iioa 



BIRMINGHAM. 



BIRMINGHAM. 



wood, terra Jimica or catoohu, stick-lac, bees-wax, ivory, raw-cotton, 

 orpiment, gold, *ilvrr. rubies, sapphires, and horses. The most 

 important article in teak-timber, which is principally can 

 Calcutta. Haw-cotton goes to Dacca, and U used in the fabrication of 

 fine muslins. 



The principal article* imported at Rangoon are cotton piece-goods, 

 from Grv.it Britain, Bengal, and Madras ; British woollens ; iron, steel, 

 quicksilver, copper, cordage, borax, sulphur, gunpowder, saltpetre, 

 fire-anus, coarse porcelain, English glass-ware, opium, tobacco, cocoa 

 and areca nuta, sugar, and spirit*. After cotton piece-goods the most 

 important articles are areca and cocoa-nuts. [RANGOON.] Bassein 

 formerly was a place of considerable traffic, and some European 

 nations had factories established there, but since the foundation of 

 Rangoon it has lost all its commercial importance. 



Jlulory. In the 18th century, when the Portuguese navigators 

 became acquainted with the western part of the peninsula beyond the 

 Gauges, it was divided into four kingdoms Aracan, Ava, Pegu, and 

 Siam. The Birmese who inhabited the kingdom of Ava were previously 

 subject to the kings of Pegu, but, supported by the Portuguese, they 

 shook off the yoke and became independent Nearly a century after- 

 wards, in 1 740, war broke out afresh, the Peguans defeated the Birmese, 

 entered the capital and took their king, Douypdy, prisoner (1752). 

 But the Birmese though defeated were not subdued. Alompra, a man 

 of obscure birth, at the head of a few partisans defeated detach- 

 ments of the Peguans in several engagements, and his forces increasing 

 with his success he marched upon Ava and recovered it in the autumn 

 of 1753. Following up his success he pursued the Peguans into 

 their own territories, took and plundered their capital, and extended 

 his conquests even into Siam. Alompra died in 1760 and was suc- 

 ceeded by his eldest son Hanedodjz Pra, who reigned but four years. 

 His brother Chembuan succeeding, took the Siamese capital in 1766, 

 but was unable to maintain possession of such distant acquisitions. 

 In the following year ho defeated a Chinese army of 50,000 men, which 

 had been sent to annex his kingdom to the Celestial empire. During 

 the remainder of his reign he was engaged in quelling the revolts of the 

 Peguans and in harassing the Siamese. In 1774 he conquered Cassay 

 (now called Hunipoor), and it continued to be part of the Birmese 

 dominions till the treaty of Yandabo in 1826, when it was rendered 

 independent of Birma. Chembuan died in 1776, and left a powerful 

 empire to his son Chegusa, a monster of cruelty and debauchery, who, 

 after reigning about six years, was murdered, and succeeded by his 

 uncle Hinderadjz Pra. This prince was devoted to astronomical 

 studies, and transferred the seat of empire to Amarapura. In the 

 second year of his reign he subdued Aracon, but failed iu his attempt 

 upon Siam and the Siamese island of Jankseylon, or Salang, a fine 

 wooded island, containing tin mines, lying south of the Mergui 

 Archipelago and at the northern entrance of the Strait of Malacca. 

 A peace concluded between Birma and Siam in 1793 put the former 

 in possession of the province of Tennasserim. In 1810 the conquest 

 of Salang was effected. Minderadjz died in 1819 and was succeeded 

 by his grandson. During the first years of the new reign some 

 predatory inroads, not supposed to be sanctioned by the Birmese 

 government, were made upon the territories of the East India Com- 

 pany. In 1823 some Bntish soldiers were slain and some British 

 subjects imprisoned. The court of Ava when called to account 

 threatened to invade Bengal, and soon put the throat in execution. 

 War followed of course, disastrous in every respect to Birma, which, 

 after many defeats, lost, by the treaty of Yandabo (signed in 1826), 

 Aracs/i and the Tennasserim Provinces, now incorporated with the 

 territory of BritUh India. A refusal to satisfy some claims of British 

 merchant* at Rangoon brought a squadron of British war-ships into 

 that harbour in January 1852. A supposed want of respect to the 

 British commodore, on the part of the viceroy of Rangoon, led to 

 immediate hostilities ; the coast of the delta was blockaded, the 

 batteries of Rangoon demolished, and the river entered by force. 

 Soon after, the Governor-General of India, dispatched a land-force 

 under General Godwin, which in the course of the year stormed 

 lUrUban and Bassoin, and captured Pegu and Promo, to which town 

 the war-steamers, under Captain Tarleton, made their way. All this 

 was effected with little loss from the enemy ; but the climate was 

 very fatal to the sepoys. Prome was retaken by the Birmese by a 

 sur]irie, but recovered by General Godwin on the 9th of October with 

 the loss of one man. By a proclamation of the Governor-General of 

 India the province of Pegu, containing an area of about 22,000 square 

 miles, and including the whole of the Birmese coast and the delta of 

 the Irawaddi, was formally annexed to British India. In the course 

 of the year the emperor either abdicated or was dethroned, and his 

 successor, though willing to make peace, refused to sign a treaty 

 recognising the annexation of Pegu. The unhealthinem of the 

 climate presents a serious obstacle to the permanent occupation of 

 Ptfu by the British, even if it were desirable in a political point of view. 

 (8 vines' s and Crawford's Smbauia to Ava; Cox's Kota ; Sanger- 

 maoo's Dncription of (Iu Bttmute Empire; Wilson's Hutory of tht 

 Bwmar War ; Hamilton, in Aiiaiic Ratarchti and Edinb. PhUot. Jour- 

 nal; Wilt-ox, in A italic Rnearchct.) 



