The third track is so brief, and gives such a graphic report of this notable event in our history, that I have been induced to reproduce it entire in the Appendix.
An incidental allusion to the notoriety of Birmingham in the time of the Commonwealth appears in a work called Nelson's Collections, published in 1682. The frontispiece of vol. I contains a figure of his Satanic Majesty whispering in the ear of a double-faced zealot, trampling on the Bible with a cloven foot, who is thus referred to in the verse explaining the "mind of the frontispiece":—
"Now turn your eye to the busie Saint behind,
That Birmingham Uniter of Mankind,
With fiery breath he doth the cause promote;
But o'er the Bible stamps his cloven foot."
The old anti-Stuart feeling remained with the town, and was again displayed at the "glorious Revolution" of 1688, the centenary of which was celebrated here in 1788 with great rejoicing.
The horrors of the French Revolution, and the popularity of George III., made the people of Birmingham, in common with the great majority of the nation, out-and-out "Church and King" men. The ignorance and bigotry of the masses at that sad period of our history made them the ready and willing tools of those who ought to have known better, and made possible the disgraceful and disastrous riots of 1791. In time, however, the inhabitants returned to their early love of freedom, and became, under Thomas Attwood, Joshua Scholefield, George Edmonds, Thomas Clutton Salt, and other well-known leaders, the chief supporters of the movement which ended in obtaining the Reform Bill of 1832. In this town was founded and organised the famous Political Union; and on New Hall Hill (now covered with buildings) were held those mighty meetings which had such a potent effect on Parliament, and led to the triumph of the "good old cause." True to their early instincts and principles, the inhabitants have supported all the great measures of progress which distinguish the last half century of our history.
