To William Henry Archer1    12 February 1875

Mortons Hotel,

S. Yarra2

12/2/75

 

I got your note, dear Chev.3 Archer, a few days ago with the extract of the passage from the Work of the Marquis de Beauvois,4 also your letter of yesterday.5

I feel that I ought not to waste my precious time by entering on an official defense of what I never could have said, as it must be apparent to the understanding of any one, who wishes to be fair, that the statement of the amiable and accomplished nobleman arose from some misunderstanding

When Prince Penthiever6 & Marquis de Beauvoir on their own accord honored the bot Garden with a visit, it was my duty as Director to conduct H.R.H. and the excellent Marquis through the whole institution. They showed far more intelligent interest and scientific refinement in seeing the Garden, (as then it was,) than most of our leading colonists; hence I showed them also the pine plantations & other trees in Gov House Reserve, about 25000 potted young pines & other trees in my nurseries, many thousands of pineseedlings in frames & boxes &c&c, and I pointed out that for some years these kinds of plants at the rate of 40,000 or 50,000 annually had been sent to public institutions throughout the colony, that th[us]7 nuclei for local forest culture would arise, when the trees came to bear seeds, and that finally we hoped to accomplish, what had been achieved in Egypt & many other countries, namily to cause retention of rain and creation of springs &c. If the young Marquis, who like the Prince spoke the German language fluently, took what I foreshadowed in a dim future, if Victorian Statesmanship continued the work then well begun, but on an extended scale as an already accomplished fact, surely that is very pardonable of a passing traveller, who may have written from memory subsequently. Even Trollope, who came purposely for writing on Australia, can not be depended on. The Marquis simply wrote as an amateur tourist and in his youthful enthusiasm was apt to see Australia in too radiant a light. I was not even aware, that the Marquis intended to write a volume of his travels, until the work was critized in the Argus at great length 4 or 5 years ago, when no allusion in the critic was made to any exaggerations, supposed now to have been inspired by me.8

Very regardfully

Ferd von Mueller

 

I never yet have seen either an English or French copy of the Marquis's book

MS envelope front: ' On Her Majesty's Service . The Chevalier | Will. Archer, F.LS., &c. | Lands Office | Melbourne | Government Botanist, | Melbourne , 12 Febr 1875.'
South Yarra, Vic.
Chevalier.
i.e. Beauvoir; see Beauvoir (1870).

Letters not found. The Argus (20 January 1875, p. 5) wrote:

It may be remembered that some years ago a talented and engaging French nobleman — the Marquis of Beauvoir, while on a "voyage round the world," paid a visit to Melbourne, and took great interest in examining our various institutions. Among others, he was greatly struck with the Botanic-gardens, and no doubt also with its talented curator, Dr. (now Baron von) Mueller. It is to be feared, however, that the doctor rather took advantage of the marquis's credulity, if the account of Dr. Mueller's achievements as related by the noble visitor is to be traced to our Government botanist. The subjoined letter was recently received by the Lands department here from an official source in South Australia: — Sir, —I have the honour to enclose an extract from a work published in London in 1870, entitled A Voyage Round the World, by the Marquis of Beauvoir, and to request that you will be kind enough to inform me whether the statements therein contained are reliable in point of fact. . . . . 'With equal boldness and perseverance, Dr. Mueller has set up beacons for adventurous spirits of the rising generation. He is enthusiastic for every noble end. He encourages the new squatters, and tells them 'beyond the white stormy desert, the granite and sand, you will find pastures for thousands of herds.' But the misfortune of Australia is want of water. He wishes to remedy this, and to this end consecrated almost all the funds of the Botanical-gardens, and he is succeeding. He distributes over the interior of the country thousands of shrubs reared in his nurseries. Little streams form rapidly round the young woods. The results are splendid already, and each year confirms them. On barren plains he has created woods and streams in more than a hundred places'.

The Argus commented that 'this astonishing statement was, rather unnecessarily one would think, submitted to an official for report, and of course was returned with the observation that there was no truth whatever in the Marquis's extraordinary account, which the officer said rather resembled an extract from the Arabian Nights Entertainment than anything which might be supposed to be written in the 19th century.'

The extract quoted is from Beauvoir (1870), vol. 1, pp. 183-4. Beauvoir's account of M (pp 181-4) contains other extraordinary statements, of M promoting a railway from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, M's personal search for Leichhardt, and his mass importation of sparrows.

Penthièvre.
MS damaged.

'Australia from a French point of view', Argus, 26 May 1869, p. 8 is a long review of Beauvoir (1869), a work which, translated, became the first volume of Beauvoir (1870). M is not mentioned in the review, which concluded:

We cannot find fault with M. de Beauvoir. His book is so genial and gentlemanlike, and he is so evidently determined to make the best of everything, and so simply grateful for the hospitality which he received, that it is not in our heart to laugh at his many errors.… The book is certainly not worth much as a text-book for intending emigrants, but its happy good nature redeems all its faults, and the inhabitants of Victoria cannot but feel flattered at the very high encomiums passed upon their hospitality and social advancement by a gentleman, who, by his very youth and social position, might have almost claimed that right of satire and ridicule which is usually arrogated by travellers of all ranks and ages.

Please cite as “FVM-75-02-12,” 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 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/75-02-12