Henry Seekamp wrote in the Ballarat Times newspaper about the meeting of diggers on Bakery Hill on 11 November 1954, "This league is nothing more or less than the germ of Australian independence. The die is cast and fate has stamped upon the movement its indelible signature… The league has undertaken a mighty task fit only for a great people – that of changing the dynasty of the Country.“ Over 10,000 people gathered to adopt the Ballarat Reform League (BRL) Charter on Bakery Hill, heavily influenced by the British People’s Charter of 1838. It is believed that John Basson Humffray penned the BRL Charter. The Charter describes the principles and objects of the BRL. It is the first document in the history of Australia to promote participatory democracy. It begins with the famous lines, “That it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called upon to obey – that taxation without representation is tyranny.”