The course of the narrative has brought the reader into the midst of those disgraceful and direful scenes—the Birmingham riots. It is a subject, which the writer reluctantly approaches; and from which he wishes, as speedily as possible, to retire. He can truly say with Eneas, animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit; with Eneas, he may also say, quæque ipse miserrima vidi; and to the extent of threatened violence and dreaded danger at the time, and of painful annoyance from reproach and insult long afterwards, he may add, et quorum magna pars fui. In touching upon these horrible transactions, fearful of speaking with deeper feelings of indignation, and in stronger terms of reprobation, than at this distance of time, and under the very different circumstances of the present period, may seem proper or necessary, he will endeavour to say little; and what little he may find occasion to say, shall be said more in the words of Dr. Parr than in his own.
Never in the history of modern times, as the
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Of this horrible project, Birmingham was the chosen place;—the anniversary
of the taking of the Bastile, July 14, 1791, intended to be celebrated by a public dinner,
was the selected time;—and the dissenters, ever identified with the steadiest friends of
civil and religious freedom, were the devoted victims. The passions and the prejudices of
the vulgar, by every possible means, were previously aroused and inflamed. On the day
appointed, a rabble was easily collected, and as easily incited to acts of violence and
outrage, by the instigation of artful leaders; among whom
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For his well-known attachment to the great cause of liberty, and for his
firm adherence to one of its most zealous and intrepid advocates, Dr. Parr, in these dreadful times, was exposed to much
obloquy, to much serious inconvenience, and often to much alarming apprehension.
“His principles were on a sudden gnawed at,” as he himself expresses
it, “by vermin whispers, and worried by brutal reproaches: his house was marked
for conflagration; his books were threatened with destruction; and for three days and
three nights his family was agitated with consternation and dismay.” Well
might he exclaim—“In what age, or in what country, do I live? Whither, as an
unoffending citizen, shall I flee, for the protection of the laws? and where, as a
diligent and faithful teacher of Christianity, shall I look for its salutary influence,
even amongst those, who make their boast of being its most zealous defenders?
‘O superbiam inauditam! Alios in facinore gloriari,
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The reader will be glad to learn, that the distance of Hatton from the scene of riot saved the parsonage-house; and that the arrival of the military, at the end of the fourth day, removed the apprehension of further mischief. Those who had the means of knowing how widely the evil spirit of Birmingham extended itself around, and with what malignant influence it acted, even on good minds, will think that no small praise is conferred by the following statement, which Dr. Parr has put upon record:—“I have great satisfaction in saying, that the sentiments of my parishioners, though very friendly, as I trust they always will be, to the interests and the honour of our ecclesiastical and civil establishments, were, in one or two instances only, marked by that sanguinary spirit of violence, which had pervaded other parts of the country. I am bound also to add, that the strenuous and kind assistance, which many of them gave my family in the hour of danger, will ever endear them to their
1 Sequel, p. 103. |
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Of the dreadful outrages themselves, Dr. Parr thus delivers his opinion:—
“I know that the Birmingham riots were distinguished from the London riots, in 1780, by many singular and many hideous circumstances—by a seeming regularity of contrivance—by a strange chaos of levity and ferocity in the execution—by reports of the debility, reluctance, and outrageous partiality, in the administration of public justice—by the temporary extinction of common prudence, common justice, and common humanity in private companies—by the most shameless language of triumph in some diurnal and monthly publications—and by vestiges of such remorseless and ill-disguised approbation in certain well-educated men, here and elsewhere, as in times past would have steeled the heart, for participation in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in the fires of Smithfield, and in those human sacrifices which the Christian world has often seen exhibited, as acts of faith, by the holy order of St. Dominic.—Pudet hæc opprobria!”2
The low and malignant passions, which kindled the fires of Birmingham, by no means subsided when those fires were extinguished, but continued long afterwards to exist; assuming a thousand
1 Sequel, p. 114. 2 lb. p. 113. |
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It happened, at this period, that, dining in a public company, Dr. Parr was called upon to drink “Church and King”—the watch-word of a party, and the reigning toast of the times. At first, he resolutely declined. But the obligation of compliance being urgently pressed upon him—rising, at length, with firmness and dignity—with a manner of impressive solemnity, and with a voice of powerful energy, he spoke thus—“I am compelled to drink the toast given from the chair; but I shall do so, with my own comment. Well, then, gentlemen—Church and King.—Once it was the toast of Jacobites; now it is the toast of incendiaries. It means a church without the gospel—and a king above the law!” The wit of this cutting reproof may claim to be admired; but the manly and the noble spirit which dared, at this season of popular fury and frenzy, to espouse the cause of the persecuted, and to rebuke the insolent triumph of the mad persecutors, demands to be gratefully and fervently applauded.
