Unitarian minister at the time, but virtually the father and founder of the sect in England. Thus, strong and impulsive religious as well as political prejudices called together and inflamed a great mob, which first burst upon the house in which the liberals were assembled. The Unitarian chapel was next set on fire; then the residence of Dr. Priestley was burnt down, and all its contents consumed, including his valuable books and manuscripts, and all his chemical instruments and philosophical apparatus, by which he had attained the highest position and reputation as a man of science. The mob made an eager hunt after the doctor himself, and had he not escaped their hands, he would probably have fallen a victim to their fury. The mob, numbering from 8,000 to 10,000 men, really held possession of the town for two or three days, and burned several places of worship and many private residences; nor were they put down without bloodshed, by several regiments of cavalry that were summoned to subdue the reign of terror or of frenzy. The blinding fanaticism of religious bigotry, fanned to a flame among the ignorant but honest masses by the apostles of intolerance, produced this bloody and terrible riot. But Birmingham, notwithstanding this outburst of popular violence, is distinguished above any other town in Christendom for organizing a political force, which had hitherto acted like the
