Maury also had a hand in the attempt to have two ironclad rams constructed in a French port for the Confederate government, one of which he hoped to have the privilege of commanding. The specifications for such vessels were these: ability to cross the Atlantic, hulls of wood and iron with two armored turrets, engines of 300 horsepower which would give great momentum and a speed of fifteen or sixteen knots, two twin screw propellers, and a draft of fifteen feet. His general plan and the cost of construction were approved by Secretary Mallory, and on July 16, 1863 the contract was signed between Bulloch and L. Arman, a naval constructor at Bordeaux, for the building of the two steam rams. But these ships of war were destined never to be finished for the Confederacy, for the turn of events in America and the attitude of Great Britain caused the Emperor Napoleon to shift his position diplomatically and maintain a strict neutrality, though at one time, according to Maury’s diary, the Emperor had written to Arman for a description of the guns with which the rams were to be armed in order that the French government might superintend their fabrication, and test them to see if they were properly constructed. Maury was engaged in other activities in England and on the Continent which were altogether political in their nature. He had a European reputation for his literary and scientific attainments, and was peculiarly well qualified to bring the Southern version of the causes, progress, and probable outcome of the war before an influential class of people. Upon his arrival in England he began at once to exert this influence, both privately and publicly. As an example of the latter form of propaganda was a letter which he addressed to the editor of the London _Times_. This appeared in that newspaper on December 22, 1862, and set forth a sanguine account of conditions in the South as he had recently seen them, and sought to impress upon the British the hopefulness of the Southern cause. On October 7 of that year, Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had said at a banquet at Newcastle, “There is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made, what is more than either—they have made a nation”. The speech caused a sensation, and was received with cheers. “We may anticipate”, he also declared, “with certainty the success of the Southern States so far as their separation from the North is concerned”.[17] Maury had reason, therefore, for being at first very hopeful of European recognition and intervention, and was not merely drawing on his imagination when he wrote, “The Emperor may, and I hope will, decide on recognition and there are hopes here that when Parliament meets, February 5, the British government may find itself compelled to do something”.