M I \ i ; 1 1 A M, Warwickshire, a manufacturing and market-town, 

 parliamentary and municipal borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law 

 Union, in the parish of Birmingham and hundred of Hemlingford, is 



situated on the small rivers Rea and Tame, on n narrow projection of 

 the north-western portion of the county, in 52* 29' N. lat, 1' 55' W. 

 long., distant 23 miles N.W. from Warwick, 109 miles N.W. from 

 London by road, and 112 miles by the London and North- Western 

 railway. The municipal borough, established by royal charter in 1838, 

 is co-extensive with the parliamentary borough ; it is governed by 16 

 aldermen and 48 councillors, of whom one U mayor, and returns two 

 members to the Imperial Parliament The population of Birmingham 

 borough in 1841 was 182,922 ; in 1851 it was 232,841. The living is 

 a rectory in the archdeaconry of Coventry and diocese of Worcester. 

 Birmingham Poor-Law Union, which coincides with the parish, con- 

 tains an area of 2876 acres, and a population in 1851 of 173,878. 

 Aston, one of the manufacturing suburbs of Birmingham, is also the 

 seat of a Poor-Law Union, which comprises five parishes and town- 

 ships, with an area of 29,960 acres, and a population in 1851 of 

 66,851. 



Designation and Ifittory. The name of Birmingham has been 

 spelled in many different ways, the chief of which are Btrmynyekam, 

 Burmyngham, Byrmyngham, Bromteycham, Brumvycheham. It has 

 indeed been asserted that the name has been spelled in a hundred and 

 fifty different ways. The two extremes, however, of the modes of 

 spelling and pronouncing it, appear to be Bromwycham and Jier- 

 mynyc/iam ; but it is not now known which of these two is the more 

 correct 



Birmingham has from a remote time been a market-town, and to 

 some extent the seat of manufactures. IU vicinity to the Stafford- 

 Hhiro iron-mines and the forest of Arden, probably led to the smelting 

 of iron by means of charcoal. The iron being prepared on the spot, 

 it is natural to suppose that a colony of artificers would settle here, 

 and that they would early acquire skill in the use of the material. 

 During the Heptarchy the manor appears to have been a possession 

 which gave dignity and consideration to its holders, who resided in a 

 castle or mansion near the cluster of buildings which formed the 

 nucleus of the present town. 



Though the seat of industry and the simpler mechanical arts, the 

 progress of Birmingham was for many centuries slow, and its produc- 

 tions, from the difficulty of transit, circulated within a limited district 

 A considerable extension of its manufacturing operations appears to 

 have taken place in the 17th century, when, on the restoration of 

 Charlea II., a fondness for metal ornaments was introduced from 

 France, where the exiled king and his adherents had long resiiK'il ; 

 and Birmingham took the lead in the manufacture of the glittering 

 trifles which the taste of the age demanded. 



The operation of the Corporation and Five Mile Acts, and other 

 arbitrary laws, favoured the progress of the town. The consequence 

 of these enactments was the ejection from cities and t>oroughs with 

 chartered privileges of many individuals, who settled in this com- 

 paratively inconsiderable town, and brought with them accessions of 

 capital and industry. 



Except the parish church of St. Martin, Birmingham contains no 

 edifices of greater antiquity than the black-and-white half-timW 

 houses of the 16th and 17th centuries, which are numerous in the 

 older part of the town, in the suburb of Deritend, and in a line of 

 street referred to by Leland as in his time forming ' the beauty ' of 

 the place. 



Birmingham has not been the scene of any important historical 

 events. It continued from the time of the Heptarchy in the pos- 

 session of the Saxon family on which it conferred a name. In the 

 reign of Henry VIII. the last De Birmingham was convicted of felony 

 and lost his inheritance through a plot laid by Dudley, afterwords 

 duke of Northumberland, who soon obtained the manor for himself. 

 On the Duke's attainder it lapsed to the crown, and was given by Queen 

 Mary in 1556 to Thomas Marrow of Berkswell in the county of War- 

 wick. It has since, by purchase and marriage, changed hands several 

 times. The market-tolls, the most important portion of the manorial 

 rights, were purchased a few years ago for 12,500/. by the Commis- 

 sioners of the Street Acts, and are held by them for the benefit of 

 the town. 



In the year 1643, the inhabitants, who hod taken a decided part on 

 the popular side by seizing the royal carriages and maltreating the 

 attendants, and by supplying large numbers of sword-blades to the 

 Parliamentary troops, while they refused to execute orders given by 

 the commissaries of the Royal army, were visited by Prince Rupert, 

 the nephew of the king, with a body of 8000 men. A sharp skirmish 

 took place, attended by the loss of several lives on both sides, and the 

 destruction of a considerable portion of the town by fire. A spot of 

 ground near the entrance from Oxford, has since borne the name of 

 Camphill, indicating the place where the prince halted the night 1 

 he forced his passage through the town. Birmingham suffered great 

 injury from a serious riot which occurred in 1791. 



The simple form of municipal government which existed when 

 Birmingham was an obscure village, remained unchanged until 1838, 

 though the forms of manorial authority had gradually adapted them- 

 selves to the demands of an increasing community. During the long- 

 continued non-residence of the lords of the manor, the bailiffs had 

 gradually assumed an importance to which their actual official duties 

 did not entitle them. The municipal charter of 1838 has assimilated 

 the government to that of other large towns. 



