The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (54 page)

Would Catherine Bentley be the first woman to hang in Victoria? Attorney General Stawell had no qualms about such an outcome. Though the reasonable man might be
unwilling to believe that a woman had gone out to commit murder
, Stawell thundered,
the jury should lay aside all such considerations…She also seems to have rejoiced as much as anyone at the way in which the men were got rid of
.
²²

Justice Barry addressed the jury for over an hour. The jury deliberated for forty-five minutes. At 9pm on Saturday evening, as Catherine Hayes was singing her last aria, the foreman delivered the verdict. James Bentley, Farrell and Hance, guilty of manslaughter. Catherine Bentley, not guilty. (
Scot free
was how Carboni put it.) On Monday, as the sun slipped behind the moon, the men were sentenced to three years' hard labour on the roads. Catherine was released to her own version of the retributive wilderness. She would not swing, but in February she would give birth alone, to her baby Louisa. Catherine was a mother of two with no lawful means of support, and by Christmas 1855, she would be brought up on charges of illegally selling alcohol from her Maryborough refreshment tent. What a spectacular fall: from licensed victualler and owner of the largest building on the most prosperous goldfield in the world to sly grogger at an outlying diggings. The Bentley family's brief flirtation with the world of chandeliers and champagne would never be reprised. It was all downhill from here.

It was a busy week for Redmond Barry and John Ireland. On the same day that Bentley and his co-convicted were sentenced, Thomas Fletcher, Andrew McIntyre and John Westoby had their hour upon the stage. It was another show trial of sorts. The government desperately needed to save face after the Eureka Hotel riot. In the mind of the diggers' leadership, the conviction of James Bentley justified the incendiary action of the mob. The grievances at Ballarat had quickly gone from begging letters about poverty and iniquitous taxation to calls for self-government and even secession from the Crown. The
ARGUS
had reported Thomas Kennedy as saying in his Bakery Hill address that if the diggers did not get justice, they would
Go to the Queen of England, a simple-minded mother, far away from these her children, and ask if the child suck too long it will not injure both one and the other
.
²³
(Kennedy knew what an over-sucked mother looked like: he had four small children and an enervated wife in his own tent.)

Hotham did not want to be responsible for any premature weaning of the infant colony. But neither could he close the nursery door on the screaming baby. The howls of protest were now coming from all quarters. Even that doyenne of imperial respectability, Caroline Chisholm, was weighing in on political affairs. Mrs Chisholm had toured the diggings in November. On her return to Melbourne she made a lengthy speech to a large crowd on 17 November, the eve of the Bentley trial. She represented the miners as a fine body of men, the vast majority of whom
emphatically
possessed
heads on their shoulders, not just hands for digging
. Echoing Ellen Young, Mrs Chisholm advocated unlocking the lands to encourage more wives and families to the goldfields, and warned:
If something is not done to remove the difficulties under which these men are placed, the consequences will be terribly felt
.
²⁴
Her lengthy speech was reprinted verbatim in the Melbourne papers.

Hotham was now eager to claw back some control of the good ship Victoria, which was veering dangerously off course. Added to the public pressure was the fact that the military reinforcement of Ballarat was costing him a fortune, precisely when London was looking for him to balance the budget: Cobb and Co. and George Francis Train alone had charged thousands of pounds to transport the extra troops to Ballarat.

In the trial of McIntyre, Fletcher and Westoby, the jury deliberated for over five hours. A defence of provocation had been mounted, citing the wrongful conduct of the Ballarat officials; Mr Justice Barry rejected it. Was it really any surprise when all three accused were found guilty of
assembling together unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously
? But the jury added a rider to the verdict: if the government at Ballarat had done
its
duty properly, the jury would never have had to perform the painful duty it had just been called upon to execute. The hushed courtroom exploded in cheering. But Barry was unmoved. He expressed particular disgust with respect to the horses that had been incinerated in the hotel blaze and sentenced Andrew McIntyre to three months in Melbourne Gaol, Fletcher to four and Westoby to six. Richard Ireland had seen six clients incarcerated in the space of two days. He would get the chance to redeem himself sooner than he knew.

