or BERMINGHAM, a large commercial and manufacturing town, situated in a projecting angle of the north-western portion of the county of Warwick, near the confines of Staffordshire and Worcestershire. It is in 52° 59' N. Lat. and 1° 18' W. Long.; 102 miles in a straight line N.W. of London, and by the North-Western railway 112 miles. The parish of Birmingham is bounded on the E. and N.E. by the parish of Aston, and on the south by that of Edgbaston, both in the county of Warwick; and on the W. and N.W. by those of Harborne and Handsworth, in the county of Stafford. The parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston, with about a third part of Aston, form the parliamentary and municipal borough; the total area in statute acres being 7831; of which Birmingham contains 2660, Edgbaston 2645, and Aston 2626.

The parish from which the town derives its name, is, with the exception of a small portion of land at its western and northern extremities, almost entirely covered with buildings. Edgbaston, from the circumstance of the fee-simple of almost the entire parish being vested in one proprietor, who exercises a stringent control as to the nature of the buildings erected, is the most pleasant and fashionable part of the borough.

Birmingham is situated nearly in the centre of England, built on the crest and sides of a gentle hill, and when viewed from the S.E. presents the appearance of a vast semi-circle, the gradual elevation of the surface adding to the picturesqueness of the view. This circumstance, too, is favourable to its salubrity; and the general health of the inhabitants will bear comparison with that of any other large manufacturing district. Water is obtained in abundance at a medium depth of about 20 yards; and the town is further supplied by a company, whose distribution of this first necessary of life amounts to upwards of a million gallons per day, and occasionally even to upwards of two million gallons. One shallow river, the Rea, flows through the lower part of the town, and affords a convenient outlet for drainage.

The general appearance of the town, which in the earlier part of the present century was not of an inviting character, is rapidly improving. In addition to the public buildings, now becoming numerous, many judicious alterations have been effected by the widening of streets, the removal of unsightly buildings, and the cultivation of a more refined taste in street architecture generally. The great value of land, however, in the principal thoroughfares, forms the main obstacle to the carrying forward of improvements greatly needed in almost every direction. Many of the streets in the suburbs, and in the centre of the town, are occupied with the residences of the working classes, who, too frequently, seek to reside in as close proximity as possible to the manufactories in which they are employed. Each family, however, has a residence of its own, and the practice of living in cellars is here entirely unknown.

Anterior to the Norman conquest Birmingham was a market-town, and probably to some limited extent its inhabitants were engaged in manufactures. Its proximity to the iron and coal districts of Staffordshire would afford great facilities to the workers in metals; but the arguments that have been made use of to show that it was a place of manufacturing celebrity in the times of the ancient Britons are so extravagant as to carry with them their own refutation. Notwithstanding its local advantages, the progress of the town must for a long period have been slow, as in the levy of men ordered to be made for the French war in 1346 Birmingham contributed but four, while Coventry supplied forty. Leland is the first writer who has left any description of the town on record. In the Itinerary (temp. Henry VIII.) he thus speaks:—

"The beauty of Birmingham, a good market towne in the extreme parts of Warwickshire, is one street going up aloroge almost from the left ripe of the brooke [the Rea], up a meane hill by the length of a quarter of a mile. I saw but one parish church in the towne. There be many smithes in the towne, that use to make knives, and all manner of cutting tooles, and many lorimers that make bittes, and a great many naylors; so that a great part of the towne is maintained by smithes, whose have their iron and sea-cole out of Staffordshire." Camden, who wrote half a century later, describes it as "swarming with inhabitants, and echoing with the noise of anvils (for here are great numbers of smithes)." The parochial registers, which commence in 1554, show that the population must at that period have been very limited, as the entries of deaths in the first six months amount to only 16, the marriages to 6, and the births to about 24. At the commencement of the following century, however, an increase was apparent; the burials in 1608 being 37, and in 1611, 64; the marriages in 1621 were 10, and in 1625, 17; and in 1627 the baptisms were 102.

