of France, the libra of Spain, and the lira of some of the States of Italy, all of which were originally equal, or nearly so: and the marc, likewise common to all those countries, denoted a weight of eight ounces, being two-thirds of the above pound. Amongst the Anglo-Saxons, and for some time after the Norman conquest, it appears that there were only two coins in England, the most important although the smallest of which was the silver penny, which was not only the penny-coin, but the penny-weight of those times, being exactly the two hundred and fortieth part of the pound-weight of silver. The second silver coin alluded to was equal to the fifth part of the shilling; but the shilling itself was not a coin, but a weight, and as such, it appears to have been applied to the weighing of bread as well as of money. The beneficial and simple system of absolute identity between weight and silver money, which thus prevailed over a great part of Europe, was not permanent. The standard pound of commerce, which in all probability was originally only twelve ounces, increased to fifteen ounces amongst the Anglo-Saxons, and to sixteen in France and Scotland, and eventually in England also; whilst the local or market pounds in many parts of England and of Scotland, and I have no doubt in other parts of Europe also, increased to a much greater magnitude. I have not been able to discover at what period the commercial pound of France, called livre de marc, and consisting of two marcs, or of 16 ounces, came into general use; but it finally supplanted the pound of twelve ounces entirely, having been adopted by the French physicians in place of an apothecary's weight similar to ours, after the middle of the eighteenth century, when it was considered the only legal weight in France, excepting that, by a curious arrangement, silk was weighed by a pound of fifteen ounces similar to that of the Anglo

In the Assize of Bread and Ale, published in the collection of the Statutes of the Realm, and marked of uncertain date, but supposed to have been a statute of the 5th of Henry the Third, it is declared, that "when a quarter of wheat is sold for eighteenpence, then wastel bread of a farthing, white and well-baked, shall weigh four pounds ten shillings and eightpence ;" and thus it proceeds, giving a progressive scale of prices of wheat, and fixing the assize in proportion, until wheat shall rise to twenty shillings the quarter, when it is declared that the weight of the farthing loaf shall be six shillings and ninepence three farthings.

Saxons. The aliquot parts of the French livre de marc were rather incongruous, the denier, the carat, &c., being used for money, which were not used for other purposes; but, as applied to the wholesale and even to the retail dealings of commerce, the French system of standard weights, before the revolution, possessed great advantages over those of England. It had only one ounce and one pound; and the multiples of the latter were the most convenient that could have been desired, namely, the 'quintal,' or hundredweight of 100 pounds, and the 'millier,' or thousandweight of 1,000 pounds."

Of an attempt made by the French government during the revolution to introduce a decimal system of weights and measures, Mr. J. Q. Adams gives the following account :—

"In the year 1790, the present Prince de Talleyrand, then Bishop of Autun, distributed among the members of the Constituent Assembly of France, a proposal founded upon the excessive diversity and confusion of the weights and measures then prevailing all over that country, for the reformation of the system, or rather for the foundation of a new one upon the principle of a single and universal standard. After referring to the two objects which had previously been suggested by Huyghens and Picard,— the pendulum and the proportional part of the circumference of the earth, he concluded by giving the preference to the former, and presented the project of a decree:-First, that exact copies of all the different weights and elementary measures used in every town of France, should be obtained and sent to Paris: Secondly, that the National Assembly should write a letter to the British parliament, requesting their concurrence with France in the adoption of a natural standard for weights and measures, for which purpose, commissioners in equal numbers from the French Academy of Sciences and the British Royal Society, chosen by those learned bodies respectively, should meet at the most suitable place, and ascertain the length of the pendulum at the 45th degree of latitude, and from it, an invariable standard for all measures and weights: Thirdly, that after the accomplishment, with all due solemnity, of this operation, the French Academy of Sciences should fix with precision the tables of proportion between

* "Observations on the Expediency and Practicability of Simplifying and Improving the Measures, Weights, and Money," &c., 8vo,

1834.

