Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. Mr. President, I do not in reality propose to adopt the meridian or anti-meridian of Rome. What I have been contending for is that we should abstain at present from adopting any meridian as a point of departure for the calculation of time; otherwise, we introduce a new element of confusion for the future. We should change the chronological reckoning which is now in vogue, and I contend that we have no right, scientific or historical, to make that change now. According to my views, the meridian of longitude is relatively an unimportant affair. It is a practical one; it cannot be changed in twenty years, probably, and it will take that time to correct all existing charts. But if you adopt a meridian for time, it will be very difficult to alter it in the future. I cannot now clearly see what the difficulties will be, but I apprehend that the application of this new principle to the various details of scientific and civil matters will necessarily be attended with great inconvenience, and may result in proving to be quite impracticable. I understand it very well that it is proposed to confine this principle to certain subjects, and that it is adopted for the purpose of avoiding dangers in communications, in navigation, in railways, and in transmitting telegrams, &c.; but this is purely an administrative matter, and can be left for settlement to other bodies. The PRESIDENT. The Chair would remind the Delegate of Spain, Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, that at its last session the Conference resolved, with singular unanimity, that it was expedient to adopt "a universal day for all purposes for which it may be found convenient, and which shall not interfere with the local or other standard time where desirable." The Chair would politely suggest that the subject now under consideration is the adoption of the proposition recommended by the Conference at Rome, and which has been presented here by the Delegate of Sweden, Count LEWENHAUPT. Mr. RUIZ DEL ARBOL, Delegate of Spain. My proposition is to abstain from the adoption of any one meridian, and that we leave the matter to some other Congress, organized with the special object of regulating this question.