office; and in June, 1854, Sir Charles Hotham arrived to
fill the position. On his first arrival, he showed that his sympathies
were, to a great extent, with the diggers. But he could scarcely be
expected to make any important change until he had been a few months in
the colony, and had learnt exactly the state of affairs, and, meanwhile,
the discontent on the goldfields was daily increasing. The months of
September and October, in 1854, were exceedingly dry; the creeks were
greatly shrunk in volume, and in many places the diggers could find no
water either for drinking or for gold-washing; and their irritation was
not at all soothed by the manners of the commissioners and police.
Besides this, the Government had thought it necessary to form a camp on
the goldfields, so that a large body of soldiers dwelt constantly in the
midst of the miners. The soldiers and officers, of course, supported the
commissioners, and, like them, soon came to be regarded with the
greatest disfavour.

The goldfield population was in this irritable state when a trifling
incident kindled revolt.

#7. Riot at Ballarat.#--A digger named Scobie, late one evening, knocked
at the door of Bentley's Hotel, at Ballarat. Finding the place closed
for the night, he tried to force an entrance, and continued his clamour
so long that Bentley became angry, and sallied forth to chastise him. A
crowd gathered to see the fight, and, in the darkness, Scobie's head was
split open with a spade. Whose hand it was that aimed the blow no one
could tell; but the diggers universally believed that Bentley was
himself the murderer. He was therefore arrested and tried, but acquitted
by Mr. Dewes, the magistrate, who was said by the diggers to be secretly
his partner in business. A great crowd assembled round the hotel, and a
digger, named Kennedy, addressed the multitude, in vigorous Scottish
accents, pointing out the spot where their companion's blood had been
shed, and asserting that his spirit hovered above and called for
revenge. The authorities sent a few police to protect the place, but
they were only a handful of men in the midst of a great and seething
crowd of over eight thousand powerful diggers. For an hour or two the
mob, though indulging in occasional banter, remained harmless. But a
mischievous boy having thrown a stone, and broken the lamp in front of
the hotel, the police made a movement as if they were about to seize the
offender. This roused the digger