nearly the whole of that period has
been cohabiting with Death, whose acquaintance lie
made when she Was acting as companion to a lady, at
that time living in the neighbourhood, but since dead.
They are said to have lived together on the happiest
terms until Boyd came to the neighbourhood. They
hail two children.
For some time past If nson has been employed at
Kingsbury Farm near Hendon; and it had been ar-
ranged that on Saturday next they should leave Wood.
gres n, and take a cottage near the place where he
worked. On Monday morning, on leaving home,
Hinson told Death he should not be able to return
until Wednesday. This may have been a ruse
on his part to throw the deceased off their guarst ;
and, if it was, it succeeded too well. The
prisoner never left the village and after an ab-
sence of several hours, returned house to find
Death gone. A f ter a little inquiry, he discovered that
Boyd, after drinking with si dile people at a tavern,
had proceeded to London. From the time he made
this discovery he hung about the railway statism, and
examined every train that arrived from London.
Those he sought came by the five o'clock train from
ICieg's-cross. Death and Boyd emerged from the
same carriage, accompanied by two street musicians
who had been hired by Boyd for the day. The
suspected couple were very much astonished on
seeing Hinson, and an indescribable terror took pos-
session of Death. Hinson was furious when he saw
them, and began to upbraid them; and they walked
along the platform and across the wooden bridge which
spanned the rails to the roadway. They had not got
more than sixty yards from the station when Hine, in
knocked Boyd down, and Death ran back to the
station in great fear, asel appealed to several gentle-
men for protection. Site exclaimed, " I'm afraid of
my life ; do protect me !" but no one interfered.
H insort followed her ; while Boyd, getting sip f rom
the ground, walked quietly away toward his own
house. The poor woman for some time refused to
leave the station, but ultimately walked unwillingly
with Hinson in the direction of their house. He was
heard to say to her, "Well, come and see the childie
at any rate." As they walked he held her tighly by
the arm, and for some distance partly pulled her along.
Several persons followed tnem at a distance from
idle curiosity, but little thinking of the tragical ter-
mination which the quarrel would have. They had to
walk some distance before reaching their home ; and
they were beard quarrelling the whole distance—he
accusing, she denying. At length they reached the gar-
den, and those who were watching stopped in the
roadway. She walked op the garden with him, but
would not enter the house, loitering about the window
as though looking for her chil irem. But lEDSOII went
into the place, and in a moment there was a flash,
a report, and Death fell among some bushes in the
garden. Hinson had taken an old fowling-piece, which
was loaded with shot, thrust it through a pane of
glass, and shot the unhappy woman through the
heart. Those who looked on must have been paralysed
with fear, for no one ventured to the assistance of the
woman, and Hinson was seen to come out of the
cottage, and, standing over the prostrate body, to
deal it a fearful blow with the butt end of the rifle.
So savage was this blow, that the stock watt shat
tered, and the woman's skull was fractured. Leav-
ing her body, he walked down the garden, holding the
barrel of the gun in his hand. No one attempted to
arrest him, and going to Boyd's house, he knocked at
the door. No one answered the summons, and with-
out delay he burst open the door, and meeting the
housekeeper, demanded, "Where is he?" The
woman made no answer, and, after searching the
rooms, he went through the gar den to the
stable, where he found Boyd and the two
musicians. Seizing Boyd, he flung him through
the doorway with such violence as; to cause him
to fall to the ground. The musicians looked on
with amazement, and, turning to them while Boyd
still lay upon the ground, and swinging the gun.
barrel around his head, he bade them get out of the
way. Both men fled at once, leaping over the garden
fences in their hurry to escape. The next Mutant
Hirdion planted his foot upon the breast of his prostrate
victim, and beat out his brains with furious blows.
So fearfully sudden were the blows that those who
afterwards saw the body state that the murdered man
had time only to raise his hands before he was dead.
Having perpetrated this second murder, Hinson
quietly returred to his own garden. He then found the
dress id Death on fire ;and, still holding the gun-barrel
in one hand, he was putting out the fire with the other
hand, whom Police-sergeants Neill and Searle arrived.
Searle laid hold of him and was knocked down ins
stantly. Neill, who knew the man, spoke a few words
to soothe him, and he replied, " What did he in-
terf ere with me for ; let me put out this fire."
Then he stooped again, and, midst.' by Neill the tire
Was extinguished, which hail teen slowly spreading over
the dress of the murdered woman ; and Neill after-
wards seized the gun-barrel, before Hinson was aware.
Both officersthen laid hold of him, and a large addi-
tional force arrived. The prisoner was even then
seemed with difficulty, but at last he was hand-
cuffed, and strapped to the stirrup of a mounted
officer. Surrounded with policen en, he was then
led away to the police-station. On art Mug there,
as soon as he was liberates! from the stirrup,
another fit of passion seized him, with superhuman
strength he flung the officers from him, knocking some
of them down, and drawing an open knife from his
pocket, which had been unobserved, he stabbed him-
self in the left side of his neck. The wound, however,
was very slight, and he was quickly disarmed. He
made Tao secret of his crime, and pleaded to the charge
as soon as it was read over to him.
The prisoner is about five feet eleven inches in
height, and thin, but exoeedinaly muscular, and he
seems to have been noted for a strong determination if
character. His father and other relatives reside in
Wood-green. The deceased woman is said to be about
eight-and-twenty, and very handsome, while Boyd is
said to be about forty years of age. Maria Death is
saiii to be an orphan.
The case, as readily may be imagined, created the
greatest excitement in the neighbourhood, and the
population showed their excitement not no much by
crowding around the houses where the battered corpses
lie, under su Mt luck and key, as by assembling in
groups in their own blooming garden fronts, and dwell-
ing upon the horrors of the deed. Hinmn's fate is
generally pitied—too much it is to be feared—as if he
were the hero of is romance ; and that of his illstarred
mistress meets with partial sympathy, and the murder
of Boyd is freely sicken of as a deed of retributive
justice, rough and brutal though it might have been.
Ifinson's bearing at the time of the murders, and since,
has been that of a man who had determined to do a
desperate act and suffer the consequences. Several
times he has expressed a kind of ferocious regret for
what he has done. To the policemen who were taking
him to the station OD Monday he said he was curry
because "she was a good creature." On Tuesday he
said he was sorry "for the sake of his friends," amid in
other similar ejaculations he has expressed a pity for
others which he has not evinced either for Boyd or
himself. On Tuesday he also said, in the hearing of
one of the many peilicemen with whom he came into
contact, " Ah, I little thought this would have hap-
pened this time yesterday r In spite id this observa-
tion, however, made more in the way of soliloquy than
to those near him, it his hard to resist the conclusion
that there was stern method in the affair throughout.
The whole story of the crime proves a determination or
the etrongest nature. He accomplished his act of
revenge without a symptont of haste or wildness.
Thr re was no impulsive leaping of fences, or rushing
from one place to another, as the fimt accounts would
have us believe. The motive is but too clear, and
jealousy and revenge were the moving motives.
In then t of Hinson we see what the world has seen
in e‘ my age, one if the deepest instincts of humanity
aroused and excited to the fury of resentment, and
prong:4llg their subject to the destination of those