the time a stormy meeting was being held in
the Bull Ring, which they were at once set to disperse, a work soon
accomplished by the free use they made of their staves. The indignant
Brums, however, soon rallied and drove the police into the Station,
several being wounded on either side. The latent fury thus engendered
burst out in full force on the 15th when the notorious Chartist Riots
commenced, but the scenes then enacted, disgraceful as they were, may
well be left in oblivion, especially as the best of "the points" of the
Charter are now part of the laws of the land. Besides many others who
were punished more or less, two of the leaders, Wm. Lovett and John
Collins, were sentenced to one year's imprisonment for a seditious libel
in saying that "the people of Birmingham were the best judges of their
own rights to meet in the Bull Ring, and the best judges of their own
power and resources to obtain justice." On the 27th July, 1849, Lovett
and Collins were accorded a public welcome on their release from prison,
being met at the Angel by a crowd of vehicles, bands of music, &c., and
a procession (said to have numbered nearly 30,000), accompanied them to
Gosta Green where speeches were delivered; a dinner, at which 800
persons sat down, following on the site of "The People's Hall of
Science," in Loveday Street. In 1841, Joseph Sturge gave in his adhesion
to some movement for the extension of the franchise to the working
classes, and at his suggestion a meeting was held at the Waterloo Rooms
(Feb. 25th, 1842), and a memorial to the Queen drawn up, which in less
than a month received 16,000 signatures. On the 5th of April, 87
delegates from various parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland,
assembled here, and after four days' sitting formed themselves into "The
National Complete Suffrage Union," whose "points" were similar to those
of the Charter, viz., manhood suffrage, abolition of the property
qualification, vote by ballot, equal electoral districts, payment of
election expenses and of members, and annual Parliaments. On the 27th of
December, another Conference was held (at the Mechanics' Institute), at
which nearly 400 delegates were present, but the apple of discord had
been introduced, and the "Complete Suffrage Union" was pooh-poohed by
the advocates of "the Charter, the whole Charter, and nothing but the
Charter," and our peace-loving townsman, whom _The Times_ had dubbed
"the Birmingham Quaker Chartist," retired fro