THE REVOLT OF THE DIGGERS 27 



instant, at which a committee was appointed to demand a further 

 prosecution of Bentley, and to offer a reward for the conviction of 

 the murderer. It was orderly enough at the outset, but while it 

 was proceeding the Camp officials injudiciously sent a detachment 

 of police ostensibly to guard the hotel property. The rumour went 

 abroad that the troopers were using force to disperse the meeting, 

 and within half an hour an angry mob of 8,000 or 10,000 men was 

 swaying to and fro, jeering the police and deriding the orders to 

 disperse. According to Commissioner Kede's subsequent evidence, 

 the police could not use force against the crowd, because the vener- 

 able magistrate who had been deputed to read the Eiot Act lost his 

 nerve and could not do it, so they stood hesitatingly around, while 

 the diggers demanded that Bentley should be given up to them. 

 Suddenly a few stones were thrown from the crowd, a lamp was 

 smashed, and a few windows broken. The incident was responded 

 to like a bugle-call to " charge ". The mob swept aside the handful 

 of police and fell upon the building like furies, crashing in doors 

 and windows, and throwing the furniture and the contents of the 

 bar into the street. A man, carrying an armful of paper to the 

 windward end of the bowling-alley, deliberately struck a match 

 and fired the building under the eyes of the guardian of the peace. 

 Meanwhile Bentley, in agonising dread of being overtaken by 

 Judge Lynch, succeeded in getting to the stables undetected, and 

 mounting his fleetest horse, rode wildly off to the Camp, where 

 he implored protection for himself and assistance for the police. 

 A squad of military was soon ranged up, and advancing at the 

 double with fixed bayonets were only just in time to see the roof 

 fall in, and the disreputable Eureka a mass of smouldering 

 ruins. The fire occurred on the 17th of October, and on the 19th 

 a brief account of it appeared in the Argus. Sir Charles Hotham 

 was furious, not only at the threatening attitude of the diggers, 

 but equally at what he called " the indecision and oscillation of 

 the authorities in allowing the riot to get head". He promptly 

 sent up an officer, in whom he had confidence, with a detachment 

 of military to enforce order, to support the civil authorities in 

 the arrest of the ringleaders, and " to use force whenever legally 

 called upon to do so, without regard to the consequences which 



