rovement, the first opened in Birmingham being at 26, St.
John Street (then a respectable neighbourhood), in January 1777, the fee
being 6d. for registering and 3d. for an enquiry. There are a number of
respectable offices of this kind now, but it cannot be hidden that there
have been establishments so called which have been little better than
dens of thievery, the proprietors caring only to net all the half-crowns
and eighteen-pences they could extract from the poor people who were
foolish enough to go to them.

~Rejoicing, Days of.~--Great were the rejoicings in Birmingham, October
9, 1746, when the news came of the battle of Culloden. The capture of
Quebec, in 1759, was celebrated here on December 3, by a gneral
illumination; the peace-loving Quakers, however, had to rejoice over
broken windows, for the mob smashed them, one unfortunate Friend having
to provide 115 squares of glass before his lights were perfect again. We
were _loyal_ in those days, and when we heard of our gallant boys
thrashing their opponents, up went our caps, caring not on whose heads
lay "the blood-guiltiness," and so there was shouting and ringing of
bells on May 20, 1792, in honour of Admiral Rodney and his victory. The
next great day of rejoicing, however, was for the Peace of Amiens in
1802, and it was notable the more especially from the fact of Soho Works
being illuminated with gas, for the first time in the world's history
used for such a purpose. In 1809, we put up the first statue in all
England to the hero of Trafalgar, and we made the 6th of June the day to
rejoice over it, because forsooth, it happened to be the jubilee day of
George the Third. What _he_ had done for us to rejoice about would be
hard to tell; even more difficult is the query why we were so gleeful
and joyous on February 1, 1820, when his successor was proclaimed.
George IV.'s Coronation was celebrated here by the public roasting of
oxen, and an immense dinner party in front of Beardsworth's Repository.

~Religious Queerosities.~--Among all its multifarious manufactures it
would have been strange, indeed, if Birmingham had not produced
something new in religious matters, and accordingly we find that in 1840
some of our advanced townsmen had formed themselves into a "Universal
Community Society of Rational Religionists." We have not met with a copy
of their rules, though Tidd Pratt registered them as of a Friendly
Society (under cap. 4, Will. IV.), but the county magi