Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/38

26 peculiar and special adaptability to the brewing of "good old English cheer" was left to be discovered by the founder of the firm of Messrs. Walter Showell and Sons, who, as stated before, some twelve years back, erected the nucleus of the present extensive brewery. Starting with the sale of only a few hundred barrels per week, the call for their ales soon forced the proprietors to extend their premises in order that supply should meet demand. At first doubled, then quadrupled, the brewery is now at least ten times its original size; and a slight notion of the business carried on may be gathered from the fact that the firm's stock of barrels tots up to nearly 60,000 and is being continually increased, extensive cooperages, blacksmiths' shops, &c., being attached to the brewery, as well as malthouses, offices, and storehouses of all kinds. The head offices of the firm, which are connected by telephone with the brewery, as well as with the stores at Kingston Buildings. Crescent Wharf, are situated in Great Charles Street, and thus the Crosswells Brewery (though really at Langley Green, some half-dozen miles away as the crow flies) becomes entitled to rank as a Birmingham establishment, and certainly not one of the least, inasmuch as the weekly sale of Crosswells ales for this town alone is more than 80,000 gallons per week.

Brickkiln Lane, now called the Horse Fair, gives its own derivation.

Bright.— The Right Hon. John Bright, though not a Birmingham man, nor connected with the town by any ties of personal interest or business, has for the last quarter-century been the leading member returned to Parliament as representing the borough, and must always rank foremost among our men of note. Mr. Bright is the son of the late Jacob Bright, of Greenbank, near Rochdale, and was born November 16, 1811. He and his brother, Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P, for Manchester, began business as partners in the affiliated firms of John Bright and Brothers, cotton spinners and manufacturers, Rochdale, and Bright and Co., carpet manufacturers, Rochdale and Manchester. At an early age Mr. Bright showed a keen interest in politics, and took part in the Reform agitation of 1831-32. In those days every householder was compelled by law to pay the Church-rates levied in his parish, whatever his religious creed might be, and it is said that Mr. Bright's first flights of oratory were delivered from a tombstone in Rochdale church-yard in indignant denunciation of a tax which to him, as a member of the Society of Friends, appeared especially odious It was not, however, till 1839, when he joined the Anti-Corn Law League, that Mr. Bright's reputation spread beyond his own immediate neighbourhood; and there can be no doubt but that his fervid addresses, coupled with the calmer and more logical speeches of Mr. Cobden, contributed in an appreciable degree to the success of the movement. In July, 1843, he was returned as M.P, for the city of Durham, which he represented until the general election of 1847, when he was the chosen of Manchester. For ten years he was Manchester's man in everything, but the side he took in regard to the Russian war was so much at variance with the popular opinions of his constituents that they at last turned on him, burnt his effigy in the streets, and threw him out at the general election in March, 1857. At the death of Mr. G.F. Muntz, in July following, Mr. Bright was almost unanimously selected to fill his place as M.P. for this town, and for 25 years he has continued to honour Birmingham by permitting us to call him our member. (See Parliamentary Elections.") Mr. Bright has been twice married, but is now a widower, and he has twice held office in the Cabinet, first as President of the Board of Trade, and more lately as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.