ntatnwtional Jfatwtial 
 
 ME. RUGGLES' REPORTS. 
 
REPORTS 
 
 SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, 
 
 DELEGATE TO THE 
 
 [ 
 
 international Statistical Congress, 
 
 AT BERLIN, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 AND ON A 
 
 UNIFORM SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS, MEASURES AND COINS. 
 
 FEINTED BY ORDER OF THE ASSEMBLY, 
 BY J. B. CUSHMAN, CLEBK. 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 WEED, PARSONS & COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 1864. 
 

STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 IN ASSEMBLY. 
 
 ALBANY, April 2, 1864. 
 On motion of Mr. A. X. PARKER, 
 
 Resolved, That ten copies of the report of the Hon. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES to the International 
 Statistical Congress, at Berlin, for 1863, and ten copies of the Report to the Secretary of 
 State, in respect to uniform weights, measures and coins, be procured by the clerk for each 
 member, officer and reporter of the Assembly. 
 
 By order, 
 
 J. B. CUSHMAN, Clerk. 
 
REPORT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL CONGRESS, 
 
 BY SAMUEL B. KUGGLES, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 THE ACCOMPANYING COMMUNICATION TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 SEPTEMBER 14, 1863. 
 
REPORT. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, ) 
 WASHINGTON, January 18, 1864. ) 
 
 I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 
 14th instant, a copy of the report on the resources of the United 
 States, presented to the International Statistical Congress at 
 Berlin, in September last, by the Hon. Samuel B. Euggles, 
 together with a copy of his letter to the Department of State, 
 
 transmitting the report. 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWAED. 
 
 The SENATE of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Euggles to Mr. Seward. 
 
 BERLIN, September 14, 1863. 
 
 SIR: Li pursuance of your instructions accompanying the 
 appointment of the undersigned as representative of the United 
 States of America at the International Statistical Congress at 
 Berlin, in September instant, he embarked for Europe in the 
 first German steamer after receiving his commission, and reached 
 
 Berlin, after some detention on the Atlantic, on the afternoon 
 
 _ 
 
 of the 6th of September. No business of importance had been 
 transacted in the Congress up to that time, except the pre- 
 sentation of the credentials of the delegates. 
 
 M180836 
 
8 
 
 On the ?th of September, the credentials of the undersigned 
 were presented and approved, at which time representatives from 
 the following countries, stated in alphabetical order, had been 
 duly admitted, viz. 
 
 The United States of America ; Anhalt-Dessau ; Austria ; Baden ; 
 Bavaria; Belgium; the Danubian Provinces; Denmark; France; 
 Frankfort; Great Britain; Hamburg; Hanover; Holland; Holstein; 
 Hesse-Cassel; Hesse-Darmstadt; Italy; Lubeck; Mecklenburg- 
 Schwerin; Norway; Oldenburg; Portugal; Prussia; Eussia; Saxe- 
 Coburg; Saxe- Weimar; Saxony; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; 
 Turkey; and Wirtemberg. 
 
 The representatives of most of the nations above specified 
 made reports to the Congress on the statistics of their respective 
 countries, which will be duly published in German and in French, 
 in the official proceedings or "Compte Rendu" of the Congress. 
 In general, the proceedings and debates were in the German 
 language, but to some extent in French and English. 
 
 Through some accidental and unintentional omission, none of 
 the States of South America, or of Central America, sent 
 delegates to the Congress, although Brazil, especially, had 
 been represented in preceding sessions of the Congress. The 
 name of the undersigned was erroneously entered in the 
 printed and published lists as delegate from "North America," 
 
 but on his application the error will be corrected in the official 
 
 t 
 report of the proceedings. 
 
 On Friday, the llth of September, being the sixth day of the 
 session, a statistical report was presented to the Congress by 
 the undersigned, in behalf of the United States of America, 
 of which a copy is herewith transmitted. 
 
 It is proper to state that the composition and character of 
 the Congress, as shown by its proceedings and published reports 
 at the preceding sessions, were merely "statistical," and in no 
 respect economical or political, rendering it proper and necessary 
 
9 
 
 to refrain in the report from any speculations or deductions 
 as to the practical use or employment of the resources to be 
 statistically exhibited, or any political discussion of the charac- 
 ter, conduct' or possible result of the pending insurrection 
 against the Government of the American Union ; but rather to 
 present the cardinal elements of its material strength and 
 resources, past and present, in such arithmetical and statistical 
 form as should furnish, of itself, to the Congress, and the 
 countries therein represented, sufficient elements for any neces- 
 sary conclusions. 
 
 Again, it was desirable and necessary, for the purpose of 
 securing the publication and circulation, to any considerable 
 extent, of such a statement, to condense the facts as far as 
 practicable, to select only the most prominent, and to seek, 
 by a well-defined outline, to present the subject clearly and 
 distinctly. 
 
 Keeping these considerations in view, the report was there- 
 fore confined mainly to the four cardinal elements of our 
 national strength, embraced under the heads Territory; Popu- 
 lation; Agricultural Production; and Precious Metals. It is 
 not denied that other branches, though comparatively less 
 important, might have been added; but under the circum- 
 stances, those presented were thought sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 In view of the insurrection still affecting the industry and 
 products of a certain portion of the Union, and rendering it 
 difficult to state or estimate their present value with any 
 statistical accuracy, they were not embraced in the report to 
 the present Congress, under the belief that the full restoration 
 of tranquillity before the next session, in 1865, will then 
 enable the representative of the United States to fully supply 
 the deficiency. 
 
 The present session has been signalized by the adoption of 
 
 important resolutions in respect to a uniform system of weights, 
 2 
 
10 
 
 measures and coins, for the use of the civilized world, and 
 materially affecting the United States of America. A large 
 Commission, embracing representatives of high attainments, 
 from fourteen different nations and countries, was instituted 
 at the Congress of 1860, held in London, to report a system 
 for consideration at the present session. The undersigned, on 
 taking his seat in the body, was invited, in behalf of the 
 United States, to confer and unite with that Commission in 
 its proposed and forthcoming report. A draft of that report 
 had been printed, presenting, in review, the different nations 
 which had adopted, or were disposed to adopt, the metric 
 system of weights and measures, but in which it was stated 
 that "the Confederate States of America have expressed a desire 
 to introduce the metric system of weights and measures." 
 The undersigned, on perceiving the statement, protested at 
 once against its propriety, or its admission into the report, 
 on the ground that the "Confederate States," so called, had 
 no separate, national, lawful existence, but still formed 
 integral portions of the United States of America. The 
 objection was acquiesced in, and the words in question were 
 modified so as to read, "Some of the States of America 
 have expressed a desire," &c., &c. The statement is known 
 to be true in respect to some of the States of South America, 
 and possibly as to some of the States of our American Union. 
 
 The proposition presented by that Commission to the Congress 
 in respect to weights, measures and coins, looking to an 
 eventual change in the weight of the British sovereign and 
 of the American dollar to reduce them to even multiples of 
 the franc, with the modifications which these propositions 
 underwent in the Congress, are of so much importance and 
 gravity that the undersigned will require some little time for 
 reporting them fully, with the necessary accompanying docu- 
 ments, to the Government of the United States. He will 
 
11 
 
 seek to do so, with all practicable dispatch, after his return to 
 America. The subject necessarily embraces the grave and 
 difficult question of the relative value of gold and silver, 
 present and prospective, and the proper adjustment of the 
 coins of both metals, to keep pace with the fluctuations in 
 their production and supply. For this purpose, the undersigned 
 thought it necessary to propose, at the conclusion of the report 
 on the metalliferous regions of the United States, that the 
 subject of the production of gold and silver should be investi- 
 gated by a Commission to be instituted by the International 
 Statistical Congress; but on a full consideration by the Section 
 to which the subject was referred, it was decided, and perhaps 
 properly, that the investigation could not be properly made 
 by the Congress, which was statistical and not economical in 
 its aims, and that the necessary inquiry might better be left 
 to the governments of the three great gold-producing countries, 
 being the United States; Great Britain in respect to Australia, 
 New Zealand and British America; and Eussia; and more 
 especially as the inquiry, to be of any practical value, must 
 be conducted under the authority and direction of those 
 respective governments. Meanwhile, the decided opinion has 
 been expressed by the delegates in the present Congress from 
 Gre^at Britain and from Eussia, that the necessary inquiries on 
 a subject so important to the currency of the world, will be 
 prosecuted by those governments with all proper efficiency 
 and dispatch. 
 
 During the session of the present Congress, a resolution was 
 passed, on motion of Professor Schubert, of the University of 
 Konigsburgh, that it was "advisable, and very useful to the 
 general interests of statistical science, that of all official works 
 and communications published by statistical bureaus, one copy 
 shall be given to all the universities and high academies of 
 the states of Europe, to be preserved in their libraries." A 
 
12 
 
 motion made by the undersigned, at a subsequent day, and 
 seconded by Professor Schubert, was unanimously passed by 
 the Congress, that the resolution be modified and enlarged 
 "so as to include the public libraries in six of the principal 
 cities of the United States of America, to be designated by 
 the State Department at Washington." 
 
 The Congress adjourned on the llth of September, after 
 having received the marked hospitality and consideration of 
 the government of Prussia, and of the inhabitants of Berlin. 
 
 Of the period of thirty days after the adjournment allowed 
 to the undersigned for returning to the United States, he will 
 employ the first two weeks in visiting Eussia, to collect the 
 statistics of the product of gold in that country; for which 
 purpose the representatives of that government in the Congress, 
 and also the Eussian Minister at Berlin, have courteously 
 afforded him important facilities. 
 
 The undersigned has the honor to remain, with high respect, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 SAMUEL B. EUGGLES. 
 
 His Excellency WILLIAM H. SEWAED, 
 
 Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c. 
 

 
 International Statistical Congress at Berlin. 
 
 VI. SESSION. 
 
 SIXTH ID-A.-S-'S SESSION. 
 
 SEPTEMBER llth, 1863. 
 
 REPORT FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 ME. SAMUEL B. BUGGLES, Delegate from the United States of 
 America, presented the following Eeport : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the 
 
 International Statistical Congress: 
 
 The Government of Prussia having specially requested, through 
 its Minister at Washington, his Excellency the Baron Gerolt, that 
 the Government of the United States of America should send a 
 representative to the International Statistical Congress to con- 
 vene at Berlin on the 6th of September, 1863, the President of 
 the United States, on the 14th of August, appointed the 
 undersigned to that office. The session of the Congress being 
 so near at hand, the undersigned was necessarily obliged to 
 embark for Europe without delay, and was thus prevented 
 from collecting, in due season, as large a portion as could 
 
14 
 
 have been desired, of the numerous documents and publica- 
 tions illustrating the statistics of the United States. Much 
 important information, though often wanting in classification 
 and arrangement, is embraced in various official papers issued 
 under public authority, both National and State, and also by 
 Boards of Trade and other voluntary societies whose labors 
 are more or less statistical. Attempts have been made to 
 impart to American statistics more of an analytical and 
 scientific character, by means of official Bureaux to be spe- 
 cially organized for the purpose. The State of Ohio, some 
 years since, under the administration of Governor Chase, the 
 present Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, estab- 
 lished a Bureau of Statistics, as one of the organs of the 
 State government, which was committed to the charge of 
 Mr. Mansfield, whose copious and instructive Annual Eeports, 
 fully justify the selection: while far away, in the remote 
 interior, beyond the great chain of Lakes, the infant State 
 of Minnesota, with a single exception the youngest in the 
 American Union, containing, by the census of 1860, but 173,000 
 inhabitants clustered around the head waters of the Upper 
 Mississippi, and more than fifteen hundred miles from the 
 Atlantic, established, almost at the moment of its birth, a 
 Bureau of Statistics. Two of the Annual Eeports of its 
 able Commissioner of Statistics, Mr. Wheelock, are now sub- 
 mitted to the inspection of the International Statistical 
 Congress, as affording reasonable ground of hope, that, in 
 due time, America may at least approach in scientific accuracy 
 and philosophical arrangement, the more mature and perfect 
 performances of the statisticians of Europe. 
 
 The Congress of the United States has not yet established 
 a distinct Bureau of Statistics, although repeatedly recom- 
 mended and urged to do so; but in taking the census of 
 inhabitants, required by the National Constitution at intervals 
 
15 
 
 not exceeding ten years, the practice has been gradually 
 introduced of superadding, by special direction of Congress, 
 inquiries, more or less extensive, in regard to various branches 
 of industry and production, and recently embracing social 
 statistics to a moderate extent so that the compend of the 
 census of 1860, herewith submitted to the International Statis- 
 tical Congress, will be found to contain a considerable mass 
 of statistical information illustrating the material and, to 
 some extent, the social and moral condition of the nation. 
 Under the limited powers conferred by Congress, the active 
 and inteljigent officers who have successively filled the office 
 of Superintendent, and particularly Mr. Kennedy, who partici- 
 pated in one or more of the previous sessions of the International 
 Statistical Congress, have earnestly exerted their best efforts 
 to render the inquiries authorized by law, useful not only to 
 the country, but to the cause of statistical science. It is 
 confidently believed that the enlightened labors of the present 
 body, may do much to induce the legislative authorities of 
 the United States to recognize a competent Bureau of Statistics 
 as a national necessity, and thereby place their country on 
 an equality, in that respect, with the most intelligent nations 
 of the world. 
 
 Even then, some time must elapse, before it will fully attain 
 that power of acute, comprehensive and thorough analysis in 
 the various branches of statistical inquiry, which has so dis- 
 tinguished the eminent European statisticians, in their valuable 
 labors in the International Statistical Congress during the present 
 and the preceding sessions. 
 
 It is cause for general congratulation that those who conduct 
 the public affairs of nations have become generally convinced, 
 that a State cannot be wisely or safely governed, without an 
 accurate knowledge of quantities. Abstract theories and his- 
 torical traditions doubtless have their use and their proper 
 
16 
 
 place, but statistics are the very eyes of the statesman, 
 enabling him to survey and scan with clear but comprehensive 
 vision, the whole structure and economy of the body politic 
 to adjust, in finest harmony all its varied functions to regulate 
 and invigorate the healthful circulation of every artery and 
 vein, from the central, vital trunk to the most remote and 
 delicate articulation. 
 
 Not only so. In this modern world where steam has abolished 
 space, the statesman, to deserve the name, must carefully 
 survey the statistics of all the nations that commerce can 
 approach, so that with nice and skillful hand, he may adapt 
 the administration of his particular government to the due 
 measure of its comparative capacities and powers. 
 
 It is under the conviction, that this new-born, modern 
 "solidarity of nations" renders the statistics of each important 
 to all, that the undersigned, in behalf of the United States 
 of America, now ventures briefly to invite the attention of 
 the International Statistical Congress, to some of the most 
 prominent features exhibited by the compend of the census 
 of 1860, now before this body, and especially to the evidence 
 which it furnishes, of the rate and extent of material progress 
 of the human race in that portion of the New World, com- 
 mitted by Providence to the care of the American Union. 
 The exhibition will certainly furnish to some extent the means 
 of statistical comparison with other portions of the world, 
 and thereby enable the International Statistical Congress, in 
 due time, to discharge what may become a very important 
 and world-wide duty, in classifying the results from the reports 
 of individual countries, and thus to present in scientific form 
 the prominent and distinctive features of the comparative 
 anatomy of nations. 
 
 Nor is it to be feared that such a classification or comparison 
 could ever be deemed useless or invidious. On this point the 
 
17 
 
 present body fortunately is able to refer to the highest 
 authority. The impressive words, in the opening address of 
 the late Prince Albert, who deemed it no derogation from 
 his eminent rank as the royal consort of the British Sovereign, 
 to preside personally over your deliberations, and whose 
 untimely death is mourned in both hemispheres as a loss to 
 the human race, now come to us with solemn earnestness. 
 
 In the noble language of that truly exalted Prince, such 
 comparisons will only "prove to us afresh in figures, what 
 "we know already from feeling and experience how depend- 
 "ent the different nations are upon each other, for their 
 "progress for 'their moral and material prosperity and that 
 "the essential condition of their mutual happiness, is the 
 "maintenance of peace and good will among each other. Let 
 "them then be rivals, but rivals in the noble race of social 
 "improvement, in which, although it may be the lot of one 
 "to arrive first at the goal, yet all will equally share the 
 "prize all feeling their own powers and strength increase in 
 " the healthy competition." 
 
 The Compend of the census of 1860, and other official docu- 
 ments now submitted to the International Statistical Congress, 
 will establish the following cardinal facts, in respect to the terri- 
 tory, population, and progress in material wealth of the United 
 States of America : 
 
 I. The territorial area of the United States, at the peace of 1783, 
 then bounded west by the Mississippi river, was 820,680 square 
 miles, about four times that of France, which is stated to be 
 207,145 exclusive of Algeria. The purchase from France of Lou- 
 isiana, in 1804, added to this area 899,680 square miles. Purchases 
 from Spain and from Mexico, and the Oregon treaty with Eng- 
 
18 
 
 land, added the further quantity of 1,215,907 square miles; making 
 the total present territory 2,936,166 square miles, or 1,879,146,240 
 acres. 
 
 Of this immense area, possessing a great variety of climate and 
 culture, so large a portion is fertile, that it has been steadily 
 absorbed by the rapidly increasing population. In May last, there 
 remained undisposed of and belonging to the Government of the 
 United States 964,901,625 acres. 
 
 To prevent any confusion of boundaries, the lands are carefully 
 surveyed and allotted by the Government, and are then granted 
 gratuitously to actual settlers, or sold for prices not exceeding a 
 dollar and a quarter per acre to purchasers other than settlers. It 
 appears by the Eeport of the Commissioner of the General Land 
 Office, a copy of which is herewith furnished, that the quantity 
 surveyed and ready for sale, in September, 1862, was 135,142,999 
 acres. The Eeport also states, that the recent discoveries of rich 
 and extensive gold fields in some of the unsurveyed portions, are 
 rapidly filling the interior with a population whose necessities 
 require the speedy survey and disposition of large additional tracts. 
 The immediate survey is not, however, of vital importance, as the 
 first occupant practically gains the pre-emptive claim to the land 
 after the survey is completed. The cardinal, the great continental 
 fact, so to speak, is this, that the whole of this vast body of land 
 is freely open to gratuitous occupation, without delay or difficulty 
 of any kind. 
 
 II. The population of the United States, as shown by the Census 
 of 1860, was 31,445,080, of which number 26,975,575 were white, 
 and 4,441,766 black, of various degrees of color of the blacks 
 3,953,760 being returned as slaves. Whether any, or what propor- 
 tion, of the number are hereafter to be statistically considered 
 as " Slaves" depends upon contingencies, which it would be prema- 
 ture at the present time to discuss. 
 
