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The license system had by this time extended, beyond the diggers, to the
storekeepers and other tradesmen at the gold-fields, who were making
enormous profits out of the diggers, and these, for the most part,
unhesitatingly complied with the demands of the agitators, willing
rather to pay the fines for breach of the government regulations than to
offend their customers. A daring attack on a private escort of gold near
Bendigo, which occurred about this time, showed that the colony was on
the verge of civil war.
Just at this moment an event occurred which rendered it impossible for
the Government to maintain its position unimpaired with the scanty
forces at its disposal. In the middle of September, 1853, the total
abolition of the license fee was seriously proposed in the Legislative
Council of New South Wales. The news flew like wildfire to Victoria,
where the diggers had hitherto looked upon the colonial legislatures--in
which, it will be remembered, they were not yet represented--as their
natural enemies.


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