on the equator will weigh 100-334 lb. in the latitude of London, and 100-545 lb. at the pole. Other difficulties have occurred in the adoption of standards from nature. An exception has been made to the use of water in determining the standard of weight, on account of the difficulty of ascertaining when a vessel is full. Mr. Troughton has ingeniously proposed, that a metallic cylindrical vessel of any given dimension be made so light that when immersed in pure water of a certain temperature, it will neither sink nor swim such a body will weigh its dimension in water, and serve as an accurate standard.

We refer our readers for scientific details upon the subject of invariable standards of weights and measures, to the publications at the head of our Article, particularly to the Introduction of the Cambist,' and proceed to advert to the practical success of legislative enactments for their enforcement.

In 1816, Commissioners were appointed to consider how far it may be practicable and advisable to establish, within his Majesty's dominions, a more uniform system of weights and measures.' They have given an abstract of the various laws enacted for their regulation in commerce, in the Appendix to the First Report. The number of these statutes exceeds two hundred. An account of the provincial weights and measures throughout the kingdom is contained in the Appendix to the Second Report, and occupies nearly twenty folio pages. The commissioners, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Davies Gilbert, Dr. Wollaston, Dr. Young, and Captain Kater, it need not be added, have evinced much science, and bestowed great attention on the subject. They have fixed accurately the established standards; yet they have hardly ventured, after every research and consideration, to prescribe a remedy for the many anomalies referred to in the Reports.

The attempt made by the French government is memorable and recent. Their metrical system is still continued under certain modifications; and it has been partially adopted in some other countries. A commission of scientific men, in 1793, framed a scheme of weights and measures, the basis of which, as before observed, was derived from a portion of an arc of the meridian, and having formed all the multiples and subdivisions by tenths, and given to every one a Greek or Latin denomination, it was thus, at the time, dwelt upon in the Report of the Comité d'Instruction Publique:

'Le nouveau système des mesures est digne d'être offert à toutes les nations: aucun ne serait aussi propre à préparer cette communication de lumière et d'instruction, si ardemment souhaitée par les amis éclairés de l'humanité. La base de ce système est immuable comme la nature elle-même. Dès lors cette mesure fondamentale de toutes celles de la république ne peut plus se perdre; aucun évènement pré

sumable

sumable ne saurait l'anéantir; elle appartient à toutes les nations comme à la France, et sans aucune préférence de localité : les hommes qui cultivent les sciences s'en serviront comme du type d'exactitude le plus authentique qui existe; et les peuples, s'éclairant peu à peu, finiront par en adopter l'usage, qui sera déjà suivi depuis long temps par la république Française.'

In consequence of this Report, the National Convention issued a decree, 18 Germinal an 3, (1795.)

'Il n'y aura qu'un seul étalon des poids et mesures pour toute la république; ce sera une règle de platine sur laquelle sera tracée le metre qui a été adopté pour limite fondamentale de tout le système des me

sures.'

A decree of the I Vendémiaire, an. 4 requires, within four months, all traders to exchange the ell measures at the municipalities for the new metres, and their half-ells for demi-metres. It further declares, that no commercial paper, book, account, acquittance, or writing, describing quantities otherwise than upon the new system, shall be good in law, or cognizable in a court of justice.

Under the consular government, in the year 1800, a law was again made, setting forth, that le mètre et le kilogramme sont les étalons définitifs des mesures de longueur et de poids dans toute la république.'

It might be expected that these repeated enactments would have succeeded; but neither the degree of freedom possessed under the National Convention, nor the absolute power of the imperial government, could enforce the general adoption of the new system. The people were startled at the foreign nomenclature, and however such novelties might be received in the arts, by the learned,—to the uninformed, a shock appeared to be given to nature, to hear, instead of the familiar names of tonneau et quintal, livre et grain, muid et pinte, lieue terrestre et lieue marine, pied de roi et pouce de roi, aune, toise, et arpent, the strange and incomprehensible sounds of myriagramme et kilogramme, decagramme et decigramme, hectolitre et decalitre, myriametre et millimetre, decistere, deciare, decastere, deca-are. All their interests appeared to be threatened and confounded: the trades and crafts, which might see in the new system something more of order, conceived the labour of their lives would be lost, and the secrets of their callings given up with the anomalies which to them seemed inherent parts of their professions. Perhaps the learned themselves, when they descended to the affairs of common life, might be more apt to call for a pint of wine than a litre, to cheapen a pound of bread than a demi-kilogramme, or, to ask an acquaintance to walk a league rather than a demi-myriametre.

A general opposition prevailed, insomuch that, in 1801, the people

people were allowed to resume the ancient vocabulary; and further, in 1812, the imperial government found it expedient,' with a view to join the respect due to the old habits, with the preservation of the new, system,' to permit the use of different subdivisions of the new weights and measures, replacing the decimal system with the binary one of halves, quarters, eighths, &c. By way of distinction the term usuel was added to the old names, as livre usuelle, pinte usuelle, &c. These fractional parts of the new system approached very near to those anciently in use: so that the livre usuelle is now only 3 grains more than the old livre, poids de marc. There are, accordingly, at present, three systems to be studied in France, the metrical of 1795, the usuel of 1812, and the ancient system; which last is still retained over a large part of the country by the common people. But not only was the new system resisted by the lower orders, but merchants of extended transactions in some places adhered tenaciously to their old weights, confining the new ones to the limits of the custom-house. At Marseilles, the poids de table was never abandoned; and at Bordeaux, the old French pound, poids de marc, is still used in commerce, with the quintal of 101 pounds.

