42 LOEWENFELD, Contrihiitions to the History of Science. 



celebrated by a dinner at Birmin<:jham. It must be con- 

 fessed that Priestley had done much to excite the wrath 

 of his opponents. He had published pamphlets when he 

 ought to have kept the peace, and although a most 

 seditious handbill, which had been distributed broadcast 

 early in July\ had not been written by himself, nor even 

 influenced by his party, the catastrophe came on the 

 anniversary of the capture of the Bastille. 



A crowd of rowdies assembled near the hotel where 

 the dinner was to take place and broke every window. 

 Priestley, by the way, was not present himself After this 

 little preamble the crowd hurried to the New Meeting 

 House, where Priestley used to minister. This house was 

 pillaged and burnt, as also was a second Meeting House.'*^ 



After the riots Priestley went to London, where he 

 stayed first at Tottenham and later on at Hackney. I 

 possess two letters of Priestley written in reference to his 

 troubles. The first is addressed to Josiah Rees, a Welsh 

 Presbyterian minister. 



Reverend Sir, 



A variety of engagements and absences from 

 London have prevented my noticing )-our very 

 obliging letter so soon as I should otherwise have 

 done. The first opportunity' that you have, I beg you 

 would assure the ministers in whose name }'ou wrote 

 to me, that I received the greatest satisfaction from 

 their consolatory letter, and that I shall be far from 

 considering my sufferings as a cause of lamentation, 

 if they be the means, as I trust they will, of leading 

 the Dissenters of different persuasions to feel for one 



*" .See 'An Authentic Account of tlie Riots in Birmingliam.' Birm- 

 ingham, 1791. The second edition of tliis pamphlet contains an appendix : 

 'The Claims of the Sufferers and the Verdicts of the Juries.' See also the 

 chapter, ' The Birmingham Riots,' in Thorpe's 'Joseph Priestley,' and the 

 ' Appeal,' mentioned in note 45. 



