[Editor: This is a chapter from The Eureka Stockade by Raffaello Carboni. A glossary has been provided to explain various words and phrases that may be unfamiliar to modern readers.]
XXII.
Strike off a medal in commemoration.
We are on Bakery-hill, though, attention. Immediate objects of the Reform League.
I. An immediate change in the management of the goldfields, by disbanding the Commissioners (undoubtedly the unanimous demand, or “desire” — if the word suit better the well-affected — of all blue-shirts). Three cheers for Vern! Go it hearty! Fine fellow! Legs rather too long! Never mind.
II. The total abolition of the diggers’ and storekeeper’s licence tax. (Ah! ah! prick John Bull at his £. s. d., that’s the dodge to make him stir.)
Three cheers for Humffray! Hurrah!
The whole of the grand talk of these Bakery reformers leagued together on its hill, can properly be framed in, on a “copper;” thus doing justice to all.
LET
a course of
action be decided on
and carried out unswervingly
until the heel of our oppressors
be removed from our necks.
DON’T LET THE THING DROP THROUGH,
for want of co-operation and support
NOTA BENE.
2s. 6d. gentleman’s ticket.
No admission for ladies at present.
Durum sed levius fit patientia.
REMEMBER!
GOD HELPS HIM WHO HELPS HIMSELF (to the 2s. 6d.)
DO NOT LET the word “British” become a bye-word.
AND ABOVE ALL LEAVE OFF SINGING
“Britons never, never shall be slaves,”
until you leave fondling
the chains which
prove the song
a lie,
a mockery,
a delusion,
a snare.
——
Great works!
Source:
Raffaello Carboni. The Eureka Stockade: The Consequence of Some Pirates Wanting on Quarter-Deck a Rebellion, Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 1962 [facsimile of the 1855 edition], page 32
Editor’s notes:
durum sed levius fit patientia = (Latin) “it is hard but becomes lighter by patience”; from Odes, Book I, section XXIV (line 19), by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65 BC – 8 BC) [lines 19-20 are “durum!: sed leuius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas”, i.e. “it is hard!: but that which we are not permitted to correct is rendered lighter by patience”]
John Bull = a personification of Britain, or England in particular; in this context, “John Bull” is a reference to the British colonial administration in Victoria
prick John Bull at his £. s. d = this is a reference to affecting the British administration via its finances; “£. s. and d.” were the abbreviations for the basic British-style currency denominations then in use in the colonies of Australia, i.e. “pounds, shillings and pence”
References:
durum sed levius fit patientia:
Jon R. Stone. The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations: The Illiterati’s Guide to Latin Maxims, Mottoes, Proverbs, and Sayings, Routledge, New York, 2005, page 246 (accessed 3 January 2013)
A New Dictionary of Quotations from the Greek, Latin, and Modern Languages, J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1869, page 132 (accessed 3 January 2013)
“Q. Horati Flacci Carminvm Liber Primvs”, The Latin Library [“durum: sed leuius fit patientia”] (accessed 3 January 2013)
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