the property of the workmen themselves. The habit exists among all classes of each family (with rare exceptions) occupying a separate house, a practice which greatly affects the area of the town. Thus, to a population of 360.000 there are about 76,000 inhabited houses, giving an average of five persons to a house. Birmingham is a town of rapid growth. In 1700 the population was about 15,000. A century later, at the census of 1801, it had increased to 73,000 In the next thirty years the population doubled, being 147,000 in 1831. The same process was repeated in the following term of thirty years, the population in 1861 being 296,000. Between 1861 and 1871 the increase was 47,000, and the returns of the registrar-general show that the same rate of progress is still going on. It is, however, likely to be checked by the increasing value of land within the borough, by the absorption of available sites for building, and by the consequent overflow of population into the suburbs. If these, inhabited solely by borough people, are taken into account, the real population at present is probably not far short of half a million. Government. The government of the town resided originally in the high and low bailiffs, both officers chosen at the court of the lord of the manor, and acting as his deputies. The system was a loose one, but by degrees it became somewhat organized, and Crown writs were addressed to the bailiffs. In 1832, when the town was enfranchised, they were made the returning officers. About the beginning of the century, however, a more regular system was instituted, by an Act creating a body of street Commissioners, who acted for the parish of Birmingham, the hamlets outside its boundaries having similar boards of their own. The annoyance and difficulty caused by these bodies-thirteen in number-led to a demand for the incorporation of Birmingham as a borough; and a charter was accordingly granted by the Crown in 1838, vesting the general government in a mayor, sixteen aldermen, and forty-seven councillors. The powers of this body were, however, unusually restricted, the other local governing bodies remaining in existence. It was not until 1851 that an Act of Parliament was obtained, abolishing all governing authorities excepting the Town Council, and transferring all powers to this body Under this Act, and another local Act obtained in 1862, the affairs of the town are now administered, the whole municipal government being in the hands of the Town Council. The importance of the duties discharged by the Council may be inferred from the fact that it has under its control nearly 200 miles of street and road, that it has a police force of nearly 500 men, and that its revenue, derived from tolls and rates, amounts to about £300,000 a year. These responsibilities have been increased by the purchase in 1875 of the water-works (the latter with a daily supply of 17,000,000 gallons), the two purchases making a cost of more than £3,000,000. The growth of the revenue and expenditure of the town, its rateable value, and its ordinary debt, excluding the gas and water-works, will be seen from the following tabular statement :

gas

sand

Balance of Public Debt.

£

£

£

d. 645,349 3 5 120,237 131,723 366,095 824,869 3 157,121 136,987 467,002 1864 920,191 3 8 187,620 185,537 638,303 1869 1,052,796 3 2 195,155 199,950 588,449 1874 1,254,911 3 101 289,655 271,807 664,959 N.B.-The amount of property possessed by the Corporation on 81st December 1874, taken at its original cost, was £1,259,047.

Including rate for School Board, 3d. in the £.

The administration of the poor-law is vested in a Board of Guardians, of sixty members, for the parish Birmingham. The parish of Edgbaston (wholly within the borough) is in the poor-law union of King's Norton, and that part of the parish of Aston included in the borough is in the Aston Union. There are three workhouses that for Birmingham parish, situated at Birmingham Heath, is capable of receiving over 2000 inmates. In the week ending June 19, 1875, there were chargeable to the parish (including lunatics and persons receiving outdoor relief) 6949 paupers, a very small number in proportion to population.

Arms of Birmingnam.

Birmingham has a grant of quarter sessions, with a recorder, and petty sessions are held daily at the Sessions Court, in Moor Street, before a stipendiary magistrate, and a bench of borough justices. The justices for the borough and Aston division of Warwickshire also sit here occasionally. The borough justices have charge of the administration of the gaol. The town is the head of a county court district, and is the seat of the probate registry for Warwickshire.

