The Eureka Stockade [59]
I protest at once against recording it here: it is the coarsest fustian ever spun by Toorak Spiders. I solemnly declare that to my knowledge the name of Her Most Gracious Majesty was never mentioned in any way, shape, or form whatever, during the whole of the late transactions on Ballaarat. I devoured the whole of the indictment with both my eyes, expecting to meet with some count charging us with riot. The disappointment was welcome, and I considered myself safe. Not so, however, by a parcel of shabby solicitors. They said it would go hard with any one if found guilty. The government meant to make an example of some of of us, as a lesson to the ill-affected, in the shape of some fifteen years in the hulks. They had learned from Lynn of Ballaarat that there were no funds collected from the diggers for the defence. 'Cetera quando rursum scribam'--and thus they won some 200 pounds out of the frightened state prisoners, who possessed ready cash.
"What will be the end of us, Joe?" was my question to the nigger-rebel.
"Why, if the jury lets us go, I guess we'll jump our holes again on the diggings. If the jury won't let us go, then"--and bowing his head over the left shoulder, poking his thumb between the windpipe and the collarbone, opened wide his eyes, and gave such an unearthly whistle, that 1 understood perfectly well what he meant.
Chapter LXXX.
The State Prisoners. (From 'The Age', February 14th, 1855.)
The following is the copy of a letter addressed by the state prisoners now awaiting their trial in the Melbourne Gaol, to the Sheriff, complaining of the treatment they have received:-
Her Majesty's Gaol, Melbourne, February 6th, 1855. To the Sheriff of the Colony of Victoria:-
Sir--As the chief officer of the government, regulating prison discipline in Victoria, we, the undersigned Ballaarat state prisoners, respectfully beg to acquaint you with the mode of our treatment since our imprisonment in this gaol, in the hope that you will be pleased to make some alteration for the better.
At seven o'clock in the morning we are led into a small yard of about thirty yards long and eight wide, where we must either stand, walk or seat ourselves upon the cold earth (no seats or benches being afforded us), and which at meal times serves as chair, table, etc., with the additional consequence of having our food saturated with sand, dust, and with every kind of disgusting filth which the wind may happen to stir up within the yard.
We are locked in, about three o'clock in the afternoon, four or five of us together, in a cell whose dimensions are three feet by twelve, being thus debarred from the free air of heaven for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. The food is of the very worst description ever used by civilized beings. We are debarred the use of writing materials, except for purposes of pressing necessity; are never permitted to see a newspaper; and strictly prohibited the use of tobacco and snuff. We have been subjected to the annoyance of being stripped naked, a dozen men together, when a process of 'searching' takes place that is debasing to any human being, but perfectly revolting to men whose sensibilities have never been blunted by familiarity with crime--an ordeal of examination, and the coarse audacity with which it is perpetrated, as would make manhood blush, and which it would assuredly resent, as an outrage upon common decency, in any other place than a prison. And again, when the visiting justice makes his rounds, we are made to stand bareheaded before him, as if--etc.
We give the government the credit of believing that it is not its wish we should be treated with such apparent malignity and apparent malice; and also believe that if you, sir, the representative of government in this department, had been previously made acquainted with this mode of treatment, you would have caused it to be altered. But we have hitherto refrained from troubling the government on the subject, in expectation of a speedy trial, which now appears to be postponed sine die.
We, each
"What will be the end of us, Joe?" was my question to the nigger-rebel.
"Why, if the jury lets us go, I guess we'll jump our holes again on the diggings. If the jury won't let us go, then"--and bowing his head over the left shoulder, poking his thumb between the windpipe and the collarbone, opened wide his eyes, and gave such an unearthly whistle, that 1 understood perfectly well what he meant.
Chapter LXXX.
The State Prisoners. (From 'The Age', February 14th, 1855.)
The following is the copy of a letter addressed by the state prisoners now awaiting their trial in the Melbourne Gaol, to the Sheriff, complaining of the treatment they have received:-
Her Majesty's Gaol, Melbourne, February 6th, 1855. To the Sheriff of the Colony of Victoria:-
Sir--As the chief officer of the government, regulating prison discipline in Victoria, we, the undersigned Ballaarat state prisoners, respectfully beg to acquaint you with the mode of our treatment since our imprisonment in this gaol, in the hope that you will be pleased to make some alteration for the better.
At seven o'clock in the morning we are led into a small yard of about thirty yards long and eight wide, where we must either stand, walk or seat ourselves upon the cold earth (no seats or benches being afforded us), and which at meal times serves as chair, table, etc., with the additional consequence of having our food saturated with sand, dust, and with every kind of disgusting filth which the wind may happen to stir up within the yard.
We are locked in, about three o'clock in the afternoon, four or five of us together, in a cell whose dimensions are three feet by twelve, being thus debarred from the free air of heaven for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. The food is of the very worst description ever used by civilized beings. We are debarred the use of writing materials, except for purposes of pressing necessity; are never permitted to see a newspaper; and strictly prohibited the use of tobacco and snuff. We have been subjected to the annoyance of being stripped naked, a dozen men together, when a process of 'searching' takes place that is debasing to any human being, but perfectly revolting to men whose sensibilities have never been blunted by familiarity with crime--an ordeal of examination, and the coarse audacity with which it is perpetrated, as would make manhood blush, and which it would assuredly resent, as an outrage upon common decency, in any other place than a prison. And again, when the visiting justice makes his rounds, we are made to stand bareheaded before him, as if--etc.
We give the government the credit of believing that it is not its wish we should be treated with such apparent malignity and apparent malice; and also believe that if you, sir, the representative of government in this department, had been previously made acquainted with this mode of treatment, you would have caused it to be altered. But we have hitherto refrained from troubling the government on the subject, in expectation of a speedy trial, which now appears to be postponed sine die.
We, each