In the unhappy contest between Charles I. and his parliament, the inhabitants warmly espoused the cause of the latter; and in 1642, when the king was on his march from Shrewsbury to relieve Banbury, they disarmed a guard who were conveying the royal plate and furniture to the camp, and sent their prize to Warwick Castle, one of the strongholds of their party. So devoted also were they to the cause they had espoused, that their workshops supplied 15,000 swordblades to Cromwell's soldiers, while no temptations could induce them to furnish a single weapon to the royalist forces. In 1643 they opposed Prince Rupert's entrance into the town, but were defeated with considerable loss; and the victors not only levied heavy contributions, but set the town on fire, eighty houses being consumed. In this fray the Earl of Denbigh lost his life. A more serious calamity, however,—the plague,—desolated the town in 1665, and the inhabitants were compelled to bury their dead in a lonely spot called Ladywood, at the outskirts of the town. No records remain to show the number of victims, the entries of burials in the parochial registers not exhibiting any increase over their ordinary numbers.

The revolution of 1688 was signalized by the total demolition of a Roman Catholic church and convent. These buildings had only been erected a few months; James II. having been a contributor of 125 tons of timber from the royal forest of Needwood. But the close of the eighteenth century was marked by an outbreak of so disgraceful a character as to have left an indelible stigma on the party at whose instigation it was excited. The strenuous efforts of the dissenters Throughout the kingdom to obtain redress of the grievances under which they laboured, had been in no instance more zealously supported than by the Unitarians of Birmingham; and Dr Priestley, the minister of one of the meeting houses belonging to that body, by his arguments and satire, had excited against himself the hatred of the more violent members of the church party. The orthodox dissenters, while warmly sympathizing with the doctor's views relative to the connection of ecclesiastical establishments with the state, held aloof from him on account of his religious writings and opinions, and hence were not viewed with the same degree of dislike. On the 14th of July 1791, a dinner in commemoration of the French revolution was held at the Hotel, but as the public mind had been excited by an inflammatory handbill that had been extensively circulated, the company separated at an early hour. A mob assembled, however, and for three days held the town completely under their control, burning and pillaging the places of worship and private houses of the Unitarian body. The damage, at a moderate computation, was £60,000; but of all the property destroyed no loss was so much to be deplored as that of Dr Priestley's laboratory and library, where the results of the doctor's scientific researches during a whole life were collected. The reputation of the town suffered for many years from the remembrance of this outbreak; but religious animosities by degrees subsided, as Dr Priestley, against whom the chief feeling was raised, never again resided in Birmingham.

When the great movement in favour of parliamentary reform was commenced in 1830, Birmingham took the lead, but notwithstanding the intensity of the political excitement, no breach of the peace occurred; and the working classes have on many occasions borne the reverses of trade, which have sometimes been severe, with exemplary patience. In 1839 when the people, at the instigation of trading political agitators, had abandoned those leaders in whose counsels they had previously reposed confidence, an aimless outbreak occurred, and several houses in the market-place were destroyed.

The family of De Bermingham is supposed to have held the manor before the Norman conquest, and retained it after that epoch in dependence on the Norman lord of Dudley Castle. One of them engaged in the Barons' war against Henry III., and fell at the battle of Evesham in 1265; but under the Dictum de Kenilworth the estate was restored to his son. The last male representative was deprived of the family possessions through a conspiracy of John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, in 1527, who being desirous of obtaining the estate, contrived a pretended robbery by his creatures, in the presence of De Bermingham, when riding in the vicinity of the town; and who being tried and convicted as an accessory, was persuaded to surrender his estates to the crown, on promise of a pardon, and a small annuity. The act of parliament confirming the pardon still remains on the statute book. On the attainder of Northumberland, the manor lapsed to the crown, and was granted in 1555 to Thomas Marrow, of Berkswell, in the county of Warwick. The present owner is Christopher Musgrave, Esq. The value, however, is little more than nominal, as the market-tolls were purchased by the commissioners under the Street Act, whose powers were vested in the town-council by the Improvement Act of 1851. They now produce £5400 per annum. The manorial residence, which stood near the parish church, and was surrounded by a moat, fell into decay after the ruin of the family; but the moat remained till 1816, when with other land it was appropriated to the purposes of a cattle-market.

