were punished more or less, two of the leaders, Wm. Lovett and John
Collins, were sentenced to one year's imprisonment for a seditious libel
in saying that "the people of Birmingham were the best judges of their
own rights to meet in the Bull Ring, and the best judges of their own
power and resources to obtain justice." On the 27th July, 1849, Lovett
and Collins were accorded a public welcome on their release from prison,
being met at the Angel by a crowd of vehicles, bands of music, &c., and
a procession (said to have numbered nearly 30,000), accompanied them to
Gosta Green where speeches were delivered; a dinner, at which 800
persons sat down, following on the site of "The People's Hall of
Science," in Loveday Street. In 1841, Joseph Sturge gave in his adhesion
to some movement for the extension of the franchise to the working
classes, and at his suggestion a meeting was held at the Waterloo Rooms
(Feb. 25th, 1842), and a memorial to the Queen drawn up, which in less
than a month received 16,000 signatures. On the 5th of April, 87
delegates from various parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland,
assembled here, and after four days' sitting formed themselves into "The
National Complete Suffrage Union," whose "points" were similar to those
of the Charter, viz., manhood suffrage, abolition of the property
qualification, vote by ballot, equal electoral districts, payment of
election expenses and of members, and annual Parliaments. On the 27th of
December, another Conference was held (at the Mechanics' Institute), at
which nearly 400 delegates were present, but the apple of discord had
been introduced, and the "Complete Suffrage Union" was pooh-poohed by
the advocates of "the Charter, the whole Charter, and nothing but the
Charter," and our peace-loving townsman, whom _The Times_ had dubbed
"the Birmingham Quaker Chartist," retired from the scene. From that time
until the final collapse of the Chartist movement, notwithstanding many
meetings were held, and strong language often used, Birmingham cannot be
said to have taken much part in it, though, in 1848 (August 15th),