[Editor: This article, regarding the Miner’s Right, was published in The Adelaide Times (Adelaide, SA), 18 April 1855.]
Universal suffrage.
One of the most important recommendations urged upon the Victorian Government by the Commissioners, recently appointed to enquire into the outbreak at Ballarat, is, that the franchise should be at once extended to the “Diggers;” for of the numerous witnesses examined by the Commission, nearly every one attributed the discontent which had prevailed on the Gold-fields to the fact, that the population there were entirely unrepresented, and without any constitutional means of obtaining redress against the petty tyrannies to which they were subject. To remedy this evil, the Commission have proposed that the present number of Members of Council should be increased, and that eight elective, and four nominee members, for all the Gold-fields, should be added to the present Legislature; thereby giving virtual representation to the Gold-fields, until the arrival of Imperial Powers. In connection with this scheme, the qualification suggested is, that on the payment of one pound a-year, each Digger should be granted a “miner’s right;” viz., that he should be in a position to register his name, and exercise his vote in the election of the representatives.
If this scheme is adopted it will be the nearest approach to universal suffrage, without being the thing itself, that can possibly be arrived at; and, as such, we should watch its operations with considerable interest. It is true, the “miner’s right” may not constitute the whole of the necessary qualifications, but we cannot see how length of residence or any of the usual voting conditions could be applied, with any effect, to an unsettled population like the diggers, at the present time. It may however be questioned whether the making of a new qualification at all is not a superfluous task, for it is apparent that the great mass of the diggers are men who would gladly avail themselves of the present kind of qualification if the Government would give them an opportunity of doing so by placing at their disposal such land as would induce them to give up the wandering life which many of them have been forced into, and enable them to settle down as tillers of the soil. This part of the subject is so important that we are induced to reprint the following article relating to it from the Melbourne Morning Herald:—
Our Gold-fields’ friends.
“What do you mean by a digger? I can hardly recognise the word; I think it almost an offensive term to apply to any one in a court of law,” exclaimed Mr Justice Barry to Counsel the other day, in the course of one of the State trials. If there was a little superfine affectation in this, we also think there was some boldness and honesty. His Honor had the courage, at any rate — as not many have — to speak the truth that was in him when no popularity could result. He felt, as many others equally biassed felt, that a digger is not, as mere digger, a very respectable character. His pursuit is desultory, unfixed, and nomadic. He is a man who joins “a rush” here and “a rush” there, as each new attraction is discovered. There is a want of permanency about his position; and his life seems to savour of a long gambling transaction. All these circumstances jar upon the feelings of the quiet and regularity-loving members of ordinary society, and if he were to speak as plainly as Mr Justice Barry did, perhaps he would deliver himself much in the same manner. It is the expression rather of a sentiment than of a fact, it is true, but as we are convinced that there is nothing like plain sneaking, whether about sentiment or fact, we are glad when men speak honestly out even their mere prejudices, because then we have before us every term in the moral equation, and all the materials for the elicitation of truth.
We believe the above estimate of the digger to be at once exceedingly natural and exceedingly unsound; and we also believe that the Government of this colony entertains this natural and unsound opinion, in common with many equally ignorant among the governed. We call the estimate a natural one, because it is natural for almost all men to form their moral judgments of their fellows upon first impressions, and without inquiring much further. We pronounce the same estimate an unsound one, because it is formed upon a very partial, and even to some extent, a perverted view of the digger character.
The very last persons who should be permitted to entertain such an opinion are the members of the Government. “Sell us land to cultivate,” cry the diggers. “Enable us to throw off the wanderer, and to become settled as cultivators of the soil. Here is the gold we have dug hard for; take it in exchange for a small slice of the beautiful ‘run,’ upon part of which we are even now working, and let us do a little farming and gardening for ourselves.” What, in effect, is the Government’s answer? “Diggers you are and digger you must continue. We cannot let you have the land you require. You are a disreputable sort of auriferous navvies, that is our private opinion of you; and our public policy will keep you in the same condition.”
This is absurdly inconsistent. From the letters of diggers themselves — from the report of the Gold-Fields’ Commissioners — and from many other communications we have had with this class — we have derived the conviction that the diggers desire freehold land above all other objects. The great majority of them are as conscious as the men of any other class can be, that the rushing and fitful employment of the digger is not the most desirable one they might select, had they the choice of the pursuit they would most willingly follow. And it is this consideration which goes so far to satisfy us that the digger, commonly, is so erroneously estimated. He is contemned because the pursuit he follows is an uncertain one; because it draws him hither and thither, and the mere conditions and necessities of his business are, by a trick of the imagination, converted into the digger’s private tastes. The man who goes to dig at Ballaarat is, to a certain extent, regarded as if he were going to throw dice at Crockford’s.
