A “_placer_” in the colony of Victoria presented the appearance of an immense encampment, with thousands of tents of all sizes, colours, and shapes; the bivouac during the night was illuminated with fires in all directions, and noisy with the discharge of guns and pistols; every miner was armed to the teeth, and could only trust to himself for the protection of his booty and his life; every one kept himself on the _qui vive_, and took even the precaution of daily discharging and reloading his firearms every evening at sunset. Government offered a weekly transport to Melbourne at a charge of 1 per cent.; but as, notwithstanding so exorbitant a charge, this transport was without any guarantee against robbery, the miners formed themselves into parties, when tired with making their fortunes, and escorted their own treasures. The bandits from Van Dieman’s Land came down like birds of prey, and fell upon the miners, and in such numbers and with such fury, that when a murder was committed the local police were not unfrequently afraid to go amongst them to seize the murderer. The authorities of Melbourne were unable to give effectual aid under such circumstances; for their own city police, with the exception of six, had all gone off to the diggings. A cry of despair and indignation was universally raised. “The imbecility of our Government,” says the _Argus_, “has compelled us to take the police into our own hands, and to make lynch law the rule of action.” The _Morning Herald_ says, “The Government must act with energy, and without loss of time, or we shall become a second California, with mutiny and lynch law established, and crime in its naked deformity.” The Governor, Sir G. Fitzroy, responded to this appeal by sending home for more troops, and by recruiting his police by discharged soldiers. Will it be sufficient for the preservation of this community, scarcely yet formed, from the threatened danger of disorganization, to send a vessel of war to the station of Port Jackson, and to Port Philip, and to reinforce the garrisons of Australia, as Sir John Packington proposes, with some 400 or 500 soldiers?