Melbourne,
4 Aug. 1881.
T. Wilson Esqr Acting Under Secretary
Sir
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday,1 and beg to thank you for your attention of allowing me to see the despatches of acknowledgment and other correspondence, concerning the return-gift of works, issued under the authority of the Victorian Government, for the magnificent volume on the Aroideae of the late Emperor Maximilian, presented by his Majesty, the Emperor of Austria.2
It is gratifying to me, that we were able to reciprocate for the imperial gift, and that his Majesty condescended to accept our offering for the Emperor's Library. I am beholden to your Office, to the Agent General and the British and Foreign dignitaries, for having so condiserately3 undertaken to forward this literary present.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
your obedient servant
Ferd. von Mueller.
See T. Wilson to M, 3 August 1881 (in this edition as 81-08-03a).
See M to W. Odgers, 17 April 1880, and M to T. Wilson, 29 July 1881 (in this edition as 81-07-29c). The correspondence to which M refers had been forwarded to the Chief Secretary from the Victorian Agent-General's office in London on 20 May; the letter that accompanied the correspondence, which is in the file with the present letter, indicates that it included, in addition to letters on the matter between the Agent-General's Office, the Colonial Office and the Foreign Office, a despatch from the Ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in London 'convey[ing] His Majesty's thanks for this valuable contribution to the Imperial Library'.
considerately?
Please cite as “FVM-81-08-04a,” 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