It was explained by him that the difference between his proposition and the proposition made at Rome consisted in altering the time of the commencement of the so-called universal day from noon at Greenwich to the commencement of the civil day.  Certainly what Commander SAMPSON just said is perfectly true.  The adoption of this so-called universal day will not interfere in the smallest degree with any purpose for which time is employed in civil life.  The two objects are entirely distinct.  It is obvious that the conception of the necessity of having a universal day has arisen from the more clear conception of the fact that time on the globe is essentially local; that the time upon any given line (supposing it to be a meridian) is not the time at the same moment on either side of that line, however small the departure from it may be; and for scientific accuracy it has, therefore, been thought desirable to have some absolute standard to which days and hours can be referred.  Up to the present time it has been the practice to say, in an indefinite way, that an event happened, say, on the 1st of January at 6 o’clock in the morning, and such a statement of the time has been considered sufficient; but, in truth, this does not completely describe a definite epoch of time, for if the event occurred at Madrid and was so reported, that report would not designate the same moment as a report of an event which was described to have occurred at precisely the same date and hour at Greenwich, or Rome, or Washington.  What is required and desired is that we should have an absolute and definite standard for reckoning events of a certain description, for which complete precision is desirable.  I consider, therefore, that the Delegate of Spain leads us astray in the proposition which he has offered, by which he virtually proposes to nullify the resolution already adopted.  We have already decided that a universal day was expedient, and it is for the Conference to settle now when that universal day shall begin.

Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain.  I understand that the consequences, perhaps, would not be troublesome at first; but who can look into the future and say, if we take the meridian of Greenwich as the standard of time, what difficulties we may be driven into?  Every country will be obliged to count both ways.  They will have to use civil time and universal time.  Perhaps all countries may get accustomed to this radical change sooner or later, but we cannot foresee the difficulty now.  I have here a treatise (a book) on “Analytic Chronology,” showing the rules by which to bring into accord different dates of different calendars and eras, and I do not know how they would be affected by this universal time; but it is unnecessary for me to speak of that, as I think you are acquainted with the subject.

Mr. JUAN PASTORIN, Delegate of Spain.  The Congress has already come to very important decisions on the subject of the reckoning of longitude, and it will also certainly approve to-day those which have just been submitted on the subject of the universal day.