THE REVOLT OF THE DIGGERS 37 



the cavalry to charge the crowd with a view to dispersal rather 

 than capture. It was soon done, and the last digger hunt in 

 Victoria collapsed with the return of the troops to Camp, in charge 

 of eight prisoners, leaving a number of more or less damaged miners 

 to the nursing care of their comrades. 



The action of the Camp officials, though utterly futile as an 

 assertion of authority, and wantonly irritating as an uncalled-for 

 display of a denounced procedure, which the Government had 

 already contemplated abolishing, acted with direful force in inciting 

 those who were not yet committed to armed revolt. The alarmed 

 diggers hastened to consult the leading spirits of the Eeform 

 League. At a mass meeting held in the afternoon Peter Lalor 

 came to the front. He had shown readiness in controlling a crowd, 

 and he now advised them to form companies, according to their 

 arms, and to elect their own captains out of the best men amongst 

 themselves. He made a stirring speech, scathingly condemning 

 what he called the unaccountable outrage of a licence hunt at the 

 point of the bayonet, and he felt called upon to offer some advice as 

 to further defence against tyranny lest the want of a leader should 

 bring about disaster. He disclaimed all pretension to military 

 knowledge, and was only anxious to help them to choose the best 

 man ; but the meeting would have no other leader, and when that 

 was evident he accepted the position, declaring that if he once 

 pledged his hand to the diggers, he would neither "defile it with 

 treachery nor render it contemptible by cowardice ". After the 

 election of the commander and the allotment of various subordi- 

 nate posts the Southern Cross was again hoisted, and the men, 

 gathered round in batches, took the oath of allegiance under the 

 most melodramatic surroundings. 



In view of the possibility of an early conflict, the discipline 

 of drill was now vigorously enforced, and to avoid its interruption 

 by the police, an area of about an acre, on the Eureka lead, was 

 hastily enclosed with piled up mining slabs, logs, building timber 

 and any handy material. As a position of defence it had nothing 

 to recommend it beyond the flimsy cover offered by a breastwork 

 of logs. It was Vern's idea of a stockade, imperfectly carried out, 

 and it contained within its limits several claims and the tents of 