19 
 
 The increase of population since the establishment of the Gov- 
 ernment, has been as follows : 
 
 1790, 3,929,827 
 
 1800, 5,305,937 increase 35.02 per cent. 
 
 1810, 7,239,814 " 36.45 
 
 1820, 9,638,191 i " 33.13 
 
 1830,12,866,020 " 33.49 " 
 
 1840, 17,069,453 " 32.67 
 
 1850, 23,191,876 " 35.87 
 
 1860, 31,445,080 " 35.59 
 
 This rate of progress, especially since 1820, is owing, in part, to 
 immigration from foreign countries. 
 
 There arrived in the 10 years : 
 
 From 1820 to 1830, 244,490 
 
 " 1830tol840, 552,000 
 
 " 1840tol850, 1,558,300 
 
 " 1850 to 1860, . . 2, 707, 624 
 
 Total, r 5,062,414 
 
 being a yearly average of 126,560 for the forty years, and 270,762 
 for the last ten years. 
 
 The disturbances in the United States, caused by the existing 
 insurrection, and commencing in April,1861, have temporarily and 
 partially checked this current of immigration, but during the pre- 
 sent year it is again increasing. 
 
 The records of the Commissioners of Emigration of New York 
 show that the arrivals at that port alone have been 
 
 From Ireland. From Germany. Total, including all 
 other countries. 
 
 1861, 27,754 27,159 65,529 
 
 1862, , 32,217 27,740 76,306 
 
 1863, 64,465 18, 724 about 98, 000 
 
 (up to August 20th, 7 2-3 months.) 
 
 The proportions of the whole number of 5,062,414 arriving from 
 foreign countries, in the forty years from 1820 to 1860, were as 
 follows : 
 
20 
 
 From Ireland, 967, 366 
 
 England, 302,665 
 
 Scotland, 47, 800 
 
 Wales, 7,935 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland, . 1, 425, 018 
 
 2,750, 784 
 
 From Germany, 1, 546, 976 
 
 Sweden, 36,129 
 
 Denmark and Norway, 5, 540 
 
 1, 588, 145 
 
 From France, 208, 063 
 
 Italy, 11,302 
 
 Switzerland, 37, 732 
 
 Spain, 16,245 
 
 British America, 117, 142 
 
 China ( in California almost 
 
 exclusively ), 41, 443 
 
 All other countries, or un- 
 known, 291, 558 
 
 723, 485 
 
 5, 062, 414 
 
 It is not ascertainable how many have returned to foreign coun- 
 tries, but they probably do not exceed a million. 
 
 If the present partial check to immigration should continue, 
 though it is hardly probable, the number of immigrants for the 
 decade ending in 1870, may possibly be reduced from 2,707,624 to 
 1,500,000. 
 
 The ascertained average of increase of the whole population in 
 the seven decades from 1790 to 1860, which is very nearly 33J per 
 cent, or one-third for each decade, would carry the present num- 
 bers, 31,445,080 
 
 by the year 1870 to 41, 926, 750 
 
 From which deduct for the possible diminution of im- 
 migrants as above, 1, 207, 624 
 
 there would remain 40, 719, 126 
 
21 
 
 Mr. Kennedy, the experienced Superintendent of the Census, 
 in the Compend, published in 1862, at page 7, estimates the popu- 
 lation of 1870, at 42,318,432, and of 1880, at 56,450,241. 
 
 The rate of progress of the population of the United States has 
 much exceeded that of any of the European nations. The expe- 
 rienced statisticians in the present Congress can readily furnish 
 the figures precisely showing the comparative rate. 
 
 The population of France in 
 
 1801 was 27,349,003 
 
 1821 " 30,461,875 
 
 1831 " 32,569,223 
 
 1841 " 34,230,178 
 
 1851 " 35,283,170 
 
 1861 " 37,472,132 
 
 being about 37 per cent in the sixty years. It does not include 
 Algeria, which has a European population of 192,746. 
 
 The population of Prussia has increased, since 1816, as follows : 
 
 1816 10,319,993 
 
 1822 11, 664, 133 
 
 1834 13,038,970 
 
 1840 14,928,503 
 
 , 1849 16,296,483 
 
 1858 17,672,609 
 
 1861 18,491,220 
 
 being at the rate of 79 per cent in forty-five years. 
 
 The population of England and Wales was, in 
 
 1801 ^ 9,156,171 
 
 1811 10,454,529 
 
 1821 12,172,664 
 
 1831 14,051,986 
 
 1841 16,935,198 
 
 1851 18, 054, 170 
 
 1861 20,227,746 
 
 showing an increase of 121 per cent in the sixty years, against 
 an increase in the United States, in sixty years, of 593 per cent. 
 
22 
 
 m. The natural and inevitable result of this great increase of 
 population, enjoying an ample supply of fertile land, is seen in a 
 corresponding advance in the material wealth of the people of the 
 United States. For the purpose of State taxation, the values of 
 their real and personal property are yearly assessed by officers ap- 
 pointed by the States. The assessment does not include large 
 amounts of property held by religious, educational, charitable and 
 other associations exempted by law from taxation, nor any public 
 property of any description. In actual practice, the real property 
 is rarely assessed for more than two-thirds of its cash value, while 
 large amounts of personal property, being easily concealed, escape 
 assessment altogether. 
 
 The assessed value of that portion of property which is thus 
 actually taxed, increased as follows : 
 
 In 1791 (estimated) $750, 000, 000 
 
 1816 (estimated) 1, 800, 000, 000 
 
 1850 official valuation, 7, 135, 780, 228 
 
 1860 do 16,159,616,068 
 
 showing an increase in the last decade alone of $9,023,835,840. 
 
 A question has been raised, in some quarters, as to the correct- 
 ness of these valuations of 1850 and 1860, in embracing in the 
 valuation of 1850 $961,000,000, and in the valuation of 1860 
 $1,936,000,000, as the assessed value of slaves, insisting that black 
 men are persons and not property, and should be regarded, like 
 other men, only as producers and consumers. If this view of the 
 subject should be admitted, the valuation of 1850 would be reduced 
 
 to $6,174,780,000 
 
 and that of 1860 to. . . 14, 223, 618, 068 
 
 leaving the increase in the decade $8, 048, 825, 840 
 
 The advance, even if reduced to $8,048,825,840, is sufficiently 
 large to require the most attentive examination. It is an increase 
 of property over the valuation of 1850 of 130 per cent, while the 
 increase of population in the same decade was but 35.59 per cent. 
 
23 
 
 In seeking for the cause of this discrepancy, we shall reach a fun- 
 damental and all important fact, which will furnish the key to the 
 past and to. the future progress of the United States. It is the 
 power they possess, by means of canals and railways, to practi- 
 cally abolish the distance between the sea-board and the wide- 
 spread and fertile regions of the interior, thereby removing the 
 clog on their agricultural industry, and virtually placing them side 
 by side with the communities on the Atlantic. During the decade 
 ending in 1860, the sum of $413,541,510 was expended within the 
 limits of the interior central group known as the "food-exporting 
 States," in constructing 11,212 miles of railway,"to connect them 
 with the sea-board. The traffic receipts from those roads were : 
 
 In 1860, $31,335,031 
 
 1861, 35,305,509 
 
 1862, 44,908,405 
 
 The saving to the communities themselves in the transporta- 
 tion, for which they thus paid $44,908,405, was at least five times 
 that amount, while the increase in the exports from that portion 
 of the Union, greatly animated not only the commerce of the 
 Atlantic States carrying those exports over their railways to the 
 sea-board, but the manufacturing industry of the Eastern States, 
 that exchange the fabrics of their workshops for the food of the 
 interior 
 
 By carefully analyzing the $8,048,825,840, in question, we find 
 that the six manufacturing States of New England received $735,- 
 754,244 of the amount : that the middle Atlantic or carrying and 
 commercial States, from New York to Maryland inclusive, re- 
 ceived $1,834,911,579; and that the food-producing interior itself, 
 embracing the eight great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 
 gan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, received $2,810,- 
 000,000. This very large accession of wealth to this single group 
 of States is sufficiently important to be stated more in detail. The 
 group, taken as a whole, extends from the western boundaries of 
 
24 
 
 New York and Pennsylvania to the Missouri river, through four- 
 teen degrees of longitude, and from the Ohio river north to the 
 British dominions, through twelve degrees of latitude. It embraces 
 an area of 441,167 square miles, or 282,134,688 acres, nearly all of 
 which is arable and exceedingly fertile, much of it in prairie and 
 ready at once for the plough. There may be a small portion adja- 
 cent to Lake Superior unfit for cultivation, but it is abundantly 
 compensated by its rich deposits of copper and of iron of the best 
 quality. 
 
 Into this immense natural garden in a salubrious and desirable 
 portion of the temperate zone, the swelling stream of population, 
 from the older Atlantic States and from Europe, has steadily 
 flowed during the last decade, increasing its previous popula- 
 tion from 5,403,595 to 8,957,690, an accession of 3,554,095 
 inhabitants gained by the peaceful conquest of Nature, fully 
 equal to the population of Silesia, which cost Frederick the 
 Great the Seven Years War, and exceeding that of Scotland, 
 the subject of struggle for centuries. 
 
 The rapid influx of population into this group of States 
 increased the quantity of the " improved " land, thereby mean- 
 ing farms more or less cultivated, within their limits, from 
 36,680,361 acres in 1850 to 51,826,395 acres in 1860, but 
 leaving a residue yet to be improved of 230,308,203 acres. 
 The area of 25,146,054 acres thus taken in ten years from 
 the prairie and the forest, is equal to seven-eighths of the 
 arable area of England, stated by its political economists 
 to be 28,000,000 of acres. 
 
 The area embraced in the residue will permit a similar 
 operation to be repeated eight times successively, plainly 
 demonstrating the capacity of this group of States to expand 
 their present population of 8,957,690 to at least thirty, if not 
 forty millions of inhabitants, without inconvenience. 
 
25 
 
 The effects of this influx of population in increasing the 
 pecuniary wealth, as well as the agricultural products of the 
 States in question, are signally manifest in the census. The 
 assessed value of their real and personal property, ascended 
 from $1,116,000,000 in 1850, to 3,926,000,000 in 1860, showing 
 a clear increase of $2,810,000,000. We can best measure this 
 rapid and enormous accession of wealth, by comparing it with 
 an object which all nations value the commercial marine. 
 The commercial tonnage of the United States. 
 
 In 1840, was 2,180,764 tons. 
 " 1850, " 3,535,454 " 
 " 1860, " 5,358,808 " 
 
 At $50 per ton, which is a full estimate, the whole pecuniary 
 value of the 5,358,808 tons, embracing all our commercial fleets 
 on the oceans and lakes and rivers, and numbering nearly 
 thirty thousand vessels, would be but $267,940,000; whereas the 
 increase in the pecuniary value of the States under considera- 
 tion, in each year of the last decade, was 281,000,000. Five 
 years' increase would purchase every commercial vessel in the 
 Christian world. 
 
 But the census discloses another very important feature in 
 respect to these interior States, of far higher interest to the x 
 statisticians, and especially to the statesmen of Europe, than 
 any which has yet been noticed, in their vast and rapidly 
 increasing capacity to supply food, both vegetable and animal, 
 cheaply and abundantly, to the increasing millions of the Old 
 World. In the last decade, their cereal products increased 
 from 309,950,295 bushels to 558,160,323 bushels, considerably 
 exceeding the whole cereal product of England, and nearly, 
 if not quite equal, to that of France. In the same period the 
 swine, who play a very important part in consuming the large 
 surplus of Indian corn, increased in number from 8,536,182 to 
 11,039,352, and the cattle from 4,373,712 to 7,204,810. Thanks 
 
26 
 
 to steam and the railway, the herds of cattle who feed on the 
 meadows of the Upper Mississippi are now carried in four days, 
 through eighteen degrees of longitude, to the slaughter houses 
 on the Atlantic. 
 
 It is difficult to furnish any visible or adequate measure for a 
 mass of cereals so enormous as 558 millions of bushels. About 
 one-fifth of the whole descends the chain of lakes on which 1,300 
 vessels are constantly employed in the season of navigation. 
 About one-seventh of the whole finds its way to the ocean, through 
 the Erie Canal, which has already been once enlarged for the 
 purpose of passing vessels of two hundred tons, and is now under 
 survey by the State of New York, for a second enlargement to pass 
 vessels of five hundred tons. The vessels called " canal boats," now 
 navigating the canal, exceed five thousand in number, and if 
 placed in line, would be more than eighty miles in length. 
 
 The barrels of wheat and flour alone, carried by the canal to 
 the Hudson river, were in 
 
 1842 1,146,292 
 
 1852 3,937,366 
 
 1862 7,516,397 
 
 A similar enlargement is also proposed for the canal connect- 
 ing Lake Michigan with the Mississippi river. When both the 
 works are completed, a barrel of flour can be carried from St. 
 Louis to New York, nearly half across the Continent, for fifty 
 cents, or a ton from the Iron Mountain of Missouri for five dollars. 
 The moderate portion of the cereals that descends the Lakes, if 
 placed in barrels of five bushels each, and side by side, would 
 form a line five thousand miles long. The whole crop, if placed 
 in barrels, would encircle the globe. Such is its present magni- 
 tude. We leave it to statistical science to discern and truly esti- 
 mate the future. One result is, at all events, apparent. A gene- 
 ral famine is now impossible ; for America, if necessary, can feed 
 Europe for centuries to come. Let the statesman and the philan- 
 
27 
 
 tliropist ponder well the magnitude of the fact and all its far- 
 reaching consequences, political, social and moral, in the increased 
 industry, the increased happiness, and the assured peace of the 
 world. 
 
 rv7*The great metalliferous region of the American Union, is 
 found between the Missouri river and the Pacific Ocean. This 
 grand division of the Kepublic embraces a little more than half 
 of its whole continental breadth. Portland, in Maine, is in the 
 meridian 70 west from Greenwich; Leaven worth, on the Missouri 
 river, in 95; and San Francisco, on the Pacific, in 123. By 
 these continental landmarks the Western or metalliferous section 
 is found to embrace 28, and the Eastern division between Mis- 
 souri and the Atlantic at Portland, 25 of our total territorial 
 breadth of 53 of longitude. 
 
 It has been the principal work and office of the American peo- 
 ple, since the foundation of their Government, to carry the ma- 
 chinery of civilization westward from the Atlantic to the Missouri, 
 the great confluent of the Mississippi. So far as the means of 
 rapid inter-communication are concerned, the work may be said 
 to be accomplished, for a locomotive engine can now run without 
 interruption, from Portland to the Missouri, striking it at St. 
 Joseph just below the 40th parallel of latitude. In the twenty 
 years preceding 1860, a net-work of railways, 31,196 miles in 
 length, was constructed, having the terminus of the most western 
 link on the Missouri river. The total cost was $1,151,560,829, of 
 which $850,900,681 was expended in the decade between 1850 and 
 1860. 
 
 The American Government and people had become aware of the 
 great pecuniary, commercial and political results of connecting 
 the ocean with the food-producing interior, by adequate steam 
 communications. But the higher and more difficult problem was 
 then presented, of repeating the effort on a scale still more grand 
 
28 
 
 and continental ; of winning victories still more arduous over Na- 
 ture; of encountering and subduing the massive mountain ranges 
 interposed by the prolongation of the Cordilleras of our sister con- 
 tinent through the centre of North America, rising, even at their 
 lowest points of depression, far above the highest peaks of the 
 Atlantic States. 
 
 The Government, feeling the vital national importance of 
 closely connecting the States of the Atlantic and of the Missis- 
 sippi with the Pacific with all practicable dispatch, has vigorously 
 exerted its power. On the 1st of July, 1862, nearly fifteen 
 months after the outbreak of the existing insurrection, and 
 notwithstanding the necessity of calling into the field more 
 than half a million of men to enforce the national authority, 
 Congress passed the act for incorporating "the Union Pacific 
 Bail way Company," and appropriated $66,000,000 in the bonds 
 of the United States, with large grants of land, to aid the 
 work, directing it to be commenced at the 100th meridian of 
 longitude, but with four branches extending eastward to the 
 Missouri river. The necessary surveys across the mountain 
 ranges, are now in active progress, and the construction of the 
 Eastern Division leading westward from the mouth of the 
 Kansas river on the Missouri, has actually commenced. The 
 whole of that division, including that part of the line west 
 of the 100th meridian to the foot of the "Bocky Mountains," 
 is on a nearly level plain, and is singularly easy of construction. 
 Its western end will strike the most prominent point of the 
 auriferous regions in the territory of Colorado, where the 
 annual product of gold, as stated in the official message of 
 the territorial Governor, is from five to ten millions of dollars. 
 The gold is there extracted, by crushing machines, from the 
 quartz, in which it is found extensively distributed, needing 
 only the railway from the Missouri to cheaply carry the necessary 
 miners with their machinery and supplies. The distance to that 
 
29 
 
 point will be about six hundred and fifty miles, which will be 
 passed in twenty-eight hours. When completed, as it easily 
 may be, within the next three years, it will open the way for 
 such an exodus of miners as the country has not seen since the 
 first discoveries in California, to which the American people 
 rushed with such avidity, many of them circumnavigating Cape 
 Horn to reach the scene of attraction. 
 
 Meanwhile, a corresponding movement has commenced on 
 the Pacific, in vigorously prosecuting the construction of the 
 railway eastward from the coast at or near San Francisco, 
 which will cross the Sierra Nevada at an elevation of about 
 7,000 feet, on the Eastern line of California, in the 120th 
 parallel of longitude, and there descend into the territory of 
 Nevada at the rich silver mines of Washoe. 
 
 It is not yet possible to estimate with any accuracy the 
 extent of these deposits of gold and silver, but they are 
 already known to exist at very numerous localities in and 
 between the Eocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, not to 
 mention the rich quartz mining regions in California itself, 
 which continue to pour out their volumes of gold to affect, 
 whether for good or ill, the financial condition of the civilized 
 world. During the last six months gold has been obtained in 
 such quantities, from the sands of the Snake Eiver and other 
 confluents of the Columbia Eiver, as to attract more than 
 twenty thousand persons to that remote portion of our metal- 
 liferous interior. The products of those streams alone for the 
 present year, are estimated at twenty millions of dollars. 
 
 The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in his official 
 Eeport of the 29th December, 1862, states as follows: 
 
 "The great auriferous region of the United States, in the 
 western portion of the Continent, stretches from the 49th 
 degree of north latitude, and Puget Sound, to the 30 30' 
 parallel, and from the 102d degree of longitude west of 
 
30 
 
 Greenwich, to the Pacific Ocean, embracing portions of Dakota, 
 Nebraska, Colorado, all of New Mexico, with Arizona, Utah, 
 Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington Territories. It 
 may be designated as comprising 17 degrees of latitude, or 
 a breadth of eleven hundred miles, from North to South, and 
 of nearly equal longitudinal extension, making an area of more 
 than a million of square miles. 
 