From the earliest known period Birmingham was governed by two bailiffs, chosen at the court leet of the lord of the manor; but these officers, for several centuries, could have been but mere deputies of the lord, having no separate or independent powers. They were recognized authorities, however, as instances occur of writs of the crown having been directed to them as early as the time of Edward III. The duty of the high bailiff (who was generally a Churchman) was to convene public meetings, inspect the markets, and proclaim the fairs, two in number. The low bailiff (usually a dissenter) summoned the leet jury, on whom devolved the choice of the other officers. By the provisions of the Reform Bill, the elective franchise, with the privilege of returning two members to parliament, was conferred upon the town, the bailiffs being appointed returning officers. In 1839, a charter of incorporation was granted by the crown, but its validity was disputed, though ultimately confirmed by the legislature. In consequence of the various boards of commissioners retaining their authority undiminished, the powers of the corporation were of very limited extent; and it was not till 1851 that the conflicting views of the different bodies could be sufficiently harmonized to allow of a successful application to parliament for a bill consolidating the whole of the governing powers within the borough. By virtue of this act, all the rights and privileges formerly belonging to the different boards are now vested in the town-council; and the offices of high and low bailiffs are but a name. The revenue of the corporation is derived entirely from rates levied on the inhabitants.

With the exception of the parish church of St Martin, Birmingham possesses no buildings of antiquity. A few half-timbered houses, with projecting eaves and pointed gables, of the time of James I., still remain in that portion of the town which Leland denominated "a pretty street"—Deritend; and part of a brick mansion of considerable size (also belonging to the Jacobean era) stands at the back of a retail shop in the High Street. The remainderance of the hospital or priory of St Thomas the Apostle is still preserved in several streets, bearing the names of Upper and Lower Priory, Minories, and Thomas Street, though the building itself was destroyed before the close of the sixteenth century; and the possessions of another establishment, of a semi-religious character, the Guild of the Holy Cross, were granted by Edward VI. for the purpose of endowing the grammar school now called after that pious monarch.

Until the year 1711, Birmingham proper possessed but one parish church, that of St Martin's, erected about the middle or towards the close of the thirteenth century. The interior has undergone considerable changes, many incongruous alterations having been made, while the exterior was cased with brick in the reign of James II., and presents, in consequence, a mean and uninviting appearance. The spire escaped this renovation, but having been constructed of a friable stone, was in so dilapidated a condition as to require to be taken down in 1833 preparatory to the erection of a new one. This elegant specimen of architectural skill was erected about the middle of the fourteenth century. The church contains some ancient monuments of the lords of Bermingham, and a curious one of an ecclesiastic, which were carefully restored in 1846. St Philip's church, consecrated in 1715, is in the Italian style, and the general effect is striking and beautiful. The churches of the establishment in the entire borough are twenty-five in number, eighteen having been erected within the last thirty years. Two new ones are also in course of erection (1854). The dissenting chapels are numerous, and some of them display evidence of superior taste. The members of the Roman Catholic body possess a cathedral and episcopal residence, a chapel, an oratory of St Philip Neri, a convent for Sisters of Mercy, adjacent to which is an asylum for destitute female servants, and a cemetery. There are also two public cemeteries of considerable extent, the grounds of which are laid out with great taste.

