50 UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIME. 



there any signs of any attention being paid to the resolution adopted 

 in Antwerp, where it was agreed that in maritime charts the Meri- 

 dian of Greenwich should be used. Custom so enslaves common 

 sense that we admit as natural, things which are most ridiculous, and 

 we ai'e not even prompted to smile at the absurdity. Thus hei-e in 

 Madrid we receive telegraphic despatches from the Philipine Islands 

 hours, and sometimes even the day previous to that on which the 

 events referred to therein have taken place. The same happens in. 

 England respecting the despatches from Australia. I remember an 

 example in point; at three in the moi-ning of the 1st October, 1880, 

 they received in London the news of the opening of the Universal 

 Exhibition at Melboui-ne at one o'clock in the afternoon of that day. 



What argument is advanced for the continuation of a state of 

 things which becomes more and more indefensible 1 



I confess I have never seen one plausible reason given for the pre- 

 sent system. 



Antiquity is the claim made by those who favor the Meridian of 

 Teneriti'e and Hierro. 



The security of direct observation is the boast of the partisans of 

 each Meridian held by their particular observatory. 



The division of the continents into bwo hemispheres is advocated 

 by those whose sympathies are with the same Meridian of Hierro, 

 or with the Meridians contiguous to Behring Strait, as th« initial 

 circle would result irn being anti-meridians of Greenwich, Chi-istiania, 

 Naples and Paris. 



The great Laplace has said : " It is desirable that all the nations 

 of Europe, in place of arranging geographical longitude from their 

 own observatories, should agree to compute it from the s,ame Meri- 

 diaii, one indicated by nature herself, in order to determine it for all 

 time to come. Such an arrangement would introduce into the sci- 

 ence of geography the same uniformity which is already enjoyed in 

 the calendar and the arithmetic, and, extended to the numerous ob- 

 jects of their mutual relations, would make of the diverse peoples 

 one family only." 



The disadvantages and confusion resulting from the multiplicity of 

 the zeros of longitude, are so great that the whole world ought to 

 proclaim the necessity of one universal Meridian, but still there are 

 those who do not seem to recognize it. There are others who oppose 

 the adoption of an international Meridian on the ground of the diffi- 

 culty of determining with absolute precision the difference of longi- 

 tude between two places, although situated on the same continent, 

 and in support of their arguments they cite the discrepancies in the 

 results of modern observatories as compared with ancient oneSj^, 

 although the former are made from observatories so favourably situ- 

 ated as those of Paris, Greenwich, Washington, &c. 



