RIOTS IN BIRMINGHAM

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 255, 31 August 1867, Page 3

RIOTS IN BIRMINGHAM

(From the European Times.) • On Sunday, the 16th June, Mr.W. Murphy, a lecturer against Romanising commenced a series of lectures in a wooden building erected for the purpose in the centre of the town of Birmingham ; a large mob collected oxitside and stones were thrown at the building, and three of the ticket takers were seriously wounded. There were only three or four policemen at hand at the time, but a large force was afterwards brought to the spot, and armed with cutlasses. Th«y cleared the streets in the neigh-, bourhood of the lecture building, buo the crowd continued to increase, and a riot was anticipated. The Bth Hussars, stationed at Birmingham, were requested to hold themselves in readiness as they uv'g'it be called out. At the closeof the afternoon lecture, the shop of Mr. Thomas Aston, a prominent member of the Protestant Association, was broken into, and eveiy pane of glass at the front smashed. A second lecture was delivered in the evening, bufc the police were present in great force, and a further outbreak was prevented. It appears from the Birmingham papers that the disturbances were of a very serious character, Twenty-six persons, men and women, were to be brought before the magistrates,, on the 17th, for assaults on the police. Three policemen were wounded, and there are some dangerous cases in the General Hospital of labourers who have received sabre cuts ; the police having been obliged tb use cutlasses. Mr. Murphy's add i esses, as reported, are of an extremely fanatical chai-acter. Before he - .. , 1 "^- lecture, he said he wouicrprove °to"' tlie" peopio g.** Z!'r'-^ ncrham that every popish priest was a y murderer, a'canuibal, a liar, and a pick pocket. (Applause ) They knew him, aud ' they kuew that he could prove what he said. He was prepared to meet any Popish priest from Bishop Ullathorne to the biggest raggamuifin in the lot ; aud if ever there was a rag aud bone gatherer in tke universe it was the Pope himself — (laughter) — and, if what he said was not true, let them prove it. Friends (said Mr. Murphy ) asked him why he was going to risk his life in Birmingham. His answer was simply this, his life was in the hands of God. (A voice : " Ah, it is.") He was eternal until his work v/as done. His confidence was not in je arm of the flesh, but his confidence was in the Triune God — the Father, the Sou, and the Holy Spirit. He would never let a hair of his head be touched without His permission. His answer to his friends was — Christ to the right, Christ to the left, Christ behind, Christ before, Christ over, Christ under, and Christ within, and then he cared not for the Devil or man, as Christ was his all. (Hear.) They might threaten him with bludgeons and with sticks, but when the bludgeons and sticks were going to be fired at him, the Great Eternal I Am would direct them another way ; for God was stronger than the Devil. That God had raised him up for a purpose he believed. (Hear, hear.) They should walk over his dead body in Birmingham, or he should have his five weeks-s ay. It is stated that three of the priests at Birmingham went among the crowd exhorting them to be peaceable, but their counsels aeemed to have been of little avail. The prisoneis are all Irish of the lowest class, aud were most violent in their denunciations of Murphy. In consequence of the disturbances which took place on Sunday, the magistrates, fearing another outbreak in the event of Murphy renewing his lectures, held a meeting on Monday morning and resolved to apply to the officer commanding the detachment of the Bih Hussars, in the barracks in Great Brcok-Street, to hold themselves in readiness to act in aid of the civil power. It was ascertained that the force, at the disposal of the captain commanding was about seventy men. It was therefore resolved that a telegram be sent to the commandant of the Manchester district, requesting him to send 100 infantry and the troop of horse stationed at Coventry. In the course of the sitting an answer was received to the effect that 100 men would be sent from Weedon, and that the Hussars stationed at Coventry would be despatched from that town. The magistrates also ordered that special constables should be sworn in. At three o'clock matters had become so very alarmiug and information having reached the magistrates that a serious, if not a fatal, injury had been done to one of the constables, it was resolved that the time had arrived for calling ont the military, and, in the absence of the Mayor, Mr. Kynnersely, Mr. Wiggin, Mr. Jatfray, and Mr. Avery, went to the barracks and communicated with Captain Montagu, who was tly?n in c|mmand. .In about three-quarters of an hour two troops, numbering about seventy-five men, were in readiness. Meanwhile a deputation, consisting of Colonel Brockman (who was said to be the president of the Protestant Electoral Union, Craven-street, Strand), Mr. Whalley, M.P., the Rev. Dr. Armstrong, and Mr. Steel, waited upon the magistrates and stated that Mr. Murphy was authorised and employed by them. The magistrates afterwards resolved that the pensioners should be called out, and that the special constables should be sworn in. The "Birmingham Post" gives the following details of the subsequent proceedings: — At 3 o'clock the police were assembled in the yard of the Public^ Office, and Mr. Samuel Buckley, J.P., addressed a few words to them, saying that they were to make every effort to preserve the - peace, that they were to