Until a recent period Birmingham was entirely destitute of public buildings having the smallest pretension to architectural beauty. But the deficiencies of former days are now being rapidly supplied. Chief among the ornaments of the borough is the town-hall, a splendid edifice in the Corinthian style. The most remarkable feature of this building is a series of fluted columns forty feet in height, which rest on a rustic basement, and support a bold entablature. The front elevation is terminated by a noble enriched pediment, and the general effect is exceedingly striking. The principal room in the interior is 145 feet long, 65 wide, and of the same height. It will accommodate about 4000 persons when seated, but double that number in a standing position. The decorations of the walls and roof are very rich. The building was commenced in 1832, and was opened for the first time in October 1834, on the occasion of the triennial musical festival for the benefit of the general hospital. The organ at the northern extremity of the hall is one of the finest in Europe, and was erected by public subscription. The cost of the hall, including land, was about £40,000. The design was not entirely completed till 1850, the additional expense being £12,000. The material employed is Anglesea granite. The market-hall commenced about 1830, is of Greekian design, having two large Doric, besides smaller entrances. It is 360 feet in length by 108 in width, and 60 in height, and is lighted by twenty-six windows on each side, with six at the north, and two at the south entrances, as well as by skylights. The roof is supported by seventeen series of beams, which rest on as many pairs of iron pillars 28 feet in height and 20 feet apart. In addition to stallage for more than 300 persons, there is sufficient space for 4000 persons to perambulate. The expense of the erection was £30,000, but the site cost more than double that sum. Near the market-hall is placed the sole statue of which Birmingham can at present boast, erected in 1809 to the memory of Lord Nelson.

The public office—the only building belonging to the town in which public meetings could be held before the erection of the town-halls—is in the Ionic style; having been considerably enlarged in 1830, it now contains numerous apartments in which much of the public business is transacted. The town prison is situated at the back of this building. The borough jail, which was built by the corporation, is very capacious, inclosing within its boundaries seven acres of land, and containing accommodation for more than 500 prisoners. The separate system of prison discipline is here carried out. Adjacent to the jail is the lunatic asylum, in which 337 patients can be accommodated. This building was also erected by the corporation, who have likewise established a set of baths. A new workhouse, under the supervision of the guardians of the poor, was opened in 1852, and the total expense incurred in the erection of these four edifices has been upwards of £150,000. A plan of sewerage is also being carried out, which will involve an expenditure equal to that just named. Bingley Exhibition Hall, in the Roman-Doric style, erected in 1850 by share subscription at a cost of £7,000, for the accommodation of the great cattle and poultry shows held annually in the town, is about 294 feet long by 212 wide, and covers 13 acre of land. These exhibitions, which were commenced in 1849, are held in the month of December, and have already attained so great a degree of celebrity as to rival those of the London Smithfield Club held about the same period, and have given a stimulus to the establishment of similar societies throughout the kingdom. The number of visitors is generally from 40,000 to 50,000. A corn-exchange has also been recently erected by private enterprise for the use of agriculturists and others attending the markets. There are also, in addition, a school of design, post-office, theatre, news-rooms, subscription libraries, and other minor public edifices. With the exception of the polytechnic institution, which is a mechanics' institute, there is no institution for the promotion of science, but the corporation having granted a site of land for the purpose. Buildings for a Midland Literary and Scientific Institute on an extended scale are about to be erected. A statue of the late Sir Robert Peel by a native artist—Mr Peter Hollins—will also be placed in some public thoroughfare of the borough in the course of the present year (1854). A flourishing society of artists, holding an annual exhibition of pictures, has been in existence in the town for eleven years. Street architecture has considerably advanced of late, many of the retail shops and offices being erected in a style of magnificence worthy the important communities amongst which they are situated. There is also a botanic garden with extensive conservatories at Edgbaston.

