Holland and Sweden for the purpose of making its object known. Naval and scientific men in England and other countries also came forward. On the 6th of June a banquet was given in his honour at Willis's Rooms, and the illustrious American was presented by Sir John Pakington,[1] who presided, with the "Maury Testimonial," consisting of a purse containing 3000 guineas in a handsome silver-gilt casket. Among the many distinguished men who were present on this occasion, were the Mexican, Danish, and Argentine Ministers; General Beauregard, of the Confederate Army; Earl Nelson; Admirals Sir John Hay, Halstead, and Young; Captain Cowper Coles, R.N.; General Sir Henry Lefroy, R.E.; Colonel Sir Henry James, of the Ordnance Survey; Commodore Jansen, of the Netherlands Navy; Admiral Boulaker, of the Russian Navy; Captain Klerker, of the Swedish Navy; Lord Richard Grosvenor, Mr. Beresford-Hope, M.P., Mr. Charles Babbage, General Walker, Professor Tyndall, Mr. J. Laird, M.P., the Rev. F. W. Tremlett, Honorary Secretary of the Testimonial Fund, the Hon. J. B. Vivian, and many others.
Almost immediately after his return to England, Maury set to work with his electrical torpedo; and during May and June he was in Paris, where he was employed by the Government of Napoleon III. His duty—for which he received suitable remuneration—was to instruct a board of French officers in his system of defensive sea-mining. He displayed before the Emperor the power and capabilities of the torpedoes which he had planted in the James River four years before. The French authorities were delighted. At St. Cloud, the Emperor himself made the circuit and exploded a torpedo, and Maury was invited to become a Frenchman, and accept service under Napoleon. "But," he wrote, "I would
- ↑ First Lord of the Admiralty 1858-59 and 1866-67; afterwards Lord Hampton.
