Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS annotation: 'Send despatch No 108 of 1885'. Despatch not found.

Melbourne,

23 Aug. 1885.

Capt. J. W. Traill,

Private Secretary to his Excellency Sir H. Loch, K.C.B.,

Governor of Victoria.

Sir.

I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 18. Aug. with enclosures, as well as the receipt of the Gold Medal, which his Excellency directed to be transmitted to me.

2

See J. Traill to M, 18 August 1885 (in this edition as 85-08-18a). M had been awarded the Gold Medal of the Société d’Acclimatation, Paris.

In expressing my best thanks I beg also to solicit, that my grateful acknowledgement may be conveyed to the Right Honorables the Secretary of State for foreign affairs and for the Colonies and to his Excellency the Ambassador in France for having rendered the transmission of this precious gift an official one. Additionally it may be allowed me to remark, that this token of honor from a foreign Government to a British Subject must be regarded a very high one, in as much as only one medal is annually awarded on behalf of the Government of France by the Société nationale d'Acclimatation, of which I have been a membre honoraire since nearly thirty years, and in whose great labours I have shared even from a time still earlier so far as opportunities arose through which scientific intercourse also many rural advantages have arisen to her Majesty's colony Victoria.