To Henry Barkly¹    12 July 1859

The MS is a draft in M's handwriting, but has been extensively edited, possibly by the Honorary Secretary of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, John Macadam. The unedited version is as follows:

'In the name of the Council of the Victorian philosophical Institute we have the honor to solicit, that your Excellency as our Patron may by pleased to communicate to our most gracious Majesty Sovereign Queens Victoria the humble request of the members of the Institute that Her Majesty may graciously condescend, to permit us to attach the Royal name to the eldest scientific Society of that colony, which already bears her Majestys illustrious name, and to elevate our Institute to the "Royal philosophical Institute of Victoria"'.

For another, slightly different version of the edited text, see the minutes of the meeting of the Philosophical Institute’s Council held on 12 July 1859 at which it was resolved that the letter should be sent (MS 11663,Royal Society of Victoria, Records 1854-1982, box 1, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne).

M was President, S. Iffla and J. Bleasdale were Vice Presidents, M. Irving was Treasurer and J. Macadam was Honorary Secretary.

On 13 July M chaired an ordinary meeting of the Institute when the members were informed that an application to assume the title 'Royal Society' would be forwarded to the Queen in the outgoing mail. Some discussion ensued on this subject in which M and others took part. See Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria (1860) p. xvi.