Mr. JUAN PASTORIN, the Delegate of Spain.  I listened with great pleasure to the observations which our honorable colleague, the Delegate of England, General STRACHEY, has just made.

I am not sufficiently acquainted with the English tongue to make a speech, though I know it well enough to follow the debate.  Moreover, as I had beforehand studied the subject which is now before us, I have quite well understood all that has been said on this point.  I proposed an amendment yesterday, in order to obtain what I consider the most simple formula for converting local time into cosmical time.  This formula is not, perhaps, the most suitable for astronomers and sailors, but they form the minority, and it is, I am sure, the easiest for the mass of the people.  This formula would be based on the considerations which are now under discussion.  I am not sufficiently familiar with the language to give the reasons upon which I based my amendment, but, as I demonstrated in the pamphlet which I had the honor of addressing to my learned colleagues, the means, in my opinion, of obtaining the simplest and the most suitable formula is to make the beginning of civil time and of dates on the first meridian coincide with the cosmical time and date, and to count longitude continuously in the same direction from the initial meridian.  This is what I proposed to obtain by my amendment.

Count LEWENHAUPT, Delegate of Sweden.  Mr. President, I now propose that the Conference take a recess for a few moments before a vote is taken upon the resolution.

No objection being made to the motion, the President announced that a recess would be taken until the Chair called the Conference to order.

THE PRESIDENT, having called the Conference to order, said.  The recess has given an opportunity for an interchange of opinion upon the subject pending, and if the Conference be ready the vote will now be taken.

Commander SAMPSON, Delegate of the United States.  Mr. President, I think that the informal discussion which we have had upon this question of the method of counting longitude must lead to the conclusion that there is a great difference of opinion.  So far as I have been able to learn, many of the delegates have come here instructed to favor the resolution adopted by the Roman Conference.  It is my own opinion that the recommendation to count longitude continuously from the prime meridian from west to east, as recommended by the conference at Rome, is not so good as the proposition now before us.  Personally, however, I would prefer to see it counted continuously from east to west, as being more in conformity with present usage among astronomers.  But, as it appears that so many delegates are instructed by their Governments to favor counting in the opposite direction, and as, if this Congress adopts any other plan than that proposed by the Conference at Rome, they will have to lay before their Governments as the action of this Congress something that will be opposed to the recommendation of the Roman Conference, and as these two recommendations would naturally tend to neutralize each other, I would favor the proposition which is now before us as being the most expedient.