keep their temper, and so "on. These words were warmly applauded by the police, who. then marched out and took up their stations at both ends of Carr's' lane, "which they' cleared, and kept clear for the remainder of the day. Men were held in reserve at all the stations, but principally in Moore-street. „ Meanwhile tlie Hussars from the barracks in Great Brook-street, commanded by Captain Montagu, Lieutenant Morris, and Cornet Cooke, and accompanied by tlie magistrates-— Mr. Kynnersley, Mi 1 . Wiggin, Mr. Avery, and Mr.JalFrayj — marched down, through Carr's-laue, into Moore-street. 'They were enthusiastically cheered by the people. The Mayor headed them at the public office, and they then marched through Park street and Freeman street. These streets were centres of disorder. Up to five o'clock in the afternoon— three hours before the lecture was to commenceno less than twenty-two prisoners hud been arrested, all for assaults on the. police, or riotous and disorderly conduct of a different character. . About a quarter past eleven o'clock, 100 men belonging to the 82nd Regiment, commanded by Captain Boucher, arrived in- Birmingham from Weedon, and were marched at ' once to Moor street, to be held in reserve. They had not been there more than a quarter of an hour, before information was brought that a l'iot was raging in Allison street. Fifty of the soldiers .were at once detached, and marched to the scene of the disturbance, headed by some of the Borough Magistrates. A troop of .Hussars, consisting of about fifty men, arrived from Coventry shortly after ten o'clock. As they were being marched through John street, one of the headquarters of the Irish, a private soldier *w-H»rb ..^^^.tL^l^^^Hb a brick-en d. The wounded trooper was taken i° the police station in Moor street, when it was ascertained that lie had sustained a scalp wound, and was suffering from concussion of the brain more or less severe. His injuries were temporarily attended to, and he was afterwards sent to the hospital in a cab. Fortunately, the fellow who threw the missile was apprehended, and he proved to be a man who had had his own'V^ounds dressed a short time previous)' '/ At about seven o'clock, a i .^putation of tradesmen from the Bull ring waited upon tlie Magistrates, and represented that that part of the city was entirely in the hands of the mob. It was then resolved that the time had come for reading the Riot Act. The Magistrates and the military then went down Free street into Park street, where the Mayor road the Riot Act in a loud voice. He did so also at the JE!ull-i-ing end of Moor street.. The crowdjin both j)laces chee r :d vociferously, an indication, that the great majority-of the peopled were well disposed, and that disorder; was the work of comparatively a few. ■ The riot, which throughout the day had been- plainly fermenting in Park street, broke out with great violence soon after seven o'clock. The Irish laborers had by that time left their work for the day, and they returned evidently ripe for any amount of "mischief and blackguardism. The street soon filled with a mob of the most desperate class of men, women, and boys — the two latter were by no means the least active in the disturbances. A continual shower of stones, brick-ends, tiles, and such other missiles was kept up, so that it was dangerous to.the life of any person to enter the street ; and when .the rioters were at a loss for a " casus belli" they would get up a row amongst themselves, attacking each other indiscriminately. They seemed, indeed, to" act upon the principle of Ddnnybrook Fail', breaking every head they came across. Men climbed to the tops of houses, and, strippiug the roofs, pelted those below with bricks, slates, and tiles. Women, not. the less delighting in the work of the other sex, collected material for the onslaughts that were every now and then made against a policeman or some other unoffending individual ; and boys imitated the example of their parents to the full extent of their power. The ruffians appeared to have for a time their oavu way unmolested. Mob law prevailed, and the property of the inhabitants was destroyed right and left. Nearly every square of glass in the street was broken early in the afternoon, and, deprived now of that source of amusement, the rioters began to demolish the more substantial portions of the houses,; doors and shutters were wrenched from their hinges and split up to manufacture bludgeons, signboards were pulled down, aud in some instances the very fixtures of the shops were violently dislodged and carried away. The mob not only fought themselves, but compelled others to fight. This state ot things continued till about halfpast 8, when a strong detachment of poiice was sent to disperse the mob, but the constables, notwithstanding . that they charged with drawn cutlassss, met with such an obstinate resistance that it was nearly twenty minutes before they could force back the rioters. Men stoned the police from the tops of houses, and from windows ; others attacked them with weapons of all descriptions ; and not a few directed their attention to further damaging the property of the residents. The police, however, aid«d by a large number of .English civilians, who, armed themselves : with anything in the shape of a \bludgeon that they could lay hold off ultimately repulsed the rioters, and a troop of hussars, with drawn swords, shortly afterwards cleared the street. The soldiers were loudly cheered by the people. Mr Kynnersley, the stipendiary, and Mr Holliday, another magistrate, rode at thehead of. the troop. The- police n)adfc numerous \

captures, gallantly pursuing the rioters even to the tops of the houses, and many severe struggles ensued, in which the mob appeared invariably to get the worse of it. , - A visit to Park sireet at lnidnight.'revealed to us a state of things which the^ above account, collected partly 'fvom personal observation from as near a point to the riot as could be safely approached, and partly iVom information given by the. police, very inadequately describes. The front parts of the whole of the housS&idn either side are completely in ruins. Most of the windows are entirely demolished, and the rooms arc laid Open to the weathei", making up a scene of desolation and wretchedness hardly to be conceived. The furniture of the poor people has;"in a great many cases, been destroyed by the rioters, and the road id strewed with fragments of all kinds of articles. As a prevention against further disturbance, the male jxirt of the population of this locality were ordered to remove from the neighborhood, but tlvj#^r.oinen ami children and the old men were allowed to remain. Thefemifortunate occupauts of the houses were obliged, to make the best of the meagre shelter left them ; but there were some who would not be comforted, and who sat upon the door steps lamenting the loss of their property, the debris of which lay strewn round about them. A body of police and pensioners were posted at either end of the street throughout the night, to prevent any further disturbance.