Religious Denominations, Buildings, &c.-Until the year 1821 Birmingham was in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry; it is now in the diocese of Worcester and archdeaconry of Coventry, and is a rural deanery. There was formerly a religious house, the priory of St Thomas the Apostle, and a Guild of the Holy Cross, an association partly religious and partly charitable, having a chantry in the parish church. The possessions of the priory went to the Crown at the dissolution, and the building was destroyed before the close of the 16th century. The lands of the Guild of the Holy Cross were granted by Edward VI. to trustees for the support of a free grammar school; they are now of the value of nearly £15,000 a year. Until 1715 there was but one parish church, St Martin's, a rectory, having the tithes of the entire parish of Birmingham. St Martin's was erected about the middle of the 13th century; but in the course of ages was so disfigured, internally and externally, as to present no traces except in the tower and spire of its former character. În 1853 the tower was found to be in a dangerous condition, and together with the spire was rebuilt. In 1873 the remaining part of the old church was removed without disturbing the monuments, and £30,000. a new and larger edifice was erected in its place, at a cost of nearly The new church constitutes the chief ecclesiastical edifice in Birmingham, and indeed the handsomest structure in the town. St Philip's, a stately Italian structure, designed by Archer, a pupil of Wren, was the next church erected. It was consecrated in 1715. Then followed St Bartholomew's in 1749, St Mary's in 1774, St Paul's in 1779, St James's, Ashted, in 1791, and others, which need not be mentioned, followed in due course. At present the mother parish is divided into five rectories, and there are within the borough, including those mentioned, 42 churches (each having an ecclesiastical district assigned to it) of the Church of England, most of these having schools and missions attached to them.

Under the Commonwealth Birmingham was a stronghold of Puritanism. Clarendon speaks of it and the neighbourhood as "the most eminently corrupted of any in England." Baxter, on the other most religious men of the parts round about, especially from hand, commending the garrison of Coventry, says it contained "the Birmingham." The traditional reputation for Nonconformity is maintained by the town, all varieties of dissenters being numerous and

influential.

The Unitarians, the oldest body established here, have six chapels. One of these, the Old Meeting, is historically interesting, the congregation having been formed on the Presbyterian model by a number of ministers ejected under the Act of Uniformity. Another chapel, the New Meeting, in Moor Street (now occupied by the Roman Catholics), is memorable as having been the place of Dr Priestley's ministerial labours. In 1862 the Unitarians removed from this place to a new Gothic edifice, called the Church of the Messiah, in Broad Street, where they still preserve a monument of Priestley, with a medallion portrait in profile, and an inscription written by Priestley's friend, Dr Parr. The Society of Friends, whose first meeting-house dates from about 1690, have now three places of meeting. The Independents have now eleven chapels, several of them large and flourishing. The Baptists first erected a chapel in Cannon Street in 1738. They have now 16; one of them, Wycliffe Chapel, Bristol Road, is a singularly handsome structure of 14th century Gothic. The Wesleyan Methodists were established in Birmingham by John Wesley himself in 1745, when he was roughly handled while preaching on Gosta Green. For some years they

worshipped in temporary premises. They have now 17 places of worship; and the other divisions of the Methodist body have 24 in the aggregate. The Presbyterians possess 5 places of worship, and the Jews have a handsome synagogue. The Roman Catholics have paid special attention to Birmingham. From the Revolution of 1688 until 1789 they had no place of worship here. They now have a bishop (who assumes a title from the town), a cathedral, and 9 other churches or chapels, a cemetery, and other establishments in the suburbs, including several religious houses, including the Oratory, founded by Dr Newman. The principal edifice is the cathedral of St Chad, built from the designs of Mr Pugin, at a cost of more than £30,000.

The religious institutions and societies in Birmingham are very numerous, and with these are associated many establishments of a benevolent character, such as almshouses, asylums, refuges, societies for the aid of discharged prisoners, and for the promotion of religious education in Board schools, training institutions for nurses and servants, and others of various kinds, in the management of which

persons of different religious opinions are commonly found working

together in friendly association.