 "This vast region is traversed from North to South, first, on the 
 Pacific side, by the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains, then 
 by the Blue and Humboldt; on the East, by the double ranges of 
 the Eocky Mountains, embracing the Wasatch and Wind Elver 
 Chain, and the Sierra Madre, stretching longitudinally and in 
 lateral spurs, crossed and linked together by intervening ridges, 
 connecting the whole system by five principal ranges, dividing 
 the country into an equal number of basins, each being nearly 
 surrounded by mountains, and watered by mountain streams and 
 snows, thereby interspersing this immense territory with bodies of 
 agricultural lands, equal to the support not only of miners, but 
 of a dense population." 
 
 " These mountains," he continues, "are literally stocked with 
 minerals ; gold and silver being interspersed in profusion over this 
 immense surface, and daily brought to light by new discoveries." 
 
 "In addition to the deposits of gold and silver, various sec- 
 tions of the whole region are rich in precious stones, marble, gyp- 
 sum, salt, tin, quicksilver, asphaltum, coal, iron, copper, lead, 
 mineral and medicinal, thermal and cold springs and streams." 
 
 "The yield of the precious metals alone of this region, will 
 not fall below one hundred millions of dollars the present year, 
 and it will augment with the increase of population for centuries 
 to come." 
 
 "Within ten years, the annual product of these mines will reach 
 two hundred millions of dollars in the precious metals, and in coal, 
 iron, tin, lead, quicksilver and copper, half that sum." 
 
31 
 
 He proposes to subject these minerals to a Government tax of 
 eight per cent, and counts upon a revenue from this source of 
 twenty-five millions per annum, almost immediately, and upon 
 a proportionate increase in the future. He adds that, "with an 
 amount of labor relatively equal to that expended in California, 
 applied to the gold fields already known to exist outside of that 
 State, the production of this year, including that of California, 
 would exceed four hundred millions." " In a word," says he, 
 "the value of these mines is absolutely incalculable." . 
 
 From the documents and other evidences now before the Inter- 
 national Statistical Congress, it must be apparent .that the metal- 
 liferous regions of the United States of America are destined, 
 sooner or later, to add materially to the supply of the precious 
 metals, and thereby to affect the currency of the world, especi- 
 ally if taken in connection with the capacity of the auriferous 
 regions of Eussia, Australia and British America, and the possi- 
 bility of increased activity in the mines of Mexico. 
 
 The undersigned would, therefore, respectfully beg leave to con- 
 clude the present Eeport with the suggestion, that a Commission 
 be instituted by the body now assembled, with authority to collect 
 such facts as may be gathered from authentic sources, in respect 
 to the probable future production of gold and silver, and to pre- 
 sent them for consideration to the International Statistical Con- 
 gress at the next or some future session. 
 
 BERLIN, September llth, 1863. 
 
 S. B. BUGGLES. 
 
 NOTE. For the purpose of expediting the inquiry proposed at the close of the preceding 
 Report, and in anticipation of the organization, sooner or later, of a Statistical Bureau by the 
 Government of the United States, the Chamber of Commerce of New York, in February, 
 1864, appointed a Standing Committee to periodically ascertain and report the product of 
 gold and silver, by the different nations of the world. 
 
 The Committee consists of MR. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, Chairman, MR. JAMES BROWN, MR. 
 JAMES GALLATIN, MR. DENNING DUER, and MR. WILLIAM T. COLEMAN, and ex-officio of Mr. A. 
 A. Low, President, and MR. JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, JUNIOR, Secretary of the Chamber of 
 Commerce. 
 
REPORT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 
 
 OP THE PROCEEDINGS OP THE 
 
 INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL CONGRESS, 
 
 OB E It H, I H* , 
 
 IN RESPECT TO 
 
 UNIFORM WEIGHTS MEASURES AND COINS, 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL B. RTJGGLES, 
 
 DELEGATE PBOM THE UNITED STATES OF AMEKICA. 
 

 REPORT 
 
 Mr. Ruggles to Mr. Seward. 
 
 YOEK, December 21, 1863. 
 
 : On the 14th of September last, the undersigned, 
 Delegate of the United States of America to the International 
 Statistical Congress at Berlin, transmitted to the Honorable, 
 the Secretary of State, at Washington, a written communication 
 stating, in general, the proceedings of that Congress. It 
 specified, among other matters, certain propositions of peculiar 
 interest to the United States, in respect to a uniform system 
 of weights and measures, .and also of coins, for the use of the 
 civilized world; but not being then able to procure all the 
 particulars for a full Report to the State Department, the 
 undersigned asked leave to make them the subject of a further 
 communication, after his return to America. Up to the 21st 
 of November last, when the undersigned embarked homeward 
 from Europe, the official publication of the proceedings of the 
 Congress had not been completed; but he was able to obtain, 
 in England, a copy of the publication, in respect to weights, 
 measures and coins, which had been made since the adjourn- 
 ment of the Congress, by the Special Commission which had 
 been instituted on that subject, by the preceding Congress 
 of 1860. From that publication (a copy of which, marked A, 
 
36 
 
 is herewith transmitted), and from other sources of authentic 
 information, the undersigned is now enabled to 
 
 EEPOET: 
 
 1. In the Special Commission, fourteen nations were repre- 
 sented, to wit: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Olden- 
 burgh, Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Eussia, Switzerland, Spain, 
 Italy, the United States of America, and also the British 
 Colonies. Some of the members were also Delegates to the 
 recent Congress at Berlin, and personally assisted in its 
 deliberations. 
 
 2. That Commission proposed for adoption, by the Congress, 
 the "METRIC SYSTEM," introduced into France in 1793, with 
 a slight alteration in 1799, and made compulsory by law in 
 1840. Its basis is the "metre" being the one ten-millionth 
 part of the quadrant of the meridian of the earth, very nearly 
 equivalent to 39.3802 English inches. From this unit of linear 
 measure, are derived: 1st, The "litre" the measure of capacity, 
 being the cube of one-tenth of the metre; 2d, The "gramme" 
 the measure of weight, being the weight, in distilled water, at its 
 maximum density, of the one-thousandth part of the litre; 
 3d, The "stere" the measure of cubic contents, being one cubic 
 metre; and 4th, The "are" the measure of surface, being one 
 hundred square metres. 
 
 These measures are all decimally multiplied by the Greek 
 prefixes, "deca" "Jiecto" "Hlo" "myria" respectively repre- 
 senting 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000. They are decimally divided 
 by the Latin prefixes, "deci," "centi," and "mitti," respectively 
 representing one-tenth, one-hundredth, and one-thousandth. The 
 unit of money is the "franc" containing, by metric weight, five 
 grammes, to wit, four and a half grammes of pure silver, and 
 half a gramme of alloy. 
 
37 
 
 3. The Metric System thus established, has been gradually 
 but steadily making its way among the civilized nations of 
 Christendom, until it is now entirely or partly used (as stated 
 by the Special Commission), not only by France, but by 
 Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, 
 Austria, Bavaria, Wirteinburgh, Saxony, Hanover, Mecklen- 
 burgh, Baden, Hesse, and Hamburgh. 
 
 4. The countries not yet using it, are stated to be, The United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, The United States of 
 
 America, Eussia, Norway, Denmark, Peru, and Costa Eica; to 
 
 
 which list, Prussia, Sweden and some minor Powers in Europe 
 
 and in America should be added. 
 
 The Eeport of the Special Commission, after reviewing, some- 
 what in detail, the weights and measures in use by the different 
 countries of Europe and America, asserts, that "the great majority 
 " of nations have found it necessary and useful to adopt a unit of 
 "length equivalent to the metre." An examination, however, 
 of the population tables of the countries in question, will show, 
 that although a majority in number of the civilized nations of 
 Europe and America may have adopted the metric system, in 
 whole or in part, the countries not yet using it embrace a con- 
 siderable majority of the Christian world. In point of fact, the 
 nations thus specified as using the system, have a population, in 
 round numbers, of one hundred and thirty-nine millions, while that 
 of the nations not yet using it, is one hundred and fifty-three mil- 
 lions. Of the latter amount, The United Kingdom of Great Brit- 
 ain and Ireland contains, in round numbers, twenty-nine millions; 
 The United States of America, thirty-one millions; Eussia, sixty- 
 one millions; Prussia, eighteen millions; and Denmark, Sweden, 
 and Norway, seven millions; from which classification it is evident 
 that no general adoption of the system can be secured, without 
 the concurrence of the two great commercial nations that speak 
 the English tongue. The united population of Great Britain and 
 
38 
 
 Ireland, and of the United States of America, is sixty minions, 
 which, if added to the one hundred and thirty-nine millions now 
 using the metric system, would turn the scale strongly in its favor, 
 by raising the aggregate to one hundred and ninety-nine millions 
 of "metric" population, and leaving a "non-metric" minority of 
 only ninety-three millions. In such an event, it may be reasonably 
 expected that intelligent and rapidly progressive Eussia, with its 
 sixty-one millions, and enlightened Prussia, Denmark, Norway 
 and Sweden, with their twenty-five millions, wduld not long con- 
 sent to lag behind their sister nations in this great march of civili- 
 zation. 
 
 The eminent advantages of the metric system, if generally 
 adopted by the civilized world of Europe and America, were ably 
 exhibited to the recent Congress, and especially by the Delegates 
 from Great Britain and Ireland, both in the body at large, and 
 in the particular "Section" to which the Eeport of the Special 
 Commission was referred in the first instance. It was evidently 
 deemed desirable, if possible, to secure the concurrence of the 
 United States in adopting the system; and the earnest hope was 
 expressed on all hands, throughout the discussions, that the sub- 
 ject might command the early attention of the Government at 
 Washington. 
 
 The British Government already have the subject under careful 
 examination. The interesting and instructive Eeport of the de- 
 bates and proceedings in the House of Commons, a copy of which 
 (Document B) is herewith transmitted, shows that a bill to intro- 
 duce the Metric System into the United Kingdom, passed that 
 House to its second reading in July last, by the vote of 110 to 75. 
 The bill seeks to avoid apprehended national prejudices against 
 the Greek and Latin nomenclature of the system as used in France 
 and elsewhere, by substituting for the scientific denominations of 
 "litre," "kilogramme," and "kilometre" the more vernacular 
 
39 
 
 and monosyllabic terms, the "new pint," the "netr pound," and 
 the " new mile" 
 
 It is difficult, however, to perceive how the prefixes, so accurately 
 denoting' the multiples and the subdivisions of the unit, can be 
 omitted, without material injury to the system. A similar at- 
 tempt was made in Holland, to adapt the names of its ancient 
 measures to the Metric System, but after due trial it was aban- 
 doned* and the French vocabulary mainly adopted. 
 
 It appears from the documentary history of the United 
 States that, from the very foundation of the Government, 
 the importance and value of a uniform, accurate and scientific 
 system of weights and measures, has occupied the earnest 
 attention of the National authorities. 'Without referring to 
 the discussions and proceedings in the Congress of the United 
 States in its earliest sessions, it is sufficient, for the present, 
 to adduce the elaborate and exhaustive report to the Senate, 
 in 1821, by JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, then Secretary of State. 
 
 That celebrated document, after carefully reviewing the history 
 of weights and measures from the earliest antiquity, pronounces 
 the Metric System an approach to "the ideal perfection of 
 uniformity," and predicts that it is destined, whether it succeed 
 or fail, "to shed unfading glory upon the age in which it was 
 conceived." With solemn and singular emphasis it further 
 declares, that "if man upon earth be an improvable -being; if 
 " that universal peace which was the object of a Saviour's 
 " mission, which is the desire of the philosopher, the longing 
 "of the philanthropist, the trembling hope of the Christian, 
 " is a blessing to which the futurity of mortal man has a claim 
 " of more than mortal promise ; if the Spirit of Evil is, before 
 " the final consummation of things, to be cast down from his 
 " dominion over men, and bound in the chains of a thousand 
 "years, the foretaste here of man's eternal felicity; then, this 
 " system of common instruments to accomplish all the changes 
 
40 
 
 " of social and friendly commerce, will furnish the links of 
 " sympathy between the inhabitants of the most distant regions ; 
 " the metre will surround the globe, in use as well as in multi- 
 " plied extension, and one common language jof weights and 
 " measures will be spoken from the equator to the poles. 
 
 " The associated pursuit of great objects of common interest," 
 says the Eeport, " is among the most powerful modern expedients 
 " for the improvement of man. To promote the intercoiwse of 
 " nations with each other, the uniformity of their weights and 
 " measures is among the most efficacious agencies, and this 
 " uniformity can be effected only by mutual understanding and 
 " united energy. A single and universal system can be estab- 
 " lished only by a General Convention, to which the principal 
 " nations of the earth shall be parties, and to which they shall 
 " all give their assent. This concert of nations conceals no 
 " lurking danger to the independence of any of them. Ifc 
 " needs no convocation of sovereigns armed with military 
 " power. Its objects are not only pacific in their nature, but 
 " can be pursued by no other than peaceable means. Would 
 " it not be strange, if while mankind find it so easy to attain 
 " uniformity in the use of every engine adapted to their mutual 
 " destruction, they should find it impossible to agree upon the 
 " few and simple, but indispensable instruments of all their 
 " intercourse of peace, and friendship, and beneficence ; that 
 " they should use the same artillery, and musketry, and 
 " bayonets, and swords and lances, for the wholesale trade of 
 " human slaughter, and that they should refuse to weigh by 
 " the same pound, to measure by the same rule, to drink from 
 " the same cup?" 
 
 Mr. ADAMS concludes this portion of his Eeport with the 
 proposition that, "as France has found, and for her own use 
 " established, a system adapted by the highest efforts of human 
 " science, ingenuity and skill to the common purposes of all; 
 
41 
 
 " as its universal establishment would be a universal blessing, 
 " and as, if effected, it can only be by consent and not by 
 " force, in which the energies of opinion must precede those 
 " of legislation, it would be worthy of the dignity of the 
 " Congress of the United States to consult the opinions of all 
 " the civilized nations with whom they have a friendly inter- 
 " course, to ascertain, with the utmost attainable accuracy, the 
 " existing state of their respective weights and measures; to 
 " take up and pursue with steady, persevering, but always 
 " temperate and discreet exertions, the idea conceived and thus 
 " far executed by France, and to co-operate with her to the final 
 " and universal establishment of her system." 
 
 It doubtless will be borne in mind, that in the year 1821, when 
 Mr. ADAMS made this Eeport, the nations of the earth had not 
 introduced their modem practice of occasionally assembling by 
 their respective representatives for certain specific objects, in Inter- 
 national Congresses. A few of the larger European Powers might 
 have convened once or twice in "Holy Alliance," for purposes 
 merely political, but International Congresses or Conventions for 
 the advancement of science, or the arts of peace or the progress 
 of civilization, were virtually unknown. 
 
 It is therefore not surprising that a statesman even so farseeing 
 as Mr. ADAMS, should, at that time, have thought it difficult to 
 secure, without great delay, the necessary interchange of opinions 
 between the nations of Europe and America, through which alone 
 the Metric System could be generally adopted. Apprehending 
 this difficulty, he concluded his Eeport, with a proposition that 
 Congress meanwhile should exert all its proper authority to pro- 
 vide national standards, which should secure temporary uniformity, 
 as far as practicable, in the English weights and measures, then 
 in use by the United States, and by the several States ; but no- 
 where, nor ever, did he abandon the high and transcendent object 
 
42 
 
 of securing the ultimate and general adoption of the Metric Sys- 
 tem, by the common consent of civilized nations. 
 
 In the recent International, Statistical Congress at Berlin, 
 thirty-three nations of Europe and America (particularly speci- 
 fied by the undersigned, in his Eeport of the 14th of September 
 last), were assembled and represented by their respective Dele- 
 gates duly commissioned. It had been, moreover, distinctly noti- 
 fied to the Governments of those nations, that the subject of uni- 
 form weights and measures -would come up for consideration in 
 that Congress; so that the occasion and the convocation were 
 eminently proper, for taking, at least, the initiatory steps for col- 
 lecting and embodying, what Mr. ADAMS so well denominates 
 "the energies of opinion to precede those of legislation." 
 
 The undersigned would not presume to urge any additional 
 considerations in support of the Metric System, already so ably 
 vindicated by an authority so eminent and commanding. His 
 only purpose in the present Eeport is, to apprise the Honorable, 
 the Secretary of State, of the exact extent, to which the subject 
 was discussed in the recent Congress, in which the Government of 
 the United States saw fit to be represented, and to state precisely 
 the character and the phraseology of the various propositions on 
 that subject, which were made or adopted in that body. 
 
 The documents now transmitted will show that the resolutions 
 presented by the Special Commission, for the consideration of the 
 Congress, were as follows : 
 
 A. "As TO WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 "1. The adoption of the same measure in international commerce, is of 
 the highest importance. The Metrical System appears to the Section, to 
 be the most convenient of all the measures that could be recommended for 
 international measures. 
 
 " 2. The arrangement and rules to be followed in the construction of the 
 standards, arid in the introduction of this system, should be confided to 
 an International Commission, which should also be charged with the duties 
 
43 
 
 of ascertaining the meana of correcting slight defects in the original stand- 
 ards. 
 
 " 3. That it is desirable that the introduction of the Metric System into 
 any country which accepts it, should be made compulsory in the shortest 
 practicable period. 
 
 " 4. That each Government should establish a Department of Weights and 
 Measures, to superintend the introduction of the Metrical System, and to 
 carry out its details, or to devolve the duty on some one of the existing 
 departments." 
 
 B. u As TO COINS. 
 
 " 1. That the existing units of money be reduced to a small number, that 
 each unit should be decimal^ subdivided, and that the coins in use should 
 all be expressed in weights of the Metric System, and should all be of the 
 same degree of fineness, namely, 9-10ths fine, and 1-1 Oth alloy, and should 
 be current by law, and interchangeable in all the countries agreeing to this 
 proposition. 
 
 "2. That, from their extensive use in commerce and in monetary trans- 
 actions, the pound sterling, the dollar, the florin, and the franc, seem the 
 units the most desirable to be recommended for universal adoption ; each 
 country not possessing one of these, in actual use, selecting the one most 
 convenient for its own use. 
 
 " 3. That, in regard to the silver standard, the dollar be made equal to 
 five francs, and the florin to two and one-half francs, and the franc, as at 
 present, being five grammes in weight, and containing 4 and 5-1 Oth gram- 
 mes of pure silver. 
 