A few months prior to the Birmingham riots, a most extraordinary work
appeared; and to the political and religious animosities, excited and fomented by it, those
dreadful outrages may, in no small degree, be attributed. This was the cele-
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“Upon the first perusal of Mr.
Burke’s book, I felt, like many other men, its magic force; and,
like many other men, I was at last delivered from the illusions which had
‘cheated my reason,’ and borne me on from admiration to assent.
But though the dazzling spell be now dissolved, I still remember with pleasure the gay
and celestial visions, when ‘my mind in sweet madness was robbed of
itself.’ I still look back, with a mixture of piety and holy awe, to the
wizard himself, who, having lately broken his wand, in a start of frenzy, has shortened
the term of his sorceries; and of drugs
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But powerful as was the production of Mr. Burke, on the one side, it was soon followed, on the other, by a still more powerful production in Paine’s “Rights of Man.” Though an attack directed not merely against the absurdities of Mr. Burke, and the corruptions of the English constitution, but against the principles of the constitution itself; it is impossible to deny the wonderful force of intellect, and strength of language, with which the work is written. Being addressed more to the reason, and less to the passions, than the “Reflections on the French Revolution,” it was calculated to make a deeper and more lasting impression on the public mind; and though it could not fail to offend all the privileged orders, whom it sometimes justly exposes and sometimes unjustly asperses; yet it was eagerly read, and extravagantly admired by the great body of the people, for whose rights and liberties it pleads, always with bold confidence, often with energy scarcely to be resisted, and sometimes with arguments never to be refuted. Of its far-famed author, thus happily has Dr. Parr caught the likeness, and sketched the portrait:
“I recognise, in Mr. Paine, a mind, not disciplined by early education, nor softened and refined by various and extensive intercourse with the
1 Sequel, p. 63. |
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But of the numerous answers to which Mr. Burke’s book gave rise, there was one, entitled “Vindiciae Gallicae,” the production of his friend, Mr., now Sir James, Mackintosh, which Dr. Parr, in a high degree, admired. Thus in a fine, animated, commendatory strain, he describes the author and his work:
“In the rapid and eccentric motions of Mr. Burke’s mind, through the vast and trackless space of politics, it often loses the power of attraction upon my own: and as to Mr. Paine, upon my first approaching him, I was instantly repelled to an immeasurable distance; and, for a time, was content to view him, as philosophers look through a telescope, at some dim and sullen planet, whose orbit is at the remotest extremity from the centre. But in the middle and more temperate path, which Mr. Mackintosh has generally pursued, I could often accompany him with pleasure: for, like the earth
1 Sequel, p. 78. |
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The reader is aware that this narrative, in its progress, has reached to the astonishing and eventful period of the French Revolution—so auspicious in its commencement—so disastrous in its course—and terminating so mournfully to the disappointment of all the true friends of human improvement and happiness. For scarcely more mortifying to the
1 Sequel, p. 82. |
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In contemplating this stupendous transaction in the history of the modern world, Dr. Parr’s sentiments were those of approbation or disapprobation, according to the different points to which his attention was directed; and if he saw much in the conduct of the early revolutionists to lament and condemn, he found much, also, to admire and applaud. He thought that the old government of France was no longer fit to be endured; that “it was morbid in its aspect, morbid in its extremities, morbid in its vitals;” and that it was therefore absolutely necessary to contrive and to adopt some new form, better calculated to answer the true end of all just governments, in securing the liberties, and promoting the happiness of the people.
To the last moment of his life, Dr.
