their object the construction of civil and military maps and the measurement of arcs of the meridian in Europe, America, and Africa.  All these operations were and are based on the Paris meridian.  Nearly all the astronomical tables used at the present time by the astronomers and the navies of the whole world are French, and calculated for the Paris meridian.  As to what most particularly concerns shipping, the accurate methods now used by all nations for hydrographic surveys are of French origin, and our charts, all reckoned from the meridian of Paris, bear such names as those of Bougainville, La Perouse, Fleurieu, Borda, d’Entrecasteaux, Beautemps, Beaupre, Duperrey, Dumont d’Urville, Daussy, to quote only a few among those who are not living.

“Our actual hydrographic collections amount to more than 4,000 charts.  By striking off those which the progress of explorations have rendered useless, there still remain about 2,600 charts in use.  Of this number more than half represent original French surveys, a large part of which foreign nations have reproduced.  Amongst the remainder, the general charts are the result of discussions undertaken in the Bureau of the Marine, by utilizing all known documents, French as well as foreign, and there are relatively few which are mere translations of foreign works.  Our surveys are not confined to the coasts of France and of its colonies; there is scarcely a region of the globe for which we do not possess original work—­Newfoundland, the coasts of Guiana, of Brazil, and of La Plata, Madagascar, numerous points of Japan and of China, 187 original charts relative to the Pacific.  We must not omit the excellent work of our hydrographic engineers on the west coast of Italy, which was honored by the international jury with the great medal of honor at the Universal Exhibition of 1867.  The exclusive use of the Paris meridian by our sailors is justified by reference to a past of two centuries, which we have thus briefly recalled.

“If another initial meridian had to be adopted, it would be necessary to change the graduation of our 2,600 hydrographic plates; it would be necessary to do the same thing for our nautical instructions, (sailing directions,) which exceed 600 in number.  The change would also necessarily involve a corresponding change in the Connaissance des Temps.”

These are titles to consideration of some importance.  Well, if under these circumstances the projected reform, instead of being directed by the higher principles which ought to govern the subject, should take solely for its base the respect due to the established customs of the largest number and the absence on their part of all sacrifice, reserving to us alone the burden of the change and the abandonment of a valued and glorious past, are we not justified in saying that a proposition thus made would not be acceptable?