144 



LONGITUDE AND TIME-RECKONING. 



1752 — the year when popular pi'ejudice was met and the calendar 

 reformed. 



The following table will show all the change that would be callep 

 for in notating the degrees of longitude. It will be observed that 

 the table is limited to the twenty-four lettered meridians elsewhere 

 alluded to : 



But a proposal of this character cannot be effected without much 

 discussion. Such a change must be the work of time, for it is to be 

 feared that much passive if not active opposition would have to be 

 overcome before general concviri^nce be obtained. Whatever benefits 

 a measixre may promise, there will always be those who fail to recog- 

 nize the anticipated advantages ; and there are generally not a few 

 who consider it a duty to combat the least innovation on existing 

 practices. The object of these remarks, however, is to show that 

 there is no impediment to the establishment of a prime meridian for 

 the world unmarked by national pre-eminence, a meridian in itself 

 admirably adapted for the important purposes referred to in connection 



