Note 61 — Chapter V

It was at a time of grievous distress and loud discontent that the suspension of this Act was carried. In few places was there greater suffering than in Birmingham. Rowland Hill, before he set out for London, had passed near the Birmingham Workhouse while a crowd was gathered round the doors waiting for their weekly dole. One of them called out to him, “Look there, Sir; there’s a sight, while they’re a-passing their Horpus Corpus Acts. Damn their Horpus Corpus Acts, say I.”