These barriers were soon broken, but the prince still found some difficulty in advancing, as the inhabitants had filled with carriages the deep and narrow road by which he wished to gain access. He therefore entered by another avenue. The inhabitants, and their military assistants, opposed him on each occasion with much bravery; but their numbers were too small for efficient resistance; and, after a running fight maintained with great spirit through the streets, the Parliamentarian party left the town to the mercy of their assailants. In the course of this series of tumultuous conflicts, William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the prince, was killed by a random shot. On the other side a clergyman, who acted as governor, was slain in the Red Lion Inn, having refused quarter from those who seized him. Prince Rupert, incensed by the vigorous, but hopeless, resistance he had experienced, set fire to several houses, and levied a heavy fine on the towns-people. In the year 1665, this place experienced, in a dreadful degree, the disease emphatically termed the plague. The bodies of the numerous victims were conveyed for interment to Lady Wood Green, an acre of waste land since denominated the Pest Ground. We have hitherto seen Birmingham respectable for industry, but limited in extent. Her laborious habits, unaccompanied by striking genius, or activity of speculation, have not yet lifted her above the level of such a society of mere smiths as were seen working at the forge by the observant Leland. The restoration of monarchy in the person of Charles II. is the period from which Birmingham dates her great rise in commercial prosperity.* Implements of husbandry, tools used in carpentry, and such coarse articles of iron manufacture, had, till now, chiefly engrossed the attention Ꭲ 4 It is traditionally said that the increase of the town in the reign of Charles II. was in a great degree owing to what was termed the Five Mile Act, which drove the Nonconformist preachers from corporate towns. In Birmingham these ejected ministers found an asylum; and their congrega tions following them, added considerably to the population of the place. attention of the artizan. The reign of the second Charles, a long holiday after the troubles of civil contest, produced a relaxation in public manners, and a demand for those embellishments of luxury, which may be termed the playthings of elegant habit. In this reign the toy trade was first cultivated in Birmingham. Industry, the great basis of successful effort, was already the possession of the natives. Encouragement stimulated genius; and the trade has since been carried to an extent unprecedented in the annals of manufacture, and productive not only of local wealth, but of national pride. From the Restoration to the present time the history of Birmingham is happily comprised in a view of its progress in arts, buildings, population, and commercial opulence, with the exception of one lamentable instance of a turbulent and most dangerous spirit in the lower classes. On Thursday, July 14, 1791, about eighty-one persons of various denominations assembled at the hotel, in this town, to celebrate the anniversary of the French Revolution. A mob collected; and the party assembled for the celebration prudently retired. But the populace, not content with this moderate triumph, broke the windows of the hotel; and, their numbers increasing, they proceeded to acts of more serious violence, encouraging each other in the work of devastation by clamours, fantastically expressive of a love of church, king, and good order! The horrors of a popular ferment in a place containing such numerous throngs of artizans, to whom riot was as a festival when once it was set on foot, may be readily imagined. The idle and the vicious issued from every alley of the town; and, joining the cry of "No false Rights of man!" stimulated the inflamed and thoughtless congregation of labourers to such undertakings as promised most plunder. As the mob professed themselves peculiar friends to the Church of England, they commenced their operations by setting fire to the meetinghouse belonging to the celebrated Dr. Priestley. This they soon reduced to ashes; and a second conventiele shared the same fate. They then proceeded to the dwelling of the philosophic and amiable preacher, which was about a mile distant from the town. Dr. Dr. Priestley, himself, happily escaped their rage; but they burned his extensive premises; and, we lament to say, that his philosophical apparatus, and valuable manuscripts (the fruits of many years' labour and observation) perished in the flames! The mob remained in possession of power for the three following days, though judicious steps were taken by the magistrates to appease the tumult. These horrible days will be long remembered in Birmingham! All business was necessarily at a pause. The principal shops were shut, and no inhabitant deemed himself secure from the visitation of a throng so perniciously compounded of the capricious and the designing. The firebrand spread its ravages in town and country; and many of the rioters, reduced to a state of brutal intoxication by the liquors which they plundered, perished in the flames which themselves had raised. On the evening of Sunday