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| ‘The ringleaders and most notorious of the rioters also took their
trials, and notwithstanding the clear evidence against them, and the
remarks of the Attorney-General and the Judge who tried the case, were all
acquitted by the Melbourne jury. This was considered rather a singular
perversion of justice, but the vox populi was all powerful, and the jury
dared not have found them guilty.
The only person connected with the rioters, who received any punishment, was the editor of the Ballarat Times, who was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for publishing seditious and inflammatory articles in his paper. Whilst waiting the result of all these proceedings at Melbourne, I
entered at some length into a justification of my own measures with regard
to Bentley’s affair in the newspapers, a circumstance that gave much
umbrage to the Lieutenant-Governor, and ultimately led to the loss of my
appointment in the month of November, 1854.’ |
ImageTitle Acquittal of Ballarat rioters in 1855Description Supplement to the Illustrated Australian news (Melbourne), June 1887 |
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