 " 4. That the different Governments be invited to send to a Special Con- 
 gress, delegates authorized to consider and report what should be, in the 
 Metric System, the relative weights of the gold and of the silver coins, 
 and to arrange the details by which the monetary system of different coun- 
 tries may be fixed, and the coins made current and interchangeable accord- 
 ing to the terms of the preceding propositions." 
 
 The resolutions, as thus proposed, after discussion and modifi- 
 cation in the full body of the Congress, were finally adopted in 
 the form following : 
 
 A. "As TO WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 "1. The adoption of the same measure in international commerce is of the 
 highest importance. The Metrical System appears to the Congress to be the 
 
44 
 
 most convenient of all the measures that could be recommended for inter- 
 national measures. 
 
 " 2. The arrangements and rules to be followed in the construction of the 
 standards, and in the introduction of this system, should be confided to 
 an International Commission, which should also be charged with the duty 
 of ascertaining the means of correcting slight defects in the original stand- 
 ards. 
 
 " 3. That it is desirable that the introduction of the Metrical System into 
 any country which accepts it, should be made compulsory in the shortest 
 practicable period. 
 
 " 4. That each Government should institute a Department of Weights and 
 Measures to superintend the introduction of the Metrical system, and carry 
 out its details, or devolve the duty on some one'of the existing Departments." 
 
 5. (Additional resolution adopted in the Congress.) 
 
 " That in all cases where the Government of a country consents to the 
 introduction of the Metrical System of weights and measures as a permissive 
 arrangement, it be recommended that the Metrical System should be intro- 
 duced into the business of Custom Houses, and that the Inspectors of Schools 
 should be requested to encourage the study of that system in the schools 
 subject to their inspection" 
 
 B. "As TO COINS. 
 
 "1. That the Congress recommends that the existing units of money be 
 reduced to a small number ; that each unit should be, as for as possible, deci- 
 mally subdivided ; that the coins in use should all be expressed in weights of 
 the Metrical System, and should all be of the same degree of fineness, namely, 
 nine-tenths fine, and one-tenth alloy. 
 
 " 2. That the different Governments be invited to send to a SPECIAL CON- 
 GRESS, delegates authorized to consider and report what should be the 
 relative weights in the Metrical System of gold and silver coins, and to 
 arrange the details by which the monetary system of different countries 
 may be fixed according to the terms of the preceding propositions." 
 
 3. (Additional resolution adopted by the Congress.) 
 
 " That it being of the greatest importance, that the different Governments 
 should appoint the. proposed Commission, as soon as possible, this Section 
 recommends the Congress to make a special communication of the above 
 resolutions to the different Governments." 
 
45 
 
 It will be perceived that the proposition, No. 3, of the Commis- 
 sion, to fix the ratios of the dollar and of the florin to the franc, 
 although fully discussed, and at first warmly supported, especially 
 by the Delegates from the United Kingdom, was not adopted by 
 the Congress. In behalf of the United States it was urged, that 
 if the dollar and the florin were to be altered in weight to make 
 them even multiples of the franc, a simultaneous alteration should 
 also be made by the United Kingdom in its pound sterling, and in 
 * the weight of the gold sovereign representing it, so as to reduce 
 it to the even multiple, twenty-five francs, from 25.20 francs, its 
 present weight. 
 
 It will be seen by the Eeport upon the statistics of the 
 United States presented to the Congress, a copy of which was 
 transmitted by the undersigned to the State Department on the 
 14th of September last, that the extent and productiveness of the 
 gold-bearing regions of the American Union had been brought 
 prominently into notice. It was in view of the strong probability 
 that a rapid increase in the product of gold in our great interior 
 (especially when rendered easily and cheaply accessible by the 
 Pacific Eailway now in progress) would occasion serious fluctua- 
 tions in the comparative values of gold and silver, that the in- 
 herent difficulty of fixing any permanent ratio between the coins 
 of the two metals, was earnestly urged upon the Congress. This 
 view was also taken by many of the most experienced of its mem- 
 bers, and especially by the Marquis D'AviLA, the distinguished 
 
 
 
 Delegate from Portugal and now or recently its Minister of Fi- 
 nance. During the discussion, a proposition by Professor ASCHE- 
 HOUG, Delegate from Norway, that one unit of weight should be 
 fixed for coins of gold and another for coins of silver, to be 
 adopted respectively by the nations using the one or the other 
 of these metals as a standard, was maintained with much clear- 
 ness and force. 
 
 
46 
 
 It was after full consideration of the whole subject, and in view 
 of its peculiarly complex aspect, requiring- very careful and deli- 
 berate examination, that the Congress finally determined to refrain 
 from proposing any specific ratio of weight for coins, either of 
 gold or silver, but rather to recommend to the different Gov- 
 ernments to send to a SPECIAL CONGRESS, Delegates to be selected 
 for their special fitness for the peculiar duty of preparing and 
 reporting a system of uniform coins for the consideration of their 
 respective Governments. Official copies of the resolutions of the 
 Congress in that respect, will be transmitted by its proper officers 
 at Berlin, to the Government of the United States. 
 
 Shortly before the close of the session, a question arose of con- 
 siderable interest, in respect to the place of meeting of the next 
 International Statistical Congress to convene in the year 1865 or 
 1866. Several of the Delegates, and especially from Southern 
 Europe, urged the claims of Turin in Italy, while others advo- 
 cated Berne in Switzerland. In participating in this debate, the 
 undersigned deemed it necessary to advert to the fact, that the 
 preceding sessions had been held at Brussels, at Paris, at Vienna 
 and at London, and the then present session at Berlin; all in the 
 capitals of the older nations of Europe, of mature growth, within 
 fixed and definite limits, and presenting statistical features corres- 
 pondingly fixed and definite; and that the time had come for the 
 Statistical Congress to convene in one of the new and more pro- 
 gressive nations. In that view, he deemed it proper to support 
 the claim of Eussia, as being a nation at once old and new, far- 
 
47 
 
 nishing the statistics not only of an established Power, but of a 
 rapidly expanding, Continental Empire, rendered still more inte- 
 resting- by its recent comprehensive and truly imperial measure 
 of emancipating, at a single stroke, and raising to the dignity of 
 freemen and landholders, many millions of its people. 
 
 According to usage in preceding Congresses, the selection of 
 the next place of meeting, devolves on a local Committee at 
 Berlin, after generally gathering the opinions of members; but 
 from the teeling manifested in behalf of Eussia, it is believed that 
 the next Congress will convene at St. Petersburgh. 
 
 Soon after the adjournment of the Congress at Berlin, the 
 undersigned proceeded to Eussia, for the purpose, as stated in his 
 communication of the 14th of September last, of obtaining reliable 
 statistics of its past and present product of gold and silver. 
 Through the courtesy of eminent individuals, officially connected 
 with the Imperial Government, which he deems it proper now to 
 acknowledge, he has been enabled to collect very full and satis- 
 factory details of the products of those metals, and especially in 
 the Asiatic portions of the Empire. Through the same facilities, 
 he has also obtained statistical information of peculiar interest to 
 the United States, in respect to the export of cereals from the 
 great central, agricultural interior of Eussia, so strikingly resem- 
 bling in geographical development and relative position, the cen- 
 tral, food-producing interior of the American Union. On his way 
 homeward through Germany and Holland, he has also been ena- 
 bled to collect accurate information in respect to the commerce 
 of those countries in food, both vegetable and animal ; as a branch 
 of a general inquiry to ascertain statistically the comparative con- 
 dition of the "feeding" and of the "fed" nations of Europe and 
 America. He has also taken measures for prosecuting inquiries 
 in London, not yet fully completed, as to the past and present pro- 
 duct of gold in British America, Australia and New Zealand. 
 
48 
 
 As soon as lie shall be able to present the results of these vari- 
 ous inquiries in tabular and convenient form, he will ask leave to 
 deposit them in the State Department at Washington. 
 With high respect, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 SAMUEL B. EUGGLES. 
 To the Honorable 
 
 WILLIAM H. SBTTAED, 
 
 Secretary of State, &c. t &c., &c. 
 
DOCUMENTS A AND B, 
 
 ACCOMPANYING THE 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL EEPORT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECRETARY OF STATE, 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, 
 
 COMMISSIONER OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE INTERNATIONAL 
 STATISTICAL CONGRESS AT BERLIN. 
 
DOCUMENTS A AND B. 
 
 DOCUMENT A. 
 
 Report on international weights, measures and coins. 
 
 The lofty object contemplated by the illustrious promoters of the Interna- 
 tional Statistical Congress, of harmonizing the statistics of all countries, for 
 the purpose of comparing their social and economical progress, could with 
 difficulty be attained so long as the weights, measures and coins used in the 
 preparation of such statistics differed in each country. And although it is 
 no more within the scope of statistical science to consider the instruments 
 by which the facts are recorded, than it would be in its province to promote 
 a universal language for the description of such facts, such is the amount of 
 mechanical labor, the great liability to error, and the want of perspicuity 
 created by the great variety of such instruments used in different countries, 
 that at its very first meeting at Brussels a remedy was suggested by passing 
 a resolution recommending "that in the statistical tables prepared in the 
 countries where the metric system does not exist a column should be added 
 indicating the metric reduction of the weights and measures used." The 
 second meeting of the congress, held at Paris in 1855, held simultaneously 
 with the great universal exhibition, appreciated even more fully the wisdom 
 of the resolution passed at the congress of Brussels. Paris, at all times the 
 heart and centre of all European countries, was then the place where the 
 industries of the world were being exhibited. The juries engaged in com- 
 paring the industrial progress of nations experienced the same difficulties 
 from the difference of weights, measures and coins used by the exhibitors in 
 their description of articles, as the statists were meeting in the comparison 
 of the statistics of different countries. Influenced, therefore, by its own 
 experience, and by that of the practical and scientific men then assembled 
 in Paris from all parts of the world, the congress passed another resolution 
 to the effect that, " considering how much the adoption by all nations of 
 some uniform system of weights, measures and money would facilitate the 
 comparative study of the statistics of different countries, the congress deem 
 
52 
 
 it highly desirable that such a uniform system should be put in force." At 
 Vienna the congress did not enter into this question ; but on its meeting in 
 London, the subject had become ripe for a fuller and more general discus- 
 sion. By that time, too, an important international association had been 
 organized for obtaining a uniform decimal system of measures, weights and 
 coins. That association, which was instituted in Paris in 1855, under the 
 presidency <0f the Baron James de Rothschild, labored much and successfully 
 in promoting the object by establishing branches in all countries, by dissemi- 
 nating information on the subject, and by instituting the most searching 
 inquiries on all the systems in use in different countries. Animated by the 
 representations of this association, the commissioners created by her Majes- 
 ty's government included this subject under the sixth section of the congress, 
 and desired Mr. Samuel Brown, one of your honorary secretaries and mem- 
 ber of the council of that association, to prepare a programme for the con- 
 sideration of the congress. That programme dwelt on the advantages of the 
 decimal and metric system, showed its superior merits as compared with the 
 unsatisfactory state of weights and measures in Great Britain and other 
 countries, and ended with four distinct recommendations, viz. : 1st, the reduc- 
 tion of the statistical tables published for international purposes into the 
 terms of the metric system ; 2d, the adoption of that system by the coun- 
 tries which had not yet done so ; 3d, a general inquiry into the existing 
 moneys, weights and measures, whether local or customary ; and, 4th, the 
 preparation of a report for next congress on the actual system in use, and 
 on the best means of overcoming the obstacles that may exist in any country 
 to the establishment of the metric system. 
 
 On the meeting of the congress the question was opened in the section by 
 the reading of the programme, under the presidency of Mr. James Heywood, 
 F. R. S., after which an animated discussion took place, in which Sir John 
 Bowring, late her Majesty's superintendent of trade at Hong Kong; M. 
 Visschers, of Brussels; Sir Charles Pasley; Professor Ackendyck, of La 
 Hague ; Mr. James Yates, F. R. S. ; Lord Monteagle ; Mr. Brown, the writer 
 of the programme ; Mr. J. P. Smith, M. P., and others took part. The first 
 day was devoted to the weights and measures, upon which little or no differ- 
 ence of opinion existed, and the second was devoted to the coinage, some of 
 the members advocating an international coinage, other members a national 
 one. After much deliberation, some unanimous resolutions were arrived at, 
 and these formed the subject of a report to the congress, in English and in 
 French, by Mr. Corr V. Maeren, of Brussels, the substance of which is as 
 follows : 
 
 As regards weights and measures 
 
 " 1. That it be recommended that, in countries not using the metrical sys- 
 tem, the column containing the reduction of all weights, measures and values 
 to the terms of the metrical system, according to the resolution of the first 
 
53 
 
 International Statistical Congress, be added to the statistical tables which it 
 shall be decided to be published as international tables. 
 
 " 2. That the government delegates from all countries in which the metri- 
 cal system is not in use should be requested to urge upon their respective 
 governments the great advantages attending the adoption of the metrical 
 system in weights and measures, and that all changes hereafter made should 
 have in view the bringing of this system into general use. 
 
 " 3. That each government should be requested to institute an inquiry into 
 the existing weights and measures, whether local, customary or established 
 by law, so that comparative tables may be formed, by reducing them all to 
 the terms of the metrical system. 
 
 " 4. That an international commission be nominated, to whom the results 
 of these inquiries may be submitted, for the purpose of preparing a report 
 for the next congress, on the actual systems in use, and on the best means 
 of overcoming the obstacles that may exist in any country to the establish- 
 ment of the metrical system in weights and measures." 
 
 And as regards coins 
 
 "1. The simplicity, convenience and efficiency of the decimal system of 
 money and accounts recommend it for general adoption. 
 
 "2. The congress recommend the adoption, as far as possible, of a common 
 degree of fineness in gold and silver coins. 
 
 "3. The congress also recommend that the government delegates from all 
 countries in which a decimal system of coinage has been adopted be re- 
 quested to collect all facts showing whether any or what inconveniences have 
 resulted from such changes, and how such inconveniences, if found to have 
 existed, have been met and remedied. 
 
 " 4. That an international commission be nominated, to whom the results 
 of these inquiries may be submitted, for the purpose of preparing a report 
 for the next congress on the actual systems in use, and on the best means of 
 overcoming the obstacles that may exist in any country to the establishment 
 of the proposed changes." 
 
 The international commission was then nominated, consisting of the follow- 
 ing gentlemen : 
 
 England. The Right Honorable Viscount Ebrington (now Earl Fortes- 
 cue) ; the Right Honorable Lord Monteagle ; J. B. Smith, Esq., M. P. ; 
 Alderman Salomons, M. P. ; James Heywood, Esq., F. R. S. ; Thomas Gra- 
 ham, Esq., F. R. S., master of the mint ; Charles Babbage, Esq., F. R. S. ; 
 James Yates, Esq., F. R. S. ; Samuel Brown, Esq., F. S. S. ; Leone Levi, 
 Esq., F. S. S., barrister-at-law r ; Theodore Rathbone, Esq. 
 
 France. M. A. Legoyt, director of the general statistical department ; M. 
 Michel Chevalier, councillor of state, senator, member of the institute. 
 
 Belgium. His Excellency Silvain Van De Weyer, Belgian minister ; M. 
 A. Visschers, member of the board of mines and of the central statistical 
 commission. 
 
54 
 
 Denmark. Dr. C. N. David, state councillor, director of the statistical 
 department. 
 
 Italy. Count Arrivabene, Milan ; Signer Bartolomeo Gini, Florence. 
 
 Norway. Professor L. K. Daa. 
 
 Prussia. Dr. E. Engel, privy councillor, director of the general statisti- 
 cal department. 
 
 Netherlands. Dr. M. M. De Baumhauer, director of the statistical depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Oldenburg. Herr O. Lasius, finance councillor. 
 
 Russia, Professor Kupffer, of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. 
 
 Spain. Count De Ripalda, central statistical commission. 
 
 Sweden. Dr. F. Th. Berg, director of the statistical department. 
 
 Switzerland. M. Vogt, director of the federal statistical department. 
 
 United States. Dr. Edward Jarvis, Dorchester, Massachusetts; J. H. 
 Alexander, Esq., Washington ; Samuel B. Ruggles, Esq., New York. 
 
 British Colonies. W. Westgarth, Esq., Victoria ;. J. T. Gait, Esq., finance 
 minister, Canada ; W. Field, Esq., Cape of Good Hope ; James Macarthur, 
 Esq., New South Wales ; Sir Stuart A. Donaldson, 22 Rutlandgate, London ; 
 J. E. Fitzgerald, Esq., New Zealand, 
 
 These resolutions having been unanimously passed by Congress, the com- 
 mission was duly installed, and at its first meeting Mr. Samuel Brown, F. S. 
 S., and Dr. Leone Levi, were desired to act as honorary secretaries. 
 
 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 The International Statistical Congress, at its first meeting, recognized the 
 metric system of weights and measures as the basis of international uni- 
 formity. There was doubtless a solid reason for preferring that system to 
 any other, inasmuch as it prevailed most extensively among the countries 
 represented at that congress. Of the twenty-eight countries then represented, 
 three-fourths, or twenty-one, of them had either partly or entirely the metric 
 system ; and one-fourth, or seven, had the British or other system. 
 
 The countries using partly or entirely the metric system were : Austria, 
 Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, France, Hamburg, Hanover, Hesse, Mecklenburg, 
 the Netherlands, Parma, Portugal, Saxony, Sardinia, Spain, Switzerland, 
 Tuscany, the Two Sicilies and Wirtemberg. 
 
 The countries not using the metric system were : The United Kingdom, 
 Costa Rica, Denmark, Norway, Peru, Russia and the United States of Ame- 
 rica. The simple fact, therefore, that the great majority of the states did 
 use the metric system rendered it quite natural for the congress to demand 
 that, for the sake of general convenience, the countries which did not use the 
 metric system would reduce their statistical tables into these units. At this 
 moment, when international transactions are so multifarious, and when the 
 operations of trade are essentially universal, it becomes quite nece&sary for 
 
55 
 
 / 
 
 the countries which happen to possess peculiar institutions to consider 
 whether they would not serve their own interest better, and subserve at the 
 same time the great object of universal advancement, by abandoning a posi- 
 tion of isolation, and entering into a common arrangement with other coun- 
 tries. It was shown, for instance, before the committee of the British House 
 of Commons on Weights and Measures, in 1862, as a strong evidence in 
 favor of the metric system, that the progress of exports of British and Irish 
 produce was more and'more to countries using the metric system. Compar- 
 ing 1847 with 1861, it appeared that, whilst the exports to countries in which 
 the metric system of weights and measures was entirely or partially adopted, 
 or in the course of adoption, had increased during that period 133 per cent, 
 the exports to countries in which the English system of weights and measures 
 was adopted had increased only 48 per cent ; and it was urged that unless 
 Britain adopted the same system she would be left behind other nations, and 
 so suffer in her commerce and prosperity. 
 
