SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 93 



business of the congress, after a debate, in some respects often 

 animated, the following eight resolutions were passed : — 



I. — That it is the opinion of this congress that it is desirable to adopt 

 a single Prime Meridian for all nations, in place of the multiplicity of 

 initial Meridians which now exist. — [Unanimously adopted.] 



II. — That the conference proposes to the governments here repre- 

 sented the adoption of the Meridian passing through the centre of the 

 transit instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich, as the Initial 

 Meridian for Longitude. — [Ayes, 22 ; noes, 1 ; abstaining, 2.] 



III. — That from this Meridian Longitude shall be counted in two 

 directions up to 180 degrees, East Longitude being 2>lus and West Longi- 

 tude minus. — [Ayes, 14 ; noes, 5 ; abstaining 1.] 



IV. — That the Conference proposes the adoption of a Universal day for 

 all purposes for which it may be found convenient, and which shall not 

 interfere with the use of local or other Standard Time where desirable. 

 — [Ayes, 23 ; abstaining, 2.] 



Y. — That this Universal day is to be a mean Solar day ; is to begin 

 for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meri- 

 dian, coinciding with the beginning of the ciAal day and date of that 

 Meridian, and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours. — 

 [Ayes, 15 ; noes, 2 ; abstaining, 7.] 



VI. — That the Conference expresses the hope that as soon as may 

 be practicable the astronomical and nautical days will be arranged 

 everywhere to begin at mean midnight. — Carried witlwut division. 



VII. — That the Conference expresses the hope that the technical 

 studies designed to regulate and extend the application of the decimal 

 system to the division of Angular Space and of Time shall be resumed 

 so as to permit the extension of this application to all cases in which 

 it presents real advantages. — Ayes, 21 ; abstaining, 3.] 



VIII.^ — That a copy of the Resolutions passed by this Conference 

 shall be communicated to the Government of the United States of 

 America, at whose instance and within whose territory the Conference 

 has been convened. — [Adopted unanhnously. ] 



The first Resolution was manifestly purely formal. It merely 

 stated the end for which the Congress was called together, some- 

 what more fully than had been done in the invitation. The last 

 resolution is also of the same character, a formal conclusion of the 

 matters under consideration, as the results looked for will lead to 

 further diplomatic proceeding with regard to the resolutions adopted. 



We beg leave to enter here into some further discussion with 

 regard to the other six resolutions. 



During the discussion on the choice of the First Meridian the 

 French delegates made the proposition that in place of passing 

 through a specified observatory, the choice should, if possible, be 

 made of an entirely neutral Meridian. Plausible as this proposi- 

 tion appears at the first glance to set aside all national jealousies, so 

 the very definition of what was meant by an absolute neutral 

 Meridian, at once hit upon serious difficulties. Moreover the 

 proposition appeared even in a more unfavourable light upon closer 