Charities.-These are numerous. The principal is the General Hospital, Summer Lane, opened in 1779; it was founded by Dr Ash, an eminent local physician. The yearly average of in-patients is about 2300, of out-patients, 25,000. The Queen's Hospital, Bath Row, the other large hospital of the town, was founded in 1840 by Mr W. Sands Cox, F.R.S., an eminent local surgeon, who also founded the Queen's College as a medical school. This hospital receives annually about 1300 in-patients and 17,000 out-patients. The General Dispensary, the officers of which visit patients at their own homes, relieves about 8000 yearly. The Children's Hospital (free), established in 1864 by Dr Heslop, relieves about 15,000 out and 1000 in-patients. It has two establishments for out-patients (a very handsome Gothic building) in Steelhouse Lane, and an inpatient department in Broad Street. There is also a Women's Hospital (free) for the special diseases of women; a lying-in charity; special hospitals for diseases of the eye, the ear, bodily deformities, and the teeth; and a homoeopathic hospital. The parish of Birmingham maintains a large infirmary at the workhouse (Birmingham Heath), and a dispensary for out-patients in Paradise Street. Nearly all these medical charities depend upon subscriptions, donations, legacies, and income from invested property; and the sum raised in this way is probably nearly £30,000 a year. There are two public organizations for aiding the charities, both of which were begun in Birmingham. One is a simultaneous collection in October in churches and chapels, called the Hospital Sunday, established in 1859, and now yielding over £5000 a year; the other is the Saturday Hospital collection, made by the work-people in March, which was established in 1873, and yields about £4000.

There is also a Sanatorium at Blackwell, near the Lickley Hills, about 10 miles distant, common to all the hospitals. Amongst the non-medical charities the principal are the Blind Institution and the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, both at Edgbaston; and Sir Josiah Mason's Orphanage at Erdington, which receives 300 orphan children, and was built and endowed at the cost of about £250,000 solely by Sir Josiah Mason, a Birmingham penmaker. There are also in the town numerous almshouses for aged persons, the chief of which are Lench's Trust, the James Charities, the Licensed Victuallers' Asylum. Besides the general benefit societies, such as the Oddfellows, Foresters', &c., which are strongly supported in Birmingham, the work-people have numerous clubs of a charitable kind, and there are several important local provident societies of a general character, with many thousand members.

Education. The oldest and principal institution is the Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, founded in 1552, out of the lands of the Guild of the Holy Cross, then of the annual value of £21, but now yielding about £15,000 a year, with a prospect of large increase. The principal or high school, in New Street, was erected in 1840, in the Perpendicular period of the Gothic style, from designs by Sir Charles Barry, at a cost, including land, of £71,000. This school is divided into two departments, classical and English, and educates about 600 boys; while connected with it there are four elementary schools for boys and girls, used chiefly by the lower middle class, the number of pupils being 1500. The classical school has ten exhibitions of £50 each, tenable at Oxford or Cambridge. The next most important foundation is that of the Midland Institute, which includes a general literary department (lectures, museums, and reading-rooms), and an industrial department, with classes in science, languages, mathematics, arithmetic, history, literature, and the laws of health. There are about 600 science students, and about 1600 in

the other departments. The Queen's College, originally a school of medicine, founded in 1828, obtained a royal charter in 1843 as a kind of university, with departments of literature, theology, law, science, and engineering. All these branches have now fallen into disuse, excepting medicine and theology; in the latter the college educates candidates for the ministry of the Church of England. An important foundation is Sir Josiah Mason's Scientific College, for the endowment of which Sir Josiah has con veyed to trustees property valued at nearly £100,000, and a capacious building, estimated to cost probably £40,000, is now in erection in Edmund Street, near the Town-Hall. Among the other educational foundations may be mentioned Spring Hill College, Moseley, for the education of Congregational ministers; four industrial schools; a large reformatory for boys at Saltley, and one for girls at Smethwick. For general education there are many private schools, of a good class, for boys and girls. Elementary education is provided in the Church of England day schools, A total proRoman Catholic schools, and Board schools. vision, in all the public elementary schools, is made for 41,791 children; there are (July 1875) 51,334 on the books, with an average attendance for the previous quarter of 37,894. The School Board, though it was elected only in 1870, has, by the provision of new schools, and the exercise of compulsory powers, more than doubled the school attendance. It has already built and opened 9 schools, with accommodation for 8800 children, at a cost, for land and buildings, of about £86,000; and 8 other schools are now in progress, providing accommodation for 7400 children, at an estimated cost of about £103,000making a total expenditure of nearly £200,000, and provision for a total of about 16,000 children.

