No. 46.
Mr. Goodloe
to Mr. Evarts
.
Brussels , June 14, 1878. (Received July 1.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I called on the minister of finance on the 13th, and he volunteered to apologize for his delay in answering definitely the invitation of the United States Government to join in a conference “to adopt a common ratio between gold and silver, for the purpose of establishing internationally the use of bi-metallic money, and securing fixity of relative value between those two metals.” He assured me that the tardiness of the Government of Italy in replying to a communication from the Belgian Government in relation to the conference had alone prevented his government from forwarding an expression of willingness to participate in said conference.
He said further that he would make it a point to urge upon his successor (not yet appointed) an acceptance of the invitation.
I have, &c.,