y reference to the
practice or interests of navigation. In reality, it does not appear to
me to affect that subject at all.

I have given some consideration to the practical bearings of this
question--whether it should be midnight or noon. What we ought to
decide is what will be the least inconvenience to the world at large.
I have ascertained from two of my colleagues, who have given this
matter the greatest consideration, that the adoption of midnight will
really cause less confusion than noon, for this reason, that all the
great colonies of the world would be less affected; that is to say,
that the times they are using now would be less affected by midnight
than by noon. That being so, it appears to me to be an essential point
in coming to a settlement of this question.

Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. I have only to say that I have
listened to the remarks about navigators changing the reckoning of
time. I do not know whether there are many navigators here, but it is
a fact that seamen reckon the day from noon.

The PRESIDENT. I beg the pardon of the Delegate of Spain; but, in the
United States navy, we reckon the day from midnight.

Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. I am speaking generally. Now,
there is some reason for this rule among seamen, for the only way to
find out the position of a ship is to observe the meridian altitude of
the sun; and everybody requires to know, at sea, what has taken place
in the course of every day, from the beginning to the last moment of
the day; and I think that whatever the rule may be in the United
States navy, navigators generally will count their time as they count
it now.

I think that navigators will not change the rule now in force, no
matter what we may adopt in this Conference.

Commander SAMPSON, Delegate of the United States. I think, Mr.
President and gentlemen, that the change to the adoption of the
universal day, beginning at midnight, would be a very decided
advantage to navigators. The quantities as now given in the nautical
ephemerides are for noon of the meridian for which they are computed,
as Washington, Greenwich, &c. It is very evident that every navigator,
in making use of the quantities given in the nautical almanac, must
find the corresponding time at Greenwich, wherever he may be on the
surface of the earth. Consequently, if we suppose that navigators are
pretty equally distributed, one-half on one side of the earth and
one-half on the ot