wycham, and regards it as of Saxon derivation. Hutton, the historian of Birmingham, has the fanciful etymology of Brom (broom), wych (a descent), and ham (a home), making together, the home on the hill by the heath. As regards the history of the town, we must agree with Hutton that "the way is long, dark, and slippery." In Domesday Book it is rated at four miles of land with half a mile of woods, the whole valued at 203. Two hundred years later the family of De Bermingham, the owners of the place, come into sight, one of them, William, being killed at the battle of Evesham, in 1265, fighting with Simon do Montfort and the barons against Henry the Third. The son of this William after wards took part in the French war, and was made prisoner ; his father s estates, forfeited by treason, were restored to him. Thence forward we find the family engaged in various local and other offices, but seemingly abstaining from politics. They held the place until 1527, when Edward de Bermingham was deprived of his property by means of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who trumped up a pretended charge of riot and robbery against him, and procured Birmingham for himself. On the attainder of Dudley the manor passed to the Crown, and was granted to Thomas Marrow, of Berks- v/ell, from whom by marriage and descent it went to Christopher Musgrave, and finally, as regards the only valuable part the market tolls by purchase to the town itself. In the Wars of the Roses it does not seem that Birmingham took any part ; but energy revived in the civil war under Charles I., when the town sided actively with the Parliamentarians. In 1642, when Charles was marching from Shrewsbury to relieve Banbury, the Birmingham people seized part of his baggage, including much plate, money, and wine, which they sent to the Parliamentary garrison at Warwick. Before the battle of Edgehill Charles rested for two nights at Aston Hall, near the town, as the guest of Sir Thomas Holte. The Birmingham people resented this by helping the Parliamen tarians to cannonade the hall and to levy a fine upon Sir Thomas Holte. They also set to work, and supplied the Parliamentary army with 15,000 sword blades, refusing to make a single blade for the Royalists. These manifestations of hostility were avenged in April 1643, by Prince Rupert, who, with 2000 men and several pieces of artillery, attacked the town, planting his cannon on an eminence near Sparkbrook, still known as Camphill. The towns people resisted, but were beaten, many persons being killed 01 wounded. Amongst the former was Lord Denbigh, one of the Royalist officers. Having captured the place, Prince Rupert allowed his troops to plunder it, to burn about eighty houses, and to set their prisoners to ransom. He also levied a fine of 30,000, equal to at least 100,000 of the present value of money. This bittei lesson kept Birmingham quiet during the rest of the civil war, though the sympathies of the people with the Parliamentarians were unabated. In 1665 Birmingham suffered heavy losses by the plague, great numbers of dead being buried in the Pest Field, at Lady- wood, then a lonely place far outside the town, but long since thickly covered with buildings. In 1688 the Revolution provoked a temporary outbreak of Protestant feeling. James II. had given timber from the royal forest of Needwood, near Burton, to build a Catholic chapel and convent in a place still called Mass-house Lane. This edifice the mob promptly destroyed when James gave place to William and Mary. Rather more than a century of quiet prosperity ensued, and then occurred the serious and most lament able outbreak of popular fury known as the Church and King riots of 1791. For some years there had been much political activity in Birmingham, the dissenters, particularly the Unitarians, being de sirous of relief from the political and religious disabilities under which they laboured. The leader in these movements was the famous Dr Priestley, who kept up an active controversy with the local clergy and others, and thus drew upon himself and his co religionists the hatred of the more violent members of the Church and Tory party. The smouldering fire broke out on the occasion of the French Revolution. On the 14th of July a dinner of Bir mingham Liberals was held at the Royal Hotel to celebrate the destruction of the Bastille. This was the signal of a popular out break. A Church and King mob, encouraged and organized by leaders of better station, but who were too cowardly to show themselves, began an attack upon the Unitarians. Dr Priestley was not present at the dinner, but his house at Fair Hill, Sparkbrook, was one of the first to be sacked and burnt his library and laboratory, with all his manuscripts, the records of life-long scientific and philosophical inquiries, perishing in the flames. The house and library of Hutton, the historian and antiquary, were also destroyed. The Unitarian chapel was burnt, and several houses belonging to members of the sect were sacked and burnt. The riot continued until a strong body of troops was marched into the town, but before their arrival damage to the amount of more than 60,000 had been done. Some of the rioters perished in the burning buildings, in the cellars of which they drank themselves into stupefaction. Others were tried and imprisoned, and four of the prisoners were hanged. The per secuted Unitarians recovered a small part of their losses from the county ; but Dr Priestley himself, owing to the unworthy preju dice against him, was in a great measure forced to remove to the United States of America, where. he spent the rest of his life. A late atonement was made, by the town to his memory in 1873, by the erection of a statue in his honour in front of the Town-Hall, and the foundation of a Priestley scholarship at the Midland Institute.