 Another reason for the preference of the metric system is its universal 
 character. Although national prejudice ought not to influence the mind of 
 the learned and thinking portion of the population in any country, objection 
 might be made to a system, however good, which shoutd bear on its face the 
 national characteristics of any other country ; but the metre is essentially 
 universal and cosmopolitan as the earth in which we live. From the very 
 first, the philosophers who undertook the determination of a natural unit for 
 the comparison of weights and measures, sought the co-operation of men of 
 science from Great Britain and other countries. " Le roi est supplie d'ecrire 
 a S. M. Britannique, et de la prier d'engager le parlement d'Angleterre a 
 concourir, avec 1'assemblee nationale, a la fixation de 1'unite naturelle des 
 mesures et des poids, afin que, sous les auspices des deux nations, des Commis- 
 saires de P Academic des Sciences puisse se reunir en nombre egal avec des 
 membres choisis de la Societe Royale de Londres, dans le lieu qui serait jugd 
 respectivement le plus convenable, pour determiner a la latitude de 45 degres, 
 ou toute autre latitude qui pourrait e"tre preferee, la longueur du pendule, et 
 en deduire un modele invariable pour toutes leS mesures et pour les poids." 
 This was the resolution of the National Assembly, though at this stage, for 
 political reasons, the nation responded to the invitation. When, however, 
 the measurement of the earth was nigh completed, again invitations were 
 issued by the French government to neutral and allied countries, by which 
 they were requested to send deputies to Paris to assist, along with the com- 
 missioners of the Academy of Sciences, in the final settlement of a metric 
 system adapted to the usage of all nations. Such deputies were accordingly 
 sent from the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and several states 
 of Italy, and it was by the labors of the entire body of French and foreign 
 commissioners that the metric system was finally settled on the ten-millionth 
 part of the quadrant of the meridian. Other natural units have been sug- 
 gested before and since ; some natural and some artificial ; some absolutely 
 
56 
 
 national and some international. We shall not enter into their comparative 
 merits. Either, perhaps, might have been taken advantageously, but, for 
 reasons which it is unnecessary for us to dwell upon, they have not been so 
 chosen. 
 
 Objection has been made to the adoption of the metre as the unit for an 
 international system, on the ground that it is erroneous in reference to the 
 natural standard from which it professes to originate. It was shown by Sir 
 John Herschel, in some letters in the London Athenceum, and since issued 
 in a separate form, that, assuming the length of the earth's axis of rotation 
 to be 500,500,000 imperial inches, the length of the quadrant would be 
 393,758,320 imperial inches, showing an excess of 50,420 inches from the 
 standard computation of the metre, in imperial inches at 393,707,900, or a 
 difference of jj^jih. We do not dispute the possibility of some error in 
 the original calculation, and it is very likely that, were another measurement 
 of the earth undertaken at this moment, with the advance made in astro- 
 nomical and mechanical science, and with the perfection attained in the 
 manufacture of instruments, more satisfactory results would be obtained. 
 But we would submit that, for practical purposes, it makes but little differ- 
 ence whether or not t*he unit of length represents accurately the ten-millionth 
 part of the quadrant. In the United Kingdom, the act establishing the 
 present weights and measures had provided that the seconds pendulum 
 should be taken as a standard in case of loss of the standard yard, but even 
 that was abandoned by subsequent acts. Apart altogether, therefore, from 
 the source whence the metric system first originated, we accept it, not only 
 because it is a unit derived from nature, but because it is a unit which has 
 been adopted with entire satisfaction now for a period exceeding half a 
 century by a large number of civilized nations. But the one great recom- 
 mendation of the metric system is its extreme simplicity, symmetry, and 
 convenience. Its exact decimal progression ; its power of subdivision and 
 multiplication from the highest and largest to the smallest and most minute 
 quantities ; the few and specific names by which each unit is distinguished ; 
 their analogy and natural relation to one another ; these are merits which 
 have put the metric system far in advance of any other, and which have, in 
 fact, neutralized any objections which have been urged against the adoption 
 of the unit upon which the whole is founded. 
 
 Having thus seen that there were valid reasons why the International 
 Statistical Congress should have chosen the metric system and recommended 
 it for the adoption of all countries, we shall proceed with our report on the 
 existing weights and measures in different countries, and of the steps taken 
 towards the adoption of a uniform system. 
 
57 
 
 UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 In this country the greatest possible confusion in the weights and measures 
 in use exists, as many as ten different systems being actually in force. There 
 is first the grain computed decimally, which is used for scientific purposes ; 
 second, the troy weight ; third, the troy ounce with decimal multiples and 
 divisions called bullion weight ; fourth, bankers' weight, to weigh 10, 20, 
 30, 50, 100, and 200 sovereigns; fifth, apothecary weight ; sixth, diamond 
 weight and pearl weight, including carats ; seventh, avoirdupois weight ; 
 eighth, weights for hay and straw ; ninth, wood weight, using as factors 2, 
 3, 7, 13, and their multiples; and, tenth, coal weight, decimal. But, 
 besides these, there are a vast variety of local weights and measures 
 the use of which the law has not hitherto succeeded in abolishing. In fact, 
 although as far back as Magna Charta, it was ordained that there should be 
 but one system of weights and measures through the whole country, we are 
 as far now as ever from having attained the desired uniformity. Two reasons 
 may probably be assigned for the failure of our legislation on this subject. 
 First is the defect of the law, which, with a view not to press too hard 
 against the habits of the people, has always left it open for parties to con- 
 tinue the use of the customary weights and measures ; and second, because 
 there has never been introduced a clear and intelligible system capable of 
 meeting the requirements of society ; and, therefore, every trade and every 
 class had to seek its own way of weighing and measuring commodities. 
 
 For a long time the mind of the nation has been unsettled as regards the 
 decimal computation. The commissioners on weights and measures, in 1838, 
 directed their attention to the subject. In 1844, Sir John Bowring obtained 
 a committee of the House of Commons on decimal coinage, when a good 
 deal of information was elicited on the decimalization of the weights and 
 measures. In 1853, Sir William Brown, then member for South Lancashire, 
 carried a resolution in the House of Commons in favor of decimal coinage, 
 and almost uniformly the petitions presented to Parliament in favor of the 
 measure recommended that the weights, measures, and coin should form 
 part of one system, though it was deemed best to commence the reform by 
 decimalizing first the coinage. The state of politics, and the opposition 
 manifested to a particular scheme, intercepted the progress of the measure, 
 till in 1862, after years of labor on the part of the international association, 
 and under the influence of the cosmopolitan spirit created by the international 
 exhibition, Mr. William Ewart, member for Dumfries, moved for the 
 appointment of a committee "to consider the practicability of adopting a 
 simple and uniform system of weights and measures, with a view not only 
 to the benefit of our internal trade, but to facilitate our trade and intercourse 
 with foreign countries." The committee was appointed on the 8th of April, 
 1862, and it was nominated on the 1st of May as follow* : Messrs. William 
 8 
 
58 
 
 Ewart, chairman ; Right Hon. Sotheron Estcourt, Richard Cobden, Right 
 Hon. C. Adderley, Edward Baines, Colonel Wilson Patten, John Benjamin 
 Smith, W. W. F. Hume, John St. Aubyn, John Pope Hennessy, W. A. 
 Mackinnon, Charles Finlay, G. Greenal, Colonel Sykes, F. R. S., and William 
 Pollard-TJrquhart. ^ 
 
 The committee was formed at a most auspicious moment, when many 
 learned and distinguished men were in this country for the international 
 exhibition. Seldom, indeed, have we seen such a galaxy of eminent wit- 
 nesses as appeared before Mr. Ewart's committee men such as Mr. Graham, 
 the master of the mint; Mr. Fairbairn, the late president of the British 
 Association ; Professor Airy, the astronomer royal ; Professor Miller, of 
 Cambridge ; Professor De Morgan, Dr. W. Farr, Mr. James Yates, Fellow 
 of the Royal Society ; M. Michel Chevalier, senator, member of the institute ; 
 M. Visschers, conseiller des mines, of Belgium ; Dr. Karmarsh, principal 
 of the polytechnic institution of Hanover ; Dr. Steinbeis, president of the 
 Board of Trade of Wirtemberg ; Dr. Baumauer, and many others. 
 
 In dealing with a question of such a momentous and practical character, 
 the committee of the House of Commons had three alternatives : first, to 
 retain the present system, though defective, and simply to endeavor to 
 amend the law as it had been done again and again, without result a mode 
 which no one recommended ; second, to create a separate decimal system for 
 the United Kingdom that is to say, to decimalize the present units, the 
 pound, the yard, and the gallon as recommended by Professor Airy, De 
 Morgan, and others ; third, to adopt, in common with other countries, the 
 metric system, in accordance with the recommendations of a host of wit- 
 nesses. The first of these modes appeared to the committee quite useless. 
 The second would necessitate a complete change, and cause much confusion 
 and trouble, without corresponding results. The latter the introduction 
 of the metric system seemed by far the simplest and best. By adopting 
 this course, the committee were enabled to set aside the chaos of our 
 irregular method, and all the discrepancies by which it is distinguished, and 
 to enter at once into a plain and symmetric principle. And when they con- 
 sidered that their instructions were not only to seek a system perfect and 
 complete in itself, but one which should facilitate trade and intercourse with 
 foreign countries, they could not well hesitate in their choice. 
 
 The special method recommended by the committee for the ultimate adop- 
 tion of the metric system was summed up in the report as follows : 
 
 1. That the use of the metric system be rendered legal, though no com- 
 pulsory measures should be resorted to until they are sanctioned by the 
 general conviction of the public. 
 
 2. That a department of weights and measures be established in con- 
 nection with the Board of Trade. It would thus become subordinate to the 
 government, and responsible to Parliament. To it should be intrusted the 
 
59 
 
 conservation and verification of the standard, the superintendence of 
 inspectors, and the general duties incident to such a department. It should 
 also take such measures as may from time to time promote the use and 
 extend the knowledge of the metric system in the departments of government, 
 and among the people. 
 
 3. The government should sanction the use of the metric system, together 
 with our present one, in the levying of the customs duties ; thus familiarizing 
 it among our merchants and manufacturers, and giving facilities to foreign 
 traders in their dealings with this country. Its use, combined with that of 
 our own system, in government contracts, has also been suggested. 
 
 4. The metric system should form one of the subjects of examination in 
 the competitive examinations of the civil service. 
 
 5. The gram should be used as a weight for foreign letters and books at 
 the post office. 
 
 6. The committee of council on education should require the metric sys- 
 tem to be taught (as might easily be done by means of tables and diagrams) 
 in all* schools receiving grants of public money. 
 
 7. In the public statistics of the country, quantities should be expressed 
 in terms of the metric system in juxtaposition with those of our own, as 
 suggested by the international statistical congress. 
 
 8. In private bills before Parliament, the use of the metric system should 
 be allowed. 
 
 9. The only weights and measures in use should be the metric and im- 
 perial, until the metric has generally been adopted. 
 
 10. The proviso in the 5th and 6th William IV., c. 63, s. 6, should be 
 repealed. 
 
 11. The department which it is proposed to appoint should make an 
 annual report to Parliament. 
 
 The report was well received throughout the country, and in furtherance 
 of its recommendations, a bill or project of law, was introduced in the 
 House of Commons by Mr. William Ewart, Mr. Cobden, the Right Hon. 
 Mr. Adderly, and Mr. Finley. It was at first decided upon simply legalizing 
 the use of the metric system with its own nomenclature, but it was objected 
 to this method that, so long as it was permissive only, the people would 
 continue to use the existing system, and no effort would be made to teach 
 or introduce the new ; that to have another system side by side with the 
 existing one would only add to the confusion, whilst the introduction of the 
 same, with its Greek and Latin nomenclature, would effectually preclude the 
 chance of its ever becoming popular with the masses. The bill was, therefore, 
 constructed to the effect of making the use of the new weights and measures 
 permissive for three years, but compulsory thereafter, and of legalizing the 
 use of the old names for new quantities, by the addition of the word " new." 
 The chambers of commerce of the United Kingdom^ the Pharmaceutical 
 
60 
 
 Society, the British architects, and a goodly number of merchants, traders, 
 and persons connected with education, petitioned Parliament in favor of the 
 bill. Mr. Ewart introduced the bill ; Mr. Cobden, Colonel Sykes, Mr. J. B. 
 Smith, Mr. Baines, Mr. Pollard Urquhart, the Hon. Mr. Farquhar, and 
 others, took part in the debate, and though a general opinion was expressed 
 in favor of a permissive bill only, the bill passed a second reading by a 
 majority of 110 to 75. It is gratifying to find that the principle of intro- 
 ducing the metric system in the United Kingdom was sanctioned first by 
 the unanimous vote of a parliamentary committee, and afterwards by the 
 House of Commons itself. 
 
 At the meeting of the British Association held in Newcastle, in the 
 present year, the following important and practical observations were made 
 by Sir William Armstrong, the president of the association in his opening 
 address : 
 
 "Another subject of a social character which demands our consideration 
 is the much-debated question of weights and measures. Whatever difference 
 of opinion there may be as to the comparative merits of decimal and duo- 
 decimal division, there can at all events be none as to the importance of 
 assimilating the systems of measurement in different countries. Science 
 suffers by the want of uniformity, because valuable observations made in 
 one country are in a great measure lost to another, from the labor required 
 to convert a series of quantities into new denominations. International 
 commerce is also impeded by the same cause, which is productive of constant 
 inconvenience and frequent mistake. It is much to be regretted that two 
 standards of measure so nearly alike as the English yard and the French 
 metre should not be made absolutely identical. The metric system has 
 already been adopted by other nations besides France, and is the only one 
 which has any chance of becoming universal. We in England, therefore, have 
 no alternative but to conform with France, if we desire general uniformity. 
 The change might easily be introduced in scientific literature, and in that 
 case would probably extend itself by degrees amongst the commercial classes 
 without much legislative pressure. Besides the advantage which would thus 
 be gained in regard to uniformity, I am convinced that the adoption of 
 the decimal division of the French scale would be attended with great 
 convenience, both in science and commerce. I can speak from personal 
 experience of the superiority of decimal measurement in all cases where 
 accuracy is required in mechanical construction. In the Elswick Works, as 
 well as in some other large establishments of the same description, the inch 
 is adopted as the unit, and all fractional parts are expressed in decimals. 
 No difficulty has been experienced in habituating the workmen to the use 
 of this method, and it has greatly contributed to the precision of workman- 
 ship. The inch, however, is too small a unit, and it would be advantageous 
 to substitute the metre if general concurrence could be obtained. As to our 
 
61 
 
 thermometric scale, it was originally founded in error ; it is also most incon- 
 venient in division, and ought at once to be abandoned in favor of the centi- 
 grade scale. The recognition of the centigrade scale by the numerous men 
 of business composing the British Association, would be a most important 
 step towards effecting the universal adoption of the French standards in 
 this country, which sooner or later will inevitably take place." 
 
 The question was debated in a section of the British Association, and is 
 proposed for further discussion at the meeting of the National Association 
 for the Promotion of Social Science, to be held in Edinburgh in the month 
 of October next. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 This being the country whence the metric system first emanated, it is 
 natural that its legislation and practice on the subject should be carefully 
 studied. Unfortunately, the measure was introduced at a most unfavorable 
 time, and, for a long period, it labored against the most decided opposition 
 and prejudice. From the first, the government was not in earnest in, 
 securing its success, whilst the nation itself was scarcely prepared for 
 the many radical changes so suddenly effected by the revolution. Some 
 steps were, nevertheless, taken, rather as an experiment. The Board of 
 Works adopted it from the beginning. In the naval arsenal, too, the system 
 was adopted by the officers and shipbuilders, with the consent of govern- 
 ment, and even by the order of the minister, but the people at large were 
 left at liberty to use which system they pleased. It was not, in fact, till 
 1837 that the French government took measures to enforce the system 
 throughout, a law having been passed making the use of the metric system 
 compulsory from the 1st of January, 1840. Although, therefore, a long time 
 had elapsed since its first introduction, it would be erroneous to think that 
 the measure was fairly carried into execution. Upwards of twenty years, 
 however, have elapsed since the new system has been made compulsory. 
 Have the French people adopted it universally ? Does the metric system 
 find favor with them ? Is it adapted to the practical business of life ? These 
 are questions which are still differently answered. As far as we have ascer- 
 tained, it appears that the system is bona fide made compulsory ; merchants, 
 traders, and even retail dealers, must use the metric weights and measures, 
 and do use them ; and from time to time they are submitted to the visit of 
 the inspectors of weights and measures. It is evident, at the same time, 
 that the old names are still largely used by the people. The " livre " is a 
 much more customary quotation of weight than the kilogram or half-kilo- 
 gram ; and the " sous," than the five centimes. 
 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 In Belgium the metric system was introduced when the French took pos- 
 session of the Austrian Netherlands, now forming the kingdom of Belgium. 
 
62 
 
 At first it was introduced with the same nomenclature as in France, but on 
 the union of Belgium with the Dutch Netherlands the names were changed. 
 This continued till 1831, when, upon the erection of Belgium as an indepen- 
 dent kingdom, the original names were again resumed. A new law was 
 passed in 1816, making the same even more stringent, and by universal tes- 
 timony, comfirmed by personal experience, the metric system seems now to 
 have been pretty extensively adopted throughout the country. It is, of 
 course, quite possible that, here and there, the old local systems may be still 
 found in existence, and that small dealers may try to take advantage of 
 the confusion, but generally the government has met with no opposition in 
 enforcing the metric system. In the new Belgian law the units of the me- 
 tric system have been extended by adopting the duplicates of each unit, 
 multiples and sub-multiples. They adopted the principle of having weights 
 representing 50, 20, 5, 2, and 1. It is the same as regards weights, and 
 measures of length and measures of capacity. By thus increasing the series, 
 the objection that the metric system does not possess a sufficient series of 
 units is altogether obviated. 
 
 HOLLAND. 
 
