166 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



consideration. In April, the French minister, accom- 

 panied by the Prussian envoy to the United States, came 

 to Richmond under a flag of truce to pay In person his 

 respects to Maury, and to deliver to him an invitation 

 from Emperor Napoleon to come to France to reside. 



In view of this correspondence as well as many other 

 letters which he wrote to Influential people in both 

 France and Great Britain, and because of the evidence 

 of the high esteem for him that was shown by the Grand 

 Duke Constantine and the Emperor Napoleon, it was 

 natural that he came to be considered a suitable repre- 

 sentative of the South In some foreign country. As 

 early as April, 1862 he was approached with the offer of a 

 mission to Europe to fit out armed cruisers; but time 

 dragged on without the matter being brought to a con- 

 clusion. He repeatedly requested of Mallory some 

 active service, as he did not wish to be a drone ; and was 

 told by the Secretary that he thought he would be of use 

 doing nothing. In August, Mallory did at last offer 

 him the command of a gunboat at Charleston, but this 

 Maury declined as the vessel could not go to sea and 

 was intended merely for harbor defense. 



Finally, in September, Maury was ordered to England 

 on "special service". That he was not pleased with this 

 duty under the conditions according to which he was 

 supposed to work Is revealed in the following letter, 

 which he wrote after the close of the war: "I was sent 

 here really to be got out of the way, but nominally to 

 superintend contracts with men of straw who could not 

 pay their hotel bills but who had made pretended con- 

 tracts with the Navy Department for about fifty million 

 dollars and who never did anything. There was a great 

 desire to have me In the Navy Department and Mallory 



