Document information

Physical location:

U81/6825, unit 1229, VPRS 3991/P inward registered correspondence, VA 475 Chief Secretary's Department, Public Record Office, Victoria. 81.08.04a

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Thomas Wilson, 1881-08-04 [81.08.04a]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/81-08-04a>, accessed September 11, 2025

Melbourne,
4 Aug. 1881.
T. Wilson Esqr Acting Under Secretary
Sir
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday,
1
See T. Wilson to M, 3 August 1881 (in this edition as 81-08-03a).
and beg to thank you for your attention of allowing me to see the despatches of acknowledgment and other correspondence, concerning the return-gift of works, issued under the authority of the Victorian Government, for the magnificent volume on the Aroideae of the late Emperor Maximilian, presented by his Majesty, the Emperor of Austria.
2
See M to W. Odgers, 17 April 1880, and M to T. Wilson, 29 July 1881 (in this edition as 81-07-29c). The correspondence to which M refers had been forwarded to the Chief Secretary from the Victorian Agent-General's office in London on 20 May; the letter that accompanied the correspondence, which is in the file with the present letter, indicates that it included, in addition to letters on the matter between the Agent-General's Office, the Colonial Office and the Foreign Office, a despatch from the Ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in London 'convey[ing] His Majesty's thanks for this valuable contribution to the Imperial Library'.
It is gratifying to me, that we were able to reciprocate for the imperial gift, and that his Majesty condescended to accept our offering for the Emperor's Library. I am beholden to your Office, to the Agent General and the British and Foreign dignitaries, for having so condiserately
3
considerately?
undertaken to forward this literary present.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
your obedient servant
Ferd. von Mueller.