Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne bot. Garden,

25/8/64

Private

My dear Professor.

By last mail you will have received already from the Government of this Colony the assurance, that the meteorite so justly claimed by you will be forwarded on receipt of the smaller one. I was not aware at the time, when this communication was made to the Home Government, that it was coupled with the request of the hitherto incurred transit expenses being refunded. Having spontaneously made the offer to defray these, this point would under no circumstances have been one of hinderance. As it is, perhaps it will be best, that the whole arrangement henceforth should be a strictly official one, since you were (and very properly too) obliged to seek the aid of the Home Government in this matter, which had Prof McCoy not broken his word would have been amicably & privately arranged. The Museum here stands under the Chief Secretary's political administration & as this Minister (Mr M'Culloch) declared in the House of Parliament

1

See Victorian Hansard, session 1863-64, Vol. 10, p. 411 (19 May 1864): Mr M'Culloch 'understood that the [smaller] meteorite was already on its way back to this colony from England; and, under the circumstances, he did not see how the Government could object to allow the one at present in the grounds of the University to be sent to the British Museum'.

The smaller meteorite had already been in the Colony for over four months when M'Culloch spoke. It had been shipped in September 1863 on Benares, which arrived in Melbourne on 5 January 1864 (Herald (Melbourne), 6 January 1864, p. 3). See M to N. Maskelyne, 25 January 1865.

The crate had been addressed in London to 'Trustees of the Museum Melbourne, care of His Excellency the Governor'. The receiving agents had delivered it to Frederick McCoy at the Museum but he did not report its arrival. When the government took possession of the large meteorite in January 1865 in order to ship it to London, McCoy mounted an unsuccessful final attempt to prevent its removal. He wrote to the Chief Commissioner of Police:

I beg to inform you that a specimen known as the "Bruce Meteorite" partly the property of the Government and in my charge was removed today contrary to my formal objection without the production of any written authority from the Chief Secretary by two contractors giving the names of Manley & Carrick & a [...] of the Government stores giving the name of Hynd. They stated that they had a verbal order from the Storekeeper to ship it on board the ship "Red Rover" to sail on Monday, but although they insisted on taking it away they promised not to ship it until an order was brought to me from the Chief Secretary authorising me to give up the specimen & stating which of the two Meteorites was to be removed. For the protection of the public property in my charge I desire the assistance of the Police to ensure the non-shipment until the matter be investigated. (F. McCoy to F. Standish, 21 January 1865; unit 5, VPRS 1199 inward correspondence, VA 724 Victoria Police, Public Record Office, Victoria).

See also Lucas et al. (1994), p. 80, and 'Town news', Australasian (Melbourne), 28 January 1865, p. 7.

that this Colony has no claim on Bruce's

2

James Bruce.

meteorite and has decided finally on the transmission, I have no doubt, that the honorable Gentleman also will take the official steps to demand the release of this mineral and arrange as I recommended in my last report to Government for the safe shipment of the specimen to the Minister of the Colonies by one of the engeneer officers of this Government. Should my personal and private aid become any further necessary I assure you I shall regard it a point of honor to render it. You have, my very dear Sir, no reason to thank me for what little I have done on this occasion to promote the interest of an institution of which your nation may well be proud. Contrary I blame myself now, that I did not take possession of the specimen for you in spite of the moral claims on it by our Museum, and could I have foreseen such an extraordinary course of events as happened I should have done so. I must confess a little less generosity and a little more legal keenness would be a great improvement in my character. — I intended to have written at greater length; but have been harrassed by many additional duties of late, leaving me not many sparemoments at the departure of the mail.

But I cannot forego the pleasure of asking your permission to bestow your name on some noble plant worth to bear it; as neither yours nor that of the great Astronomer, of whom you doubtless descended, has hitherto been conferred on a genus either zoological or phytological.

3

No evidence has been found of a plant being named for Maskelyne (IPNI, accessed 28 February 2022).

May I ask of you to inform me of your relationship to that Great man, whom the Royal Society sent to St. Helena for the observation of the transit of Venus and with whose researches Astronomy, the sublimest of all Sciences, entered into a new era, and whose celebrated name has received an additional lustre by your great researches in another branch of science.

4

Maskelyne was the grandson of Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal.

Allow me also to offer for your friendly acceptance the small portrait herewith enclosed, & to solicit yours for the series of those of befriended great coëtans.