 The metric system was introduced into Holland in 1816, and it came into 
 force three years afterwards, in 1819, that time being given to facilitate the 
 change ; but the old Dutch nomenclature was used for the purpose, such as 
 the ell, palm, duimen and streegen, and so forth, the word " old " and "new " 
 being used to distinguish the old method from the metric system. On the 
 success of this method there appears to be great difference of opinion. Dr. 
 Baumhauer said that the simultaneous use of both the " old ell " and " new 
 ell" produces confusion. Others have stated that no inconvenience has 
 resulted from it. The law requires the use of the new system in all things 
 except for weighing medicines. The medicinal pfund is three-eighths of the 
 usual pfund, and is divided into twelve ounces, one ounce being eight 
 drachms, one drachm three scruples, and one scruple twenty grains. 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 The weights and measures in this country are based on a mixed system, 
 decimal and duodecimal. By the law of 1851, the unit of length is the foot 
 decimally divided, equivalent to 0.3 metre. The road measure is the verg- 
 stunden, equal to 4,800 metres. The liquid measure is the maas, equal to 
 one and a half litre. The unit of weight is the pound, equal to 500 grams 
 or one-half-kilo. ; but instead of being decimally, as the foot, it is divided 
 into thirty-two loth or sixteen ounces. Switzerland is subject to two oppos- 
 ing influences, the French and German. The French cantons would have 
 preferred tlje French system in its completeness, but the German cantons 
 preferred the German plan. The system adopted was therefore a compro- 
 
63 
 
 mise ; but should Germany adopt the metric system in measure as well as in 
 weight, Switzerland will be ready to follow. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 The metric system has been introduced by the law of the 19th July, 1849, 
 to come in force from the 1st of January, 1859, though for a portion of the 
 kingdom it came in force in 1853, the only diiference made being in the 
 names, which were rendered somewhat more idiomatic, as metro, area, litro, 
 kilogramo or gramo, decametro, hectrometro, kilometro, <fcc. The system 
 has been extended to Spanish America and in Cuba. The Castilian system 
 is, however, largely in use. That system is duodecimal. The measure of 
 length is the foot of twelve inches, twelve lines and twelve points or sixteen 
 fingers, and is 0.278635 metre. The elle is four pialms, or three feet 0.835905 
 metre. The Queen declared that after the 3d of January, 1851, the metre 
 shall be used in all announcements of the sales of national property. 
 
 The Count de Ripalda, writing 1st August, 1863, on the progress of the 
 decimal system in Spain, says : 
 
 " L'ordre est donne, et la volunte du gouvernement est sincere de Petablir. 
 Les corps du genie, d'artillerie, de ^administration nationale militaire, Tont 
 deja adopte, et je crois que la marine de 1'etat aussi. La vente de terres et 
 de maisons, des biens de 1'etat, se fait par hectares et metres carres. Le 
 gouvernement a achete 600 collections de types de toute classe, et il va en 
 acheter plus, pour etablir dans chaque ville importante des types de com- 
 paraison. La mesure lineale est deja assez connue et me'me celle du poids, 
 car dans les chemins de fer on paie par kilometre et par kilogrammes. Je 
 crois qu'on va mesurer les ^avires par tonnes metriques. On a public et on 
 vend des tables de reduction des mesures du pays a mesures metriques, avec 
 les reductions faites depuis un a mille. En un mot, on marche sincdrement 
 et decidement a Padoption du systSme decimal, qui fera le tour du monde, 
 malgre 1'opposition de 1'ignorance, comme le feront toutes les nouvelles 
 idees philosophiques et humanitaires." 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 The metric system came into force in this country in 1862, and a depart- 
 ment for the purpose has been established. Comparative tables have also 
 been constructed of the old and new systems, and under the able manage- 
 ment of M. Fradesso da Silveira every effort is being made to render the 
 system extensively known and popular. 
 
 His excellency, the Marquis d'Avila, in his report to this international 
 statistical congress, says : 
 
 " Dans les congres precedents, et notamment a Paris et a Londres, on 
 s'est occupe serieusement de la question de 1'uniformite des poids, mesures, 
 et monnaies, et on a appeld 1'attention des gouvernemeiits sur Tutilite' de 
 
64 
 
 cette importante reYorme, qui faciliteraient essentiellement I'e'tude et la com- 
 paraison des faits sociaux dans les difierents pays. Je pense, done, que je 
 dois faire connitre au congres qu'elle est la situation en Portugal, en ce qui 
 concerne le systeme metrique, sans chercher a demontrer que le Portugal 
 est de tous les pays le premier qui, apres la France, voulut adopter ce sys- 
 tSme, dont Fexecution avait deja e'te ordonne en 1814. 
 
 " Je me bornerai a constater ce que nous avons fait recemment pour en 
 assuer Papplication. 
 
 "Le decret du 14 Deembre, 1852, a present que le systme metrique 
 gerait obligatoire, dix ans apres, dans tout le royaume. Aux terme du me" me 
 decret, le gouvernement devait fixer successivement les epoques auxquelles 
 chaque partie du nouveau systeme serait mise en vigueur ; ce qui seulement 
 pourrait avoir lieu six mois apres que les etalons respectifs auraient et^ dis- 
 tribues, et les tables comparatives publiees pour sa promulgation. 
 
 " Une commission centrale a e'te chargee de ces travaux preparatoires. 
 M. Fradesso da Silveira, secretaire de cette commission, a re$u mission 
 d'acheter les etalons verifies au conservatoire des arts et metiers de Paris, et 
 en m6me temps d'etudier pratriquement ce service en France et en Belgique. 
 
 " Cette etude ayant ete termine'e en 1855, des agents speciaux ont ete' 
 envoyes dans tous les de'partements pour faire une comparaison exacte, dans 
 chaque commune, avec le concours de la municipality, des anciens et des 
 nouveaux etalons. Un proces-verbal, constatant les resultats de cette verifi- 
 cation, a ete dresse et depose aux archives de la commune. Des copies de 
 ce process-verbal ont ete envoyees a la commission centrale et au gouverne- 
 ment. 
 
 "Ces re'sultats sont consignes dans deux ouvrages que je m'empresse 
 d'offrir au congre's. Le premier contient une collection de tableaux des 
 mesures du syste"me metrique comparees aux anciennes mesures de toutes 
 les communes du royaume. Le second contient seulement la reduction des 
 anciennes mesures de capacite dans toutes les communes, au systeme metrique 
 et reciproquement. Ce dernier ouvrage, dont six volumes sont deja im- 
 primes, contient aussi des tableaux des unites de toutes les mesures Portu- 
 gaises et Anglaises prepares sur des documents officiels. 
 
 " Quand les tables comparatives ont e'te formees, la surintendance ge'ne'rale 
 des poids et mesures, qui avait remplace la commission centrale, les a 
 envoye'es aux municipalites, et a etabli partout, au moyen de son nombreux 
 personnel, des ecoles pour expliquer le nouveau systeme. Les instituteurs 
 appeles dans les ecoles ont e'te bientot a m^me de le rendre familier a leurs 
 eleves. 
 
 "Dans la dernidre anne'e et dans 1'annee courante, le personnel du de- 
 partement des poids et mesures a inspect^ 2,720 Ecoles, publiques et'parti- 
 culiSres. 
 
" En outre, un grand nombre d'onvrnges elernentaires ont et6 publics 
 pour 1'usage des ecoles et du public. II est resulte de cet ensemble d'efforts 
 que le delai de dix ans, presc.rit en 1852, ne s'etait pas encore ecoule, que, 
 par le decret du 5 Juin, 1850, le gouvernement ordonnait 1'application du 
 nouvenu syst6me a dater du 1 Janvier, 1860, que pour les mesures lineaires, 
 et par le decret du 20 Septembre, 1860, 1'application du m6me systeme pour 
 les poids, a commenccr du 1 Juillet, 1861. 
 
 " Pour rendre ces dispositions applicables au service des Douanes et a la 
 Douane municipale (octroi) de Lisbonne, d'apres le nouveau systSme, la loi 
 du 30 Juin, 1860, a autorise le gouvernement a publicr une nouvelle edition 
 du tarif general des Douanes. Cette autorisation a ete mise a execution la 
 m6me annee. 
 
 " J'ai 1'honneur de faire hommage au congres d'un exemplaire du tarif 
 actuel et des tableaux du commerce exterieur de 1860-'61 et de 1861-'62, en 
 ce qui concerne les importations et les exportations qui ont en lieu, dans ces 
 deux annees, par les Douanes de Lisbonne et du porte, les deux principales 
 Douanes de Portugal. J'ajoute a ces documents la statistique de Poctroi 
 municipal de Lisbonne, pour ces deux annees et pour 1'annee 1862-'63. 
 Tons ces documents sont rediges d'apres le systeme metrique. 
 
 " Pour les mesures de surface et de capacite du systeme metrique, tous 
 les travaux preparatoires sont deja termines, et le gouvernement ne tardera 
 pas a en ordonner la mise en vigueur. 
 
 " L'organisation du service du systeme metrique en Portugal a. offert des 
 elements precieux pour la statistique de 1'instruction primaire et de 1'industrie 
 de manufacture. 
 
 " Grace au zele indefatigable de M. Fradesso da Silveira, chef du bureau 
 des poids et mesures, les employes charges de visiter les ecoles primaires 
 dans 1'interet du systeTne metrique, ont egalement re9u mission de recueiller 
 tous les renseignements indispensables pour organiser la statistique de ces 
 ecoles. Leurs travaux, qui comprennent tous les districts, sont presque ter- 
 mines, et on a deja public la statistique de onze des dix-sept districts." 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 The metric system, with some modifications in nomenclature and quanti- 
 ties, was introduced by the law of 28th September, 1836, but the nomen- 
 clature is Greek. The royal piki or metre has 10 palms; a palm is 10 zoll, 
 and the zoll 10 linien or millimetres. For road measure, 1,000 piki 1 kilo- 
 metre. For weights, the royal mine is equal to 1,500 drachmes or grams, 
 one and a half kilogram; 1 gram has 10 obolen or (decigrams) 10 gran 
 (centigram.) The talent has 100 minen, 150 kilograms. In the Ionian 
 Islands the English system at present exists. 
 9 
 
66 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 The whole of Italy now possess the metric system. For a considerable 
 time past Sardinia and Lombardy had the same weights and measures as in 
 France ; but since the Neapolitan states, the Romagna, Tuscany, and other 
 parts have been united with the Sardinian states into an Italian kingdom, the 
 same system has been introduced throughout, and the change has been 
 effected without any practical difficulty. 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 The different states of Germany have all different weights and measures. 
 
 In Prussia the foot has 12 inches and 12 lines, and is equal to 0.3138 metre. 
 The mile of 24,000 is the unit of road measure, and is equivalent to 7532.485 
 metres. For land measure the morgen has 180 square ruthen, equivalent to 
 2,553.225 square metres. For corn measure the sheffel of 16 metzen is 
 equivalent to 54.9615 litres. The Prussian pfund is equal to 467.711 grams 
 In Vienna, the foot, equally divided, as in Prussia, is equivalent to 0.316111 
 metres divided duodecimally. For weights the centner has 100 pfund 
 equivalent to 560.012 grams each, 100 pfund being equal to 123.462 Eng- 
 lish avoirdupois. But in Austria, the half-kilo has been taken as the basis 
 for collecting the customs, and the same decimal weight has been introduced 
 into all great mercantile operations, and in the calculation of the operations 
 of the steamboat and railway traffic. Such changes have been effected with- 
 out any difficulty, and no inconvenience has been experienced. In 1860 a 
 conference was held in Frankfort, of commissioners from Austria, Bavaria, 
 Saxony, Hanover, Wirtemberg, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt, Nassau, Mecklen- 
 burg Schwerin, Mecklenburg Strelitz, Oldenburg, Anhalt, Schwarzburg, 
 Lichtenstein, Schaumburg, Lippe, and the few free towns, to consider and 
 report upon the best system of weights and measures for the whole of Ger- 
 many, and after careful consideration of the whole subject, they recommend 
 the introduction of the metric system as detailed in the programme by Dr. 
 Engel. Unfortunately Prussia was not represented at that conference, and 
 the resolutions have not yet been carried into effect. 
 
 His excellency, the Baron von Czoernig, president of the central statistical 
 commission, Vienna, writing 5th August, 1863, reports: 
 
 "Depuis 1'exposition que j'ai faite a Londres 1'annee passee, au comite 
 preside par le Comte de Fortescue (Lord Ebrington) rien ne s'est passe de 
 nouveau sur cet objet chez nous. Mais on prepare 1'introduction generate 
 du systeme metrique, sur laquelle je ne manquerai pas de yous prevenir des 
 que quelque chose se lit dans la matiere. En attendant, le syst6me metrique 
 est en activite pour les monnaies (dont 1'unite est le 'zollpfund '=- kilogram) 
 pour les transports sur les chemins de fer et les bateaux a vapeur, et pour le 
 paiement des droits de douane dans 1'importation et 1'exportation des mar- 
 
67 
 
 chandises. Ancun inconvenient ne 8*y est montre*, pas meme quand on a 
 change la subdivision du florin, qui autrefois avait 60 kreutzer et a present 
 100 kreutzer. Toute la population, m6me de la campagne, s'y est bien vite 
 habituee." 
 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 The system in force in this country was established in 1840, when a com- 
 mission was issued by the government to fix the exact relation between the 
 different parts of the Russian metric system, and to construct and deposit 
 the standard of these units. The unit of length is the foot, divided into 12 
 inches and 10 lines, equivalent to 0.36079 metre. The arshine, or the elle, 
 is equivalent to 0.71119 metre. The unit for land measure is the dessiatine 
 of 2,400 square sasche ; and the werst, the unit for road measure, is equiva- 
 lent to 1066.78 metres. The standard pound is equal to 409.51156 grams. 
 Some steps have recently been taken in Russia with a view to take part in 
 the general efforts for the assimilation of weights and measures. In the 
 year 1858, the council of the international association sent an address on the 
 subject to the imperial Academy of Science. That academy appointed a 
 commission, consisting of Messrs. Kupfer, Ostrogradsld, Jacobi and Otto- 
 struve, to deliberate and report on the proposal, and they reported in favor 
 of making such changes in the Russian system as would bring it into perfect 
 harmony with the metric. Since the presentation of that report, M. Kupfer, 
 the rapporteur of that commission, attended the fourth general meeting of 
 the association held at Bradford, and, expressing his own and the opinion 
 of the Russian government, he gave the assurance that if Great Britain adopts 
 the metric system, Russia will also adopt it. 
 
 The relation of the metric system to the existing Russian weights and 
 measures was described as follows by the committee of the Imperial Academy 
 of Russia: "The dessiatine has now 1.0921 hectare; it will in future be 
 equal to one hectare that is, it will be reduced 10 per cent. The Russian 
 verste is now equal to 1.066 French kilometre; it will be equal to one kilo- 
 metre that is, it will be reduced 7 per cent. The cubic sagene of Russia 
 is at present equal to 9.712 French steres ; it will in future be equal to 8 steres 
 that is, it will be reduced 18 per cent. The new Russian pound, equal to 
 500 grammes, very near one and a quarter of the old pounds, will be divided 
 into 100 zolotnics, the zolotnic being equal to 5 grammes. The zolotnic 
 would be divided into 100 doli, 1 dolea being equal to 5 centigrammes. The 
 new ton, equal to 1 ,000 kilogrammes, very near to six old berkowetz, would 
 be equal to 200 Ibs. The new sagene is equal to 2 metres that is, very 
 near to 45 old verchoes. The sagene is divided into 2 archines, the archine into 
 10 verchoes, the verchoe into 10 lines. For the measure of cloth and 
 drapery, the archine, or the half sagene, may be used, which is divided into 
 10 verchoes. The new archine will be nearly equal to one and a half of the 
 old, and the new verchoe will be equal to two and a half of the old. The 
 
68 
 
 unit of measures of capacity will be an equivalent to the litre, ten chtofs 
 will make the oedra, ten tcharks will make the chtof. The unit of measures 
 for grain will be osmine (hectolitre). The osmine is divided into 100 gar- 
 netz. The unit for agrarian measures will be an equivalent to the hectare, 
 little different from the old dessiatine. The linear measure will be the verste 
 (kilometre), equal to 500 sagenes (1,000 metres, little different from a verste). 
 The measure for firewood will be the cubic archine; 10 cubic archine will 
 make the decastre, which differs little from the old cubic sagene ; the fourth 
 of the decastre (or two cubic archines and a half) would be little different 
 from the sagene for wood, the log of which would be only three-quarters of 
 archine of length, the differences between the old and the new measures 
 being as follows : 1 new pound is equal to 1 old pound less 25 per cent ; 1 
 new archine is equal to 1 old archine less 40 per cent ; 1 new osmine is 
 equal to the old osmine less 5 per cent ; 1 new vedro is equal to the old 
 vedro less 20 per cent ; the verste and the dessiatine are equal to the old 
 verste and dessiatine ; the new decastre is equal to the old cubic sagene. 
 
 SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK. 
 
 A new system of weights and measures was introduced into Sweden in 
 1855, to be compulsory from the 1st of January, 1863. The unit of the 
 measure of length is the foot divided decimally. The stangen has 10 feet, 
 and the schnur has 10 stangen. The road measure is the mile of 36,000 
 feet, and the land measure 100 square stangen, the square schnur being 
 equivalent to 8.81502 French ares. For weight the pfund has 100 ort or 
 100 korns. The centner has 100 pfunds, and the last has 100 centners. For 
 liquids the cubic foot has 10 kannen, or 100 kubikzoti. 
 
 In Norway the system is duodecimal. For measure of length, the foot of 
 12 inches and 12 lines equivalent to 0.313763 metre. There is also the elle, 
 of two feet. The mile has 24,000 feet. The land measure is the tonne 
 handes, which is equivalent to 10,000 square ells. The pfund is the 1.63 
 cubic foot of distilled water and 498.4 grams. 
 
 Denmark has a system somewhat the same as in Prussia, with some little 
 modification. 17 Danish ells are equal to 16 Prussian ells. The ruthe has 
 10 feet for land measure; the tonde land of 8 sheffelon has 14,000 square 
 ells, equal to 55.16123 French ares. The centner has one hundred pfund 
 each of 16 ounces. The pfund is equal to the half kilo. These three systems 
 are thus in many points different, and it is gratifying to learn that a meeting 
 of political economists was recently held at Gottenburg, attended by a large 
 number of members of parliament and persons of influence from each sta/e, 
 when it was resolved to recommend the introduction of the metric system 
 with the same nomenclature as in France. In consequence of this resolution, 
 the King of Sweden and Norway has appointed a commission to consider 
 and report on the best mode of introducing the change. 
 