Libraries, &c.-The principal libraries of the town are the Birmingham Library (belonging to a body of proprietors), founded in 1798 by Dr Priestley, and containing about 40,000 volumes, and the Corporation Free Libraries, in Ratcliff Place, commenced in 1861. These consist of a central reference library and lending library (the former containing 36,000 volumes of carefully chosen books), to which is attached a central reading-room. There are also four lending libraries and news-rooms in other parts of the town, and news-rooms are about to be opened by the Corporation in connection with the Board schools. The total issue of books from the libraries for 1874 was 521,991. Included in the reference library are a special Shakespeare library, containing almost all known editions of the plays and of works illustrating them; a library of nearly 1000 volumes, illustrating the works of Cervantes (presented by Mr W. Bragge of Sheffield); and a large and unique collection of Warwickshire books and antiquities, known as the Staunton collection. An Art Gallery and Industrial Museum is attached to the Free Libraries; and there is at Aston Hall another museum of natural history, &c., belonging to the Corporation. Art instruction is provided by the Royal Society of Artists, which has classes and lectures for students, and which holds two general exhibitions annually; and by the School of Art, which has 900 students, together with affiliated classes in schools, containing nearly 1700 students.

Miscellaneous Institutions, Parks, &c.-These include 8 banks, 4 principal clubs-the Union, the Midland, the Arts, and the Conservative-to which a Liberal Club is about to be added. There are 3 morning and 2 evening daily papers-4 of them Liberal and 1 Conservative - and 2 weekly papers. There are 2 theatres, 2 large music-halls, and several smaller ones. Musical festivals for the benefit of the General Hospital are held triennially, and are usually marked by the production of new and important works, and by the engagement of most of the leading

"We cannot move without finding traces of the great hive of metal-makers the veritable descendants of Tubal-cain. At home or abroad, sleeping or waking, walking or riding, in a carriage or upon a railway or steamboat, we cannot escape reminiscences of Birmingham. She haunts us from the cradle to the grave. She supplies us with the spoon that first brings our infant lips into acquaintance with 'pap,' and she provides the dismal furniture' which is affixed to our coffins. In her turn Birmingham lays the whole world under contribution for her materials. For her smiths, and metal workers, and jewellers, wherever nature has deposited stores of useful or precious metals, or has hidden glittering gems, there industrious miners are busily digging. Divers collect for her button makers millions of rare and costly shells. For her, adventurous hunters rifle the buffalo of his wide-spreading horns, and the There is scarcely a product of any elephant of his ivory tusks. country or any climate that she does not gladly receive, and in return stamps with a richer value."

These labours Birminghain performs with the aid of many thousands of willing hands, moved by busy and ingenious brains, and aided by her own great invention, the steamengine; for by the genius of Watt and the intrepid courage of Boulton, Birmingham may claim the perfection of this discovery as her own. The memory of the great Soho factory is one of the most precious heritages of the town, and the name remains, for though the old factory has long since disappeared, the firm of Boulton and Watt still continue to make steam-engines in the immediate neighbourhood; and James Watt's own private workshop continues just as he left it, with no single article disturbed, carefully preserved in the garret of his house at Heathfield.

