below mine, and
knowing he had no license, I looked at him to see how he would behave
in the face of the enemy. He had stopped working, and was walking in
the direction of his tent, with head bowed down as ifin search of
something he had lost. He disappeared in his tent, which was a large
one, and had, near the opening, a chimney built up with ironstone
boulders and clay. But the police had seen him; he was followed,
found hiding in the corner of his chimney, arrested, and placed among
the prisoners who were then halted near my tub. Immediately behind
Patterson, and carrying a carbine on his shoulder, stood a well-known
shipmate named Joynt, whom poverty had compelled to join the enemy.
He would willingly have allowed his friend and prisoner to escape,
but no chance of doing so occurred, and long after dark Patterson
approached our camp fire, a free man, but hungry, tired, and full of
bitterness. He had been forced to march along the whole day like a
convicted felon, with an ever-increasing crowd of prisoners, had been
taken to the camp at nightfall and made to pay 6 pounds 10s.--viz.,
a fine of 5 pounds and 1 pound 10s. for a license.

The feelings of William Patterson, and of thousands of other diggers,
were outraged, and they burned for revenge. A roll-up was called,
and three public meetings were held on three successive Saturday
afternoons, on a slight eminence near the Government camp. The
speakers addressed the diggers from a wagon. Some advocated armed
resistance. It was well known that many men, French, German, and
even English, were on the diggings who had taken part in the
revolutionary outbreak of '48, and that they were eager to have
recourse to arms once more in the cause of liberty. But the majority
advocated the trial of a policy of peace, at least to begin with. A
final resolution was passed by acclamation that a fee of ten
shillings a month should be offered, and if not accepted, no fee
whatever was to be paid.

It was argued that if the diggers stood firm, it would be impossible
for the few hundreds of soldiers and police to arrest and keep in
custody nearly twenty thousand men. If an attempt was made to take
us all to gaol, digger-hunting would have to be suspended, the
revenue would dwindle to nothing, and Government would be starved
out. It was, in fact, no Government at all; it was a mere assemblage
of armed men sent to rob us, not to protect us; each digger had to do
that for him