point may fall should engage to establish it in the most enduring
manner, and protect it against all possible causes of change or
destruction.

When taken in connection with other requirements, to be mentioned
hereafter, this character of permanence will be best secured by making
the adopted meridian pass through an observatory which is under the
control of the Government.

Such observatory should be in telegraphic communication with the whole
world, in order that the differences of longitude from the prime
meridian may be determined for any point. These conditions of
convenience are so important that they may fairly be considered
imperative. To fulfil them one of the national meridians now in use
should be selected. To select any other than one of these meridians,
or a meridian directly dependent upon one of them, and defined simply
by its angular distance from one of these national meridians, would be
to introduce endless confusion into all charts and maps now in use.

To select as a prime meridian one which shall be a defined angular
distance from one of the national meridians, must have for its object
either to remove some inconvenience which results from the use of the
national meridian itself, or it must be to satisfy a desire to deprive
the selected meridian of any nationality.

The inconvenience of east and west longitudes, which results from
having the prime meridian pass through a thickly populated portion of
the world, will be removed by reckoning the longitude continuously
from O° to 360°. At the same time an important advantage is secured by
having the prime meridian occupy a central position with regard to the