On July 10, 1781, Congress gave Thomas Barclay a commission as vice-consul to France in the place of William Palfrey, who had, in November, 1780, been appointed consul to France, and had gone down with the vessel on which he took passage.[369] In addition to his strictly consular duties, Barclay was authorized to “assist in directing our Naval affairs.”[370] When Barclay entered upon his duties in France, our naval business was narrowing to the settling of accounts. He was in time, however, to represent his country in the trial and sale of a few prizes, to assist in the shipping of some supplies, and to sell the Continental ship, “Duc de Lauzun.” In November, 1782, Congress appointed Barclay a commissioner for settling the Revolutionary accounts of the United States in Europe; and in December Morris gave him his instructions.[371] Barclay was directed to inquire into the accounts of the agents for fitting out armed vessels in Europe, and to make a settlement with the various prize agents into whose hands prizes or moneys derived from their sale had come. Barclay’s duties, both as consul and as commissioner, came to an end in the fall of 1785, when he was appointed to negotiate a treaty with Morocco. Some of the duties of Barclay as commissioner for settling accounts were in December, 1783, vested in John Paul Jones. In accordance with a resolution of Congress, Franklin appointed Jones agent of the United States to solicit the payment of prize money, “in whose hands soever the money may be detained,” arising from prizes captured by vessels under Jones’s command in European waters.[372] Jones was engaged in this work during 1784 and 1785. Under the sanction of Thomas Jefferson, the American Minister at Paris, Jones in 1786 set out for Copenhagen, to settle a dispute with the Danish Court over three of his prizes. These ships had been captured, in 1779, by the fleet under his command, and had been sent into Bergen, Norway. The Danish government had restored them to the British. Jones’s journey was interrupted and he did not reach Copenhagen until 1788. The Danish government now transferred the settlement of the disputed claims to Paris, pleading that Jones had not sufficient authority to treat. By June, Jones had left Copenhagen, had accepted the commission of Vice-Admiral in the Russian navy, and was writing from his flagship “Wolodimer” to his friend Jefferson at Paris. The Revolutionary accounts in Europe possessed the usual vitality, not to say immortality, of government claims. Certain Revolutionary claims of South Carolina, growing out of expenses which that state incurred in Europe in connection with the ship “Indian,” are now pending before the government at Washington.