The mention of Watt and of Soho recalls the memories of distinguished inventors and others who have been connected with Birmingham. Johnson was a frequent visitor here to his friend Hector, the surgeon, on whose house in the Old Square a tablet (erected by the Shakespeare Club) bears witness to the residence of the great moralist. Then Baskerville, the printer, carried on his work here. The famous Lunar Society, fully described by Mr Smiles in his Lives of the Engineers, brought together a brilliant company-Watt, Boulton, Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, Darwin, Parr, Withering, Edgeworth, Sir Joseph Banks, Herschel, Dr Solander, Fothergill, Roebuck, Galton, Keir, and many others. Murdoch, the inventor of gas, was a Soho man, and first used his invention to light the Soho factory at the peace of Amiens in 1802. Rickman, the reviver and historian of Gothic architecture, practised as an architect in Birmingham. Hutton, the antiquary and historian, carried on his bookselling business here. Many of the best engravers were Birmingham men, notably Willmore and Pye, the special translators of Turner's marvellous creations. In the ranks of landscape painters the name of David Cox will ever confer honour upon the town. Attwood, Joseph Parkes, and Bright speak for it in the region of politics and statesmanship. The series of inventors is continued to our own day by the names of Gillott, Elkington, Chance, Mason, and others.

In many respects Birmingham is a peculiar town, and in none more than the hold it has upon the affections of its

Wealth is more evenly distributed than in most other places. There are no colossal fortunes in Birmingham, and comparatively few large ones, and of these very few are made by speculative operations. To compensate for these distinctions there is an unusually large comfortable class-people of good though not excessive incomes derived from solid trade, or from savings made by hard personal and associated work. This class, touching the actually wealthy

on one side, by easy and almost imperceptible stages touches the actual working-class on the other, and this latter class is constantly rising into the middle rank.

The Birmingham work-people, in their way, are courteous and helpful. This is probably owing to the free and open and common discussion of subjects of political and social interest engaged in without distinction of class. The same principle is adopted educationally—in the Midland Institute, for example-the Act of Parliament which established the Institute providing that the governing council shall always include artizan members. Another noticeable characteristic of the town is the development of means of self-instruction and of self-help. Birmingham was amongst the earliest places to establish a mechanics' institution, the place of which is now more efficiently supplied by the Midland Institute. Birmingham, again, was the birthplace of the freehold land and building societies, by which workmen are enabled, on easy terms, to acquire houses of their own; and in addition to these institutions, which are numerous and flourishing, it has a very large number of sick and friendly societies, savings-clubs, and other organizations of a provident kind,-more in proportion to population than, probably, any other of the large towns in England. Amongst the social characteristics it should be mentioned that there are few serious disputes between masters and workmen, and that strikes are infrequent, and when they do occur are found capable of easy adjustment by friendly negotiation. One point more is worthy of record-the constancy of the town to those who serve it. Many of the leading manufacturers and other citizens are members of the local governing bodies, and these and the parliamentary representatives are rarely changed by their constituents.

History. Owing to its rapid expansion, and the consequent newness of most of the public and other buildings, Birmingham is often supposed to be a modern town. It is really one of the oldest period. Proof of this was given in 1309 by William de Bermingham, in the country, and was in existence as a community in the Saxon then lord of the manor, who showed in a law-suit that his ancestors had a market in the place, and levied tolls, before the Conquest. Some authors have endeavoured to identify the town with the supposed Roman station called Bremenium, but this claim has long since been abandoned as fabulous. The origin of the name is untraceable; the spelling of it is traceable in about 100 different forms. Dugdale, the historian of Warwickshire, adopts Brom

