And the excitement of the day, he launched
in the realm of crowned poets, and bawled as loud as if he wanted
the head-butler at Toorak to take him a quart-pot of smallbeer -
"On to the field, our doom is sealed,
To conquer or be slaves;
The sun shall see our country free.
Or set upon our graves."
(Great works!)
No one who was not present at that monster meeting, or never saw any
Chartist meeting in Copenhagen-fields, London, can possibly form an idea
of the enthusiasm of the miners of Ballaarat on that 29th of November.
A regular volley of revolvers and other pistols now took place, and a good
blazing up of gold-licences. When the original resolutions had
all been passed, Mr. Humffray moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Ireland,
for his free advocacy of the state prisoners. The meeting then dissolved,
many of them having previously burned their licences, and thus virtually
pledging themselves to the resolution adopted, which might be said to have been
the business of the day. Nothing could exceed the order and regularity
with which the people, some fifteen thousand in number, retired.
Chapter XXXII.
Ecco Troncato Il Canto Per Ritornare Al Pianto.
My letter to Mr. Archer continued:-
Thanks be to God, the day passed 'unstained,' a glorious day for Victoria
when the SOUTHERN CROSS was first unfolded on Ballaarat; gathering round
itself all the oppressed of the world.
The whole purpose of the meeting was, that a Reform League be formed
and fully organised to carry out the clearance of all our grievances,
on the old style of the Corn Law League in Great Britain.
Next Sunday, we leaguers - ( I took out a ticket of membership from Reynolds,
one of the treasurers, and paid my 2s. 6d. on that very day, November 29th,
precisely, on the platform of the meeting) - have a meeting at two o'clock
at the Adelphi to organise the people and appoint a responsible
executive committee. I am the old delegate to it, and therefore I shall
be able to give you, Mr. Archer, a full answer to your letter of the
24th instant.
Mark this, good reader!
1. Meanwhile, privately, as an old Ballaarat hand, I beg respectfully
to convey to you, to employ your influence and reach the ears of
the Lieutenant Governor. The licence-fee, as a tax, is perhaps a cause
of growling like any other tax in Great Britain or elsewhere in the world;
but, on the gold-fields, has become an 'abomination.' The inconvenience
in the Camp-insolence at our getting it, the annoyance and bore
for showing it, when asked by some 'pup' of a trap whilst at our work;
the imbecility and arrogance of so many commissioners and troopers
uselessly employed for the purpose, etc., etc.; make the gold-licence
an abomination to the honest digger.
