The action about which the Convention was debating was precipitated by events which took place in Birmingham on July 4. The return of the Convention had raised the excitement in that town to fever heat. The magistrates had forbidden meetings in the Bull Ring since the beginning of May,[1] and the Chartists had been meeting at Holloway Head, not many minutes' walk away. With the increasing excitement the Bull Ring was again invaded, despite the prohibition. The magistrates therefore sent for a detachment of the Metropolitan Police. The Mayor, William Scholefield, with two other magistrates, proceeded to London and brought back sixty constables.[2] This was on July 4. On arriving at Birmingham about eight o'clock in the evening, they found a meeting in full swing in the Bull Ring. As if to make the earliest use of their new weapon, the magistrates ordered the police to disperse the meeting, which was perhaps a thousand strong. The struggle which ensued was bloody and indecisive until soldiers were brought up. Many of the crowd were armed in various ways, and ten policemen were seriously wounded and taken to hospital. Some dozen armed and unarmed Chartists were arrested on the spot. The magistrates wrote off at once for a further draft of Metropolitan Police, and forty were sent next day. Meanwhile the crowd had reassembled in the Bull Ring, and towards midnight, in spite of the efforts of Dr. Taylor and MacDouall (whose presence was not likely to suggest peaceful behaviour) to dissuade them, the infuriated body began to pull down the wall surrounding St. Martin's Church, which stands at the lower end of the Bull Ring, to use the stones as missiles or for a barricade. The police came up again and arrested the two delegates with seventeen other Chartists. The next morning, Friday, the magistrates mobilised some hundreds of tradesmen as special constables, but nevertheless excited crowds continued to assemble, especially round the Golden Lion Hotel, where the Convention was sitting. The magistrates released MacDouall upon examination, but not Taylor.[3]
- ↑ Additional MSS. 27,821, p. 112.
- ↑ Hansard, 3rd ser. xlix. 86.
- ↑ The meeting was undoubtedly illegal. First, because it had been forbidden to hold meetings in the Bull Ring, which was a narrow and confined space, bounded by rows of shops. Meetings there, unless small, were very detrimental to business in the shops. Second, because the meeting was attended by armed men. But there is no doubt that the magistrates acted very hurriedly and recklessly. They did not read the Riot Act or give any warning before attempting to disperse the meeting. Scholefield, the Mayor, said he had always been received with groans on passing the Bull Ring, and he was probably angry and timorous. There were only twenty
