gunboat from Esquimalt. Meanwhile Mr. Pemberton
went into the city and conferred with the miners till the gunboat
arrived, and thus ended the matter.

As I went with Mr. Pemberton to the Governor's house and to the city
on this occasion, I write as an eye-witness. I may say that my
impression is that there was no serious intention on the part of the
miners as a body to take the city by force. I knew too many of
them afterwards, of good and peaceable conduct, to think it. But it
was well that the disorderly among them should begin their education
in English law by this prompt display of force.

I now note a singular condition of things, as conducive to the
continuance and perpetuation of the order thus restored. The miners
at this time to the number, it was computed, of some ten thousand,
were encamped in the open spaces of the city, waiting for the most
suitable time for proceeding to the mainland in their search for
gold. I do not remember how long the time was that they waited, but
it was certainly some weeks. And what I wish emphatically to say is,
that this interval afforded them a unique opportunity of learning
what British law and order meant. Mr. Pemberton was their teacher.
Fearless, untiring and vigilant, he suppressed every disorder as it
arose. There was need.

A man was killed in a duel on Church Hill. Thenceforth it was at a
man's peril to be found with a revolver on his person, and so the
odious practice fell into disuse.

The effect of this practical education in obedience to law on the
thousands thus gathered together in one place can easily be imagined.
Not only did they become peaceable and orderly, and even friendly,
while here, even meeting in a body to hear the Governor's advice as
to their movements, but wherever they were scattered abroad on the
mainland, lawlessness was a thing unknown among them as a body, and
they wrought as if they remembered the Governor's parting words which
still seem to sound in my ears: "There is gold in the country, and
you are the men to find it!"

Thus I think it is plain that Mr. Pemberton was practically the real
exponent of British law and order in that arduous time. We do not
forget what is due on the mainland to Matthew Baillie Begbie, Chief
Justice, who dealt rigidly with offenders committed for trial before
him. His inflexible administration of the law struck terror into the
hearts of evildoers. Still less must we forget the man at the helm
and master of