26/1/60
My dear Dr M'Adam
Mr Becker1 requests me to write to you a few lines, soliciting your calling a council meeting for considering the various questions mentioned by him.2 — I gladly do so, and pray to call the Gentlemen together any time suitable to you next week, and to enter kindly on the notice paper, that we consider the necessary measures to drape our building.
yours regardfully
Ferd. Mueller
I have revised the proof of my adress3 yesterday & returned it this morning.
Ludwig Becker.
A meeting of the Council of the Royal Society (formerly Philosophical Institute) of Victoria was held on 30 January, chaired in M's absence by Solomon Iffla, at which 'Dr Becker gave in the report of the Committee "On Drapery" and stated that he had consulted with Mr Reid the Architect'. Although one member present 'objected to the expenditure at present of £40 as estimated', Becker's motion that the report be adopted was carried (MS 11663 Royal Society of Victoria records, box 1/1, Council minutes, La Trobe Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne).
Becker also had two motions on the agenda that remained unresolved: (1) 'to consider and if possible decide on the form &c &c of the Diploma and Seal' and (2) 'to take the necessary steps to petition the Corporation of Melbourne to erect Street Lamps at the Gate of the Building', the Corporation to pay for this.
M’s address at the opening of the Philosophical Institute’s hall on 21 December 1859 (B60.06.02)? In the printed version, it was wrongly stated that the address was delivered at the Institute's meeting on 23 January 1860.
Please cite as “FVM-60-01-26a,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on