wycham, and regards it as of Saxon derivation. Hutton, the historian of Birmingham, has the fanciful etymology of Brom (broom), wych (a descent), and ham (a home), making together, the home on the hill by the heath. As regards the history of the town, we must agree with Hutton that "the way is long, dark, and slippery." In Domesday Book it is rated at four miles of land with half a mile of woods, the whole valued at £203. Two hundred years later the family of De Bermingham, the owners of the place, come into sight,- -one of them, William, being killed at the battle of Evesham, in 1265, fighting with Simon de Montfort and the barons against Henry the Third. The son of this William afterwards took part in the French war, and was made prisoner; his father's estates, forfeited by treason, were restored to him. Thenceforward we find the family engaged in various local and other offices, but seemingly abstaining from politics. They held the place until 1527, when Edward de Bermingham was deprived of his property by means of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who trumped up a pretended charge of riot and robbery against him, and procured Birmingham for himself. On the attainder of Dudley the manor passed to the Crown, and was granted to Thomas Marrow, of Berkswell, from whom by marriage and descent it went to Christopher Musgrave, and finally, as regards the only valuable part--the market tolls-by purchase to the town itself. In the Wars of the Roses it does not seem that Birmingham took any part; but energy revived in the civil war under Charles I., when the town sided actively with the Parliamentarians. In 1642, when Charles was marching from Shrewsbury to relieve Banbury, the Birmingham people seized part of his baggage, including much plate, money, and wine, which they sent to the Parliamentary garrison at Warwick. Before the battle of Edgehill Charles rested for two nights at Aston Hall, near the town, as the guest of Sir Thomas Holte. The Birmingham people resented this by helping the Parliamentarians to cannonade the hall and to levy a fine upon Sir Thomas Holte. They also set to work, and supplied the Parliamentary army with 15,000 sword blades, refusing to make a single blade for the Royalists. These manifestations of hostility were avenged in April 1643, by Prince Rupert, who, with 2000 men and several pieces of artillery, attacked the town, planting his cannon on an eminence near Sparkbrook, still known as Camphill. The townspeople resisted, but were beaten, many persons being killed or wounded. Amongst the former was Lord Denbigh, one of the Royalist officers. Having captured the place, Prince Rupert allowed his troops to plunder it, to burn about eighty houses, and to set their prisoners to ransom. He also levied a fine of £30,000, equal to at least £100,000 of the present value of money. This bitter lesson kept Birmingham quiet during the rest of the civil war, though the sympathies of the people with the Parliamentarians were unabated. In 1665 Birmingham suffered heavy losses by the plague, great numbers of dead being buried in the Pest Field, at Ladywood, then a lonely place far outside the town, but long since thickly covered with buildings. In 1688 the Revolution provoked a temporary outbreak of Protestant feeling. James II. had given timber from the royal forest of Needwood, near Burton, to build a Catholic chapel and convent in a place still called Mass-house Lane. This edifice the mob promptly destroyed when James gave place to William and Mary. Rather more than a century of quiet prosperity ensued, and then occurred the serious and most lamentabie outbreak of popular fury known as the Church and King riots of 1791. For some years there had been much political activity in Birmingham, the dissenters, particularly the Unitarians, being desirous of relief from the political and religious disabilities under which they laboured. The leader in these movements was the famous Dr Priestley, who kept up an active controversy with the local clergy and others, and thus drew upon himself and his coreligionists the hatred of the more violent members of the Church and Tory party. The smouldering fire broke out on the occasion of the French Revolution. On the 14th of July a dinner of Birmingham Liberals was held at the Royal Hotel to celebrate the destruction of the Bastille. This was the signal of a popular outbreak. A Church and King mob, encouraged and organized by leaders of better station, but who were too cowardly to show themselves, began an attack upon the Unitarians. Dr Priestley was not present at the dinner, but his house at Fair Hill, Sparkbrook, was one of the first to be sacked and burnt-his library and laboratory, with all his manuscripts, the records of life-long scientific and philosophical inquiries, perishing in the flames. The house and library of Hutton, the historian and antiquary, were also destroyed. The Unitarian chapel was burnt, and several houses belonging to members of the sect were sacked and burnt. The riot continued until a strong body of troops was marched into the town, but before their arrival damage to the amount of more than £60,000 had been done. Some of the rioters perished in the burning buildings, in the cellars of which they drank themselves into stupefaction. Others were tried and imprisoned, and four of the prisoners were hanged. The persecuted Unitarians recovered a small part of their losses from the county; but Dr Priestley himself, owing to the unworthy prejudice against him, was in a great measure forced to remove to the

United States of America, where he spent the rest of his life. A late atonement was made by the town to his memory in 1873, by the erection of a statue in his honour in front of the Town-Hall, and the foundation of a Priestley scholarship at the Midland Institute.

