6d. on that very day, November 29th,
precisely, on the platform of the meeting)--have a meeting at two o'clock
at the Adelphi to organise the people and appoint a responsible
executive committee. I am the old delegate to it, and therefore I shall
be able to give you, Mr. Archer, a full answer to your letter of the
24th instant.
Mark this, good reader!
1. Meanwhile, privately, as an old Ballaarat hand, I beg respectfully
to convey to you, to employ your influence and reach the ears of
the Lieutenant Governor. The licence-fee, as a tax, is perhaps a cause
of growling like any other tax in Great Britain or elsewhere in the world;
but, on the gold-fields, has become an 'abomination.' The inconvenience
in the Camp-insolence at our getting it, the annoyance and bore
for showing it, when asked by some 'pup' of a trap whilst at our work;
the imbecility and arrogance of so many commissioners and troopers
uselessly employed for the purpose, etc., etc.; make the gold-licence
an abomination to the honest digger. The Vandemonian, you know, never dreamt
of taking out a licence, of course not.
Paramount is this grand consideration: John Bull, rather of a doggish nature,
will growl to himself if left alone picking his bone: the passport system
is a bone that he will not pick; no, no ways and under no shape whatever--
I know it by experience.
2. A memorial to his Excellency for the release of the three prisoners
under sentence for burning the Eureka Hotel, is, through Humffray,
in course of signature.
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