ared
to know that a journey was contemplated, and whinnied with joy.

As there was to be a monster meeting of the miners, that night, to
consider what action should be taken in regard to the mining tax, we
determined to be present--not for the purpose of taking any part in the
deliberations of the people--but to see how such matters were conducted
in Australia.

We therefore left Rover to attend to the horses, and prevent their being
stolen while absent, and about eight o'clock we joined the throng of
miners flocking towards the place designated for the meeting.

It was an out-door affair, and about one thousand people were present,
and a rougher looking set of men I never saw in my life. All nations
were there. Even a number of Chinamen, who couldn't understand ten words
of English, and knew not what they shouted for, were in the crowd,
wooden shoes, pig-tails and all. Manillamen, with long black hair, white
teeth, and dark skins, and murderous looking knives by their sides, were
present, and jabbered in the _Mestisa_ tongue, which no one understood
but themselves. Then there were Lascars, Arabs, and other countrymen,
known by their peculiar dress and talk, and loud above the tumult could
be heard the oaths uttered in good old Saxon, or else with a brogue that
showed that the Gem of the Ocean had its representatives, who, as usual,
were ready for a drink or a fight, but preferred the latter.

The chairman of the meeting was a Scotchman, who occupied a conspicuous
position on a bank of earth, overlooking the audience, and who,
fortunately being blessed with strong lungs, shouted, "Order, order,"
whenever the miners grew too quarrelsome, or had more than two fights
going on at the same time.

An Irishman, whose clothes might have been bought at a second hand
dealer's for a very moderate sum--for they were rent in various places,
and no attempt had been made to patch them--was the first speaker, and
he howled in the most approved manner, and even our political friends
might have taken a lesson from him. He had not spoken two minutes before
he denounced England as the worst nation upon the face of the earth, and
considered Englishmen as lions and brutes, while Irishmen were every
thing that was amiable and intelligent.

He was about to declare that an Irishman could lick a dozen Britons,
when an indignant Englishman planted a blow upon his nose that knocked
him headlong from the box on which he was standing.

The c