Page:A century of Birmingham life- or, A chronicle of local events, from 1741 to 1841 (IA centuryofbirming01lang).pdf/559

Rh Party conflicts, however, were not always either so bitter or so energetic. I remember a worthy old clergyman, the curate of St. Martin's, who, though without preferment, felt himself invested, in right of his cloth, with a panoply of dignity, which placed him but little below a bishop. He wore a suit of black, not in quite such good preservation as could have been wished, surmounted by a wig and shovel hat of surprising amplitude. Anecdotes were ripe among dissenters of his enmity towards their body. One of them, it is said, who by some good fortune had acquired the privilege of accosting the churchman when they met in their walks, put to him one day, with all proper huimlity, this question,—'Dr. Croft, I wish to know if it can be true (I hope and trust it is not) that you have said you will never bury a dissenter!' 'Sir,' was the answer, 'it is false. I am ready to bury you all!'"

The bill of costs was made up in 1792, and amounted to £35,095 13s. 6d.; and in 1793 an order was made to reimburse the sufferers. Again every obstacle was thrown in the way of those who had been plundered. Almost every claim was disputed, and every item contested: and, but for the energy and determination of the Earl of Aylesford, years would doubtless have elapsed before even the miserable portion of the claims allowed would have been paid. Hutton says, "They recovered in their various trials, which were conducted at the expense of £13,000, the sum of £26,961 2s. 3d." The Trustees of the New Meeting House, having lost their license, were not able to sue, but the King was pleased, upon the application of Mr. Russell to Mr. Pitt, to grant a warrant upon the Treasury for 2,000.

And so ended these disgraceful riots, and the disgraceful trials which followed them. Birmingham has since repented of these days of bigotry and violence. It still remains, however, for us to prove that repentance by the only way now in our power—by providing a permanent memorial of the noblest and most richly endowed of the victims of that shameful outbreak of fanaticism and ignorance—a monument in honour of the memory of Dr. Priestley.