To Earl Granville   13 July 1869

Melbourne botanic Garden,

13 July 1869.1

My Lord.

The transmission of a despatch from your Lordship's department, conveying to me by last mail the grant of the dignity of a Companion of the most distinguished order of St. Michael and St George, together with the insigne of the Order, conferred on me by her Majesty's grace, affords me an opportunity of approaching your Lordship, and while now expressing my sense of profound appreciation of the honor thus graciously bestowed on me, I feel that I owe also to your Lordship my deep and special gratitude for extending in so handsome a manner the privileges of this order also to those, who like myself became subjects of her Majesty in her colonial territory.2

Having since 22 years in Australia shared in labors to elucidate the manifold resources and to unfold the endless wonderful works of nature in this great continent, it is to me gratifying in the extreme, that my endeavours, however feeble, to aid in the early task of rendering this great southern land a prosperous abode of millions under British Sovereignity, has met with her Majesty's gracious approbation; and while thus under the highest auspices I am encouraged to continue my researches, I will always strive to hold honorably my position in that order, which since the middle ages has ever been a glorious emblem of Knightly valour and christian charity, an order of historic significance for all times.

I have the honor to remain your Lordship's deeply grateful and obedient servant

Ferd.von Mueller.

 

His Lordship

Earl Granville, K.G.,

H.M. Minister for the Colonies &c &C.

1
The MS is stamped showing it was registered in the Colonial Office on 7 September 1869. The letter was forwarded by the Governor of Victoria, see M to H. Manners-Sutton, 13 July 1869 (in this edition as 69-07-13d).
2
M had been infomed in February that he had been appointed as a Companion in the Order, (see H. C. Manners-Sutton to M, 20 February 1869), but the appointment was ultra vires . The official publication of the appointments to the Order ( Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 July 1869, pp. 3749-50) included the text of the Statute issued on 4 December 1868 which ordained 'that the Persons to be admitted into the Order shall be such Natural-born Subjects of the Crown …', and that their service was in relation to 'any of her Majesty's Colonial Possessions', as well as the text of a supplementary statute, dated 3 April 1869, that modified the elegibility clause to provide that 'Persons, of whatever Nation or Country, who may have been duly naturalized … shall be be competent to be admitted into the said Order'. M's was the only name included in the list of those appointed under the modified statute.

Please cite as “FVM-69-07-13b,” 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/69-07-13b