If we pass to the west of Greenwich, we will find that the first meridian west touches the little town of Almeria, in the south of Spain, which country extends to equal distances on both sides of this meridian, east and west, and the situation of Portugal is the same with regard to the third meridian west.

Then, in all the towns and localities given above, of which the greater part are of some importance, the local time coincides so closely with times differing from the Greenwich time, by whole multiples of 10 minutes, that there is no reason to fear any real inconvenience if these times were taken to regulate local reckonings.  If the different countries in Europe should decide to adopt the system which I have explained, the following system of normal times would, perhaps, be found convenient: 

EAST OF GREENWICH.

1st Meridian, France. 2d " Holland and Belgium. 3d " Switzerland. 4th " Norway, (and Western Germany.) 5th " Denmark, Germany, and Italy. 6th " Sweden and Austria. 7th " Eastern Germany. 8th " Hungary. 9th " Poland and Greece. 10th " Finland, Roumania, and Bulgaria, 11th " European Turkey. 12th " Western Russia.

WEST OF GREENWICH.

1st   Meridian,  Spain.
3d      "        Portugal.

It is, however, not at all necessary that each country should adopt a single civil time for the whole of its territory.  If several normal times should be adopted, it is still possible to use the system, provided only the several times differ from Greenwich time by 10 minutes, 20 minutes, &c.; but it would be necessary that the clocks should indicate the times adopted with great precision, and that the difference did not amount to even a few seconds, because otherwise the advantages of the adoption of the system would be materially reduced.

This circumstance, that it is possible for each country to adopt the system, and at the same time to maintain a certain independence with regard to the adoption of the most convenient normal times, is of considerable importance with regard to the possibility of introducing a system of this kind.  In fact, it is possible to arrive at the application of the system in such a way that the transition would hardly be observed by the great majority of the population.  As regards railroads and telegraphs, the advantages would be the same as if the local times were everywhere identical, because it is easy to remember the multiple of 10 minutes which ought to be added to the time of a given country for translation into the time of another country.  The difference of time between Sweden and Denmark would, for instance, be 10 minutes—­a circumstance which everybody would soon learn to remember.