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Rh "This officer has been for years in the public service, has a family to provide for, and is entirely dependent upon his annual pay; and for these reasons your Committee think that a sum of money, insignificant indeed in comparison to his services, yet sufficient to remove his anxieties and to cheer his hopes for the future of those dependent upon him, might be justly bestowed. Your Committee recommend that a sum of 25,000 dollars be thus appropriated, and report a Bill accordingly."

The ingratitude of republics has become proverbial. So far from any reward being offered to Maury for these well known and widely acknowledged services, in the following month public attention was engrossed by the astounding action of the Naval Retiring Board, which, through the jealousy of some, placed Lieutenant Maury in official disgrace, and reduced his pay to $1500.

The following extracts from the Annual Reports of Secretaries of the Navy show the value of Maury's work at the Observatory:—

"The Act of Congress of March 3rd, 1849, authorized the employment of three small vessels of the Navy in testing