E for Eureka.AUSTRALIAN RADICAL HISTORY THE EUREKA SERIES Nos. 9 BALLARAT
REFORM LEAGUE On Saturday the 11th of November, ten thousand miners meet at
Bakery Hill and formed Ballarat Reform League. The meeting began in a tent
but as thousands arrived it was moved onto Bakery Hill. The diggers set
both short term and long term political goals for the Ballarat Reform
League. The League used the British Chartist movement9s principles to set
their goals. The meeting passed a resolution "that it is the inalienable
right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called on
to obey - that taxation without representation is tyranny" Many of the
miners at the meeting had been involved in British working class uprisings
in the 18409s. They were familiar with Chartist demands for universal
manhood suffrage, abolition of the property qualifications for members of
parliament, payment of members and short-term parliaments. Many were aware
of the brutal way British troops put down working class movements in
Newport and Birmingham in the late 18409s and many of the foreigners at the
meeting had been involved in the failed 1848 revolutions across Europe. The
Bakery Hill meeting decided to secede from Britain if the situation did not
improve. "If Queen Victoria continues to act upon the ill advice of
dishonest ministers and insists upon indirectly dictating obnoxious laws
for the Colony, under the assumed authority of the Royal Prerogative, the
Reform League will endeavour to supercede such Royal Prerogative by
asserting that of the People which is the most Royal of all Prerogatives,
as the people are the only legitimate source of all political power." As
well as these long term goals, the diggers wanted the Gold Commissioners on
the goldfields, disbanded and they wanted both miners and storekeepers
licenses abolished. The meeting agreed to set up a large permanent tent at
Bakery Hill, to act as an office for the Ballarat Reform League. The League
decided to issue membership cards to members. John Basson Humffrey was
elected President and George Black, Secretary of the League. The meeting
also passed the motion "the meeting hereby pledge themselves to support the
Committee in carrying out its principles and attaining its objects - which
are the full political rights of the people" The scene was now set for an
escalation of the conflict between the Ballarat miners and the Colonial
authorities. One side would be forced to submit to the authority of the
other. BOOK REVIEW EUREKA REMINISCENCES Edited by Ballarat Heritage
Services. 1998 ISBN 0 646 35238 5 This interesting 84 paged pamphlet brings
together the stories of many of the participants in the 1854 Eureka
rebellion, who came to Ballarat in 1904 for the Eureka Jubilee
celebrations. The cover of Eureka Reminiscences, a yellowing black and
white photograph of about 80 participants in the Jubilee celebrations
sitting and standing at the Eureka Monument in Ballarat, gives a human
dimension to these historical events. The reminiscences of the
participant9s newspaper extracts celebrating the 30th anniversary of the
events in 1884 and the Jubilee in 1904 are for the most part disappointing.
The two 1884 accounts which appeared in the Ballarat Star convey some of
the radical sentiments that caused the Rebellion. The bulk of Eureka
Reminiscences is made up articles, which were written by many of the
participants that attended the Jubilee celebrations in 1904. Their
accounts, personal reflections on the events that in the main seem to be
devoid of any political or social content, appeared in the Ballarat
Courier, The Melbourne Argus, Geelong Advertiser, The Mount Alexander Mail
and the Ballarat Star. The only article from the 1904 collection that stirs
any fire in the belly are the reminiscences of John O9Brien, a digger who
took part in the fight at the Eureka Stockade in 1854. My personal feeling
is that many of the articles sent in for publication in 1904 were heavily
edited and the more radical reminiscences, were not published by editors
who were ambivalent about the Eureka Rebellion. Fifty years after the
Eureka events, debate still raged about whether Jubilee Celebrations should
be held for an event which many people in 1904 still believed to be
treasonable. Eureka Reminiscences suffers from the inevitable problem, that
first hand accounts that are edited and filtered by a second party are
subject to their credit. Ballarat Heritage Services has gone to the trouble
of bringing together these accounts in this slim volume. Unfortunately its
significance is not as important as I imagined because I believed that
Eureka Reminiscences was a first hand account by survivors of the Eureka
rebellion, not edited, hand picked newspaper articles that fitted the
editorial guidelines of the publishers of newspapers in 1884, 1904 and
1909. Eureka Reminiscences is available from the publishers, Ballarat
Heritage Services, PO Box 2209, Ballarat Mail Centre 3354, VICTORIA
AUSTRALIA. Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] or can be purchased directly from
the Eureka Centre in Ballarat for $12.50 (Australian).
