l did not
contain the proper number of names. The great Jeremy Bentham took up the
case, and published a pamphlet impugning the legality of the whole
proceedings, and exposing the utter sham of the special jury system.
Peel, much to his honour, brought into the House, and carried, a bill to
amend the whole jury system, and thus Edmonds's trial led to the
abolition of a great public scandal and a national grievance.

Henceforward, Edmonds was the recognised leader of the Birmingham
Radicals, and the agitation for Parliamentary Reform commenced anew. The
Whigs, though favourable, held aloof, looking upon it as a hopeless
case. In the year 1827, Mr. Charles Tennyson, afterwards known as Mr.
Tennyson D'Eyncourt, proposed to the House of Commons that the two seats
forfeited by the disfranchised borough of East Retford should be
transferred to Birmingham. The proposition was supported by Sir James
Mackintosh and others, but was eventually negatived. The mere
proposition, however, revived the dying embers of Birmingham political
life. All classes, and all sections of politicians, hailed the proposal
with delight. Tories, Whigs, and Radicals united in a requisition to Mr.
George Attwood, who was then High Bailiff, to hold a town's meeting,
which was held accordingly on June 25th, 1827, at Beardsworth's
Repository. At this meeting, resolutions in favour of Mr. Tennyson's
proposition were proposed and seconded by gentlemen belonging to the
three parties, Tories, Whigs, and Radicals. A committee, thirty-two in
number, composed of men of all shades of opinion, was appointed to work
in support of the enfranchisement of the town. Edmonds's name was left
out for strategic reasons: a convicted conspirator, it was thought,
would do the cause no good. He, however, endorsed the scheme heartily,
worked energetically, and spoke frequently and eloquently in its favour.

The proposition, as I have said, was negatived by the House of
Commons, but it had borne good fruit in Birmingham. Henceforth the
timid Whigs came once more into the sunlight of political life; and
the Tories, being divided in opinion on the measure, split into
two sections, with the result that the _ultra_ party, which had
monopolised all municipal power, was broken up. Prom this time united
action became possible, and more reasonable relations were established
between the active and the passive Liberals. The extreme Radical
section, seeing that the men of moderate views ha