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 Thursday, 14th July 1791, the second anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, was celebrated by eighty of Priestley's friends in Birmingham by a dinner at an hotel in Temple Row, and in spite of the plainest symptoms of an intended riot. "Church and King," "Down with Dissenters," were heard everywhere. These cries exasperated the mob to such an extent that they smashed the windows of the hotel, and burnt the chapels and houses of the dissenters. The full hatred of the mob was directed against Priestley, who, with his wife and family, narrowly escaped with their lives, leaving his valuable library, philosophical instruments, furniture, and the manuscripts of works which had cost him years of labour a prey to the flames.

Several persons were arrested for this disgraceful riot, and three were executed.

The riots may be looked at from two standpoints: either as a struggle to preserve the privileges of the Church of England, or as a rebellion of an excited contingent of the population enraged by the party spirit of the times. Meetings had been organised which were declared by some to be dangerous to the peace of the country. The spirit of democracy had spread in England, and those in favour of the French Revolution entertained the idea of over-turning the Constitution of the Empire. Inflammatory pamphlets had been issued and circulated in Great Britain in favour of upholding the doctrine of the Revolution.