Prof. Lovering on the American Prime Meridian. 197 
Davis. In no single case will the labor of the navigator be abridg- 
ed, or his knowledge of his place upon the ocean rendered more 
certain; but, on the contrary, the confusion, incident to the intro- 
duction of a new meridian into his books, his charts, and his 
memory, will be attended with constant perplexity, miscalcula- 
tion, and mistake, which must cause a serious increase in the 
hazard of all the lives and property under the American flag. 
‘Permit us to specify a few of the evils thus predicted :—Ist, 
We shall have introduced upon our own coast the east and west 
reckoning ; and although, by making the first meridian at New 
tleans, most of the coasting trade will be upon one side of the 
meridian, yet all vessels passing to the coast of Texas must change 
their longitude from east to west, and be subject to all the per- 
plexities of that change. 2nd, It is now the common practice 
for navigators at sea to communicate to each other their longitude. 
This practice is exceedingly useful, and has often led to the cor- 
rection of errors which must otherwise have been fatal. But 
this is done in the haste of passing, often in storms and partial 
darkness,—conditions very unfavorable to hearing and under- 
standing with accuracy even the simple numbers that express the 
degrees and minutes of longitude. But, if the proposed change 
of meridian is adopted, another element must be introduced in all 
communications between English and American vessels, and for 
a long time between American vessels with each other; and the 
failure to give the reckoning as from Greenwich or New Orleans, 
or to hear and understand it rightly when given, may involve 
ship, cargo, and navigators in one common ruin. , A portion 
of the charts used by United States navigators are, and must con- 
tinue to be for an indefinite period, of English construction, and 
consequently marked with the longitude of Greenwich. To 
reduce this to the American standard upon a sudden emergency, 
and when perhaps surrounded by danger, cannot be effected, how- 
ever simple the operation, by all persons, without occasional 
siderations in some way connected with our national independence, 
“ Waiving all observations upon the assumed scientific neces- 
sity, save the single one that we are unable to perceive that it is 
