Birmingham riots - a history of the town and its people

Old and new Birmingham, a history of the town and its people

What led to the riots of 1791

‘The present silent propogation of truth may even be compared to those causes in nature which lie dormant for a time, but which in proper circumstances act with the greatest violence. We are, as it were, laying gunpowder, grain by grain, under the old building of error and superstition, which a single spark may hereafter inflame, so as to produce an instantaneous explosion; in consequence of which, that edifice, the erection of which has been the work of ages, may be overturned in a moment, and so effectually, as that the same foundation can never be built upon again.’

Robert K Dent, Old and New Birmingham, a History of the Town and its People, Houghton and Hammond, (1879)

The British Library, 10351 K 2, Section 2, page 222