No. 15. RETURN of the Civil, Military, and Police Force employed on and in connexion with the various Gold Fields of this Colony, on the 31st December 1854. [This voluminous Return is not printed, but a similar Return will however be found at page 38.] VICTORIA. No. 10. COPY of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir CHARLES HOTHAM to the (No. 38.) Toorac, near Melbourne, February 28, 1855. (Answered No. 18, June 2, 1855, Page 106.) Page 65. SIR, I HAVE already done myself the honour to report in my Despatch No. 162,* of the 20th day of December 1854, that the military force engaged in the attack on the Eureka stockade on the gold field at Ballarat, had taken one hundred and twenty prisoners; out of this number only thirteen were committed 1. Jacob Saranson. for trial, the remainder being released, not on account of the charges being 2 Charles Raphelo. entirely disproved, but because the magistrates were instructed to limit the 4. Michael Tusley. commitments to those against whom the proof of participation was of the 5. Thomas Dignam. clearest kind. 2. 6. William Molloy. Campbell. The prisoners already named were sent to Melbourne to take their trial; but 8. Henry Reed. for various causes, into which I need hardly enter, the trials were postponed 9. John Joseph (tried). until the 20th day of February, when, at the request of the counsel of the first 10. James Macfie three prisoners, their trial was further postponed in consequence of the alleged 11. Timothy Hayes. absence of material witnesses for the defence of the first two, and the want of 13. John Phelan. preparation on the part of the third to take his trial. The case of the fourth, a man of colour, and an inhabitant of Boston in the United States, was then proceeded with. 12. James Beattie. Timothy Hayes, John Joseph. I append for your information a copy of a report of the trial extracted from the "Argus" newspaper, and a complete report of these trials, taken from a short-hand writer's notes, will be transmitted as soon as they can be prepared. The identity of the prisoner, his presence on two occasions when the insurgents John Joseph. were being armed and drilled, and his presence at, and participation in, the occurrences at the Eureka stockade on the morning of the 3d of December, were clearly proved. Six witnesses spoke to his having been found inside the stockade; two of his having been seen discharging a gun at the military, and two to his having been taken in custody, out of a tent inside the stockade, which was used as a guard tent by the insurgents, from which many shots had been fired, many persons having been found dead and wounded in it, and several stand of arms having been discovered lying on the floor apparently recently discharged. The proof of existence of a treasonable concert was supported by evidence of the meeting on Bakery Hill on the 28th of November, the swearing in of volunteers under the insurgents flag on the 29th, and the drilling of armed bodies of men on that and the subsequent days; the compulsory stopping, by the insurgents in armed bodies, of all mining operations by the well-disposed during those days; the collection of arms, ammunition, provisions, and horses without payment; the formation of weapons (pikes); the construction of the stockade, and the resistance and attack (the firing having been commenced by the insurgents without challenge or parley) on the troops and constabulary on the morning of the 3d of December. No evidence was called for the defence; the prisoner's counsel resting solely on the non-existence, as they alleged, of any treasonable intentions, and the jury after a brief consultation of half an hour, returned a verdict of "not guilty. The trial of the third prisoner, an Irishman, who had been at the time of the John Manning. riots employed as a reporter of a newspaper published at the gold fields—“ The Ballarat Times"-was the next. VICTORIA. The evidence for the prosecution in his case was substantially the same as that in the case of Joseph, except that there was no proof of his having been seen with arms when inside the stockade, or of having been armed when he was taken from the guard tent with Joseph; it was proved that he had been drilled on the previous days in the use of a pike. No evidence was adduced for his defence, which was the same as that urged for Joseph; and a similar verdict of acquittal was, after a brief deliberation, also given in his case. After these verdicts had been returned, it was considered expedient to postpone the trial of the other prisoners until the next session, in order that in cases of such importance to the country, the opinion of a opinion of a jury taken from another panel might be obtained, as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. I have, &c. VICTORIA. Despatches from the Secretary of State. No. 1. No. 1. