The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-21 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER UPON
EDUCATION.

The Bishop of Manchester moved one of the resolutions
at the annual meeting of the Education Aid Society held
in his diocesan city on Monday. In the course of his speech
he criticised at some length the Government Education
Bill. It was, he said, one of the points that made him ap-
prehensive regarding the Government measure, that it
attempted to deal with the whole country, and with the
entire population, rural as well as urban, of which
circumstances were as different as could well be conceived,
upon the same principle and upon one procrustean plan.
It was feared by some that the bill would extinguish
their organization, and others of its class. That was not
his opinion. The Education Aid Society, he thought,
had a great future before it, if it would only
do as it had done—if it would go forth and say,
" Wherever I find a labouring school in the
midst of a destitute population, no matter to what
denomination it may lbelong, I will give that school a
share of my funds." The question of compulsion forced
itself upon them. If any system of compulsion, direct or
indirect, could be secured, which should be not merely
nominal, but real and effective, no one would rejoice at the
results of such a system more than he ; but
compulsion, it must be remembered, represented
a power that was most hateful to all English-
men : they would not stand the domiciliary visits
of the policeman ; and it would be necessary to plant in
the minds of parents that they must submit to the law
when it came to them in that form. A compulsory
prohibitory law, which was not effective, and
was constantly trampled under foot, was about
the most destructive thing to the social struc-
ture which could be put upon the statue book.
Unless compulsion became effective we should do better
without it. The Bishop was followed by Mr. Francis
Taylor, one of the sub-committee, which drew up the
Manchester Education Bill. Mr. Taylor replied to some
of his lordship's remarks. He (Mr. Taylor) was
not at all alarmed at the hobgoblin which
the Bishop had raised in the form of domiciliary visits.
The plan proposed had nothing whatever in the shape of
domiciliary visits. What he did fear was the proposal to
make compulsion permissive ; that was to make an act a
erime in Manchester while it was not so in Salford. The
bill had been, in his opinion, so much improved by the
new amendments that he had now great hopes of its
success.

WRBcKS.—During the past week 39 wrecks have
been reported, making for the present year 878.

At Tainworth, Alderman Carmichael, estate agent
to Sir Robert Peel, has been ordered to pay the penalty
of 40s. for bribery at the municipal election.

Lady Margaret Crum Thomson has died at Largs,
Ayrshire. She was the daughter of Walter Crum, Esq.,
of Thornliebank, and married, in 1852, Sir William Thom-
son, LL.D., D.C.L., Professor of Natural Philosophy in
the University of Glasgow, who was knighte 1 in 1866
for his services in connection with the Atlantic Cable.
—The death of Lady Simpson, widow of Sir James Y.
Simpson, is also announced.

THE DENHAM MITRDERS.—During the past few
days a number of letters have been received from various
parts of the country in reference to the previous history of
John Jones, alias Owen, alias Jenkins, alias Reynolds, the
man now in Aylesbury Gaol, charged with the per-
petration of the late murders at Denham. Super-
intendent Durham has received a letter from
Shipston-on-Stour, stating that a man named John
Owen, a journeyman blacksmith, resided there, and was
convicted of felony in 1855. Another letter states that a
man named John Owen, a native of Byfield, left
that place twenty years ago with a very bad reputa-
tion. He went to Birmingham, and has recently
been tramping the country as a blacksmith. Other
letters - evidently refer to Owen under . his alias of
Jenkins. Photographs of the prisoner are to be sent to
the writers of the letters, and there can be little doubt that
his previous history will soon be known. Several persons
who have seen the photograph aver that they have at
various times seen him at Denham, when, they believe, he
occasionally worked for Marshall.