in any other matter which affects the
convenience of the world at large, and that this Conference is not met
here at the end of a war to see how territory should be divided, but
in a friendly way, representing friendly nations.

He stated that he hoped the Delegates would be guided in their
decision by the main consideration, which was, What will tend to the
greatest practical convenience of the world? That he need not address
a word to the other part of the argument which he thought at first of
commenting upon a little, for the Delegate of the United States,
Commander SAMPSON, who spoke first, had put his views so clearly
before the Conference that he (Professor ADAMS) would not detain it
longer.

He would add, however, that if the Conference is to take a neutral
meridian they must either erect an observatory on the point selected,
which might be very inconvenient if they should choose such a point as
is alluded to by the Delegate of France, or if some such place was not
selected, we should merely have a zero of longitude by a legal
fiction, and that would not be a real zero at all; that they would
have to select their zero with reference to a known observatory, and
that, for instance, supposing they took a point for zero twenty
degrees west of Paris, of course that would be really adopting Paris
as the prime meridian; that it would not be so nominally, but in
reality it would be, and he thought that we now-a-days should get rid
of legal fictions as much as possible, and call things by their right
names.

Mr. JANSSEN, Delegate of France, said:

My eminent colleague, whose presence is an honor to this Congress,
Professor ADAMS, thinks that I overlook too much the practical side of
the question; namely, how a prime meridian can be established so as to
cause the least inconvenience. He says that I pay too much attention
to what he calls a question of sentiment, and he concludes by
expressing the hope that all nations will lay aside their national
pride and only be guided by this consideration: What meridian offers
the greatest practical advantages? My reply is that I intend no more
than Professor ADAMS to place the question upon the ground of national
pride; but it is one thing to speak in the name of national pride and
another to foresee that this sentiment common to all men, may show
itself, and that we should avoid conclusions likely to arouse it, or
we may compromise our success. That is all our argument; and th