Why he should be so regarded we cannot ourselves see. For certainly there are some very striking and even obvious points of difference between the two characters. There is the dignity of labour in the pursuit of the one. There is the disgrace of abused idleness about the career of the other. The digger more or less confers a benefit upon himself and others: the gambler benefits neither himself nor others. The digger takes the uncertainty because he cannot help it: the gambler seeks the uncertainty as an unwholesome excitement of the mind.
“But the digger is not obliged to dig,” it has been said. “He is as much a volunteer for the ‘deep sinking’ of Ballaarat as the other is a volunteer for the deep sinking of the Crockford Hell. The fact of his taking to it, is evidence that he prefers the excitement with the chances of this unsettled life, to the steadier, and more permanently beneficial pursuits of agriculture, manufactures, or trade.” Doubtless, in many cases, this is true, and what then? It is equally true, that in many other cases, young men have taken to the gold-fields, having no other calling or business, or if any other, no opportunity of advantageously exercising it. But if every digger was on the gold-fields from the sheer fascination of problematical gain, what is there in such a passion, that distinguishes the digger from the rest of us? Upon looking a little into our own consciences, we shall most of us find (miserable canters as so many of us are,) that we are all, more or less, diggers in soul, whatever we may be in body. Even so, from infancy. Does not the schoolboy shiver with excitement, as the halfpenny falls “heads” or “tails?” Did not duchesses, and fair coronetted heads, vie with each other for the smiles of Mr Law, and for a few shares in those special diggings, the South Sea Bubble? Coming nearer to our own time — did not the very pick of Britain’s aristocracy bow themselves down before an ignorant and vulgar charlatan, with no other moral qualities but impudence and dishonesty to recommend him — Mr George Hudson — to get a few shares here and a few shares there in the illusory Railroad “Diggings” of 1845? Has not every such chance of great gain a natural and special fascination for us all, more or less? Did not even Alcibiades himself, the profuse, the generous, the all-accomplished, visit in company with two of his Athenian ladies, the new Diggings Timon had turned up in his Grecian Ballaarat? Why waste time and words in reiterated queries? Even Bishops had their shares in favourite lines of rail, and still hold interests in some of the Australian Gold Companies.
We shall not stay to ask how this comes to pass. Phrenologists would say “Acquisitiveness large,” whether in bishops or in Chinese Bonzes. Other moral philosophers will have other, and to themselves, equally satisfactory solutions. We have merely to do with the feet. The spirit of gambling, in other words, the appetite for excitement in its infinite modes of indulgence, is deep-rooted in the nature of man. In the digger it is indulged in the, to him, most harmless, to the public, most profitable, form. He works hard, and whatever he draws from between the iron ribs of our great mother earth, he deserves. Be he gentleman, or ploughman, scholar, miner, or Irish labourer, “by the sweat of his brow,” has he at any rate, honestly earned his daily bread.
And yet the time comes when even excitement palls. Hundreds have achieved considerable prizes. Thousands have been, and still are, from day to day, more or less successful. They then frequently become desirous of possessing a farm — at once one of the most noble, as it certainly is the most delightful, of human pursuits. Here, at this stage of digger life, Government should always stand ready to cry — “Buy, buy; walk in gentlemen and buy our lands.” Government does nothing of the kind. The path to the land office is not smoothed to the lucky digger. Adelaide tempts him on the one side; New Zealand throws out her lures on the other. The digger goes forth from amongst us with his gains. Victoria loses a pair of brawny aims, a calculating head, and a good stout English heart. South Australia and New Zealand daily gain what we lose. Thus the Victorian Government goes on with dense stolidity, actually feeding the emigration to other colonies from the very bowels of our own; and if Victoria advances at all, it will not be on account of her rulers, but in spite of them.