the 17th, military assistance arrived; but the rumour of such an approach was sufficient. This mob had too much ferocity to possess genuine courage; and the despicable concourse, so formidable to the unarmed, slunk quietly away on the slightest appearance of opposition. Among the ravages committed in this disastrous season, must be noticed the following:-On Friday, the 15th of July, were burned the mansion of John Ryland, Esq. at Easy Hill; Bordesley Hall, the elegant residence of Mr. Taylor; and Mr. Hutton's house, and stock in the paper trade, books, furniture, &c. at Birmingham. On Saturday, the 16th, were destroyed the house and furniture of the truly respectable Mr. Hutton, at Saltley, the country residence of that gentleman; the residence of George Humphreys, Esq. and that of William Russell, Esq. of Showel Green; Moseley Hall, a seat occupied by the venerable Lady Carhampton, who was enfeebled and blind through age. Five other houses were also burned in the course of this day. Sunday the 17th was ushered to notice by the destructiom of King's Wood meeting-house; and, on the same day, besides other devastation, the mob plundered Edgbaston Hall, the residence of Dr. Withering. The The damage arising from these outrages was moderately estimated at 60,000l. Public justice was satisfied by the execution of two of the principal offenders; and an act was obtained, in 1793, to reimburse the persons whose property had sustained injury. The buildings of Birmingham, like those of most English towns not formed in dependence on a castellated edifice, were originally placed in a low and watery situation. The chief street of the ancient town is that termed Digbeth, a tract naturally well sheltered, and containing some excellent springs, which still form the best resource of the town in point of water. At the time of the Restoration it is supposed that Birmingham consisted of about fifteen streets, though not all finished; and about nine hundred houses. The increase of buildings since that period has exceeded the calculations of the most sanguine; and the town no Jonger crouches in humility of site, but boldly solicits the ingress of the winds from each point of the compass. Modern Birmingham is approached on every side by an ascent, except from the north-west; and, as scarcely any of the streets lie on a dead flat, every shower conduces to cleanliness and health. As the chief parts of this immense town are of comparatively modern erection, the examiner will be induced to expect that the great errors of antiquity, in respect to formation of streets and character of domestic architecture, are here avoided; and, in a general point of view, he will find that his anticipations were correct. Many of the avenues are of a desirable width. Where the population is composed of such various classes no regularity of building can be expected; but the greater portion of the houses are, in appearance, of a highly creditable description. Few dwellings are calculated to convey a just notion of the great opulence enjoyed by many persons engaged in commercial pursuits *; but From this remark, however, must be excepted the Crescent, intended to comprehend a truly fine range of domestic buildings. According to the original plan, the houses are 23 in number, and are elevated on a terrace, 1182 feet but the principal houses connected with shops for the display of goods in trade are eligible and commodious. It appears that a kind of mania for building has for some time prevailed in Birmingham; and we are compelled to observe, on the authority of the historian of the town, that the architecture prevailing in tenements of an inferior order is " rather shewy than lasting. The proprietor generally contracts for a house of certain dimensions, at a stipulated price: this induces the artist to use some ingredients of the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether he can cement the building with sand instead of lime. Many of these houses," continues Mr. Hutton, "have been brought forth, answered the purposes for which they were created, and been buried in the dust, during my acquaintance with Birmingham." But as the most distinguished efforts of this enterprising place are directed to the advance of its manufactures, it is there that we should look for the chief display of the builder's skill; and every principal fabric connected with the numerous arts cultivated in this "great toy-shop of Europe," is commodious, substantial, and judiciously adapted to its object. The number of domestic buildings, and of inhabitants, has been thus traced through different periods: A. D. Streets. Houses. Inhabitants. 1731.........51............3717............23,286 1741.........54............4114............24,660 1781........125............8382............50,295 1791........203.......... 12,681...........73,653. To this statement we add that, according to the returns under the population act for 1801, the number of inhabited houses in Birmingham, feet long, and 17 feet high. The long and calamitous war, which operated severely on the trade of Birmingham, caused an interruption in the progress of this undertaking. But, with the welcome return of peace, the speedy completion of the buildings may now be confidently expected. * Hist. Birm. p. 71. |