680
THE
CHRONICLES
OF EARL Y
MELBOURNE.
sufferings were poignant. He did not stoop to a retaliatory typographical warfare, but flew for comfort to the T o w n Council. As evidencing his condition, I transcribe an extract from a speech of his at a Corporation meeting : - " M y conduct has been held up to public execration, and no circumstance of palliation has been found. N o extenuating suggestion offered; but in order to plish m y disgrace, truth, moderation, charity, law, and equity have been equally disregarded !" accomi: Dr. Palmer's conduct throughout this lamentable occasion was a chain of incongruous links, hich only a waste of misapplied skill could forge. H e was vacillating and intermeddling-infirm in w judgment, and fallible in temper, inclining one day towards one party, the next turning the balance with the other, and the day after like a m a n addled, staggering through a room, bobbing towards both sides, and not staying at either. H e showed nofirmness,no deliberation, no correct perception H e was the creature of rumour, and his self-sufficiency of the situation from any point of view. prevented his seeking or accepting advice from cooler and steadier heads. This led him into positions from which a dignified retreat was impossible ; and amongst the indiscretions he committed was one day commanding the whole police force to appear in his august presence, and there put them through a catechism, of county, town, and parish of the Mother-country where each was born and reared, what religion he professed, and with what Societies, open or secret, he was connected with. His vagaries were such that he fell foul of everyone, and everyone's tongue was against him.
THE MAYOR AND THE SUPERINTENDENT.
The Superintendent having requested the Mayor, as Chief Magistrate of the town, to furnish the Governor with a Report " upon the ostensible causes of the public disturbances which have recently taken place in Melbourne," Dr. Palmer, in his reply, further embroiled himself. From this document it would appear that leave had been applied for and obtained from the Licensing Bench for Cordon, the landlord, to keep his Pastoral Hotel open after 12 o'clock on the night of the 13th July "for the purpose of entertaining a select party at dinner." This turned out to be "The Orange Anniversary Dinner," as per card of invitation sent to the Mayor, and for which three hundred cards had been issued. The details of the rioting were given not differing materially from the facts before stated, and the writer declared " that it did not appear that any persons holding influence or position in society have been concerned in these disturbances." The statement further averred that a deep and rancorous hostility prevailed among the different sections of the Irish populace, and suggested the adoption of more stringent legal measures for the preservation of the peace. According to the writer "such demonstrations should be regarded as the indicia of mutual fear and distrust, rather-than of premeditated outrage." H e justified the course taken by the local authorities, and mentioned that the police, with one exception, were Irish, and would not feel disposed to act if recourse were had to the extreme step of disarming the rioters. H e referred to the processions of the St. Patrick Society, which were allowed, and concluded by suggesting the "expediency of a legislative enactment for the prohibition of party symbols and public processions of antagonistic political societies." The correspondence connected with this phase of the question was submitted pro forma to the Town Council, and provoked an acrimonious debate, in the course of which Councillor O'Shanassy inflicted a severe castigation upon the Mayor for the manner in which he had maligned the St. Patrick Society, which was in no sense a religious or political institution, or antagonistic to any other Confederation, but a national body analogous to the Societies of St. Andrew and St. George, with one of which the Mayor was a strong sympathizer, and a member of the other. A special meeting of the St. Patrick Society was also held, at which the Mayor's manifesto was severely handled, and its inconsistencies and exaggerations tellingly exposed in a statement prepared by Mr. E. Finn (the Honorary Secretary), which was transmitted to Sir George Gipps, the then Governor of N e w South Wales. Dr. Palmer's pronunciamento, like everything else he penned, was clever and incisive, but it was little more than a highly-spiced elaboration of sensationalism, reared upon erroneous assumptions, misconception, and mis-information. Its allegations on the general state of the Irish section of the community, the police, and the St. Patrick Society, were absurd and unwarrantable presumptions, and
