are mere translations of
foreign works. Our surveys are not confined to the coasts of France
and of its colonies; there is scarcely a region of the globe for which
we do not possess original work--Newfoundland, the coasts of Guiana,
of Brazil, and of La Plata, Madagascar, numerous points of Japan and
of China, 187 original charts relative to the Pacific. We must not
omit the excellent work of our hydrographic engineers on the west
coast of Italy, which was honored by the international jury with the
great medal of honor at the Universal Exhibition of 1867. The
exclusive use of the Paris meridian by our sailors is justified by
reference to a past of two centuries, which we have thus briefly
recalled.

"If another initial meridian had to be adopted, it would be necessary
to change the graduation of our 2,600 hydrographic plates; it would be
necessary to do the same thing for our nautical instructions, (sailing
directions,) which exceed 600 in number. The change would also
necessarily involve a corresponding change in the _Connaissance des
Temps_."

These are titles to consideration of some importance. Well, if under
these circumstances the projected reform, instead of being directed by
the higher principles which ought to govern the subject, should take
solely for its base the respect due to the established customs of the
largest number and the absence on their part of all sacrifice,
reserving to us alone the burden of the change and the abandonment of
a valued and glorious past, are we not justified in saying that a
proposition thus made would not be acceptable?

When France, at the end of the last century, instituted the metre, did
she proceed thus? Did she, as a measure of economy and in order to
change nothing in her customs, propose to the world the "Pied de Roi"
as a unit of measure? You know the facts. The truth is, everything
with us was overthrown--both the established methods and instruments
for measurement; and the measure adopted being proportioned only to
the dimensions of the earth, is so entirely detached from everything
French that in future centuries the traveller who may search the ruins
of our cities may inquire what people invented the metrical measure
that chance may bring under his eyes.

Permit me to say that it is thus a reform should be made and becomes
acceptable. It is by setting the example of self-sacrifice; it is by
complete self-effacement in any undertaking, that opposition is
disarmed