<P> When Hotham's Royal Commission report, initiated before the conflict, was finally handed down it was scathing in its assessment of all aspects of the administration of the gold fields, and particularly the Eureka Stockade affair . According to Blainey, "It was perhaps the most generous concession offered by a governor to a major opponent in the history of Australia up to that time . The members of the commission were appointed before Eureka...they were men who were likely to be sympathetic to the diggers ." </P> <P> The report made several major recommendations, one of which was to restrict Chinese immigration . Its recommendations were only put into effect after the Stockade . The gold licences were then abolished, and replaced by an annual miner's right and an export fee based on the value of the gold . Mining wardens replaced the gold commissioners, and police numbers were cut drastically . The Legislative Council was expanded to allow representation to the major goldfields . Peter Lalor and John Basson Humffray were elected for Ballarat, although there were property qualifications with regards to eligibility to vote in upper house elections in Victoria until the 1950s . After 12 months, all but one of the demands of the Ballarat Reform League had been granted . Lalor and Humffray both enjoyed distinguished careers as politicians, with Lalor later elected as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria . </P> <P> Following the battle, rebel leader, Irish Australian Peter Lalor, wrote in a statement to the colonists of Victoria, "There are two things connected with the late outbreak (Eureka) which I deeply regret . The first is, that we shouldn't have been forced to take up arms at all; and the second is, that when we were compelled to take the field in our own defence, we were unable (through want of arms, ammunition and a little organisation) to inflict on the real authors of the outbreak the punishment they so richly deserved ." </P> <P> Lalor stood for Ballaarat in the 1855 elections and was elected unopposed . </P>

When did the eureka stockade start and end