“The preference given to the Greenwich meridian was based, on one side, on the historical right of the Royal Observatory of England, acquired by eminent services rendered by this establishment during the course of two centuries, to mathematical geography and navigation; on the other side, considering that the great majority of charts now in use upon all the seas are made according to this meridian, and about 90 per cent. of the navigators of long standing are accustomed to take their longitude from this meridian.  However, an objection against this proposition is, that the meridian of Greenwich passes through two countries of Europe, and thus the longitude would be reckoned by different signs in different portions of our own continent and also of Africa.

“Moreover, the close proximity of the meridian of Paris, to which, perhaps, some French geographers and navigators of other nations would still hold to, from custom, from a spirit of contradiction or from national rivalry, might easily cause sad disaster.  To obviate these inconveniences, I have proposed to choose as prime meridian another meridian, situated at an integral number of hours east or west of Greenwich, and among the meridians meeting this condition, I have indicated, in the first place, the meridian proposed to-day by scientific Americans, as that which would combine the most favorable conditions for its adoption.  Thus the meridian situated 180 deg. from Greenwich presents the following advantages:—­

“1.  It does not cross any continent but the eastern extremity of the North of Asia, inhabited by people very few in number and little civilized, called Tschouktschis.

“2.  It coincides exactly with that line where, after the custom introduced by a historical succession of maritime discoveries, the navigator makes a change of one unit in the date, a difference which is made near a number of small islands in the Pacific Ocean, discovered during the voyages made to the east and west.  Thus the commencement of a new date would be identical with that of the hours of cosmopolitan time.

“3.  It makes no change to the great majority of navigators and hydrographers, except the very simple addition of twelve hours, or of 180 deg. to all longitudes.

“4.  It does not involve any change in the calculations of the Ephemerides most in use amongst navigators, viz., the English Nautical Almanac, except turning mid-day into midnight, and vice versa.  In the American Nautical Almanac there would be no other change to introduce.  With a cosmopolitan spirit, and in the just appreciation of a general want, the excellent Ephemerides published at Washington, record all data useful to navigators calculated from the meridian of Greenwich.

“For universal adoption, as proposed by the Canadian Institute, it recommends itself to the inhabitants of all civilized countries, by reason of the great difference in longitude, thus removing all the misunderstandings and uncertainties concerning the question, as to whether, in any case, cosmopolitan or local time was used.