Kerr, who was resolved O'Shanassy should not be declared first if
he could help it, called for a scrutiny prior to declaration. He had
knowledge of a goodly scale of false voting on the Irish side, where, in
fact, there was a legion of busy Kerrs to my one, many of them having
voted double, or, as with Sheridan's proposed yearly Parliaments,
"oftener if need be." One had voted nine times in succession at
different polling places. I fear Kerr was wrong, and that scrutiny
should have been applied for after declaration. But Kerr was the most
dogged of mortals when he had a mind and an object, was then in the
zenith of his influence, and, best of all for his side, he was king of
the position as town clerk. So he secured his purpose, and O'Shanassy
and I changed positions.
I have a better service than this, and of much more general interest,
with which to conclude my present sketch. A year later, the second year
of the gold, during which it was estimated that fifteen millions of gold
had been washed out of the drifts, chiefly of Ballarat and Bendigo, the
colony was already flooded, and no wonder, by the convict element from
Tasmania. To intensify this evil beyond all bearing, that colony's
Government, in view of relief from accumulating prisoners, had lately
enacted a "conditional pardon" system, the condition being that the
criminal was at liberty for all the world except to return Home, and
forthwith, Her Majesty's pass in hand, he crossed to golden Victoria.
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