The educational establishments of Birmingham are varied and flourishing. The free grammar school, founded by Edward VI. in 1552, is a noble institution, affording gratuitous instruction in its chief and branch schools for nearly 2000 young persons. The revenues are derived from lands formerly the property of a semi-religious fraternity dissolved at the Reformation, and called the "Guild of the Holy Cross." These possessions, originally of the value of £21 per annum, are to a great extent situated in the principal thoroughfares of the town; and as much of the land has been let on building leases, the expiry of these has augmented the income of the charity from £3,500 in 1827, to £10,000, and this sum will in a few years be considerably increased. About 460 boys are taught in the chief school; and nearly 1600 of both sexes in four-branch establishments. The school, which was erected from the designs of Mr Barry, is in the perpendicular Gothic style, 174 feet long and 60 feet high. The front elevation consists of two stories, with tracered windows, and is divided into compartments by buttresses, which terminate, above an embattled parapet, in pinnacles enriched with crockets and finials. The building cost, including the expense of additional land for the site, £71,000. In consequence of this great outlay, and the establishment of an extended and more liberal system of education, the debts of the charity amounted to £95,000, but the whole of this sum has been paid from the proceeds of sales of land to the railway companies. The tercentenary anniversary of the foundation of the school was celebrated in April 1829 with great festivity. The Queen's College (which had its origin in a school of medicine, founded in 1828) obtained a royal charter in 1843, and is a flourishing institution. Though originally limited to medical students only, it has now its departments of arts, law, and engineering, and has an efficient staff of highly talented professors. Affiliated to the institution is the Queen's Hospital, erected in 1840. The collegiate buildings, which have but a limited frontage, are in the perpendicular style, but the effect of the façade is greatly impaired by the proximity of adjacent houses. The Blue-Coat school, founded in 1724, supports and educates from 200 to 300 boys and girls, who are trained in the principles of the Established Church, and apprenticed at the age of fourteen. The annual income is about £2,500. There is also a Protestant-dissenters' charity-school, supported chiefly by the Unitarian body; and a large and flourishing free industrial school, besides numerous minor ones. In 1831 a proprietary school was established at Edgbaston, the building being a handsome Elizabethan structure. There is a college also, established in 1838, belonging to the Congregationalists; the number of students is about twenty. In the vicinity of the town, a training college for the diocese of Worcester, and a reformatory institution for juvenile criminals, have likewise been recently established. The census returns of 1851 show the number of day-schools in the borough to be 454, of which 66 are public and 388 private; scholars on the books, 22,183, and in actual attendance, 17,963; while of Sunday-schools the number is 70, and of scholars on the books, 21,406, and in actual attendance, 14,376. The proportion of children attending school to the entire population, is, of day-schoolers, 1 in 11½; and of Sunday-schoolers, 1 in 10½.

The charitable institutions of the town are numerous and important. They consist of two hospitals, which administer relief to 20,000 out-patients, and 3700 in-patients; namely: a general dispensary; a lying-in hospital; and a variety of other benevolent institutions. A savings-bank, with 23,674 depositors, and £421,574 invested in government securities, has been in operation for 27 years.

