Acclimatisation Society's Office,
30 SWANSTON STREET,
Melbourne, 3. Nov. 1868
I certainly had no wish to pass you, dear Mr Rawlins, in reference to any thing concerning the R.S., whose business you so zealously managed. You can easily understand, that I communicated with Mr Ellery only as a neighbourly friend.1 It is so tempting to send a communication to one so near. I feel much indebted to the Council for the goodness of bringing on a subsequent occasion my proposition forward to enroll Dr Sonder in the list of its honor. members.2
With regardful salutation
Ferd. von Mueller.
I hope you will continue as before the Society's honorary Secretary.3
See M to R. Ellery, 10 October 1868.
Sonder does not appear in the next published list of members, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 10 (1874), pp. l – liii.
MS annotation presumably by Rawlings: 'Dr Mueller. Dated 8 Nov (sic) | Read 10 — | Ands 11 — 1868'. Letter not found. Rawlings stood down as Secretary at the Society's annual general meeting on 11 January 1869; he was elected a member of Council but declined to act (Argus, 12 January 1869, p. 6).
Please cite as “FVM-68-11-03b,” 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