and
ratified by the people.

Forth from Lennox Street, accordingly, another popular proclamation was
launched, A whole page of our local newspaper was commandeered for its
insertion. By virtue of the powers reposed in him, Colonel Kekewich
fixed the prices to be charged for "necessaries," such as tea, sugar,
coffee, meat (the butchers also had been brushing up their Shakespeare).
Goods were to be sold practically at ordinary rates; and if any
storekeeper charged more, or affected to be "sold out" of this, that, or
the other, the Colonel was to be told, and he would talk to the
storekeeper. There followed, of course, a grand slump. The combination
of the "upper" and "lower" middle-classes was irresistible. The
Commanding-Officer's prompt action was highly esteemed, and even those
who afterwards inveighed against him most severely (for other actions)
never denied him credit for it.

Paraffin oil is worthy of special mention. Coal not being much in
evidence in the diamond fields--where the sun is ever shining with all
its might--paraffin was an important factor in the culinary sphere.
When, therefore, a few gentlemen formed a syndicate, to vaunt their
loyalty in a crisis by cornering all the kerosene in town, another
outcry followed. They bought all they could lay hands on at market price
(sixteen and six per case), and next day imperturbably continued buying
at twenty-five shillings. On Tuesday the wide-awake vendors asked fifty
shillings, and were paid it cheerfully. Another sovereign was added to
each case of what remained on Wednesday, and the seventy shillings was
put down without a murmur. How much farther the bidding would have gone
will never be known, for a vicious little bird must needs tell the
Colonel all about it. That gentleman happened to be engaged in his
favourite (proclaiming) pastime; he sat ruminating on the high price of
coal, and evolving schemes to bring wood back to its proper level. The
latter article was what the poorer classes used as fuel. The Colonel had
no scruples about dotting down a reasonable figure for coal; but wood
was new to him; he sympathised with the woodman, yet could not spare the
tree. Water (sold in casks) had evinced propensities to bubble over, and
to prevent consequent waste it was necessary to make it simmer down to
its normal tepidity. Having settled these little difficulties, the
worried autocrat was about to affix his signature to the magic
manuscript, when the little