While the strongest measures of a despotic government, unaccustomed to concession, have been thus found unsuccessful in establishing uniformity within one country, the speculations of those visionaries who have aimed at the adoption of one system throughout the civilized world must be considered to be utterly hopeless.

In 1817, a proposition was made in this country of a more practical nature. It was addressed to the Board of Trade, approved, and carried into full effect. This was to ascertain the precise proportions which the standard weights and measures of foreign countries bear to those of this kingdom. In pursuance of this object, a circular letter was issued from the Foreign Office, dated 10th March, 1818, and addressed to his Majesty's Consuls abroad, by Lord Castlereagh, directing copies of the weights and measures of the different governments at which they resided, to be procured and transmitted to this country.

The mode of carrying this operation into effect will be best seen by the following extract from his Lordship's dispatch:

'His Majesty's government being desirous of obtaining every.infor mation as to the standards in use, for the various weights and measures in foreign countries, with a view to ascertain their relative bearings to those in use here, for the benefit of the commercial interests of this country:

'I am to desire that you will use your endeavour to procure, with as little delay as may be, two sets of models, being counterparts in

every respect, of the standard pound or mark, used at your place of residence for weighing gold and silver, and also of other lesser weights used for that purpose..

If, in any place within your consulate, the standard pound or mark, with its lesser weights, used for weighing gold or silver, should differ from those in use at your place of residence, you will procure also two sets of the weights so differing.

You will have the accuracy of all these weights regularly attested by the proper authorities.

You will state the difference and proportion between the pound which is used for weighing gold and silver, and that pound used for ordinary articles, which is generally known by the name of the " commercial pound."

'You will state the contents of the principal measures used at your place of residence, and at other places within your consulate, for the measure of corn, and of the principal measure for wine, and also of their lesser measures.

'You will add in your letter such other information as you can collect, or may be in possession of, for throwing light upon the general subject of this instruction.'

These orders appear to have been executed in a very accurate manner. Foreign standards, duly attested by the proper authorities, with dispatches containing much valuable information, were received from all the British consuls abroad, and deposited at the Mint. They have subsequently been placed under the charge of Dr. Kelly, with whom the plan originated, and whose eminence in mathematical science and experience in commercial calculations, peculiarly fitted him for the undertaking. It appears that he has diligently superintended the operation through all its stages. With great labour, and no doubt with the utmost accuracy, these foreign weights and measures have been compared with those of this country. This was chiefly carried on at his Majesty's Mint, and with the assistance of the principal officers of that department, particularly the determining of the relative proportions of the weights employed for the precious metals. The result is embodied in the present edition of the Cambist.'

This undertaking is the first of the kind that has been accomplished upon a great scale, or that has, at any time, been more than partially attempted under the authority of any government. It is peculiarly worthy of this great commercial nation, and must be found extensively useful to foreigners as well as our countrymen; engaged in carrying on the intercourse of the inhabitants of different countries and climates. It is to be hoped, that the models thus procured and verified by the respective governments, will be placed in some public repository where they may be preserved : hereafter they may be recurred to by the inhabitants of the quarter VOL. XXVI. NO. LII.

EE

to

to which they belong, as accurate specimens of their standards, if, in the lapse of time, their own archetypes be lost or impaired.

By the comparison, corrections were made in many proportions hitherto received. From their resting on vague and doubtful authority, this was to be expected. But it may serve as some extenuation of the anomalies in weights and measures existing in common life, to notice that an error in the relation of English and French weights has prevailed for the last eighty years, and of important extent, considering the scientific sources from which it originated.

In 1742, the Royal Society of London and the Royal Academy. of Sciences at Paris, exchanged each a set of standards of the weights and measures of the two countries, with a view of de-. termining their relative contents; and it was also decided that the standards when thus compared should be preserved in their respective archives. The societies agreed in all their experiments, and the results are fully detailed in the Philosophical Transactions of that year, vol. xlii. p. 185. The French pound was established to be equal to 7560 grains troy; and thence the kilogramme was reckoned to be 15,444 grains.

In the experiments however made at the London Mint in 1820, the kilogramme was found to weigh 15,433 grains only, and the French pound 7555 grains. This difference led to an examination of the standards of 1742, preserved by the Royal Society, when the troy pound was found to be nearly four grains too light: the inaccuracy not having arisen on the part of the learned Societies, but on that of the weight-maker, who had furnished them with a defective standard.

To

This error of per cent. in the computed proportion between the weights of England and France has pervaded all calculations in which that proportion has entered during so long a time. the merchant it might not be of so much importance, because in rough, and even in the more valuable commodities, inattention and unavoidable waste will cause much greater variation. Its chief effect has been in matters of science, and in some objects of finance. Thus the par of exchange between this country and France has sometimes been reckoned to be 25.13, at others 25.20, and now, upon the accurate proportion of the weights, it is found to be 25.22 francs for the pound sterling. It is amusing to reflect how many a political calculator, who, since 1742, has been desponding or elated, as the exchange has appeared above or below par, has been agitated on a basis so far fallacious; and all proceeding from an error of a weight-maker! We are not disposed to lay any great stress upon the fluctuations possible in the exchange between two countries, where each possesses a sound metallic currency, as being either beneficial or detrimental to the one or the

other: