Ballarat Reform League - Timeline

Timeline

• Tuesday, 17 October: At the spot where James Scobie was killed 5,000-10,000 diggers gathered to protest the acquittal of the prime suspect, James Bentley, the husband of the owner of the Eureka Hotel licensee Catherine Bentley! Bentley fled for his life because the police ordered him to leave as the hotel was attacked and burnt down.
• Sunday, 22 October: Ballarat Catholics met to protest the treatment of Father Smyth's servant.
• Monday, 23 October: A mass meeting to protest the selective arrest of McIntyre and Fletcher & Westerby for burning down Bentley's Eureka Hotel attracted 4,000 miners and supporters. It was decided to form a Digger's Right Society, to maintain their rights.
• Tuesday, 1 November: 3000 diggers met once again at Bakery Hill. They were addressed by Kennedy, Holyoake, Black and Ross. The diggers were further incensed by the arrest of another seven of their number, for the burning down of the Eureka Hotel.
• Saturday, 11 November: A crowd estimated as 10,000 men gathered at Bakery Hill, directly opposite the government encampment. At this meeting the "Ballarat Reform League" was created, under the chairmanship of Chartist John Basson Humffray and Peter Lalor as secretary. Several other Reform League leaders including Thomas Kennedy and Henry Holyoake had been involved with the Chartist movement in England. Many of the miners had past involvement in the Chartist movement and social upheavals in England, Ireland and Europe during the 1840s.

The Ballarat Reform League used the British Chartist movement's 1853 "Karl Marx" manifesto principles to set their goals. The meeting passed a resolution "that it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called on to obey, that taxation without representation is tyranny". The meeting also decided to secede from the United Kingdom if the situation did not improve.