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY, Bart., to Downing Street, January 12, 1855. * (No. 4.) SIR, I HAVE received your Despatch, No. 112,* of the 18th of September last, Page 28. containing the report of your official visit to the chief gold fields in Victoria, which I have read with great interest and satisfaction. I hope that your personal inspection of these districts, and your intercourse with the large bodies of miners employed in them, will tend to confirm and strengthen the feelings of loyalty to the Crown, attachment to this country, and respect for the law, of which you received during your progress such gratifying proofs. I fully concur with you in the importance you attach to the use of machinery in developing the resources of the mineral wealth of the colony, and your intention of granting mining leases, subject of course to proper conditions, appears well calculated to promote this object. But the expediency of offering high rewards in order to stimulate the search for new gold fields is not equally apparent. I should have thought such a measure unnecessary, but you may have had grounds for adopting it of which I am not informed. I have, &c. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY, Bart., to (No. 10.) SIR, Downing Street, March 1, 1855. No. 2. * I HAVE received your Despach, No. 151,* of the 19th of November last, Page 45. reporting the circumstances under which you had been induced to appoint a Commission of inquiry to investigate and report upon the affairs of the gold fields in Victoria. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY, Bart., to (No. 16.) No. 3. Downing Street, March 3, 1855. SIR, I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 148,* of the * Page 44. 18th of November last, reporting the burning of the Eureka Hotel at Ballarat, with other tumultuous proceedings, by a large assemblage of the digging population in that vicinity, in consequence of the suspicions which they entertained of the landlord with his wife and a man named Farrell having been privy to the death of James Scobie, who was found murdered on the gold field, having been last seen coming from that hotel. You also report the steps which you had successfully taken for the re-establishment of order, and the measures which had been adopted for bringing the VICTORIA. parties to justice, and for punishing certain persons placed in situations of autho- Governor Sir C. Hotham, I have, &c. (Signed) G. GREY. No. 4. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY, Bart., to (No. 30.) SIR, Awaiting with anxiety the further accounts, which may soon be expected, of the origin and character of this disturbance, so many of the ringleaders being in custody, Her Majesty's Government nevertheless take the earliest opportunity of expressing to you their sense of the service which you and the force under your command have rendered by the prompt suppression of so formidable an outbreak. No doubt can be entertained of the seriousness of its character, both from the lamentable loss of life occasioned, and from the signs of and avowed dis affection exhibited by some of the misguided people engaged in it. open I shall not fail to take into full consideration the other particulars of this and your other Despatches on the subject, and you will hear more in detail by the next mail. Governor Sir C. Hotham, &c. I have, &c. (Signed) G. GREY. No. 5. • Page 103. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Lord JOHN RUSSELL to (No. 18.) SIR, 2. I take, however, this opportunity of acknowledging more fully than Her Majesty's Government were able to do on a former occasion the services of the military and civil force engaged in the repression of a disturbance which threatened to be of so very mischievous a character, and to involve such disastrous consequences to the peace and well-being of the community over which you preside. I trust that the resolution shown by the loyal population of the colony, and especially by the citizens of Melbourne and Geelong, as described in your Despatch, will suffice to prevent any further symptoms of disaffection from exhibiting themselves, and that enough has been done to recall the misguided to a sense of their duties. I have received Her Majesty's commands to express to you Her high sense of the prompt and energetic, and at the same time prudent, manner in which you acted under very trying circumstances, and in which you so speedily quelled this alarming outbreak. 3. I have, in pursuance of the suggestion of your Despatch, No. 6, of the 21st December last, recommended to the special attention of the Commanderin-Chief, through the Secretary of State for the War Department, the services of Major General Sir R. Nickle, especially those rendered by him on the late occasion; and have also recommended that some honorary distinction should be conferred upon him. 4. I have also, in deference to the express commands of Her Majesty, brought the gallant services of Major Thomas, of the 50th Regiment, on this occasion, under the notice of the Commander-in-Chief. 5. I cannot conclude this Despatch without expressing my regret at the sacrifice of life occasioned by this unhappy event, and especially the loss of Captain Wise, who so gallantly fell in the discharge of his duty. I have, &c. VICTORIA. |