Allday.—­The “Stormy Petrel” of modern Birmingham was Joseph, or, as he was better known, Joey Allday, whose hand at one time, was against every man, and every man’s hand against Joe.  Born in 1798, Mr. Allday, on arriving at years of maturity, joined his brothers in the wire-drawing business, but though it is a painful sight to see (as Dr. Watts says) children of one family do very often disagree, even if they do not fall out and chide and fight; but Joseph was fond of fighting (though not with his fists), and after quarelling and dissolving partnership, as one of his brothers published a little paper so must he.  This was in 1824, and Joey styled his periodical The Mousetrap, footing his own articles with the name of “Argus.”  How many Mousetraps Allday sent to market is uncertain, as but one or two copies only are known to be in existence, and equally uncertain is it whether the speculation was a paying one.  His next literary notion, however, if not pecuniarily successful, was most assuredly popular, as well as notorious, it being the much-talked-of Argus.  The dozen or fifteen years following 1820 were rather prolific in embryo publications and periodicals of one kind and another, and it is a matter of difficulty to ascertain now the exact particulars respecting many of them.  Allday’s venture, which was originally called The Monthly Argus, first saw the light in August, 1828. and, considering the times, it was a tolerably well-conducted sheet of literary miscellany, prominence being given to local theatrical matters and similar subjects, which were fairly criticised.  Ten numbers followed, in due monthly order, but the volume for the year was not completed, as in July, 1830, a new series of The Argus was commenced in Magazine shape and published at a shilling.  The editor of this new series had evidently turned over a new leaf, but he must have done so with a dungfork, for the publication became nothing better than the receptacle of rancour, spite, and calumny, public men and private individuals alike being attacked, and often in the most scurrilous manner.  The printer (who was still alive a few years back) was William Chidlow and on his head, of course, fell all the wrath of the people libelled and defamed.  George Frederick Mantz horse whipped him, others sued him for damages, and even George Edmonds (none too tender-tongued himself) could not stand the jibes and jeers of The Argus.  The poor printer was arrested on a warrant for libel; his types and presses were confiscated under a particular section of the Act for regulating newspapers, and Allday himself at the March Assizes in 1831 was found guilty on several indictments for libel, and sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment.  A third series of The Argus was started June 1st, 1832, soon after Allday’s release from Warwick, and as the vile scurrility of the earlier paper was abandoned to a great extent, it was permitted to appear as long