GENTLEMEN: At the last session, when a proposition was made by my
eminent colleague and friend, Mr. RUTHERFURD, to discuss and vote upon
the adoption of the meridian of Greenwich as the common prime
meridian, I thought it necessary to say that the proposal appeared to
me prematurely made, and that we could not agree to the discussion
proceeding in that manner. Mr. RUTHERFURD has informed me that he
would withdraw his proposition for the present, in order to permit me
to direct the discussion, in the first place, to the principle which
should direct the choice of a common prime meridian. I here take the
opportunity of thanking Mr. RUTHERFURD for his courtesy, and I no
longer object to proceeding with the debate.

What we ask is, that after the general declaration of the second
session as to the utility of a common prime meridian, the Congress
should discuss the question of the principle which should guide the
choice of that meridian.

Being charged to maintain before you, gentlemen, the principle of the
neutrality of the prime meridian, it is evident that if that principle
was rejected by the Congress it would be useless for us to take part
in the further discussion of the choice of the meridian to be adopted
as the point of departure in reckoning longitude.

We think, gentlemen, that if this question of the unification of
longitude is again taken up after so many unsuccessful attempts to
settle it as are recorded in history, there will be no chance of its
final solution unless it be treated upon an exclusively geographical
basis, and that at any cost all national competition should be set
aside. We do not advocate any particular meridian. We put ourselves
completely aside in the debate, and thus place ourselves in a position