o regularly constituted government could ever have assented.

The Governor at once ordered all the available military force to
Ballarat; but, before reinforcements arrived, the coolness and
promptitude of Captain Thomas--the officer in command of the troops on
the Ballarat gold-field when the riot of November 30th took place--had
nipped the insurrection in the bud. Captain Thomas saw that, while the
Eureka Stockade threatened to become a serious obstacle to the
Government if its completion were allowed, in its uncompleted state it
was really a source of weakness to the insurgents. By collecting their
forces in one spot, and thus rendering them more exposed to a crushing
attack, and by drawing off the men who threatened the government camp,
it really left the commander of the troops free to act with decision.
Accordingly, Captain Thomas at once determined to attack the position.
Assembling his forces (somewhat fewer than two hundred men) at three
o'clock on the morning of December 3d, he moved toward the stockade.

At about one hundred fifty yards from the intrenchments he was perceived
by the scouts of the insurgents, who promptly fired on the advancing
troops. Thomas himself, Pasley (his aide-de-camp), Rede (the resident
commissioner), and Racket (the stipendiary magistrate), all of whom were
present at the attack, positively assert that the insurgents fired
before a shot was discharged by the troops. Upon this reception Captain
Thomas gave the order to fire, and the intrenchments were carried with a
rush after about ten minutes of sharp fighting. Captain Wise was fatally
wounded, and three privates were killed outright; one officer and eleven
privates were wounded. Of the insurgents, about thirty were known to
have been killed, and many more wounded. Nearly one hundred twenty
prisoners were taken. The effect of the victory was, so far as local
disturbances were concerned, instantaneous. Even before the
reinforcements under General Nickle appeared, all resistance to the
authorities had died away; and, though the Governor at once proclaimed a
state of martial law, he was able to recall the proclamation in less
than a week.

In other districts of the colony the effect was, for a while, doubtful.
The extreme reluctance of Englishmen to admit the necessity for military
interference by the Government told strongly in favor of the rioters.
There was some danger that Melbourne and Geelong, left almost entirely
unprotected b