the new standards and the weights and measures previously used in the various parts of France; and that every town should be supplied with exact copies of the new standards, and with tables of comparison between them and those of which they were to supply the place. This decree, somewhat modified, was adopted by the Assembly, and, on the 22nd of August 1790, sanctioned by Louis the Sixteenth. Instead of writing to the British Parliament themselves, the Assembly requested the king to write to the king of Great Britain, inviting him to propose to the parliament the formation of a joint commission of members of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Sciences, to ascertain the natural standard in the length of the pendulum. Whether the forms of the British constitution, the temper of political animosity then subsisting between the two countries, or the convulsions and wars which soon afterwards ensued, prevented the acceptance and execution of this proposal, it is deeply to be lamented that it was not carried into effect. Had the example once been set, of a concerted pursuit of the great common object of uniformity of weights and measures, by two of the mightiest and most enlightened nations upon earth, the prospects of ultimate success would have been greatly multiplied. By no other means can the uniformity, with reference to the persons using the same system, be expected to prevail beyond the limits of each separate nation. Perhaps when the spirit which urges to the improvement of the social condition of man shall have made farther progress against the passions with which it is bound, and by which it is trammelled, then may be the time for reviving and extending that generous and truly benevolent proposal of the Constituent National Assembly of France, and to call for a concert of civilised nations to establish one uniform system of weights and measures for them all. The idea of associating the interests and the learning of other nations in this great effort for common improvement, was not confined to the proposal for obtaining the concurrent agency of Great Britain. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland, were actually represented in the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences to accomplish the purposes of the National Assembly. But, in the first instance, a committee of the Academy of Sciences, consisting of five of the ablest members of the academy and most eminent mathematicians of Europe, Borda, Lagrange, Laplace, Monge, and Condorcet, were chosen, under the decree of the Assembly, to report to that body upon the selection of the natural standard, and other

H

principles proper for the accomplishment of the object. Their report to the Academy was made on the 19th of March 1791, and immediately transmitted to the National Assembly, by whose orders it was printed. The committee, after examining the projects of a natural standard, the pendulum beating seconds, a quarter of the equator, and a quarter of the meridian, had, on full deliberation, and with great accuracy of judgment, preferred the last; and proposed, that its ten millionth part should be taken as the standard unit of linear measure; that, as a second standard of comparison with it, the pendulum vibrating seconds at the 45th degree of latitude should be assumed; and that the weight of distilled water at the point of freezing, measured by a cubical vessel in decimal proportion to the linear standard, should determine the standard of weights and of vessels of capacity."*

In reference to the proposal of a consultation with foreign nations for a general reform of the existing systems of weights and measures, a measure which hopeful philanthropy may now anticipate at no very remote period, Mr. Adams says:

"Although it is respectfully proposed that Congress should immediately sanction this consultation, and that it should commence, in the first instance, with Great Britain and France, it is not expected that it will be attended with immediate success. Ardent as the pursuit of uniformity has been for ages in England, the idea of extending it beyond the British dominion has hitherto received but little countenance there. The operation of changes of opinion there, is slow; the aversion to all innovations, deep. More than two hundred years had elapsed from the Gregorian reformation of the calendar, before it was adopted in England. It is to this day still rejected throughout the Russian Empire. It is not even intended to propose the adoption by ourselves of the French metrology for the present. The reasons have been given for believing that the time is not matured for this reformation. Much less is it supposed advisable to propose its adoption to any other nation. But in consulting them, it will be proper to let them understand, that the design and motive of opening the communication is, to promote the final establishment of a system of weights and measures, to be common to all civilised nations."† On the application of a decimal system to thermometers, Mr Adams says:

J. Q. Adams' Report, pp. 49, 50.

Report, p. 92.

"The divisions of the barometer had always been marked in inches and lines. The application to it of the decimetre, its multiples and divisions, had for observation and calculation the usual conveniences of the decimal arithmetic. The graduation of the thermometer had always been arbitrary and various in different countries. The principle of the instrument was everywhere the same, that of marking the changes of heat and cold in the atmosphere, by the expansion and contraction which they produced upon mercury or alcohol. The range of temperature between boiling and freezing water was usually taken for the term of graduation; but by some it was graduated downwards from heat to cold, and by others, upwards from cold to heat. By some the range between the terminating points was divided into 80, 100, 150, or 212 degrees. One put the freezing, and another the boiling point at 0. Reaumur's thermometer, used in France, began with 0 for the freezing point, and placed the boiling point at 80. Fahrenheit's, commonly used in England, and in this country, has the freezing point at 32, and the boiling point at 212. The centigrade thermometer, adopted by the new system, begins with the freezing point at 0, and places the boiling point at 100 its graduation, therefore, is decimal, and its degrees are to those of Reaumur as five to four, and to those of Fahrenheit as five to nine."*

The immense preponderance of evidence before the Parliamentary Committee is in favour of the retention of the pound sterling as the unit or integer of account, and for its division into a thousand parts. And the reasons are obvious.

The pound sterling is one of the best known and most ancient moneys of account. From the time of the Conquest down to the time of Edward I., it represented one pound of standard silver, weighing 12 ounces troy, so that the value and weight of the shilling was then exactly the twentieth part of a pound of silver, and the penny the twelfth part of the shilling. Successive acts of legislation lowered the value to the present standard, which has been finally fixed, by what is called Peel's Act, at £3 17s. 10 d. per troy ounce of gold.

There is an almost universal desire that, while the pound sterling should be kept as the basis of our accountancy, its name and value should remain unchanged as the unit of the cur

* Report, p. 62.