Queens Birthday1
1880.
Got your kind letter, dear Sir Joseph,2 & have shown it to a few influential men, to prove to them that you shared actively in the horticultural administration of Kew, which my adversaries here constantly denied, telling everyone in and out of Parliament, that you confined yourself to strict scientific work, such as in the Herbarium & Library and that you left everything concerning the planting to the Curator, even in design & choice. I always contended, that this could not be, a Director without Directions but now only I have a real proof to the contrary, after what you write about the Arboretum there. Had I had this letter seven years ago, it would have been an immense support to me and might have averted my ruin! I have never felt my undeserved decadance3 more deeply then4 now, when the Exhibition5 is to take place. I have begged over & over & in vain & in vain, to restore at least the Laboratory & Apparatus to me, but hitherto without effect
But it matters perhaps now not much, as the grief tears on my very life. The cousin6 of the Australian Ayrton7 does everything to suppress what I did, and unscrupulously praises himself daily up on my expense. What a position for me! — My God, it is quite unparalleled in the history of recent science, & hardly anyone has even a kind word of public sympathy for me.
Your
Ferd von Mueller
Please cite as “FVM-80-05-24,” 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