To the staple commodities of iron manufacture, brass goods were added about the seventeenth century. This branch now forms one of the most important in the town. Every description of article in this metal is produced in immense quantities both for the home and foreign markets. Metallic bedsteads in brass and iron—this department being exclusively cultivated by some of the largest houses—chandeliers, gas-brackets, cornice-poles, ornamental railings, metallic picture frames, and curtain bands; in addition to the humble but not less useful articles of door-knobs, candlesticks, and hinges, find employment for many thousands of men, women, and boys. The universal application of steam-power has led to the invention of numerous contrivances for economizing labour, and the result has been a greatly augmented faculty of production, which, by diminishing the cost of manufacture, has materially increased the demand. Another result has been that many branches of labour are now brought within the range of female industry; and it was given in evidence before a government commissioner in 1841, that in one manufactory in the button trade the proportion of females to males was ten to one; while in another, in the same trade, the numbers were 60 males and 300 females. Nearly one-half of the married females are engaged in factory labour; the percentage of deaths of children under five years of age is 45, or nearly one-half of the entire number registered in the whole borough. This awful rate of mortality can only be accounted for by the fact just adverted to. Among the more elegant productions of the brassfoundry trade may be classed the manufacture of lamps. These tasteful articles are produced in immense quantities; enamelled and gilt glass entering largely into their composition. The backle trade, for which Birmingham was at one time so famous, has entirely disappeared; and the manufacture of metal buttons has considerably diminished, in consequence of the general substitution of Florentine ones. The glass trade (including stained glass for windows) is very successfully cultivated; and in the vicinity of the town is the gigantic establishment of Messrs Chance, who supplied the whole of this material required for the glazing of the Crystal Palace for the Exhibition of 1851. In near proximity also is the immense foundry of Messrs Fox and Henderson, the contractors for the erection of the entire building. The wondrous process of electro-plating, which has sprung up entirely within the last few years, is now carried on to an almost incredible extent. The manufactory of Messrs Elkington is the parent establishment in the town; and articles of the most dazzling description, and in immense variety, are produced. Jewellery, in the fabrication of which female labour largely enters, is made in great quantities. Of steel pens fully seven hundred millions are annually sent into the market. The consumption of steel in the establishment of Mr Gillott for 1853 was 90 tons; the number of pens manufactured, 261,273,000. The papier-maché trade is cultivated very extensively. Many of the articles composed of this material, consisting of sofas, tables, and other kinds of furniture, in addition to the smaller descriptions, such as desks, workboxes, and inksstands, are ornamented with figures, flowers, and landscapes—in a style of art, and inlaid with pearl—the effect produced being exquisitely beautiful. The gun trade, first stimulated by government patronage in the time of William III., retains its pristine reputation; and a proof-house, where all gun-barrels manufactured are required to be proved, was established by an act of parliament in 1813. The ordnance department of government have also an establishment in the town. Metal-rolling, wire-drawing, and pin-making, are extensively carried on, but to enumerate more than a few of the more important trades, where the entire number is 250, were unnecessary. The great agent of production, the steam-engine, was introduced in 1767 by Mr Boulton, who, in conjunction with his partner James Watt, acquired so wide a celebrity. The Soho, two miles distant from the town, where the manufacture was formerly carried on, is now dismantled; but the successors of the firm still conduct the business at Smethwick, a thriving locality in the neighbourhood. The steam-power in the borough is nearly equal to that of 6000 horses, or 90,000 men.

The town was first lighted with gas in 1819. There are now two companies, whose annual production amounts to more than 200,000,000 cubic feet; and many of the larger establishments manufacture their own supply. Canals were first introduced in 1767, and are still used to a considerable extent, notwithstanding their formidable rivals the railways. The Grand Junction, connecting the town with Liverpool, was the first line of railway completed to Birmingham, having been opened in July 1837. This was followed by the London and Birmingham in the following year, and subsequently by the Derby, and Gloucester. For a considerable period the various lines had separate stations, but the inconvenience arising from this cause has been remedied, and all the old lines now unite at one point, in New Street. The length of the great central station (now nearly completed) is more than 1100 feet, the width varying from 188 to 211 feet. The structure (with the exception of the necessary offices, which are of white brick) is composed of iron; and the roof, forming a segment of a circle, is covered with fluted glass. Beneath the span of this immense fabric are ten lines of rails, four platforms for passengers, and a roadway for cabs; but though the span is so great, the roof is unsupported by a single pillar except those on either side. The Stour Valley trains depart from this station; and the whole of the passenger traffic of the London and North-Western and Midland lines will be transferred to it in the course of the present year (1854). The Oxford Junction, a line belonging to the Great-Western Company, furnishes a second route to the metropolis; and for this, in conjunction with the Dudley and Wolverhampton, a large station will be erected on Snow Hill. The destruction of house property for the purposes of the different lines has been immense; in one instance the whole of one side of a street a mile in length having been removed.

In 1801, the population of Birmingham was 73,679; in 1811, 85,755; in 1821, 106,721; in 1831, 142,251; in 1841, 182,922; and in 1851, 232,841, of whom 113,916 were males, and 118,925 females. The number of persons to a square mile is 41,853, being greater than that of any other town in England except London and Liverpool. The area in statute acres is 7831, and the rateable property is assessed at L635,621. The number of houses in 1841 was 39,291, and in 1851, 48,892. The increase, however, would have been much more considerable but for the cause already stated.