STRUVE'S observation met with the unanimous approval of the
Delegates.

The PRESIDENT. Gentlemen, I am greatly honored by the kind expression
of your good feeling towards me as the President of this Conference,
and I thank you very heartily for it. The duty assigned to us all has
not been free from difficulty, but our meetings and discussions have
been characterized by great courtesy and kindness, and by a
conciliatory spirit.

With patience and devotion the Delegates to this Congress have sought
to discharge the trust committed to them, and, as your Chairman, I beg
you to receive my most cordial thanks for the courteous consideration
I have received at your hands. The President of the United States and
the Secretary of State desire me to renew to you their thanks for your
presence here, and their best wishes for your safe and happy return
each to his own home.

I shall esteem myself very happy hereafter whenever I shall have the
good fortune to meet any of my colleagues of the International
Meridian Conference.

Mr. RUTHERFURD, the Delegate of the United States. Mr. President and
gentlemen, I am sure that you will all unite with me in passing the
resolution which I now propose to read:

"_Resolved_, That the thanks of the Conference be presented
to the Secretaries for the able manner in which they have
discharged their arduous duties."

The resolution was unanimously adopted.

General STRACHEY, Delegate of Great Britain. I wish, sir, as one of
the Secretaries, to express my thanks for the manner in which my
labors have been esteemed by the delegates present. All that I can say
on the subject is, that however troublesome the duties of the
Secretaries have been, I have not the least doubt that anybody else
named instead of myself would equally have bestowed his best attention
on the discharge of those duties.

Mr. JANSSEN, Delegate of France, then said: Before the dissolution of
the Conference, Mr. CRULS and I desire specially to thank our
colleagues for the honor they have done us by entrusting to us the
revision of the French version of the protocols. In order that we
might fully respond to that honor, we have examined with all possible
care the French translations of the remarks of our colleagues. Our
only regret is that, in consequence of the desire of several of them
to quit Washington, we have been obliged to leave portions of the
translations, particularly of the last protocols, much in