As if ashamed of the excesses of I7t)l, Birmingham thenceforth became a thoroughly Liberal and, with one or two exceptions, a peaceful town. In the dismal period from 1817 to 1819, when the manufacturing districts were heavily distressed and were dis turbed by riots, Birmingham remained quiet. Even when some of the inhabitants were tried and punished for demanding parlia mentary representation, and for electing Sir Charles Wolseley as their delegate, there was no demonstration of violence the wise counsels of the leaders inducing orderly submission to the law. The same prudent course was observed when in the Reform agitation of 1831-32 the Political Union was formed, under the leadership of Thomas Attwood, to promote the passing of the Reform Bill. Al most the whole town, and great part of the surrounding district, joined in this agitation ; vast meetings were held on Newnall Hill; there was much talk of marching upon London 100,000 strong; but, owing to the firmness and statesmanship of Mr Attwood and his associates, there was no rioting or any sign of violence. Ultimately the Political Union succeeded in its object, and Bir mingham helped to secure for the nation the enfranchisement of the middle classes and other political reforms. One exception to the tranquillity of the town has to be recorded the occurrence of riots in 1839, during the Chartist agitation. Chartism took a strong hold in Birmingham, and, under the influence of Mr Feargus O Connor and some of his associates, nightly meetings of a threatening char acter were held in the Bull Ring. The magistrates resolved to put these down, and having obtained the help of a detachment of the metropolitan police the town then having no local police force- a meeting was dispersed, and a riot ensued, which resulted in injury to several persons, and required military force to suppress it. ThU happened on the 4th of July. On the loth of the same month another meeting took place, and the mob, strongly armed and num bering many thousands, net fire to several houses in the Bull Ring, some of which were burned to the ground, and others were greatly damaged. The military again interfered, and order was restored, several of the ringleaders being afterwards tried and imprisoned for their share in the disturbance. There was another riot in 1867, caused by the ferocious attacks of a lecturer named Murphy upon the Roman Catholics, which led to the sacking of a street chiefly inhabited by Irishmen ; but the incident was comparatively trivial, and further disorders were prevented by the prompt action of the authorities.
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BIRON, Armand de Gontault, a baron and marshal of France, and a celebrated general, who signalized him self by his valour and conduct in several sieges and battles in the IGth century. He was made grand master of the artillery in 1569, and commanded at the siege of Rochelle, and in Guienne. Fie was one of the first who declared for Henry IV. ; he brought a part of Normandy under his sub jection, and dissuaded him from retiring to England or Rochelle. Biron was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of Epernay, July 20, 1592. He was a man of considerable literary attainments, and used to carry a pocket-book, in which he noted everything that appeared remarkable. This gave rise to a proverb at court, when a person happened to say anything uncommon, " You have found that in Biron s pocket-book."
BIRON, Charles de Gontault, son of the above and born in 1562, created duke of Biron and admiral of France by Henry IV., was a man of great intrepidity, bul fickle and treacherous. In 1601 he was sent as ambassador to the court of queen Elizabeth to announce his royal master s marriage with Mary of Medici ; but being discovered in a treasonable correspondence with Spain, he was beheaded in the Bastille at Paris, July 31, 1602. The extent to which he had carried his treason was not great, and Henry by sparing his life would not have shown undue clemency.
BISACCIA, a city of Italy, in the Principato Ulteriore, 60 miles E. of Naples. It is a bishopric in conjunction with St Angelo, and contains 5342 inhabitants. Formerly it was the chief city in a principality belonging to the Pignatelli family, and it is believed to occupy the site of the ancient Romulea, a Samnite town of considerable size, which was captured by the Romans about 297 B.C.
