20 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



the substitution of an export duty on gold would so facilitate smug- 

 gling as to largely discount any estimated revenue from that source. 

 Accustomed as he had been on board ship to unquestioning obedience 

 to orders, he would not tolerate any attempt to evade the law. Not- 

 withstanding the somewhat radical tenor of his speeches during his 

 banquets at the diggings, he had been fairly firm in his official re- 

 plies to deputations sent to him to enlarge upon the hardships of the 

 licence fee. He was rather proud to inform Earl Grey that when, 

 at one of these interviews, he told the miners that they must be pre- 

 pared to pay for liberty and order he " was loudly cheered ". 



There is evidence in Sir Charles Hotham's despatches that his 

 views underwent considerable modification during his troubled term 

 of office. In the last one which he addressed to the Colonial Office 

 on the subject of the goldfields, written within a month of his death, 

 he was enabled to express himself freely, because the old system had 

 just been superseded by fresh legislation, the struggle was over, and 

 contentment reigned. 



While trouble was pending and the law was being defied he 

 was adamant, and dealt with the enemies of order as he would have 

 done with a foreign foe in the hour of battle, allowing no excuse, ad- 

 mitting no provocation. But after the strife was over, he could not 

 but confess that the licence fee had become oppressive, and was paid 

 with irritation and anger, or, he wrote, " If not paid the digger was 

 cast into prison to keep company with felons and rogues ". Further, 

 he avowed that the evil had been greatly intensified by the conduct 

 of the Government officials on the goldfields. Their style of living, 

 luxurious habits, smart .uniforms, military customs, and stilted dig- 

 nity, "invited hostile criticism and enmity, by the apparent pains 

 taken to separate them from the diggers " and maintain their superi- 

 ority as a class. If in November, 1854, he held opinions which he 

 thus expressed a year later, neither his words nor his deeds gave 

 any ground for suspecting it. He had found these things so, and 

 as a new-comer he had hesitated to rush in with reforms, he said, 

 until he had fully considered all the local surroundings. Hence he 

 craved indulgence for having allowed four months to roll by with- 

 out interference, only insisting that the existing laws should be 

 enforced. The four months to which he referred brought him to 



