95
some general remarks thereon, and also upon the reply. We have delayed doing this, as we expected to have returned immediately to Ballaarat, and we did not wish to forestall our intended statement at a public meeting, which would have been held on our return; but as circumstances interfere with this arrangement, we now give our report.
We were very kindly and respectfully received by His Excellency.
We thought it right to state that we repudiated physical force as a means of obtaining constitutional redress, believing that the British consultation had sufficient natural elasticity to adapt itself to the wants of the age, and would yield under proper pressure. But the arming of the diggers of Ballaarat, however reprehensible it might have been in itself, claims to be judged on special grounds, inasmuch as they had special provocation. The diggers of Ballaarat were attacked by a military body, under the command of civil (!) officers, for the production of licence-papers, and, if they refused to be arrested, deliberately shot at. The diggers did not take up arms, properly speaking, against the government, but to defend themselves against the bayonets, bullets, and swords of the insolent officials in their unconstitutional attack, who were a class that would disgrace any government, by their mal-administration of the law.
The diggers did not take up arms against the British rule, but against the mis-rule of those who were paid to administer the law properly; and however foolish their conduct might be, it was an ungenerous libel on the part of one of the military officers to designate outraged British subjects as "foreign anarchists and armed ruffians."
The diggers were goaded on to take the stand they did by the "digger-hunt," of the 30th November, which, we are sustained in saying, was a base piece of gold and silver lace revenge. Facts will no doubt appear by-and-bye, elucidating and confirming this statement.
We reminded His Excellency of the fact, that the public had asked for or sanctioned a general amnesty; and although we were prepared to admit that it was unbecoming the dignity of any government to give way to what was termed "popular clamour." yet, in this case, the good and the wise amongst all classes, forming a very large proportion of the inhabitants, had asked for it, and we thought the general wish should not be lightly treated. His Excellency observed, "Certainly not." We argued that an amnesty would restore general confidence, and secure support to the government in any emergency; and, even supposing there was an one in the movement who sought to overturn the government, instead of overturning corruption, and establishing a better system of administration, a general amnesty would silence such, as the great majority of the diggers were content to live under British law, if properly administered; and every one knows there has been much to condemn in the administration of the laws, on the Ballaarat gold-fields especially; and we endeavoured to impress upon the mind of the Lieutenant-Governor, that it was equally true that the majority of those who were proud of being British subjects, were growing tired of waiting for simple justice. And if the executive wish to secure their confidence and support, they must give better evidence of their good intentions of making better laws, or laws better suited to the wants of the people, and securing "equal justice to all." Their recent conduct has created disaffection amongst the ranks of the best disposed; in fact, those who disapproved of the resort to arms on the part of the diggers condemn in the most unqualified manner the conduct of the Ballaarat officials in collecting a tax (obnoxious at best) at the bayonet's point, and of the late Colonial Secretary, who could unblushingly write to Commissioner Rede (who superintended the digger-hunt on the 30th November, and, no doubt, counselled the Sunday morning's butchery), thanking him for his conduct on those occasions! And that if His Excellency would allow us to strip the matter of its official colouring, he would see things in a very different light than they had been officially represented.
That an amnesty would not only secure the confidence of the people in the
