What Lalor was fighting for
So, an absolute no to all that stuff. This is another area where you really have to make up your own minds on the basis of any available and reliable evidence. But in this case, we can't resist presenting another possibility. And we stress that, like all the other suggestions, ours is no more than mere speculation. We think there is a reasonably high possibility Lalor was caught on the hop. He responded with his heart rather than his brain.
On the surface, his actions at the final "monster" meeting and throughout the "rebellion" appear not to fit with his later actions as a politician and businessman. But buried inside him, at least at his age, 26 at the time of Eureka, was a genuine concern for people he could see who were being repressed. But, all-importantly, these people weren't mere labourers, or factory hands, or sailors, or clerks, or shop assistants, and so on.
As we believe he probably saw it, the miners were people who put their very lives on the line to bust their guts to try and better themselves. They had a commitment to Australia that went far beyond that of "ordinary" workers, for they had a sort of lease on a piece of land, albeit tiny, which they had to work looking for gold. And Peter Lalor had an incredibly strong belief in the importance of leaseholders, or smallholders, to the future of his new home.
And what did these mining "smallholders" get for their trouble? Oppressive, sneering, patronising officials, and bullying, violent thugs for a law enforcement that was not directed at thieves, rapists, and murderers, but at them, the very small-business people who were the future of this country.
They were not taxed on the basis of their earnings, but just on the fact they wanted to dig a hole. Their pleas for help were ignored or met with violence. They tried and tried and tried to approach the authorities with reasonable requests, but were rejected with contempt at every turn.
And now, forced into a position where the only outcome might be a violent revolt, which Lalor in all probability knew they couldn't win, and which would cause nothing but death and misery, they were in desperate need of leadership that would minimise the risk of this worst of all possible outcomes.
This meant he had to step forwards, not those proponents of violent revolution, Vern and Carboni. There was no-one else there likely to put themselves forward, apart from Vern, and a decision had to be made now, right now, right this very moment. So, up he stepped. It wasn't possible, of course, for him to know the situation had already gone too far for him to be able to effect peace, and that Rede was running well beyond the point of no return.
Rede's paranoid, class-based authoritarianism was sending him into a panic mode, from which, if the miner's rebelled, violence was the only possible outcome. His and the governor's total refusal to negotiate makes Lalor's possible hopes appear rather naïve at this distance in time, but remember, that decision has to be made NOW.
So, Lalor was not in fact being inconsistent in voting for a continuation of the land limitation on voting rights. As far as he was concerned, the wealthy, the landholders, leaseholders, and those who held a miner's right were entitled to vote, because of their importance and commitment to the future of the colony. Anyone else who wanted to play an active part in the colony's future had to do what these men had done, prove they were worthy, by becoming landowners or leaseholders. Or the holders of miner's rights.
On the surface, his actions at the final "monster" meeting and throughout the "rebellion" appear not to fit with his later actions as a politician and businessman. But buried inside him, at least at his age, 26 at the time of Eureka, was a genuine concern for people he could see who were being repressed. But, all-importantly, these people weren't mere labourers, or factory hands, or sailors, or clerks, or shop assistants, and so on.
As we believe he probably saw it, the miners were people who put their very lives on the line to bust their guts to try and better themselves. They had a commitment to Australia that went far beyond that of "ordinary" workers, for they had a sort of lease on a piece of land, albeit tiny, which they had to work looking for gold. And Peter Lalor had an incredibly strong belief in the importance of leaseholders, or smallholders, to the future of his new home.
And what did these mining "smallholders" get for their trouble? Oppressive, sneering, patronising officials, and bullying, violent thugs for a law enforcement that was not directed at thieves, rapists, and murderers, but at them, the very small-business people who were the future of this country.
They were not taxed on the basis of their earnings, but just on the fact they wanted to dig a hole. Their pleas for help were ignored or met with violence. They tried and tried and tried to approach the authorities with reasonable requests, but were rejected with contempt at every turn.
And now, forced into a position where the only outcome might be a violent revolt, which Lalor in all probability knew they couldn't win, and which would cause nothing but death and misery, they were in desperate need of leadership that would minimise the risk of this worst of all possible outcomes.
This meant he had to step forwards, not those proponents of violent revolution, Vern and Carboni. There was no-one else there likely to put themselves forward, apart from Vern, and a decision had to be made now, right now, right this very moment. So, up he stepped. It wasn't possible, of course, for him to know the situation had already gone too far for him to be able to effect peace, and that Rede was running well beyond the point of no return.
Rede's paranoid, class-based authoritarianism was sending him into a panic mode, from which, if the miner's rebelled, violence was the only possible outcome. His and the governor's total refusal to negotiate makes Lalor's possible hopes appear rather naïve at this distance in time, but remember, that decision has to be made NOW.
So, Lalor was not in fact being inconsistent in voting for a continuation of the land limitation on voting rights. As far as he was concerned, the wealthy, the landholders, leaseholders, and those who held a miner's right were entitled to vote, because of their importance and commitment to the future of the colony. Anyone else who wanted to play an active part in the colony's future had to do what these men had done, prove they were worthy, by becoming landowners or leaseholders. Or the holders of miner's rights.