[Editor: This is a chapter from The Eureka Stockade by Raffaello Carboni. A glossary has been provided to explain various words and phrases that may be unfamiliar to modern readers.]
XXIV.
Ortica ensis: Secunda.
Out came the Ballaarat Times, Saturday, November 25, 1854. Work was stopped at every hole: the miners left the deep and mobbed together round any reader of the full report of the —
Trial of
MR. AND MRS. BENTLEY,
Hanse, and Farrel,
FOR THE MURDER OF
JAMES SCOBIE.
——
Supreme Court, Melbourne.
——
GUILTY! of Manslaughter.
Mrs. Bentley scot-free.
His Honour considered their conduct was wanton and reckless. He should mark his sense of the outrage of which they have been found guilty, by passing on each of them a sentence of THREE (!) YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT WITH HARD LABOUR ON THE ROADS.
Great Works !
Trial of
Fletcher, M’Intyre and Westerby,
for BURNING THE EUREKA HOTEL.
——
Supreme Court, Melbourne.
Criminal Sittings.
——
GUILTY, with a recommendation to mercy!!
The Foreman of the Jury appended the following rider to the verdict:—
“The jury feel, in giving their verdict against the prisoners at the bar, that in all probability, they (the jury) should never have had that painful duty to Perform, if those entrusted with the government offices at Ballaarat had done theirs properly.”
His Honour said: THE SENTENCE of the Court is, that you, M‘Intyre be confined in H.M. gaol, at Melbourne, for THREE MONTHS, but I shall not subject you to labour. (Great works!) You, Fletcher, to four months; and you, Westerby, to six months confinement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Executive was sufficiently strong to punish those who outrage the law! (Great works at Toorak!)
———
La vita in grammatica,
Facil declinazione;
La vita poi in pratica,
Storta congiugazione:
Della vita lo spello dal mondo sciolto,
Al mondo vivi, poiché non sei sepolto.
Source:
Raffaello Carboni. The Eureka Stockade: The Consequence of Some Pirates Wanting on Quarter-Deck a Rebellion, Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 1962 [facsimile of the 1855 edition], page 34
Editor’s notes:
*Ortica ensis: secunda = (Latin) “nettle blade: second” (*rough translation) (Ortica is the name of a plant, a stinging nettle, which derives its name from the Latin word “urtica”) [the title of chapter XXIII (23), “Ortica Ballaaratensis: Prima”, relates to the title of chapter XXIV (24), “Ortica ensis: Secunda”]
[Regarding the last paragraph:] (Italian) (*rough translation)
*La vita in grammatical = (Italian) “Life in grammar” (*rough translation)
*Facil declinazione = (Italian) “Easy declination” [“facil” or “facilis” is “easily” or “easy” in Latin] (*rough translation)
*La vita poi in pratica = (Italian) “The life then in practice” (*rough translation)
*Storta congiugazione = (Italian) “Retort jointing” (*rough translation)
*Della vita lo spello dal mondo sciolto = (Italian) “Life of the peel loose from the world” (*rough translation) [Carboni uses the same phrase in chapters XXIV (24) and LXXIV (74)]
*Al mondo vivi, poiché non sei sepolto = (Italian) “To the world you live, because you are not buried” (*rough translation)
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