was considered an object of national pride.  There were the meridians of Paris, of Rome, of Florence, of London, and so on, and no nation was willing to abandon its meridian for that of another.  If you please to adopt either the meridian of Greenwich, Washington, Paris, Berlin, Pulkowa, Vienna, or Rome, our reform may be accepted for the moment, especially if it offers immediate advantages in economy; but it will contain within it a vice which will prevent its becoming definitive, and we are not willing to participate in action which will not be definitive.

Whatever we may do, the common prime meridian will always be a crown to which there will be a hundred pretenders.  Let us place the crown on the brow of science, and all will bow before it.

Commander SAMPSON, Delegate of the United States, said that he thought that the Delegate of France, Professor JANSSEN, had explained very fully the advantages of a neutral meridian, but he thought that he had not explained how we are to determine the neutral meridian.  He added that he quite agreed with Professor ADAMS and Professor NEWCOMB, that to establish a prime meridian it is necessary to refer its position to an astronomical observatory.

He stated further that if a meridian were selected passing through the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, it must be referred to some initial point whose longitude is known, and the consequence of that would be, it seemed to him, that the prime meridian selected would still be dependent upon some national observatory, and that to select a meridian at random without reference to any observatory would lead to the utmost confusion, and, he had no doubt, would not be entertained by any one.

Prof.  JANSSEN, Delegate of France.  When my honorable colleague, Commander SAMPSON, reads the remarks which I have just made, he will see that I have very fully shown what characterizes a neutral or geographical meridian, as contradistinguished from those meridians which, passing through capitals and observatories of different countries, bear the names of nations, whilst geographical meridians bear geographical names, such as the meridian of Ferro, of the Azores, Behring’s Strait, &c.  Of course it would be necessary to connect the places selected with observatories, either by calculation or in some other effective manner.  I said all this a few moments ago.

Mr. RUTHERFURD, Delegate of the United States, then remarked that in addition to what had been said he would merely call attention to the fact that after that neutral point had been established it would cease to be a neutral meridian; that if the Azores be chosen they belong to Portugal, and he did not know any island in the Pacific which would serve the purpose, and at the same time not be subject to this objection; that perhaps Behring’s Strait, mentioned by the French Delegate, might be less objectionable than any other place.  He added that it is absolutely necessary that there should be some means of determining