When news reached the diggings that the Ballarat Three had been convicted, the executive of the reform league met to decide how to respond. Black and Kennedy were dispatched to Melbourne, where they met up with Humffray and made an appointment to see the governor himself. This delegation would present the concerns of the Ballarat diggers directly, including a copy of the Diggers Charter. It is a measure of the small-town intimacy of the colony, despite its recent population explosion, that the men could get an audience with His Excellency, the colonial secretary and the attorney general on Monday 27 November. (Whether Lady Hotham was party to the discussions the notaries did not record.) It was the same familiarity that had inspired Ellen Young to write to Hotham back in September, offering him her detailed ideas for an alternative licensing system.
²⁵
It was also the source of her resentment when Hotham reneged on his promise to listen to the people. Ellen's fury is not a sign of womanly temper but a reaction to the tantalising proximity of colonial power: it was personal.

Nor did Black, Kennedy and Humffray come to the great man shaking at the knees; in fact, Hotham might have been a darned sight more amenable if they had fawned a little more. Instead, the reform league's representatives followed Ellen Young's lead and presented Hotham with their
demands
. Black
demanded
that Fletcher, McIntyre and Westoby be released. Hotham bristled. He reminded the delegation that the Americans of Ballarat had successfully
petitioned
him for executive clemency in Carey's case. Then:
I must take my stand on the word ‘demand'
, said a defensive Hotham.
I am sorry for it, but that is the position you place me in.

The delegation did not apologise, but tried another tack. Kennedy implored Hotham to act on the diggers' grievances before blood was spilt. Black played to one of Hotham's pet concerns: bringing women to the diggings.
I am desired by the married men of Ballarat to make a request of your Excellency
, Black began.

It is this—that every possible facility may be afforded by your Excellency to enable them to settle and have their wives and families there. They are all anxious to settle upon the land, but at present the difficulties of their so doing are too great, and I am requested to bring that subject especially before your Excellency's notice.

Hotham softened.
That is a point which presses very much
, he conceded. But he could not give an answer to take back to the married men of Ballarat, except to say that he agreed
in the necessity of some provisions being made
.

Ten days earlier Hotham had announced a commission of enquiry into the administration of the goldfields. It was to this decree that he now returned.

Tell the Diggers from me and tell them carefully that this Commission will enquire into everything and every body, high and low, rich and poor, and you have only to come forward and state your grievances, and, in what relates to me they shall be redressed. I can say no more, we are all in a false position altogether.
²⁶

As the delegates left with pockets full of empty promises, how could they fail to notice that Hotham was
in a false position
in a mansion in leafy Toorak, while they returned to threadbare tents on a dusty goldfield.

The road to and from Ballarat was taking a beating in those last weeks of November. There were all the witnesses summoned to the two trials: Mary Ann and Bernard Welch, Dr Carr, the turncoat Mooney, Agnes Sinclair the nursemaid, and a slew of police happy for a night or two away from the gloom and tension at the Camp. There was the reform league's deputation, Diggers Charter in hand. There were the five hundred men and five hundred women and children still arriving each week to try their luck on the Ballarat goldfields. There was another batch of one hundred and fifty military reinforcements from the 40th Regiment sent to the Camp on 27 November, the same day Hotham took tea with the delegates.

And there were the Camp's wives and families, on the move again. Back in October, after the hotel riot, the women had been sent from Camp for their own safety. After Captain Thomas's defence plan, they returned. Following the conviction of Fletcher, McIntyre and Westoby, it was deemed prudent they leave again.

Maggie Johnston chose this occasion to resume her diary entries.

November 22 Wednesday

Went to Buninyong to the Allens. Mrs Lane and I—our first flight from camp.

November 23 Thursday

Spent an anxious day. Nothing happened to our beloveds.

November 24 Friday

Passed much in the same way. Still anxious. Had a letter from dear Jamie.

November 25 Saturday

My dearie came for us and we got safely back. Found everything alright.

November 26 Sunday

Was poorly, in bed. Dear Jamie went to church alone.

November 27 Monday to December 2 Saturday

Every day this week most anxious as the diggers threatened all sorts of horrid things. All the ladies out of camp—out myself.

Elizabeth Massey was at the Queen's Theatre to see Catherine Hayes' final performance. She concurs that the singer was indeed showered with nuggets, sovereigns and bouquets; it was said Hayes took £800 that night. But the festivities were rudely interrupted.

Our gaieties were rather suddenly put a stop to by our friends' anxiety to return home in consequence of the frightful and exaggerated reports which were daily arriving in rapid succession from the country, of an outbreak at Ballarat.