69 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 There are two units of length ; the first is the picco or aistren, equivalent 
 to 0.6858 metre. This measure is used for the wholesale and foreign trade. 
 Second, the endasch, equivalent to 0.6528 metre. For weight the cantar or 
 centner has 44 oken, also divided into 100 rotoli. The oka has 400 drams, 
 or 1,285.56 grams. But the Turkish ^measures and weights differ in different 
 branches of trade. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 In China the foot is the unit of length, divided decimally ; but there is 
 the merchant's foot, equivalent to 0.33837 metre; the engineer's foot, 
 equivalent to 0.31972. Manufactures are sold wholesale by the English 
 yard. The road measure is the li, which is equivalent to 575.5 metres. 
 For weight there is the pikol, which has 100 kattes of 16 tales each, 
 equivalent to 133^ English avoirdupois. The katt is l English avoirdupois, 
 or 604.782 grams. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 The unit of length in this country is the sasi, divided decimally, and is 
 equivalent to 0.303 metre. There is also the ell or kupera sasi, equal to 
 0.379 metre. For weight there is first the monme, equal to If gram. The 
 monme has 10 pun and 16 rin. 
 
 Extract from Sir R. Alcock's " Three Years in Japan : " 
 "All revenues of Damios are estimated at so many ko-koos of rice. This 
 I conceive, however, is merely a standard of value, just as a pound sterling 
 is with us, and does not give any clue to the quantity of land these territo- 
 ries may contain. The standard of superficial measurement is a tsoobo, 
 being about 6 feet square, or, in precise terms, the side is 5 ft., ll in., and 
 containing, therefore, an area of 35.25 square feet instead of 36. In referring 
 to the size of a farm, an itham, containing 300 tsoobo, is the measurement 
 generally mentioned, and 1 il-than of good rice land is calculated to produce 
 1,600 its-go (or about 532 Ibs. avoirdupois) of clean rice at one cropping. 
 The pound weight is divided into 160 equal parts, of which 120 make 1 Ib. 
 avoirdupois. The smallest Japanese grain measure is an its-go, which of 
 clean rice contains 5 oz. avoirdupois. 
 
 1 Its-go, = Ib. 
 
 10 Its-go (1 Ischo), = 3 
 
 10 Ischo (1 Itho), = 33J 
 
 40 Itho (1 Its'ko-Jcoo), = 333 
 
 PERSIA. 
 
 In Persia the goss is the unit of length divided duodecimally. The goss 
 schah for woolen is equal to 1.0160 preber. 2d. The goss mokasar used in 
 manufactures is equivalent to 0.9347 metre. The farsang for road measure 
 
70 
 
 nas 6,000 goss or archines. For weight there is the mahnd, which in some 
 states is equal to 3.098 kilog.; in others it is more than double. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 The unit of length in Bombay is the haht, equivalent to 0.45719 metre, 
 and in Calcutta the fathom, or four hahts. The road measure is the coss, 
 equivalent to 1828.767 metres; for land measure is the biggah, which has" 
 20 cottahs, or 6,400 square hahts, equivalent to 13.37755 ares. The new 
 bazaar weight is the tola, equivalent to 10.66375 grams. The mahnd has 40 
 sihrs 320 tolas. Complaints are, however, made of the great variety of 
 weights in use.* 
 
 AMERICA, (UNITED STATES.) 
 
 The weights and measures in the United States are equal to the British. 
 But for weights, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut have the cent- 
 ner, of 100 Ibs. ; the quarter, of 25 Ibs. ; the ton, of 2,000 Ibs. In the other 
 States, the ton is 2,240 Ibs.f Some of the States have expressed a desire to 
 introduce the metric system of weights and measures. 
 
 MEXICO. 
 
 In this country, the old Spanish system still obtains. The unit of length 
 is the vara, equivalent to 0.83695 metre ; 100 English yards make 109 Mexi- 
 can varas. For land measure is the almud, which has 50 square varas. For 
 weight, the tercio of 150 pfunds. The carga is equivalent to 300 pfunds. 
 
 * A writer in the Bombay Times gives the following illustrations of their difference: In 
 Bombay the seer is equivalent to but 11 oz., 3.16 dr. avoirdupois; it weighs exactly 30 pice; 
 and while the maund of 40 seers is equal to 28 Ibs., the seer for liquid is 1 lb., 8 oz., 8 dr. 
 At Ahmedabad the seer is 1 lb., 14 dr. At Ahmednuggur it is 1 lb., 15 oz., 8 dr.; that of 
 capacity, 2 lb., 11 oz., 6 dr. At Dhwar, the kucha seer is 8 oz., 35 dr., but the packa is 2 Ibs., 
 15 oz., 11| dr. At Poona it is 1. lb., 15 oz., 8| dr. At Nassick, 1 lb., 15 oz., 44- dr.. but at 
 Surat only 15 oz. In other parts of India there is the same wide difference; at Mangalore, 
 the seer weight is but 9 oz., 13 dr., while the seer of capacity is equal to 84 Bombay rupees. 
 At Indore, the seer is 2 Ibs., 6f drs. At Bungalore, the kucha seer is 10 oz.; the packa, for 
 grain, is 2 Ibs., 1 oz., lOf drs. At Trichinopoly, the packa seer is equal to 1 lb., 10 oz. At 
 Madras, the seer is 1 1 oz. only, about the same as in Bombay. At Calcutta, the seer for grain 
 is just about 2 Ibs. English avoirdupois, or 80 standard tolas. The maund weight is dependent 
 upon that of tho seers, 40 of the latter generally making up the maund, though this is not 
 always the case. Thus at Broach, there are three distinct maunds, one weighing 40 Ibs., 8 
 oz., 12 drs.; another, for grain, 41 Ibs., 9 oz., 5 drs., and a third, for cotton, 43 Ibs., 9 oz., 9-J- 
 drs. So, too, at Baroda, there are 42 seers to the maund ; at Belgium, 40 seers, weighing 26 
 Ibs., 3 oz., 15 dr. ; at Poona, there are three descriptions of maunds. one of 2-i- seers, for ghee, 
 a second, of 40 seers, for metals, and a third, for grain, of 84 seers, 94 Ibs., 9 o/., 8 drs. 
 Look where we will, we find the same diversity of weights prevailing in every large Indian 
 town, and a particular weight generally for particular commodities. And it is the same with 
 measures of length. This great diversity of standards must, of necessity, lead to much fraud 
 and underhand dealing, and it is seldom that the standard for any one place can be accurately 
 known or even discovered. 
 
 f In the draught of this report, as first proposed in the special commission, it was stated 
 (line 4, page 22), that " The Confederate Stales' 1 ' 1 had expressed a desire, &c., Sec. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Ruggles, delegate from the United States of America, the words quoted 
 were stricken out, and the words "Some cf the States" inserted. That statement may be true 
 of several of the loyal States. S. B. E. 
 
71 
 
 FREE STATES OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 The unit of length is the vara (elle), which is larger than the Castilian, 
 viz., 0.866 metre. The road measure is the cuadra ; the league, or mile, has 
 40 cuadras, or 6,000 varas, equivalent to 5,196 metres. The land measure 
 there is the suerte de chacra, which is 19,600 square varas; for corn mea- 
 sure, the fanega, equal to 137.10 litres; for liquid, there is the frasco, which 
 is equal to two and three-eighths litres. The pound, or libra, is the weight 
 of 33 cubic inches of distilled water, or 459.367 grams, equal to 1.01274 
 English avoirdupois. 
 
 JAMAICA. 
 
 The same as in the United Kingdom. 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 The same as in the United Kingdom. The ell of Ij yard is also in use. 
 For corn measure there is the minot, equal to 39.025 litres. 
 
 BRAZIL. 
 
 The measure of length is the linha of 10 pentos, but for manufacturers, 
 the varsa is used, of 1.1 metre. The corn measure is the moie, which has 
 15 fangas or 16 alqueres, 2- alqueres being equal to 1 hectolitre. The liquid 
 measure is the pyre, which has 180 meddas, and the meddas is equal to 2.79 
 litres. The unit of weight in Portugal is also used in this country. 
 
 NT 
 
 MAURITIUS. 
 
 The unit of length is the praxes of 15 Parisian feet, equal to 16 English 
 feet. The faden fathom is 5 Paris feet; the arene is equal to 1.191 metre. 
 For liquid there is the fass cask or oxhoft of 30 velts, 1 cask 460 gallons. 
 The unit of weight is the old Parisian markweight. The ton has 20 quin- 
 tals, or 2,000 pfund. 
 
 CHILI. 
 
 On the 24th January, 1848, the metric system was introduced. Before 
 that time the old Spanish customs were in force, as well as the Valparaiso 
 system. 
 
 BRITISH GUIANA. 
 
 The British portion has the English weights and measures ; the French 
 the old Parisian, and the Dutch the old Amsterdam. 
 
 GUINEA, WEST AND NORTH AFRICA. 
 
 The unit of length is, in all "West and North Africa, the pick or covado, 
 equivalent to 0.5775 metres. Palm oil is sold in Bonny in old English 
 puncheons; in Old Calabar in the tabb or kruh of 10 old English wine gal- 
 lons. For weight the Europeans use their own. 
 
72 
 
 WEST INDIES. 
 
 In the Little Antilles, in Honduras and Bahamas, the English weights and 
 measures prevail ; for measures of capacity the old English is used, as in the 
 United States of North America. For the hundred weight 100 pounds are 
 now used. In St. Bartholomew the Swedish is used. 
 
 From this extensive review of the weights and measures of different coun- 
 tries, it appears that the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, 
 Mexico, the free states of South America, United States, Russia, Belgium, 
 Portugal, Brazil, Chili, West Indies, Persia, Guiana, <fcc., have adopted a 
 unit of length equivalent to the metre; that Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, 
 Norway, China and Japan have the foot, or a measure equivalent to a third 
 of the metre ; and that India, Africa and Turkey have a measure equivalent 
 to the half metre. 
 
 We are, therefore, justified in reporting that the great majority of nations 
 have found it necessary and useful to adopt a unit of length equivalent to 
 the metre. Much has been said on the comparative merits of the metre and 
 the foot as a unit of length. In a vast variety of trades the foot is univers- 
 ally used, but for as many other objects the yard or metre is general. Dr. 
 Karmarsh, in his evidence before the committee of the House of Commons, 
 said that the metre is a length much more commodious for use than the foot. 
 And as an evidence that the foot is too small, he showed that when we mea- 
 sure some length we do not make use of a single foot rule, but of a rule 
 which is three or four feet,*1ind we have to multiply by three or four to 
 reduce it into feet. In the measure of cloth the metre or yard is generally 
 used. The builders in Germany make use of the ell instead of the foot, 
 because the foot is too small. In Saxony the builders measure all objects by 
 the ell of two feet. In Austria they have the klafter of six feet. Again, 
 the subdivision of the metre is much more commodious for use than that of 
 the foot. In the foot we have twelve inches ; the inch is too large. In 
 measuring many things we must join to the inch some fractions of an inch ; 
 but by making use of the metre we have the centimetre, which is so small 
 that we scarcely want fractions of it ; and for smaller things we have the 
 millimetre, which is much smaller than the line, or the eighth of an inch. 
 
 As respects the subdivision of the units, we find that 
 
 France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, 
 Sweden, China, Japan, India, Chili have a decimal division ; and 
 
 The United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Russia, Norway, Den- 
 mark, have a duodecimal division, though in some of them the weight is 
 decimally divided. 
 
 With such facts before us, we cannot help concluding that the introduction 
 of the metric decimal system appears to be the most consonant with the 
 habits and tendencies of the commercial world. And that, therefore, in 
 
73 
 
 endeavoring to introduce uniformity in the weights and measures of all coun- 
 tries, we cannot do better than accept that system which has already made 
 so rapid progress, and which possesses most if not all the requisites which 
 are necessary for the purposes of commerce, social intercourse, and scientific 
 computations. It appears, moreover, from the practice of most countries 
 that, so long as the use of the metric system was allowed to be voluntary 
 or optional only, the measure never made much progress, the people prefer- 
 ring to use the old systems, whatever their merits or defects, and that there- 
 fore the success of the measure depends on its compulsory character. 
 
 And lastly, that although in most countries the metric weights and mea- 
 sures have been introduced with their Greek and Latin nomenclature, several 
 countries have adopted their own idiomatic names, whilst in France and other 
 countries the old names, though illegal, are still freely applied to the new 
 quantities. 
 
 This commission is strongly of opinion that in whatever country the metre 
 is introduced, care should be taken not to encumber it with any other sub- 
 divisions than its decimals. 
 
 In conclusion, the commission would recommend the congress to resolve : 
 
 1. The adoption of the same measure in international commerce is of the 
 highest importance. The metrical system appears to the section to be the 
 most convenient of all the measures that could be recommended for interna- 
 tional measures. 
 
 2. The arrangements and rules to be followed in the construction of the 
 standards, and in the introduction of this system, should be confided to an 
 international commission, which should also be charged with the duty of 
 ascertaining the means of correcting slight defects in the original standards. 
 
 3. That it is desirable that the introduction of the metrical system into 
 any country which accepts it should be made compulsory in the shortest 
 practicable period. 
 
 4. That each government should institute a department of weights and 
 measures, to superintend the introduction of the metrical system, and to carry 
 out its details, or to devolve the duty on some one of the existing depart- 
 ments. 
 
 COINAGE. 
 
 Having thus dwelt at length on the unit of weights and measures, we shall 
 now more briefly consider the question of coinage. Some uniformity in the 
 coinage of different countries is, indeed, quite as necessary, if not more so, 
 than in their weights and measures. Not only do the coins intermix them- 
 selves in almost every transaction where the weights and measures are used, 
 but there are numberless monetary and financial operations where the differ- 
 ences now existing produce peculiar and even greater injuries. Moreover, 
 it would be of great advantage to establish a system in which the weights, 
 measures, and coins should have some close analogy with one another. 
 10 
 
74 
 
 There is a necessary relation between the different parts of this one great 
 question, that is, between the instruments by means of which commodities 
 are divided and distributed, and the instruments by which the commo- 
 dities so divided are paid for. If, therefore, we deal with the coinage sepa- 
 rately, it is not because it is a separate question, but because there are 
 difficulties connected with the coinage which do not exist as regards weights 
 and measures. The first difficulty we have to contend with is the difference 
 in the monetary standard, a large number of countries, by far the largest 
 number, using silver as a standard, and other countries using gold, and some 
 both. Abyssinia, Costa Rica, Bremen, China, France, Switzerland, Denmark, 
 India, Japan, Italy, South American States, Greece, Russia, Holland, Sweden, 
 Spain, Turkey, Prussia, Germany and Persia have a silver standard ; Great 
 Britain, Brazil, Liberia, Portugal, New Brunswick, and some other British 
 colonies, have a gold standard ; whilst the United States have a standard of 
 gold and silver. 
 
 The reason why these latter countries have preferred gold to silver is, first, 
 because gold is the more costly metal of the two, and it, therefore, contains 
 greater value in small bulk ; and, secondly, because the cost of obtaining 
 gold, and, consequently, the value of gold varies less than the value of silver. 
 So long, then, as some countries use gold and other countries use silver, a 
 uniform system of coinage is very difficult to realize ; nor do we see the 
 probability that for the present, at least, the different countries will change 
 their custom in this particular simply for the sake of uniformity. It has 
 been proposed to make both gold and silver standards of value for all coun- 
 tries, or to have a double standard, but the great objection to this is that the 
 standard would then be affected by variations in the value of two standards 
 instead of one. And, moreover, if either metal be cheapened when both 
 are made legal tender, suppose anything to happen which may reduce the 
 value of either, every one who has a debt to discharge will prefer paying in 
 the cheaper metal. In the United Kingdom there are both a gold, silver, and 
 copper unit the pound, the shilling, and the penny but the silver and 
 the copper coins are only subsidiary coins, and it is fixed by law that each 
 silver coin must contain a certain quantity of silver, and exchange or be 
 equivalent to a fixed quantity of gold. A shilling always contains the same 
 quantity of silver, and twenty shillings are always equivalent to one sovereign. 
 But to prevent the silver being melted in case of rise in value, the silver 
 for which the gold sovereign may be exchanged would not in reality purchase 
 the quantity of gold contained in the sovereign. The same regulations exist 
 as to the copper coinage as regards silver. 
 
 Another difficulty in establishing uniformity in the coinage of nations is 
 the difference in the alloy. Both gold and silver, when pure, are very soft 
 and easily worn away by use, and therefore a certain quantity of copper is 
 added to give these metals the requisite hardness. In the United Kingdom 
 
75 
 
 one-twelfth of alloy is used, that is, a pound troy of gold consists of twenty- 
 two carats in twenty-four parts fine and two of alloy, or .917 fine. A pound 
 troy of silver consists of 11 ounces 2 pennyweights of pure silver and 18 
 pennyweights of alloy, or .925 fine. In other countries the amount of alloy 
 used is different. In France and the United States of America the propor- 
 tion is nine-tenths pure metal to one-tenth alloy. This is a question purely 
 chemical. In both silver and gold, the relation of nine-tenths and one-tenth 
 is certainly as good, if not better, than eleven-twelfths and one-twelfth ; and 
 the only difficulty in changing the alloy in gold is that of maintaining in 
 circulation, at the same time, the coinage of two descriptions of fineness, 
 whilst there would be some difference in the color which an additional 
 quantity of alloy gives to the gold coin. We are glad to learn from Mr. 
 Graham, master of the mint of the United Kingdom, that no practical diffi- 
 culty would be experienced in agreeing to the common rule of one-tenth 
 alloy, and that in fact, at the mint at Hong Kong, the new dollar now being 
 coined for use in the Chinese market will be nine-tenths fine. The resolution 
 adopted at the last congress, on this part of the question, has thus received 
 a marked illustration of its practical character. 
 
 The state of the coinage in different countries may best be seen from the 
 following tabular statement, principally extracted from the report of the 
 British commissioners on decimal coinage (see next and consecutive pages). 
 
76 
 
 I. Present and former 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Moneys of account 
 by law. 
 
 Coins in circulation by law. 
 
 Former moneys of account. 
 
 UNITED KINGDOM,. 
 
 Pound 
 20 shillings. 
 240 pence. 
 
 Gold, 1 sovereign, X sovereign. 
 Silver, 5s., 2s. 6d., 2s.. ls.,6d.. 4d., 3d. 
 Copper, penny, half-penny, far- 
 thing. 
 
 
 
 
 Gold 100, 50 *>0 10 5 frs 
 
 
 
 100 centimes. 
 
 Silver. 5, 2, 1 fr. 
 50, 20 cents. 
 Copper, 10, 5, 2, 1 c. 
 
 Sou 12 deniers. 
 
 ITALY, 
 
 Lira di Piemonte 
 
 Gold, 100 80 50 40 20 10 frs 
 
 
 
 (or franc.) 
 100 centimes. 
 
 Silver, 5, 2, ], tf. X fr. 
 Mixed, 40. 20 cs. 
 Copper, 5, 3, 1 cs. 
 
