n in each direction.

One of the objects of the third resolution is to make the new
universal day coincide with the civil day rather than with the
astronomical day. In the Conference at Rome the universal day was made
to coincide with the astronomical day. It seems to me that the
inconvenience of that system would be so great that we ought to
hesitate before adopting it. For us in America, perhaps the
inconvenience would not be so very great, but for such countries as
France and England, and those lying about the initial meridian, the
inconvenience would be very great, for the morning hours would be one
day, and the afternoon hours would be another day. That seems to me to
be a very great objection.

It was simply, therefore, to obviate this difficulty that this
resolution was offered. I hope, notwithstanding, that some day, not
far distant, all these conflicting days, the local, the universal, the
nautical, and the astronomical, may start from some one point. This
hope I have the greater reason to cherish since I have communicated
with the distinguished gentlemen who are here present, and it was with
that hope before me that I framed the resolution so that the beginning
of the day should be the midnight at the initial meridian, and not the
mid-day. With this explanation, I now again move the adoption of the
first resolution, which is as follows:

"_Resolved_, That the Conference proposes to the Governments
here represented the adoption of the meridian passing
through the centre of the transit instrument at the
Observatory of Greenwich as the initial meridian for
longitude."

The PRESIDENT. The Conference has heard the resolution. Any remarks
are now in order.

Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, Delegate of Great Britain. I think, sir, the
resolution goes a little too far at a single leap. I beg leave,
therefore, to move an amendment in harmony with the resolution, at the
same time leaving it to be settled by a subsequent resolution, whether
the zero be at Greenwich or at the other side of the globe.

"That a meridian proper, to be employed as a common zero in
the reckoning of longitude and the regulation of time
throughout the world, should be a great circle passing
through the poles and the centre of the transit instrument
at the Observatory of Greenwich."

Prof. ADAMS, Delegate of Great Britain. Mr. President, I desire merely
to state, in reference to the amendment broug