Anti-Corn-Law Meetings were also numerous.  The one to recollect is that held Feb. 18, 1842.

Anti-Papal Demonstration.—­A town’s meeting took place in the Town Hall, Dec. 11, 1850, to protest against the assumption of ecclesiastical titles by the Catholic hierarchy.  About 8,000 persons were present, and the “No Popery” element was strong, but Joseph Sturge moved an amendment for freedom to all parties, which so split the votes that the Mayor said the amendment was not carried and the resolution was lost.

Anti-Slavery.—­The first Anti-Slavery meeting held here was that of Nov. 27, 1787.  A local petition to Parliament against the slave trade was presented to the House of Commons, Feb. 11, 1788.  A local society was formed here in 1826, Joseph Sturge being secretary, and many meetings were held before the Day of Abolition 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 ready 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.