the difference between this adopted place and the other places, or else no use could be made of it.  We must know how far other places are from the prime meridian, and for that reason it is necessary that it should be on land.  Now, that land must belong to some country, and after we have fixed upon it it would cease to be a neutral meridian, and it would have to be connected by telegraphic wires with all the great observatories in the world.

Prof.  JANSSEN, Delegate of France.  My honorable friend, Mr. RUTHERFURD, says that from the time the prime meridian was chosen it would cease to be neutral.  I reply that he confounds a scientific principle with a question of property in the soil.  If, for reasons of a geographical nature, we should fix upon a point in the Azores, that meridian would be neutral, because it would have been chosen on scientific grounds alone.  The equator is neutral because geographical conditions give it that character; and, nevertheless, the countries along it belong to various nations, do they not?  As to the manner of connecting the prime meridian with the system of observatories, I have already explained how this may be done in my former speech.

General STRACHEY, Delegate of England, remarked that he had rather hesitated about saying anything on the subject, after the expression of so many opinions of persons better qualified to speak than himself, but he felt that he ought to make a few remarks as to the distinction which Prof.  JANSSEN had attempted to establish between astronomical and geographical longitude.  It appeared to him that longitude was longitude.  It would never do if, for geographic purposes, we are to have a second or third-class longitude and for astronomical purposes a first-class longitude.  He said that as a geographer he repudiated any such idea.  When you come to the practical application of the determination of longitude at sea for maritime purposes, it is true that a much less accurate determination suffices than would suffice for the determination of longitude for astronomical observatories; but, for all that, what is the object of a ship desiring to know what its place at sea is?  Obviously to arrive at the port to which it is destined, and the object to be obtained is such a determination of the longitude as to enable that ship to arrive at its port without danger.  You obtain a comparatively imperfect determination of longitude, but it is sufficiently accurate to prevent you from striking on the solid earth.  But how is the longitude of the port to be determined?  Certainly, as has been properly said, by astronomical observations, which can only be made with certainty on the earth.  Consequently, it seemed to him that it is absolutely essential for fixing an initial meridian for the determination of longitude that it should be placed at an astronomical observatory which can be connected with other places by astronomical observations and by telegraph wires, and that the idea of fixing a neutral meridian is nothing more than the establishment of an ideal meridian really based upon some point at which there is located an observatory.  This has been repeated once or twice before, and I need not enlarge upon it.