From McCombie's _History of Victoria_ we learn:--"That the Legislative Council presented to the Governor an address expressing their sympathy for him and pledging their support to him while affairs were so embarrassing." Sir Charles Hotham replied, "That the firm resolve to suppress the incipient revolution was softened by the readiness with which he offered to redress the grievances complained of. It would be his constant endeavour to conduct the Government with the utmost possible temper. The time for military rule had passed, but when there was an outbreak, and that caused by foreigners--men who had not been suffered to remain in their own country in consequence of the violence of their character--then Englishmen must sink all minor differences and unite to support the authorities." The Government, however, fared differently when a direct appeal was made to the people. At Melbourne a public meeting had been called by requisition to consider the best means for protecting the city during the crisis at the diggings. The principal agitators in this matter seemed to be the members of the Legislature, who took a large share in the proceedings of this public meeting. The resolutions proposed were received with such ill-concealed dissatisfaction that, after the Mayor had declared two of them to be carried, the opponents of the Government interfered, and such confusion prevailed that the gentleman who presided vacated the chair; and a series of resolutions, diametrically opposed to the proceedings of the Executive, and demanding an immediate settlement of the differences between the Government and the diggers, were carried with the utmost enthusiasm. One speaker told the people they must go forth with their brother-diggers to conquer or die. "The Government demonstration having terminated in so unsatisfactory a manner, another meeting was convened on the following day, 'for the assertion of order and the protection of constitutional liberty.' It took place on a large open space of ground near St. Paul's Church, at the corner of Flinder's Lane. From four to seven thousand people were present, the chair being filled by Henry Langlands, one of the largest employers of labour in Melbourne. The resolutions condemned the whole policy of the Government, and declared that, while disapproving of the physical resistance offered by the diggers, the meeting could not, without betraying the interests of liberty, lend its aid to the Executive until the coercive measures they were attempting to introduce should be abandoned. The result of this meeting had very considerable weight with the Executive, and the same afternoon a _Government Gazette_ extraordinary appeared, in which was a proclamation revoking martial law at Ballarat."