rs did not last
long after deposition from office, Jacob's last words being uttered in
1881.

~Town Improvements.~--Some fifty and odd years ago Dobbs, a local
comedian, used to sing,

"Brumagem has altered so,
There's scarce a place in it I know;
Round the town you now must go
To find old Brumagem."

Had he lived till these days he might well have sung so, for
improvements are being carried out so rapidly now that in another
generation it is likely _old_ Birmingham will have been improved off the
face of the earth altogether. Prior to the days of steam, our
forefathers went about their work more leisurely, for it was not until
1765 that the Act was obtained for the "enlightening" of the streets,
and four years later when the first Act was passed (April 21, 1769) for
street improvements. The Street Commissioners appointed by this Act, and
who held their first meeting May 22, 1769, for many years did little
more than regulate the traffic of the streets, keep them clean_ish_, and
look after the watchmen. In course of time the operations of the said
Commissioners were extended a little, and it is to them that we owe the
existence of the central open space so long known as the Bull Ring, for
they gave L1,730, in 1801, for the removal of nine tenements there and
then blocking the way. Money must have been of more value then than now,
for if such a purchase was necessary at the present date one or two more
figures would require being added to the amount. This town improvement
was completed in 1806, when the Commissioners purchased the remaining
houses and shops round St. Martin's, but property owners had evidently
learned something during the five years, for whereas the Commissioners
at first estimated the further cost at L10,957, they reluctantly had to
provide no less than L22,266, the additional sum required being
swallowed up by "incidental expenses." The poet already quoted had
apparently been absent during these alterations, for he wailingly
bemoaned--

"Poor old Spiceal Street half gone,
The poor old Church stands all alone,
And poor old I can only groan,
That I can't find Brumagem."

Though an Improvement Act for Duddeston and Nechells was obtained in
1829, the town improvements for the next forty years consisted
principally of road making, street paving, market arranging, &c., the
opening-up ideas not getting well-rooted in the minds of our governors
until some time after the Town Council be