Source:
The Adelaide Times (Adelaide, SA), 18 April 1855, p. 3
Editor’s notes:
Alcibiades = Alcibiades (ca. 450-404 BC) of ancient Greece, an Athenian statesman and general
See: 1) “Alcibiades: Athenian politician and general”, Encyclopedia Britannica
2) “Alcibiades”, Wikipedia
Athenian = of or relating to Athens (a city in Greece)
Ballaarat = an older spelling of “Ballarat” (a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria)
Bonze = a Buddhist monk or priest in East Asia (especially in China or Japan); the term is derived from Middle French and Portuguese, from Japanese bonsō (meaning “priest” or “monk”); it is usually rendered in lower case, i.e. “bonze”
See: 1) “Bhikkhu”, Wikipedia
2) “bonze”, Dictionary.com
cant = a set, standard, or stock phrase (especially ones which have become regarded as meaningless due to heavy repetition); the use of conventional or oft-repeated opinions, sentiments, or thoughts; a specialized jargon, phraseology, or vocabulary used within a certain group or sub-culture (such as jockeys, journalists, lawyers, religious sects, goths, punks, or thieves; the cant of thieves); to talk insincerely or hypocritically, especially regarding morality, religion or spirituality (such as priests using pious platitudes about brotherly love or turning the other cheek, when not practicing what they teach; the cant of pious hypocrites); to beg, talk, or whine in a singsong or whining manner (such as used by beggars or vagabonds)
canter = someone who uses cant, especially a lot of cant [see: cant]
contemn = to regard with contempt or disdain; to treat with contempt or disdain; scorn
Council = the Legislative Council (the upper house of parliament in the various colonies and states of Australia)
the Crockford Hell = [see: Crockford’s]
Crockford’s = the St James’s Club (London, England), a gentlemen’s club and gambling establishment, owned by William Crockford, which operated from 1823 to 1845 (a second iteration operated in London from 1928 to 1970, and a third was established in London in 2016)
See: “Crockford’s (club)”, Wikipedia
“Crockfords (casino)”, Wikipedia
deep sinking = mining deep in the ground; digging or excavating a mine shaft
digger = a gold digger, someone seeking gold by digging in the ground (usually referring to men); a miner
George Hudson = George Hudson (1800-1871), an English railway financier and Member of Parliament; as a railway entrepreneur, he was accused of using dubious financial practices in his operations, and subsequently became bankrupt; he was born in Howsham (England) in 1800, and died in London (England) in 1871
See: “George Hudson”, Wikipedia
Grecian = of or relating to Greece or its people
hither = here (e.g. “come hither”); to or toward a place; near, on this side
Imperial Powers = (in the context of Australia) powers held by the British Empire; powers granted by the British Empire or the British government (referring to the legal right to carry out functions, conduct operations, make laws, etc.)
Law = John Law (1671-1729), Scottish economist; whilst living in France, he set up the Banque Générale, which then became the Banque Royale; he also set up some American financial interests, which became known as the Mississippi Company, linked to the Banque Royale, but his misrepresentations about economic prospects led to a financial collapse known as the Mississippi Bubble; he was born in Edinburgh (Scotland) in 1671, and died in Venice (Italy) in 1729
See: 1) “John Law: Scottish economist”, Encyclopedia Britannica
2) “John Law (economist)”, Wikipedia
3) “Mississippi Bubble: French history”, Encyclopedia Britannica
4) “Mississippi Company”, Wikipedia
miner’s right = a mining license; miner’s rights were first issued in Victoria in 1855, replacing the earlier gold licenses (which were introduced in 1851), and gave their holders a range of legal and political rights (the other Australian colonies subsequently followed the Victorian system)
See: 1) “Miner’s Right”, Eurekapedia
2) “Miner’s Right”, Wikipedia
navvies = plural of “navvy”: an unskilled labourer, especially one employed on major civil engineering projects; from navigations (canals), as many construction workers were employed on widespread canal-building schemes in 18th century Britain (thus, navigation workers came to be colloquially known as “navvies”)
pall = to become (after a period of time) boring, dull, less enjoyable, less interesting, tedious, tiresome; to diminish, dwindle, fade, lessen
phrenologist = someone who adhered to the now-discredited science of phrenology, a theory based on the idea that shape, size, and configurations of the skull gave indications as to character traits and mental abilities
run = a property on which stock are grazed, such as a “cattle run” or a “sheep run”
South Sea Bubble = a British financial crisis of 1720, centred around the operations of the South Sea Company; in 1720 there was a “boom” (or “bubble”) in the company’s stocks, due to its historical arrangement with the British Parliament to take over the national debt, however, the company’s stocks collapsed, with the crash financially ruining thousands of people
See: 1) Terry Stewart, “The South Sea Bubble”, Historic UK
2) Alice Marples, “The South Sea Bubble of 1720”, The National Archives (UK), 18 September 2020
3) “South Sea Bubble: British history”, Encyclopedia Britannica
4) “South Sea Company”, Wikipedia
thither = over there, yonder; to or towards that place or point (regarding somewhere which has already been mentioned); in that direction, further away; (archaic) to that end, point, or result
Timon = the main character in the play “Timon of Athens”, by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), who showered his friends with money and gifts, but almost all of whom turned their backs on him when he needed help to pay his creditors
viz. = (Latin) an abbreviation of “videlicet” (a contraction of the Latin phrase “videre licet”), meaning “it is permitted to see” (the “z” derives from the z-shaped Latin shorthand symbol for “et”, as used in the Tironian shorthand style); in actual practice, “viz.” is used as a synonym for “in other words”, “namely”, “that is to say”, “to wit”, or “which is” (used when giving further details about something, or giving a list of specific examples or items)
[Editor: Changed “digge,r commonly” to “digger, commonly”; “who goe to dig” to “who goes to dig”; “and to themfelves” to “and to themselves”. Changed the double quotation mark before “deep sinking” to a single quotation mark. Placed a full stop after “on the other” and “with his gains”.]
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