Unification in the measure of time. 8 1 



question of the universal hour, is a well-known fact ; and 

 no Power gave more support to Mr. Sandford Fleming's 

 initiative, through the Canadian Institute, than Russia her- 

 self As far back as February 4th, 1870, Dr. Struve read 

 before the Imperial Geographical Society of St. Petersburg 

 a most important paper concerning the initial meridian,* 

 and his verdict was so authoritative that Prof Forster 

 and other scientific authorities referred to it as settling the 

 question. Unfortunately the International Geographical 

 Congress of Venice (188 1 ), the International Geodetic As- 

 sociation of Rome (1883), and, finally, the International 

 Meridian Conference, held at Washington in October, 1884, 

 proved equally fruitless, chiefly for want of agreement on 

 the initial meridian. 



That things are now no more advanced than before the 

 Geographical Congress of Venice, is demonstrated by the 

 message of the late President of the United States to 

 the Congress, dated January 9, 1888, recommending the 

 Government "to take action to approve the resolutions 

 passed in 1884, and to invite the Powers to accede to the 

 same." These resolutions are consequently not approved 

 yet, not even by the Washington Government, nor have 

 the other Powers acceded yet to them. Moreover, the 

 delegates of the different Powers represented at Washington 

 declared from the very beginning that their presence there 

 was only ad referendum^ and could not in any way bind 

 their respective Governments. What these, consequently, 

 really think on the subject of the initial meridian is un- 

 known, and they are, at any rate, still at liberty to give or 

 refuse their adhesion to the Greenwich meridian. Other 

 Governments not represented at Washington, say China, 

 Montenegro, Servia, or Roumania, may claim a right to 



* Struve (Dr. Otto) O pervoiit meridiane in the Geogyaphicheskia 

 Invesiia, etc.. No. I, March 15, 1870, pp. i and foil. 

 F 



