was celebrated. The most noteworthy of these was that at Dee's Assembly Room. April 16, 1833, when G. F. Muntz and the Political Union opposed the agitation; a great meeting. Oct. 14, 1835; another on Feb. 1, 1836, in which Daniel O'Connell and John Angell James took part. This last was the first large town's meeting at which the "total and immediate" abolition of slavery was demanded. Joseph Sturge following it up by going to the West Indies and reporting the hardships inflicted upon the blacks under the "gradual" system then in operation. Aug. 7, 1838, the day when slavery dropped its chains on English ground, was celebrated here by a children's festival in the Town Hall, by laying the foundation-stone of "The Negro Emancipation Schools," Legge Street, and by a public meeting at night, at which Sir Eardley Wilmott, D. O'Connell, Dr. Lushington, Edward Baines, &c., were present.
Anti-one-thing-or-t'other.—True to their motto. Birmingham people are always readj' to oppose the wrong and forward the right, but what is right and what wrong is only to be ascertained by public discussion, and a few dates of celebrated "talks" are here given:—
In 1719 the apprenticing of Russian youths to local trades was objected to. In the Christmas week of 1754 public protest was made against the tax on wheel carriages.
March 12, 1824, a deputation was sent to Parliament to protest against our workmen being allowed to emigrate, for fear they should teach the foreigners.
A proposed New Improvement Bill was vetoed by the burgesses, Dec. 18, 1855. We have improved a little since then!
An Anti-Confessional meeting was held Nov. 8, 1877.
An Anti-Contagious Diseases Act meeting, April 19, 1877.
An Anti-giving-up-Fugitive-Slave meeting, Jan. 1, 1876, when a certain Admiralty Circular was condemned.
An Anti-Irish-Church-Establishment meeting was held June 14, 1869.
An Anti-moving-the-Cattle Market meeting Dec. 14, 1869. Smithfield being preferred to Duddeston Hall.
An Anti-Railway-thiough-Sutton-Park meeting. April 15, 1872, but the railway is there.
An Anti-Rotten-Ship-and-Salilor-drowning meeting, with Mr. Plimsoll to the fore, May 14 1873. Another July 29, 1875.
An Anti-Ashantee War meeting, Sept. 29, 1873.
An Anti-Turkish Atrocity meeting, Sept. 7, 1876; followed by one on Oct. 2nd, properly settling the Eastern question.
An Anti-Six-Million-War-Vote meeting was held on Jan. 28, 1878, when the Liberal majority was immense. A Tory opposition meeting, in support of the vote, was held Feb. 12, when chairs and forms were broken up to use as arguments, the result being a majority of 2 to 1 for both sides.
An Anti-War meeting, May 3, 1878.
Anti-Vivisection meetings. April 24, 1877, and May 6, 1878.
Apollo, Moseley Street.—Opened as a public resort in 1786, the Rea being then a clear running brook. The first tenant did not prosper, for in the first week of March, 1787, the Gazette contained an advertisement that the Apollo Hotel, "pleasantly situate in a new street, called Moseley Street, in the hamlet of Deritend, on the banks of the River Rea," with "a spacious Bowling Green and Gardens," was to be let, with or without four acres of good pasture land. When closed as a licensed house, it was at first divided into two residences, but in 1816 the division walls, &c., were removed, to fit it as a residence for Mr. Hamper, the antiquary. That gentleman wrote that the prospect at the back was delightful, and was bounded only by Bromsgrove Lickey. The building was then called "Deritend House."
