On the first anniversary of the burning down of the Eureka Hotel, 1855, Carboni was selling his self-published book, "The Eureka Stockade". Partly to record the heroism of his mates, partly to record the injustice of the tax collectors and traps (troopers) as well as to exonerate himself from the false charges and false witnesses that were brought against him.
It is unusual an historic event has such a fresh recollection of events and people as Carboni's book offers. Carboni's extravagant and dramatic use of language aside, it becomes obvious that a constant theme in his recollections is a mounting injustice. Carboni didn't care for Republicanism or Chartism, but his coin from his battle in Italy were government tyranny. The minefields of Ballarat in 1854 offered that in spades. (more)
avocadia : Carboni, regretably half-forgotten:
Carboni cuts a bit of a tragic figure. Twice involved in the Italian independance movement, in 1848 and after 1860, and also a prominent figure at Eureka. He cuts a tragic figure. He returned to Italy to find his father dead and his inheritance in the hands of a step-mother, his older brother a failed school-teacher with a reputation for violence against his students. All Carboni seemed to want was to become a sucessful playwright, and no-one would give him the time of day. And in Australia his name is stained, labeled a braggart and a coward by Frederick Vern; mud that stuck.
Raffaello deserves a larger place in Australian history; instead what we have is John MacArthur getting suburbs named after him and his mug on the old $2 note.
cam : MacArthur: The ultimate irony is that MacArthur has led the only successful rebellion in Australian history. Cast that dissident aside! It helps if you *are* the bunyip aristocracy,
in Deniehy\'s words
;
Next came the native aristocrat Mr. James Macarthur, he would he supposed, aspire to the coronet of an earl, he would call him the Earl of Camden, and he suggests for his coat of arms a field vert, the heraldic term for green-(great cheers and laughter)-and emblazoned on this field should be a rum keg of a New South Wales order of chivalry.I love Deniehy\'s words. Carboni and Deniehy are in the same class of enthusiastic flowery verbage. Wonderful. cam
avocadia : Only successful rebellion?:
MacArthur has led the only successful rebellion in Australian historyI actually don\'t entirely agree with that. I find it more a coup d\'tat, not a rebellion. The difference being that rebellions and revolts are conducted by those who - without the threat of arms - are otherwise powerless while a coup is conducted by a small cadre of elites. The people rebel when they find themselves oppressed or otherwise violently disagree with their situation. A coup is deckchairs on the Titanic.
cam : Rum Rebellion and the Dismissal: Good point, the Rum Rebellion was more like the Dismissal where the bunyip aristocracy took their power back from the external usurper.
btw your pictures of Cronulla made me homesick.
cam
