190 Prof. Lovering on the American Prime Meridian. 
their own territories: why should not the United States? The 
example of the European governments can have little value for 
us in a nautical point of view. Their commerce on the ocean is 
comparatively circumscribed ; and even did they adopt the prime 
meridian of Greenwich, they are debarred from a free intercourse 
with each a and with British and American vessels by a 
strange langua Besides, in countries where the people, from 
their habits or <n landlocked position, are so much more with- 
drawn from maritime pursuits than we are, we should expect that 
their almanacs would consult more the want of astronomers and 
less the convenience of navigators. There is not one of these 
rts 
learned by experience the folly of an assumed independence 
which worked for them real mischief, have already begun to re- 
trace their steps back to Greenwich. 
own experience and judgment are worth more than 
the example of any foreign nations. We speak the same lan- 
guage as the British navigator: why should we be at pains to 
learn a different scientific dialect? Why should we endeavor to 
forego all the innumerable advantages we derive from our com- 
mon origin, and discard an existing : agreement in regard to scien- 
tific standards which other nations have striven so long and 
hopelessly to consummate? The communication of Lieut. Davis 
does ample justice to the importance of an universal prime me- 
ridian. There is no reason to believe that a single first meridian 
can ever be established by the common consent “of nations. Al 
desire it, but how many will agree u pon the choice? Let us not, 
in the pursuit of this chimera, “adopt the temporary expedient of 
an American prime meridian, and thus renounce an inheritance 
to which we were born; throw the whole of this great good to 
the winds: and postpone, as we must for centuries, the realization 
of the grand desire of all hearts for a universal meridian. So 
long as America and Great Britain continue to use a single prime 
meridian, they alone can make that meridian, for all oo 
nautical purposes, a universal prime meridian, and we at least 
shall enjoy, not in prospect but in ery fruition, all te sub- 
stantial wea of such a meridia 
The foregoing remarks are Evers to show that the adoption 
of an American prime meridian will violate the spirit in whic 
other governments have established Nautical Almanacs, and will 
entail upon the commerce of the c country, for several os 
if not forever, an amount of daily inconvenience and danger 
which, in the aggregate, cannot be overestimated. 
I now propose to consider the reasons that are urged in favor 
of an American prime meridian. ‘The only reason of a scientific 
