The Eureka Stockade Part 33

"'Heu mihi! pingui quam macer est mihi taurus in arvo!' and it must be acknowledged that it would have been paying an honest and educated man a better compliment if my neighbours on the Eureka had found less edification in witnessing my nice snug tent converted into a gambling house by day, and a brothel by night. A sad reflection! however merry some scoundrels may have made in getting drunk with my private brandy in the tent.

"Never mind! the diggers have now a legion of friends. So I prevailed on myself to tell, half-a-dozen times over to most of the 'well-disposed and independent' yabber-yabber leaders on Ballaarat, how I had been robbed at the Camp, how for my sorrows every mortal thing had been stolen from my tent, and concluded with the remark, 'that in each case the thieves were neither Vandemonians nor Chinese.'

"I met with grand sympathy in 'words,' superlatively impotent even to move for the rest.i.tution of my watertight boots!

"Hurrah! glorious things will be told of thee, Victoria!

"These waterhole skippers, who afford buzzing and bamboozling when the rainbow dazzles their dull eyes, bask in their 'well-affected' brains, the flaring presumption that 'shortly' there will be a demand for sheeps'

heads! (Great works!) and pointing at several of us, it is given unto them to behold with glory 'the end of men whose word is their bond!'

"(Great works!)

"Let us sing with Horace--

TUNE--Old Style.

Quando prosperus et jucundus, Amicorum es fecundus, Si fortuna perit, Nullus amicus erit.

Chorus--Cives! Cives!

Querenda pecunia primum, Post nummos virtus.

"Which in English may mean this--

'A friend in need is a friend indeed,' that's true, But love now-a-days is left on the shelf, The best of friends, by G---- in serving you Takes precious care first to help himself.

Ancestors, learning, talent, what we call Virtue, religion--MONEY beats them all.

"I must now try the power of my old quill, perhaps it has not lost the spell--

"In Rome, by my position in society, and thorough knowledge of the English language, I was now and then of service to Englishmen THERE; in my adversity is there a generous-hearted Englishman HERE who would give me the hand and see that the government enjoins the rest.i.tution of the property I was robbed of at the Camp. Let the rest.i.tution come from a Board of Inquiry, a Poor-law Board, a Court-Martial, or any Board except a Board (full) of Pet.i.tions. The eternal pet.i.tioning looks so 'Italian'

to me! And, especially, let the rest.i.tution of my new water-tight boots be done this winter!

"As for the ignominy I was subjected to, my immense sufferings during four long, long months in gaol, the prospects of my life smothered for a while, we had better leave that alone for the present.

"Were I owned by the stars and stripes, I should not require a.s.sistance, of course not; unhappily for the sins of my parents, I was born under the keys which verily open the gates of heaven and h.e.l.l; but Great Britain changed the padlocks long ago! hence the dreaded 'Civis Roma.n.u.s sum'

has dwindled into 'bottomed on mullock.'

"CARBONI RAFFAELLO, "By the grace of spy Goodenough Captain of Foreign Anarchist.

"Prince Albert Hotel, Ballaarat, "Corpus Christi, 1855."

No one did condescend to notice the above letter. I do not wonder at it, and why?

I read in the Sat.u.r.day's issue of 'The Star', Ballaarat, October 6th, 1855, how a well-known digger and now a J.P., did, in a 'Ballaarat smasher,' toast the good exit of a successful money-maker--an active, wide-awake man of business certainly, but nothing else to the diggers of Ballaarat--'Cela n'est pas tout-a-fait comme chez nous.'

Chapter XCVIII.

Sunt Tempora Nostra!

That Is The Following From Toorak.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Melbourne, October 8th, 1855.

Sir,--Advertising to your correspondence (September 30th), in reply to my letter of the 20th ultimo, I am directed by His Excellency to state that government are compelled to adhere to fixed rules--THEY BY NO MEANS DOUBT THE VERACITY OF YOUR STATEMENT, but they have a duty to the public to perform, which imposes the necessity of never granting money in compensation, except when the clearest evidence of the loss is given, and that a personal statement no matter by whom given, is never accepted as sufficient testimony.

I have the honour to be, SIR, J. MOORE, A.C.S."

(To) Mr. CARBONI RAFFAELLO, Gravel-pits, Ballaarat-flat.

A 'Cheer-up' written for the MAGPIE of BALLAARAT, perched on the Southern Cross Hotel, Magpie-gully.

No more from MOORE; Too dear! his store.

Hang the 'Compensation:'

Speak of 'RESt.i.tUTION!'

'Do not steal!'

'Restiuere?'

's an old Inst.i.tution, Popish innovation.

CHORUS.

COO-HEE! Great works at Toorak!

COO-HEE! Keep clear of th' WOOL-pack.

WATERLOOBOLTER CHIMES.

SIP sop stir-up Toorak small beer do si la sol fa me re do Nip nap wash down chops nacks oh! dear.

Chapter XCIX.

Suppose I give now the kind (!) answer from Police-inspector HENRY FOSTER!

it will give general satisfaction, I think:-

Police Department, Ballaarat, Nov. 2, 1854.

Sir,--In reply to your communication, dated 26th ultimo, on the subject of your having been deprived of your clothing during your arrest at this Camp, in December, 1855 [I think, Mr. Foster, it was in 1854] I have the honour to inform you, that to the best of my recollection, the clothing you wore when you were brought to the Camp consisted of a wide-awake hat, or cap, a red s.h.i.+rt, corduroy or moleskin trousers, and a pair of boots.

Of these articles, the cap, s.h.i.+rt, and boots were put amongst the surplus clothing taken from the other prisoners, and I am not aware how they were disposed of afterwards.