The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1876-06-24 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EDUCATION. _ Cardinal Manning presided on Teesdo; night at the annual meeting of the' Westminster Diocesan' Editdation- Fund, in St. James's Hall, London. He said he believed that they were now in a-crisis. Some years ago the denominational schools were the great • system of English' education, and had been traditional from the times of their forefathers' Five or six years ago a system was set up, necessarily, he would admit, for those who could not agree in religion, and altogether inevitable for those who unhappily had not got a religious unity left—and it was believed that that system was to supplement the existing one, and to provide for those who would not take advantage of the traditional means of education. But he was sorry to say that doettinaires and those whom he must call e,lucational revolutionists had been endeavauring to invert toe old order, and to cover the face of England with a new system, and to make the old traditional schools, which were voluntary and Christian, merely supplemental. Whatever system might be found necessary for those who were cornered in religion, he hoped that that system might be treated as excep- • tional, supplemental, and exclusively for them. He knew nothing more certain than that only Christian education could rek a Christian people, and education from which Christianity was excluded, would rear the people without Christianity, and a people who remained without Christianity would very rapidly become anti-Christian. Therefore, at the present time, they were at that point between ebb and flow at which 'they' ought with great energy to develop not only the extent of their voluntary schools, but also their efficiency to the lAgheFit pitch. . . _ _  A DOUBLE MURDER IN FRANCE; , At the assizes recently held at Tours a man named Maria has been found guilty (tvithnut extenuating circnuastances), and condemned to death, for the murder -of his wife and' father•in-law. In the Month .of. • Jinuary Mann called upon the Mayor of his Village and informed him that his wife had Just died. be vaayor, emitting to satisfy himself- as to the cause of death by medical evidence, as he was bound by French , law to have done, gave him an order for her ,burial; whiCli-a-ccordinkly took place. Mann's -behaviour t has'wife and her sudden death created some talk among the villagers; but it was nut until. the equally sudiden death of her father last April, soon after making a will, by which he left all his property to Mann, that the police were informed of the suspicions . entertained. Mann's application to the mayor for the necessary order for burial resulted in an examination of his father!in•law's body, which bore several marks of viOleiice. lltlrin was at-rested, and two villagers living in an ddjOining house came forward to say that they had heard a violent altercation between him and his ,fatlitr-in;law on: the night that the latter was supposed fo‘ havti'died. His wife's body was exhumed, thvgh ial an advanced state of decomposition, it boke unmistakable 'Signs of violence. Mann stoutly, denied baying-murdered them, though he had let drop 'so4te remarks which-the public prosecutor attempted to twist:Vito-.a confes9ion. The other, evidence was, however, kufficiently strong to warrant a verdict of - •; • ' The atensed, in answer to a question from 'the belich, said that "he did nothnow in what part of the Cenletery, Ids Wife Wag betried, as he had not taken the trouble to attend her funeral." • '' • .  . , Therd were 2,474 births and 1,280 deaths registered - in London larit week, the forffier having been 223 above, and the latter.4(l b.Plow, the average numbers. Four persons died from smill-pol, 40 from measles, 28 from scarletlever, 8 from diphtheriia, 42 from whooping c.ougli, 22 from different forms of fever, and 10 froin diarreo3a ; thus to tne,seven principal diseases of the zyinotl6'clais.l6o'dOiths Were referrfkagainst -197 and 177 In-the two preceding weeks. These it() deaths • were 16 b'elow the corrected dtetagb number fronithe same diseases in the corresponding week of the last tell years,. and . were equal to &datum' rate of Z.'4 per 1,00. . • - • W emoubstilualit t•nc) LAM •