The dome of the Council House would be a
grand position in which to place a really good clock, and if the dials
were fitted with electric lights it would be useful at all hours, from
near and far.
~Clubs.~--No place in the kingdom can record the establishment of more
clubs than Birmingham, be they Friendly Clubs, Money Clubs (so-called),
or the more taking Political Clubs, and it would be a hard task to name
them all, or say how they flourished, or dropped and withered. In the
years 1850-60 it was estimated that at publichouses and coffeehouses
there were not less than 180 Money Clubs, the members paying in weekly
or fortnightly subscriptions of varying amount for shares L5 to L100,
and though there cannot be the slightest doubt that many of our present
mastermen owe their success in life to this kind of mutual help, the
spirit of gambling in money shares proved, on the whole, to be
disastrous to the members who went in for good interest on their
deposits. Of Friendly Clubs we shall have something to say under another
beading. Respecting the Political Clubs and those of a general nature we
may say that the earliest we have note of is the "Church and King Club,"
whose first meeting was held at the Royal Hotel, Nov.
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