As if ashamed of the excesses of 1791, Birmingham thenceforth became a thoroughly Liberal and, with one or two exceptions, a peaceful town. In the dismal period from 1817 to 1819, when the manufacturing districts were heavily distressed and were disturbed by riots, Birmingham remained quiet. Even when some of the inhabitants were tried and punished for demanding parliamentary representation, and for electing Sir Charles Wolseley as their delegate, there was no demonstration of violence-the wise counsels of the leaders inducing orderly submission to the law. The same prudent course was observed when in the Reform agitation of 1831-32 the Political Union was formed, under the leadership of Thomas Attwood, to promote the passing of the Reform Bill. Almost the whole town, and great part of the surrounding district, joined in this agitation; vast meetings were held on Newhall Hill; there was much talk of marching upon London 100,000 strong; but, owing to the firmness and statesmanship of Mr Attwood and his associates, there was no rioting or any sign of violence. Ultimately the Political Union succeeded in its object, and Birmingham helped to secure for the nation the enfranchisement of the middle classes and other political reforms. One exception to the tranquillity of the town has to be recorded-the occurrence of riots in 1839, during the Chartist agitation. Chartism took a strong hold in Birmingham, and, under the influence of Mr Feargus O'Connor and some of his associates, nightly meetings of a threatening character were held in the Bull Ring. The magistrates resolved to put these down, and having obtained the help of a detachment of the metropolitan police-the town then having no local police forcea meeting was dispersed, and a riot ensued, which resulted in injury to several persons, and required military force to suppress it. happened on the 4th of July. On the 15th of the same month another meeting took place, and the mob, strongly armed and numbering many thousands, set fire to several houses in the Bull Ring, some of which were burned to the ground, and others were greatly damaged. The military again interfered, and order was restored, several of the ringleaders being afterwards tried and imprisoned for their share in the disturbance. There was another riot in 1867, caused by the ferocious attacks of a lecturer named Murphy upon the Roman Catholics, which led to the sacking of a street chiefly inhabited by Irishmen; but the incident was comparatively trivial, and further disorders were prevented by the prompt action of the authorities. (J. T. B.)

This

BIRON, ARMAND DE GONTAULT, a baron and marshal of France, and a celebrated general, who signalized himself by his valour and conduct in several sieges and battles in the 16th century. He was made grand master of the artillery in 1569, and commanded at the siege of Rochelle, and in Guienne. He was one of the first who declared for Henry IV.; he brought a part of Normandy under his subjection, and dissuaded him from retiring to England or Rochelle. Biron was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of Epernay, July 26, 1592. He was a man of considerable literary attainments, and used to carry a pocket-book, in which he noted everything that appeared remarkable. This gave rise to a proverb at court, when a person happened to say anything uncommon, "You have found that in Biron's pocket-book."

BIRON, CHARLES DE GONTAULT, son of the above and born in 1562, created duke of Biron and admiral of France by Henry IV., was a man of great intrepidity, but fickle

and treacherous. In 1601 he was sent as ambassador to the court of queen Elizabeth to announce his royal master's marriage with Mary of Medici; but being discovered in a treasonable correspondence with Spain, he was beheaded in the Bastille at Paris, July 31, 1602. The extent to which he had carried his treason was not great, and Henry by sparing his life would not have shown undue clemency. BIRS NIMRUD. See BABYLON, page 183.

BISACCIA, a city of Italy, in the Principato Ulteriore, 60 miles E. of Naples. It is a bishopric in conjunction with St Angelo, and contains 5342 inhabitants. Formerly Pignatelli family, and it is believed to occupy the site of it was the chief city in a principality belonging to the the ancient Romulea, a Samnite town of considerable size, which was captured by the Romans about 297 B.C.