THE REVOLT OF THE DIGGERS 49 



men, in proper fighting trim, were secretly gathered hi Kussell 

 Street, ready to swoop down hi five minutes if the danger-signal 

 had been given. One hundred gaol warders had been gathered 

 in from Pentridge and from the prison hulks in the bay, and were 

 concentrated, under arms, in the Melbourne gaol ; and all the ma- 

 rines and bluejackets that could be spared from the two sloops of 

 war in Hobson's Bay were secretly planted, like so many torpedoes, 

 at the Treasury and Custom House. Further, the military con- 

 tingent from Hobart was even then being embarked, to save the 

 dignity of the Crown. 



But happily the crowd did not wildly adopt the revolutionary 

 proposals. The proceedings degenerated into a good deal of banter, 

 and the meeting dispersed quietly, after appointing a committee to 

 mediate between the Government and the diggers. Sir Charles 

 Hotham, however, refused in any way to deal with them. He had 

 already appointed a Commission of prominent colonists to inquire 

 into the diggers' grievances, and he sternly refused to add to it the 

 names specially called for by the meeting, or to take any action 

 until he received its official report. 



There was a strong consensus of opinion that the rioting was 

 the result of gross injustice and maladministration, and that the 

 punishment of the thirteen prisoners, selected out of over 200 active 

 combatants, was a mere travesty of justice. It was anticipated 

 that the inquiry of the Goldfields Commission would ensure reforms 

 which would remove the cause of past trouble, and that if the un- 

 happy episode was closed by an act of grace on the part of the 

 Crown, it would materially promote the restoration of peace and 

 goodwill. Numerously signed petitions for a general amnesty were 

 presented from Melbourne, Ballaarat and other goldfields. The 

 press, the public, and a majority of the Legislature were in favour of 

 this course ; and even the newly appointed Commission made an anti- 

 cipatory recommendation in favour of an amnesty. But Sir Charles 

 Hotham was angry, obdurate, and so lamentably shortsighted as 

 to oppose his personal will to the wishes of the whole community, 

 with disastrous results to his prestige. He dismissed all appeals 

 with the curt intimation that while he was willing to initiate reforms 

 if recommended by the Commission, the thirteen rebels who had 

 VOL. IL 4 



