Chapter XXII.

Strike Off A Medal In Commemoration.

We are on Bakery-hill, though, attention. Immediate objects of the Reform League.

I. An immediate change in the management of the goldfields, by disbanding the Commissioners (undoubtedly the unanimous demand, or 'desire'--if the word suit better the well-affected--of all blue-shirts). Three cheers for Vern!

Go it hearty! Fine fellow! Legs rather too long! Never mind.

II. The total abolition of the diggers' and storekeeper's licence tax.

(Ah! ah! p.r.i.c.k John Bull at his pounds, shillings and pence, that's the dodge to make him stir.)

Three cheers for Humffray! Hurrah!

The whole of the grand talk of these Bakery reformers leagued together on its hill, can properly be framed in, on a 'copper;' thus doing justice to all.

Image.

LET a course of action be decided on and carried out unswervingly until the heel of our oppressors be removed from our necks.

DON'T LET THE THING DROP THROUGH, for want of co-operation and support NOTA BENE.

2s. 6d. gentleman's ticket.

No admission for ladies at present. 'Durum sed levius fit Patientia.'

REMEMBER!

G.o.d HELPS HIM WHO HELPS HIMSELF (to the 2s. 6d.) DO NOT LET the word 'British' become a bye-word.

AND ABOVE ALL LEAVE OFF SINGING 'Britons never, never shall be slaves,'

until you leave fondling the chains which prove the song a lie, a mockery, a delusion, a snare.

---- Great works!

Chapter XXIII.

Ortica ensis: Prima.

Here is a plant of Cayenne pepper, growing in those days on Ballaarat: it withered some three months in limbo, but...oh yes, b.u.t.t at it again.

'Ballaarat Times', November 18, 1854.

"THE REFORM LEAGUE.

"There is something strange, and to the government of this country, something not quite comprehensible, in this League. For the first time in the southern hemisphere, a Reform League is to be inaugurated.

There is something ominous in this; the word 'League,' in a time of such feverish excitement as the present, is big with immense purport (indeed!) Indeed, it would ill become 'The Times' to mince in matter of such weighty importance. This League is not more or less that the germ of Australian independence (sic). The die is cast, and fate has stamped upon the movement its indelible signature. No power on earth can restrain the united might and headlong strides for freedom of the people of this country, and we are lost in amazement while contemplating the dazzling panorama of the Australian future (Great works). We salute the League [but not the trio, Vern, Kennedy, Humffray], and tender our hopes and prayers for its prosperity [in the shape of a goodly pile of half-crowns]. The League has undertaken a mighty task [the trio'll shirk it though], fit only for a great people--that of changing the dynasty of the country (Great works). The League does not exactly propose, nor adopt such a scheme, but we know what it means, the principles it would inculcate, and that eventually it will resolve itself into an Australian Congress." (Great Works!!)

Vote for HUMFFRAY to be Auctioneer, KENNEDY to be Bellman, VERN to be Runner, of the 'Starring league.'

Chapter XXIV.

Ortica ensis: Secunda.

Out came the 'Ballaarat Times', Sat.u.r.day, November 25, 1854. Work was stopped at every hole: the miners left the deep and mobbed together round any reader of the full report of the--

Trial of MR. AND MRS. BENTLEY, Hanse, and Farrel, FOR THE MURDER OF JAMES SCOBIE.

---- Supreme Court, Melbourne.

---- GUILTY! of Manslaughter.

Mrs. Bentley scot-free.

His Honour considered their conduct was wanton and reckless. He should mark his sense of the outrage of which they have been found guilty, by pa.s.sing on each of them a sentence of THREE (!) YEARS' IMPRISONMENT WITH HARD LABOUR ON THE ROADS.

Great Works!

Trial of Fletcher, M`Intyre and Westerby, for BURNING THE EUREKA HOTEL.

---- Supreme Court, Melbourne.

Criminal Sittings.

---- GUILTY, with a recommendation to mercy!!

The Foreman of the Jury appended the following rider to the verdict:--

"The jury feel, in giving their verdict against the prisoners at the bar, that in all probability, they (the jury) should never have had that painful duty to Perform, if those entrusted with the government offices at Ballaarat had done theirs properly."

His Honour said: THE SENTENCE of the Court is, that you, M`Intyre be confined in H.M. gaol, at Melbourne, for THREE MONTHS, but I shall not subject you to labour.

(Great works!) You, Fletcher, to four months; and you, Westerby, to six months confinement...

...The Executive was sufficiently strong to punish those who outrage the law! (Great works at Toorak!)

La vita in grammatica, Facil declin.a.z.ione; La vita poi in pratica, Storta congiugazione: Della vita lo spello dal mondo sciolto, Al mondo vivi, poiche non sei sepolto.

Chapter XXV.