THE LATE PETER LALOR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 45, 1 March 1889, Page 13

THE LATE PETER LALOR.

( Sydney Fn ema ?^'.? Journal.)

Or the many Inabmen who have played diatinguibhed parts in the sister colony of Victoria, Peter Lalox, whoße death took place in Sic! bourne on Saturday last, is likely to be one of the longest remem bered. His name, a 9 that of the hero of the ■' Eureka Stockade," may at any rate bo considered aa pretty safely insure 1 against very speedy oblivion. la connection with that remarkable episode ia the " making " of history in Victoria, it has been probably been heird of by thousands o) persons in these colonies who probably, too, know little or nothing of its other claims to celebrity, and are either indifferent to or unmindful of the tact that the leader of the rebellion of the Ballarat diggers in 1854 was identical with the man who, in 1888, closed a successful legislative career, dating from the inauguration of Constitutional Goverament in the colons, who had twice been elected to the Speakers Chair, and who filially had retired from that position with the reputation of having been one of the most capable men that ever occupied it. Perhaps the only one of hid predecessors in the Speakership who could be said to have exhibited anything like an equal amount of sound judgment, tact, and firmness in the discharge of the onerous functions appertaining to it was his countryman, Hir Charles Gavan Duffy. The memorable ecenes in which Peter Lalor was so prominent an actor thirty-four years ago in Victoria recall themselves with curious fcuggestion9 of another and very different matter, but to which they have a direct, though happily a distant, relationship. We allude to the qu ;Btioa or. the appointment of Colonial Governors. The Governor under whose regime the Ballarat outbreak occurred, though no doubt an honest and well-meauing man, was, unfortunately, without experience in | the administration of civil affiirs. He was a naval disciplinarian of a strict type. Downing-street ia its wisdom would, a' all events, seem to have thought that hia quarter- <lecl habits of command marked him as t k c ritjht man t>r Victoria. Fou; or rive months after his arrival there theßalla'at diggers were in anna, with Peter Lalor a» their leader. For that rising Sir Caas. Hotham was chiefly to blame. Ot course, it will not be forgotten that at iht period in question, Responsible Government bad not yet been witioduced, ami that extensive power waa vested in the hands ot hoi Majesty's representative. To be sure, Sir Charles Hotham wis not accountable for the harsh law with respect to miners' licences. Bur under this direction, and at a time when at least the necessity tor modifying it might have been clearly recognised, it was euforcol wi h more severity than ever. The causa fur which Lalor arrl h 8 companions f jught, and which cost him an arm, aad m <ny i f them th v lives nebds nottnusr, however, in the shape of defei.ee or apob r 'yno*. I 1m brave Irishman who has just gone ha 1, indec 1, an litue reason V> bhihh for the circumstances of his adoption aa others of hit* lace had foi bting irreconcilable rebels in tha land of their birth.