longitude."

The PRESIDENT then asked if the Conference would permit the
substitution to be made, and it was unanimously agreed to.

Mr. RUTHERFURD, Delegate of the United States, stated that he did not
propose to press the resolution to an early vote, but that it was
offered simply to elicit the opinions of Delegates on the subject. He
further stated that, having heard that the Delegates of France, Mr.
LEFAIVRE and Mr. JANSSEN, desired to present certain propositions, he
would, for that purpose, move to withdraw for the time being the
resolution offered by him.

No objection being made, the resolution was temporarily withdrawn.

Mr. LEFAIVRE, Delegate of France, then made the following statement:

Our colleague, Mr. RUTHERFURD, having withdrawn his motion for the
adoption of the meridian of Greenwich, we, the Delegates of France,
after consultation with him, submit the following motion:

"_Resolved_, That the initial meridian should have a
character of absolute neutrality. It should be chosen
exclusively so as to secure to science and to international
commerce all possible advantages, and in particular
especially should cut no great continent--neither Europe nor
America."

Sir F. J. O. EVANS, Delegate of Great Britain, then stated that he
presumed the Conference could hardly pass by the important meeting
held at Rome, where twelve of the thirty-eight Delegates were
directors of national observatories, and where the subject of the
conditions which should attach to a prime meridian were discussed
without reference to any particular nationality; that these learned
gentlemen came to the conclusion (which he thought was a very wise
one) that the necessity existed for a prime meridian that it should
pass through an astronomical observatory of the first order; that
modern science demanded such precision, and therefore they excluded
all ideas of a meridian being established on an island, in a strait,
on the summit of a mountain, or as indicated by a monumental building.
Looking at the subject in its various aspects, they came to the
conclusion that there were only four great observatories which in
their minds combined all the conditions, and this decision was
unanimously received by that Conference. Those great observatories
were Paris, Berlin, Greenwich, and Washington. He stated further that,
having this in view, he thought this Conference should be particularly
guarded, looking at the