Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/28

 its culminating point, and suggested its own remedy. The Government functionaries were openly accused of bribery and corruption, which undoubtedly existed at the diggings amongst the gold commissioners and police—the people, therefore, lost all confidence, and every law, irrespective of its necessity, became at once odious when found to be a marketable commodity. That great and glaring faults existed on both sides, every calm and unprejudiced observer will freely admit. The laws affecting the diggers were alike imperfect as injudicious, and the laxity of their administration at the onset caused many abuses to creep in, which subsequent tyranny and severity tended rather to increase than to suppress. This distribution of uneven-handed justice led to innumerable commissions of inquiry into charges of official delinquency, which became of such frequent occurrence, that a leading supporter of Government stated in the House, "the average to be one each week,"—which provoked the facetious rejoinder, "that under such circumstances the official body consisted of well-tried men, and if fifty-two were examined in the year, it would not take very long to go through the whole civil establishment."

Things were in this state on the arrival of Sir Charles Hotham, who at first was considered to be a man for the people, and during his tour through the diggings was most enthusiastically received. A short trial, however, of his administration, and the very decisive measures he introduced (which were