Parr held the opinion that the great though unsuccessful attempt, to throw
down despotic rule, and to establish a free constitution in France, cannot fail to be
productive of much present, and still more future good, because many wise and useful
institutions formed at the revolution, still remain; and because the spirit then aroused,
and the information then diffused, still continue, in some degree, and will increase,
operating as a salutary check on arbitrary power, and either gradually introducing the
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But, however in some instances he might disapprove and regret the conduct of the French themselves, nothing could exceed the high and utter abhorrence with which he regarded “the counsels and the conduct of those sanguinary fanatics who would unblushingly and unfeelingly rouse the unsparing sword of foreign potentates, and point it without provocation, without precedent, without any other plea than will, without any other end than tyranny, against the bosom of Frenchmen, contending with Frenchmen alone, upon French ground alone, about French rights, French laws, and French government alone.”2
“If, indeed,” continues he in a style of peculiar energy and solemnity, “the threatened crusade of ruffian despots should be attempted, it will be, in my opinion, an outrageous infringement upon the laws of nations; it will be a savage conspiracy
1 Sequel, p. 84. 2 Ib. p. 73. |
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The war thus solemnly deprecated by Dr. Parr, and by many of the wisest and best men of the country, begun, however, with the too general concurrence of the nation, was continued, with one short interval, for more than twenty-two years, and drew after it a long train of dreadful consequences, from which England, though now in the twelfth year of peace, has not yet recovered. Indeed, so incurable seems the mischief she then sustained, especially in the complete derangement of her finances, that the evil will probably be felt not only by the whole present, but also by many succeeding generations.
The horrible enormities, which attended the progress of the revolution in France, and the brilliant successes, which every where followed the march of her armies, united to produce the most unhappy effects on the public mind in England, by creating unreasonable fears for the national security and independence; and still more, by exciting a suspicious dread of every measure favourable to liberty, and even of liberty itself. The general alarm,
1 Sequel, p. 13. |
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But of all the alarmists, as they were popularly named, none excited more seriously the disapprobation of Dr. Parr, and that of every right-minded man in the nation, than Mr. Burke; who, in some well-known debates in parliament, in an unfeeling and insulting manner, not only renounced the party, but also abjured the friendship of Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan; and, from that time, not content with condemning their politics, he went the length
1 “History of the Political Life of Mr. Fox, &c. This book was ascribed to the very celebrated Dr. Lawrence, and was written while he adhered to Whig principles, and to his faithful friend and warm admirer, Mr. Fox. S. P.”—Bibl. Parr. p. 401. |
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In a letter to a friend, Dr. Parr thus gives vent to the sorrow and the anger, which then agitated and distressed his mind: “I am most fixedly and most indignantly on the side of Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Fox against Mr. Burke. It is not merely French politics which produced the dispute. No! no! There is jealousy lurking underneath—jealousy of Mr. Sheridan’s eloquence—jealousy of his popularity—jealousy of his influence with Mr. Fox—jealousy, perhaps, of his connexion with the Prince. Mr. Sheridan was not, I think, too warm; at least, I should myself have been warmer. Why! Burke accused Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan of acts leading to rebellion; and he made Mr. Fox a dupe, and Mr. Sheridan a traitor!”1
In the same letter, Dr. Parr expresses the unfavourable opinion of Mr. Burke, which was then first fixing itself, and which afterwards gathered strength in his mind: “I know his violence of temper, and obstinacy of opinion, and—; but I will not speak out; for though I think him the greatest man upon earth—yet in politics I think him, what he has been found to be, to the sorrow of those who, have acted with him. He is incorrupt I know; but his passions are quite headstrong; and age, disappointment, and the sight of other men rising into power and consequence sour him.”
Of Mr. Wyndham, another of the Whig alarmists, the following sketch of character, drawn by Dr. Parr, is in his happiest manner:
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1 Moore’s Life of Sheridan, vol. ii. p. 127. |
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“With Mr. Wyndham, though I lament his violence and abhor his apostasy, I am very unwilling to come to an open rupture. I remember with delight those happier days, when he sustained a better part, with better men; when the charms of his conversation were not counteracted by the errors of his politics; when he was animated, but not ferocious; and when his refinements, instead of being dangerous in practice, were, in theory, only amusing. But I know well, as I long have known, the peculiarities which have lately burst on the public eye: nor can I assign any limits to the fury of his passions, or the stubbornness of his prepossessions. He is proud by nature; he is visionary by habit; by accident he was made treacherous; and, by station, he will be made imperious, intolerant, and inexorable.”
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