Aftermath

"When peace shall lie once more regained, and there shall be time for deliberate judgement, the citizens will reckon with the Government. Meantime, they will not pledge themselves to support it; and they will not organize themeselves into bodies for the purpose of filling the place of that expensive military force, which should never have been sent out of Melbourne. (We) do not sympathise with revolt; but neither do they sympathise with injustice and coercion. They will not fight for the diggers nor will the fight for the Government." (The Age, 5 December 1855)

The overrunning of the Stockade had the desired effect of restoring overt Goverment control to the goldfields. A declaration of martial law in the Buninyong district was short-lived, and worried preparations against further uprisings proved unnecessary. However, as Gold Commissioner William Wright reported, the number of mining licences taken out dropped to virtually zero over the next few months. Wright had travelled to Ballarat as part of the Commision that Lieutenant Governor Hotham had initially appointed in mid-November to look into the administration of the fields.

As well as Wright the Commission had as members William Westgarth (chairman), John Pascoe Fawkner, John Hodgson, John O'Shanassy, and James Ford Strachan, all members of the Legislative Council.

Despite suggestions, the Commission was not redirected to look at the causes of the Stockade uprising and possible remedies, but their report, delivered on 27 March 1855, the same day as the acquittal of the last of those charged with treason, can hardly have avoided being a meditation on the episode. The immediate complaints of the mining community were on the whole addressed by the Commision - in particular, by the replacement of the mining licence with an export tax, and the election of miners to local courts to adjudicate disputes.

The Stockade also launched the political careers of Lalor and Humffray in particular, both going on to serve in the Legislative Council.

Was justice served?
" The people have unanimously demanded an amnesty for the political offences arising out of that unhappy period of blunders and misrule" (The Age, 5 December 1855)

Despite the political changes, however, the wheels of justice ground on. While the pursuit of escaped diggers, including Lalor and Vern was dropped, the unfinished court cases became the focus of public and press attention.

The thirteen tried for treason were joined by two others. Henry Seekamp, editor of the Ballarat Times, was arrested the day after the Stockade battle, charged with seditious libel and convicted. Seekamp's thus became the only conviction arising out of the affair. Curiously, part of the evidence against him was a copy of the Ballarat Reform League charter that he printed.

Also arrested and charged was Arthur Akehurst, Clerk of the Peace, for the manslaughter of storekeeper Henry Powell. Akehurst had run Powell down although the latter had not been at all involved with the stockade. Powell survived his wounds long enought to make a statement against Akehurst. The prosecution case was dropped when Powell's dying deposition was ruled inadmissible, to the protests of the Argus, who had been covering the affair.

Also problematic was the issue of compensation of the miners for their losses, both specifically in terms of theft from those arrested and more generally in terms of their grievances as a whole. Despite considerable popluar agitation, the governmnet on the whole was unsympathetic to compensation claims. Wright notes in his report that he has chosen to treat them as petitions.

Documents