To John Macadam   9 February 1860

9/2/60

 

My dear Dr McAdam.

Pray file the enclosed,1 to be laid together with the other applications before the leader & reply to it officially.

Sir Rich. M'Donnell in several letters to his Excellency Sir Henry Barkly & myself2 eulogized Major Warburton in the highest terms & recommends him as the fittest man available for the leadership of the Vict Expedition.3

Every one sees now that we made a gross mistake in squandering a months time! I hope we will make up for it in alacrity when we come to organize the party next month.

Would you not request Dr Gilbee to propose Dr Wilkie as my successor?4 Prof Neumayer will be the secundant. The notice should not be posted later than 2 weeks before election.

I long for seeing you. Can you spare me an hour at your house or at mine & when?

The Governor is justly disappointed with the bad progress the Resource Commission,5 or at least some parts of it, is making. When will Prof Irving, the Hon Secr. be back?6

yours ever truly

Ferd. Mueller

 

Major Warburton can get 18 months leave (enough for 2 cool & 1 hot season). Let us be on the look out not to loose the cool months of this year!!

1
J. Jobson to M, 30 January 1860?
2
Letters not found.
3
Burke & Wills Exploring Expedition, 1860-1. Warburton was not appointed leader. See M et al. to the Royal Society of Victoria, December 1860.
4
At the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria held on 6 March 1860, Macadam moved that the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, be elected President in succession to M. Barkly's willingness to stand seems to have come as a surprise, since others, Wilkie being one, had been proposing to do so. The minutes record that, following Macadam's announcement, 'Professor Irving withdrew the name of Professor Wilson, who had been nominated, and it was announced that the Hon. Dr. Wilkie, M.L.C., had refused to permit himself to be nominated under the circumstances'. Barkly was thereupon elected unopposed (Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, 5 (1860), Proceedings, p. iii).
5
On 25 June 1859, in response to a request to the Governor from the Society of Arts, London, for information on the natural resources of the colony, the Philosophical Institute of Victoria formed a committee to compile such information. On 31 August, the committee was enlarged and Irving was appointed secretary. The committee presented its report on 23 April 1860. For M's contribution see B60.14.01.
6
See M et al. to the Council of the Royal Society of Victoria, 9 April 1860 in which the Committee appointed to report on the resources of Victoria presented their finding. They apologized for the delay and explained it by the time needed to collect information by busy committee members.

Please cite as “FVM-60-02-09,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/60-02-09