15/2/85
Private
The enclosed communication, dear Sir Joseph, is so interesting, that I submit it to you for perusal.1 Kindly return the letter. As the Rev. Mr Scortechini is comparatively young, and as a Divine of the Roman Catholic Church is not by domestic obligations with drawn from his engagements; and as that Church glories, to have men of science in its ecclesiastic ranks, ever since the times of Camell2 and Feuillée, it may be foreseen, that the superior prelates will relieve the Rev Scortechini from church-duties as well as the Rev J. Tennison-Woods for years has been.3
As regards the latter, I felt greatly surprised and, I may add, pained, that even his Second Candidature at the R.S. failed! and my feelings were and are shared by Sir Henry Barkly, who supported the Rev. T. W.’s candidature, he having many years ago his two large volumes on Austral. Exploration4 dedicated to Sir Henry Barkly.
It was entirely on my own independent action that Woods was proposed last year and the year before, he never asking for the honor. but why 30 years’ scientific labours in various branches with most extensive fieldwork should go for nothing is difficult to understand.5 However his colleague Scortechini can now make a personal Canvass, though such, I think, should not be necessary, when a Candidate rests really on his own merits. I have no interest in Woods, nor any advantage from him, as he is no Botanist.
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller.
The enclosed letter has not been found but was from Scortechini; see J. Hooker to M, 7 April 1885.
i.e. Georg Kamel.
Support for science is unlikely to have been the reason that Julian Tenison Woods was relieved from church duties: see Press (1994) passim, for accounts of ‘the rejection which had been Julian Woods' lot in his dealings with the hierarchy’ (p. 226).
Woods (1865).
Despite M's efforts, Woods was never elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. See Home (2003). See also J. Hooker to M, 7 April 1885.
MS annotation by Hooker: And JDH April 8/85.
The date may be an error: see J. Hooker to M, 7 April 1885.
Please cite as “FVM-85-02-15,” 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