Weekly News. — 1891-05-21 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

YOUTHFUL GRADUATE IN CRIME. More information is now to hand respecting the murder committed at Oyonnax, in the Department I of the Ain, by a precocious boy-criminal, aged 11. This youthful candidate for the hulks, says the Daily Telegraph Paris correspondent, is called Jean Baptiste Maroc. A few days ago he enticed a boy of 4 into a meadow under the pretext of plucking buttercups and daisies, and there armed himself ! with a stout stick he found in a hedge. The I two wandered from the meadow to the brink of an adjoining river, and Maroc, telling his little companion to look down at a trout, threw him headlong into the stream. The child made a struggle to reach the bank, but Maroc beat him with the stick and battered his head and face with stones, just as urchins ()Mimes do when drowning a cat. Being unsuccessful in hie endeavours to keep his victim under water, Maroc dragged him out, threw him on the bank, sat on him, bit off part of his nose, broke his teeth, and strangled him. The juvenile murderer was arrested subsequently by two gendarmes and placed in Nantua Prison. In reply to the questions put to him by a magistrate, the precocious criminal ' said that the Devil had instigated him to do the fearful deed. It is not apparently Maroc's first essay in erirue. The young monster has already graduated as a boy burglar, having broken into a house and stelen articles therefrom about twelve months ago. Ile would serve undoubtedly as a useful and interesting study to Doctor Lombroso, or some other eminent and erudite observer of the ! wicked aspects and peculiarities of human nature.  THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL Some abstracts have already appeared of the lorthcoming Encyclical on the labour question; but, I eing for the most part too general or inexact, they fail to give a just idea of this new Pontifical document. The following, however, may be regarded 115 an aerate summary After a short introduction treating of the importance and difficulty ef the question and of the ned of its speedy solution, the Encyclical begins by rejecting the Socialist solution, which uld abolish private property and form a collective an] common ownership in its stead. It then speaks of th • solution to be drawn from Catholic teaching. 11 admits that, according to this teaching, various principles and elements must contribute to such solution; but the first and chief of all, it maintains, is the Church, without which all else would be ineffectual. The Encyclical on this point recalls the teaching of the Gospel, according to which masters and workmen have not to strive one against anether, but to live in harmony by the fulfilment of their mutual duties of justice. They have, moreover, to help me another, and to live together in a friendly and even brotherly union, as being all members of one family. The Encyclical then goes on to speak of the action which belongs to the State in this matter It lays down,first of all,in a general way, that the State must do its part in benefiting the working classes; and then, in particular, it maintains that thee State can and ought to intervene, whenever it has to fulfil its duty of protecting the common welfare and the rights of parties. In regard to this, the Encyclical considers one by one the chief objects for which the protective action of the State is needed,namely, private property, public tranquillity, and the advantage of the workmen themselves whether of mind or body. In treating of these objects the Encyclical speaks of the various questions concerning the rest from labour on Sundays and festivals, strikes, wages, and the hours of labour, considered with reference to the nature of the work and to the sex and age of the workers. The last part of the Encyclical relates to the working classes themselves, and especially to their various institutes and societies for mutual