SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 35 



PROFESSOR PIAZZI SMYTH, ASTRONOMER ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND, 

 TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE, LONDON. 



Royal Observatoey, Edinburgh, Aug. 30, 1879. 



Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 

 of " August" 30, 1879, transmitting to me copies of a Canadian 

 pamphlet on " Time Reckoning and the selection of a common Meri- 

 dian," and intimating that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach will be so 

 obliging as to transmit to Canada, through the Governor-General of 

 the Dominion, any observations which I may have to make on the 

 subject. I gladly accept Sir Michael Hicks Beach's obliging offer, 

 and will speedily send a letter for such desirable transmission. 



I am, &c., &c., 



PIAZZI SMYTH, 

 Astronomer- Royal for Scotland. 

 To Edward Wingfield, Esq., Colonial Office, Whitehall, London. 



PROFESSOR PIAZZI SMYTH, ASTRONOMER ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND, 

 TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE, LONDON. 



Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Sept. 5th, 2879. 



Sir, — In further answer to your letter of " August'' I have now 

 the pleasure of sending you my remai'ks on the Time-reckoning Pam- 

 phlet transmitted by the Govenior-General of the Dominion, and re- 

 quest you to be so good as to present them to Sir Michael Hicks 

 Beach for his obliging promise to be so good as to forward them to 

 the Secretary of the Canadian Institute through the Governor- 

 General of the Dominion. 



I am, &c. &c. , 



PIAZZI SMYTH, 



Astronomer-Royal for Scotland. 

 To Edward Wingfield, Esq, Colonial Office, Downing Street, London. 



Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Sept. 5th, 1879. 



Remarks on Mr. Sandford Fleming's papers on Time Reckon- 

 ing and the selection of a Prime Meridian : — 



These papers, transmitted now through the Governor-General 

 of the Dominion, are before me for the second time ; for they were 

 sent first for an opinion, to be addressed to their author, many months 

 ago by a mutual friend in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I praised them 

 then for their good intentions on a matter of daily-growing impor- 

 tance to mankind, but condemned them for the want of practicality 

 and the unadvisableness of the particular method proposed to be em- 

 ployed ; and my opinion is still very much the same. 