 1. Lira 20 sols, 
 sol 12 deniers. 
 Sardinia: 
 2. Lira - 20 sols, 
 sol 12 deniers. 
 Liguria : 
 3. Lira 20 sols, 
 sol 12 deniers. 
 
 BELGIUM, 
 
 Franc 
 
 
 
 
 100 centimes. 
 
 Silver, 5, 2X, 2, 1 frs. 
 50, 20 cs. 
 Copper, 10, 5, 2. 1 c. 
 French coins current 
 
 schilling 12 gros. 
 pros 8 deniers. 
 denier 3 mittes. 
 2. Florin 20 sous, 
 sou 16 deniers. 
 3. Florin de Brabant 20 sous, 
 sou 12 deniers. 
 4. Livre tournois 20 sols, 
 sol 12 deniers. 
 5. Florin des pays Bas 100 cts. 
 
 SWITZERLAND 
 
 Franc 
 100 centimes 
 or rappes. 
 
 No eold coins. 
 Silver, 5. 2, 1 frs. 
 50 cs. 
 Copper, 20, 10, 5, 2, 1 c. 
 
 Each of the twenty-two cantons 
 had its own system, and conse- 
 quently there existed a great va- 
 riety. The principal were 
 1. Franc 10 batz. 
 batz =- 10 rappes. 
 2. Florin 60 kreutzer. 
 kreutzer 4 deniers. 
 3. Crown 25 batz. 
 
 GERMANY, 
 
 
 Silver, 1 thaler 
 
 
 
 30 groschen. 
 
 Copper, groschen. 
 
 Vereins thaler. 
 
 NETHERLANDS, 
 
 | 
 
 Guilder (florin) 
 100 cents. 
 - 200 ^-cents. 
 
 No gold coins. 
 Silver, 2*, 1, X fls.; 25, 10, 5 cents. 
 Copper, 1, X cents. 
 
 Guilder 20 stivers. 
 Stiver 16 pennings. 
 
 PORTUGAL, 
 
 Reis 
 
 
 
 
 1000-1 milreis 
 Notation 
 1.000 : 000 * 000 
 $ representing 
 thousands, 
 (:) millions, 
 (.) thousands of 
 millions. 
 
 Gold, 10, 5, 2, 1 milreis. 
 Silver, 500, 200, 100, 50 reis. 
 Copper, 20, 10 reis. 
 English sovereign current by law 
 at 4 milreis 500 reis. 
 
 always existed with a duodecimal 
 system of coins. 
 
77 
 
 
 moneys and their value. 
 
 Comparative 
 values. 
 
 Former coins. 
 
 Date of change. 
 
 Weight! and mea- 
 sures, decimal 
 or no? 
 
 Intrinsic value of coins. 
 
 
 
 
 No. 
 
 - 113 1-623 grs. fine gold. 
 7*3224 grammes no. 
 Shilling 808-11 grs. fine silver. 
 5 "1310 grammes do. 
 
 81 livres -80 frs. 
 
 Gold, 48-24 livres. 
 Silver. 6*3 livres; 30, 
 15. 24, 12, 6 sols. 
 Copper, 2, 1 sols. 
 2, 1 deniers. 
 
 Decem'r 11. 1793. 
 August 11, 1795. 
 March 28, 1803. 
 
 Decimal. 
 The metrical sys- 
 tem introduced 
 in 1793. 
 
 Franc 4*5 grammes fine silver. 
 69*4456 grains do 
 '2903 grammes fine gold. 
 4*48036 grains do 
 9'515<1 
 25 "2215 francs. 
 
 1. 100-118* of 
 present. 
 
 2. 100-193. 
 3. 100-83K. 
 
 Gold, 120, 60, 24, 12, 
 6 lira. 
 Silver, 6, 3, IK, Ksols. 
 Copper, 7, 6, 2, 61, 5, 
 2 deniers. 
 
 Genoa and Sardinia 
 had also their dis- 
 tinct coinage. 
 
 Piedmont, by the 
 French. 1793 ; 
 suppressed 1814; 
 re-established in 
 1816. 
 Genoa, 1826. 
 Sardinia, 1842. 
 
 Decimal, 1845. 
 
 Same as France. 
 
 1. - 12-69 frs. 
 
 2. -2-1164 frs. 
 3. -0-8571 frs. 
 4. 80-81 frs. 
 5. -2-1164 frs. 
 
 43 coins were recog- 
 nized as legal ten- 
 ders by act of De- 
 cember 8, 1824 ; 
 amongst these 
 were the legal 
 coins of the Ne- 
 therlands. 
 
 By Napoleon, 1803. 
 Suppress' d in 1816. 
 Re-established in 
 1832. 
 
 Decimal. French 
 metrical system, 
 1816. 
 
 Silver same as France. 
 No gold. 
 
 1. Franc -1 '43 f. 
 2. Florin -2-32. 
 3 Crown -3-57. 
 
 Gold,2,l,Xlouis-d'or. 
 8, 6, 5, 4. 3, 2. 
 IX, 2X ducats. 
 Silver, 4, 2, 1, X frs. 
 2, 1, V.X, M, 
 flor. 
 Besides these, French 
 and German coins 
 circulate largely. 
 
 1850-'52. 
 Geneva, 1840. 
 
 Mixed. 
 Measures decim'l. 
 Weights and li- 
 quid measures 
 not decimal. 
 Adopted in 1835. 
 Enforced in 1857. 
 
 Silver same as France. 
 No gold. 
 
 - 
 
 
 1857 
 
 Austrian, deci- 
 mal. Other 
 States, 1 thai. 
 30 groschen. 
 
 Vereins thaler l-30th of a pound 
 of silver. 
 IX Austrian florin. 
 1* Rhenish florin. 
 2 convention thaler piece, value 
 2 thalers in thaler currency, 3 
 in Austrian, and 3X in South 
 German currency. 
 
 No change in 
 value of unit. 
 
 Gold, 16'5 guilds ; 
 Silver,3'3-0;3;l-10; 
 1'8; 1; 2'2; 6'8 ; 
 2-10; 0-12-8: O'6-O; 
 0-5-8; 0-2 ;0'1; 
 Copper, 2 p. 
 
 Besides many other 
 provincial coins 
 too numerous to 
 mention. 
 
 Accounts, 1821 ; 
 coins, 1851. 
 
 Decimal, 1821. 
 
 Silver: 
 Guilder 9 '45 gram'es fine silver, 
 -145-83 grains do 
 2'10 francs. 
 
 No gold. 
 
 
 Silver, I'OOO milreis, 
 480, 240, 120, 100, 
 060, 050 reis. 
 Copper, 020, 010, 005, 
 reis. 
 English good, cur- 
 rent. 
 
 July 29, 1854, but 
 not yet carried 
 out. 
 
 At present not de- 
 cimal. French 
 metrical system 
 to be established 
 In 1862. 
 
 Milreig 1 -6257 gram'es fine gold. 
 25* 0.'9 grains do 
 -53-2&Z 
 
 Silver coined as a token at the 
 rate of 66 - 95rf. per ounce of 
 English standard silver. 
 
78 
 
 I. Present and former moneys 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Moneys of account 
 by law. 
 
 Coin in circulation by law. 
 
 Former moneys of account. 
 
 RUSSIA, . .' 
 
 Ruble 
 
 Gold, 10'30, 5'15, 3'09. 
 
 Banco rubles = 100 copecks 
 
 
 = 100 copecks. 
 
 Silver, 1'50, V 75 rubles. 
 75. 50, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 copecks. 
 Copper, 10, 5,3, 2, 1, >*, M c. 
 
 A decimal system has always ex- 
 isted. 
 
 
 Drachme 
 
 Gold, 20 dr 
 
 Phoenix 100 lepta 
 
 
 lOOlepta. 
 
 Silver, 5,1, K, ^ dr. 
 Copper, 1(1, 5. 2, 1 lepta. 
 English, Turkish, and French gold 
 circulates at values fixed by law. 
 
 
 UNITED STATES, . . . 
 
 Dollar 
 10 dimes. 
 100 cents. 
 1000 mills. 
 Virtually only- 
 dollar = 100 cents. 
 
 Gold, 20, 10. 5. 3, 2^, 1 ds. 
 Silver, 50. 25. 10, 5, 3 c. 
 Copper, 1 c., >c. 
 
 1. ft. d. currency varying in value 
 in the different States to the amount 
 
 2. Dollars and reals, the Spanish 
 coinage. 
 
 II. Causes of change 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Causes of change. 
 
 Inconveniences, if any, of for- 
 mer system, and by what 
 classes felt. 
 
 Reasons for selecting the new 
 system. 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 1. A wish for unity. It was 
 
 1. By all classes. 
 
 A marked preference for a de- 
 
 1. Ambassador. 
 2. M. Chevalier. 
 3. M. Delessert. 
 4. Commercial 
 Agent. 
 5. M. St. Hilaire. 
 
 part of a great system com- 
 prising weights and mea- 
 sures. 
 3. To simplify the system of 
 moneys, and perhaps 
 through hatred of existing 
 order of things. 
 5. The confusion in the pro- 
 vinces, and a desire for 
 uniformity. 
 
 2, 3, 5. The inconvenience of 
 a non-decimal system felt by 
 merchants and employees of 
 finance. 
 4. None. 
 
 cimal system. 
 The adoption of the unit was 
 connected with the metrical 
 system. 
 
 ITALY, 
 
 The French introduced their 
 
 Great inconvenience was felt 
 
 The French occupation, and 
 
 1. H. M. Minister 
 at Turin. 
 2. Cattaneo.inten- 
 dent of the mint. 
 3. M. Despine. in- 
 spector weights 
 and measures, 
 Turin. 
 
 system in 1793; this was 
 suppressed in 1814, but the 
 habits contracted during 
 the French occupation, and 
 the evident advantages of 
 a uniform monetary system 
 were the causes of its re- 
 establishment. 
 
 in returning to the system 
 which existed before the 
 French, occupation. 
 
 the constant intercourse with 
 France, had rendered the 
 new money familiar to the 
 public, and induced the wish 
 to assimilate the currency 
 with that of France. 
 
 BELGIUM, 
 
 
 Before 1803 there were at 
 
 The first svstem was intro- 
 
 1. Minister at 
 Brussels. 
 2. Through T. Bar- 
 ing, Esq., M. P. 
 3. Through, minis- 
 ter. 
 
 their system during their 
 occupation in 1803. In 
 1816, at the formation of 
 the Kingdom of the Ne- 
 therlands, the Dutch guil- 
 der was adopted for the 
 whole country. At the se- 
 paration of Belgium, in 
 1830, the adoption of a mo- 
 netary system was again 
 the subject of considera- 
 tion. 
 
 least four different legal 
 systems of account. The in- 
 conveniences were felt by 
 all classes. The number of 
 coins led to confusion and 
 complexity. Losses fell on 
 working classes. 
 There does not appear to have 
 been any practical incon- 
 venience in the system that 
 was adopted in 1816 to 1830. 
 
 duced by the French for sake 
 of unity. 
 At the last change, in 1832, the 
 French system was chosen, 
 in order to facilitate commer- 
 cial relations with France, 
 and in order to return to the 
 principle of unity which 
 characterizes the French 
 system. 
 
79 
 
 and their values. ( Continued). 
 
 Comparative 
 values. 
 
 Former coins. 
 
 Date of change. 
 
 Weights and mea- 
 sures, decimal 
 or no? 
 
 Intrinsic value of coins. 
 
 2 banco rubles 
 - 7 rubles. 
 
 Coins same as at pre- 
 sent ; but to avoid 
 ;iL'i<>, values chuu- 
 ged. 
 
 1839. 
 
 Not decimal 
 
 Ruble - 17-99 gram'es fine silver. 
 277 '62 grains do 
 4 francs. 
 Imperial - 10'30 rubles. 
 12 grammes fine gold. 
 185'18 do 
 Ruble -38'18d. 
 
 93 phoenix 100 
 drachme. 
 
 Silver phoenix and 
 30-lepta piece. 
 Turkish coins cur- 
 rent. 
 
 1836. 
 
 Decimal by law, 
 1S36, but not in 
 use. 
 Old Turkish sys- 
 tem in use. 
 
 Drachme 4 '0293 grammes fine 
 silver. 
 62*18 grains do 
 (T8954 francs. 
 
 
 A mixture of Eng- 
 lish, Spanish, 
 French, and Por- 
 tugese coins. 
 
 1785. 
 Issues of coin 1795. 
 The Continental 
 Congress, early 
 in the revolu- 
 tionary war, 
 issued paper 
 money, of which 
 the dollar was 
 the unit. 
 
 Not decimal. 
 Same as in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Dollar 23 '22 grains fine gold. 
 -49'32cf. 
 
 Silver coined as a token at the 
 rate of (53.3kf. per ounce of 
 English standard silver. 
 
 
 and its results. 
 
 Was the change compul- 
 sory and immediate ? 
 
 Has it been effectual ? 
 
 Was it unpopular ; if so, 
 with whom ? 
 
 Is the present a system 
 more convenient thau 
 the former. 
 
 For private persons the 
 change was not obliga- 
 tory. 
 There was no penalties to 
 enforce it till 1837. 
 The introduction of the 
 new coins was very slow. 
 The old system continued 
 in use many years in pro- 
 vincesless so in Paris. 
 
 2. Sou is still used by small 
 shopkeepers. 
 4. Everybody uses the new 
 system ; sou used instead 
 of 5 cents. 
 5. In some parts of France, 
 Brittany, and Auvergne, 
 the old system has been 
 preserved. 
 
 8. Popular with all, save a 
 few. 
 3. Yes ; with lower classes 
 at first, but not at present. 
 2,4. No. 
 5. Yes : with-ignorant classes. 
 
 1, 2, 4, 5. Far more conve- 
 nient, especially in keep- 
 ing accounts. 
 3. Yes; except in small 
 transactions, for which 
 a duodecimal system is 
 preferred by many. 
 
 The change was so far gra- 
 dual that the public had 
 been accustomed to it 
 from the time of the 
 French occupation. It 
 was made compulsory in 
 1827, and enforced by 
 fine of 50 francs. 
 
 The old system continued 
 in use concurrently with 
 the new many years. At 
 present, with the excep- 
 tion of the Noverese and 
 Lisruira, the new is gen- 
 erally adopted. At Ge- 
 noa lower classes and re- 
 tail dealers use old de- 
 nominations, and some- 
 times merchants' books 
 are kept in double co- 
 lumns. 
 
 Unpopular with lower classes 
 at the outset, but they are 
 gradually becoming famil- 
 iar with the new system. 
 2. It caused no popular dis- 
 turbance, and was re- 
 ceived generally with ease. 
 
 More convenient both in 
 large and small transac- 
 tions. 
 Sums are more easily divid- 
 ed, multiplied, or added 
 up. 
 
 The ancient coins were 
 gradually withdrawn 
 from circulation. 
 The change was not obliga- 
 tory for private transac- 
 tions. 
 For a long time every one 
 kept his accounts in the 
 moneys he preferred 
 without inconvenience, 
 the different moneys be- 
 ing valued by law. 
 
 1, 3. The change has not 
 yet been radical and 
 complete. 
 Small sums connected with 
 country people's daily 
 dealings are reckoned in 
 guilders, stivers, or cents. 
 Cent is used by them to de- 
 signate 2 centimes. 
 2. People are still obliged 
 to have tables of reduc- 
 tion of various moneys, 
 past and present. 
 
 None of the changes appear 
 to have been unpopular. 
 The country was already 
 accustomed to the new 
 system. There was no 
 commotion. 
 
 1. Far more convenient 
 than that anterior to 
 1800. as well in small as in 
 large accounts. 
 2. The advantages of a de- 
 cimal system need scarce- 
 ly be pointed out. 
 3. A uniform system has 
 been substituted for u 
 multiplicity of coins. 
 
80 
 
 II. Games of change and 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Causes of change. 
 
 Inconveniences, if any, of for- 
 mer system, and by what 
 
 Reasons for selecting the new 
 system. 
 
 
 
 classes felt. 
 
 
 SWITZERLAND 
 
 1. The necessity of change, 
 caused by the circulation 
 
 1. The lower classes suffered 
 from being compelled to 
 
 1. A change being decided on, 
 Switzerland WHS thought 
 
 1. Federal Council. 
 
 of French and German 
 
 accept these coins at more 
 
 too small a country for a 
 
 2. Messrs. Marcu- 
 
 coins at excessive values. 
 
 than their value. > 
 
 separate system, and had to 
 
 ard & Co., Berne. 
 
 The quantity of base bul- 
 
 2. Inconvenience in account 
 
 choose between French and 
 
 3. M. Trumpler, 
 Zurich. 
 4. Captain Pictet, 
 consul, Geneva. 
 
 lion current. 
 2. The confusion of the differ- 
 ent monetary systems of the 
 cantons. 
 
 keeping of former system, 
 and in paying and receiving. 
 
 German. Her dealings with 
 France were the largest, and 
 Geneva had already adopted 
 the German system. 
 
 
 3. The desire to have one 
 
 
 
 
 kind of money, that of one 
 
 
 
 
 of the neighboring States. 
 
 
 
 NETHERLANDS, 
 
 1. A prevailing opinion that 
 the decimal system would 
 
 1. Great confusion and incon- 
 venience were experienced 
 
 The florin was retained as the 
 unit, but was decimally di- 
 
 I. Sir J.H.Turing, 
 
 be beneficial for arithmeti- 
 
 in having too many coins of 
 
 vided ; the excellent work- 
 
 Bart., consul at 
 
 cal purposes, Ac. 
 
 different practical values ; 
 
 ing of the decimal system 
 
 Rotterdam. 
 
 2. The deterioration of the 
 
 felt, in paying and receiving. 
 
 in France being acknow- 
 
 2. J. Annesley, 
 Esq.. consul at 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 coin by unlawful practices 
 (clipping) and the greater 
 convenience of the decimal 
 
 and also in account keeping. 
 2. Chiefly by laboring classes. 
 
 ledged, and the new mode 
 of calculation having been 
 familiar, by instruction at 
 
 
 system. 
 
 
 the public schools. 
 
 GREECE, 
 
 The phoenix was adopted at 
 
 No inconvenience was felt, as 
 
 The phoenix did not contain 
 
 H. M. Minister at 
 
 the separation of Greece 
 from Turkey, by President 
 
 neither the phoenix nor the 
 drachme have ever existed 
 
 the legal quantity of silver. 
 
 Athens. 
 
 Capodistrias. When the 
 
 in quantities sufficient to 
 
 
 
 government was settled it 
 
 meet the requirements of 
 
 
 
 was necessary again to fix 
 
 trade. 
 
 
 
 on a monetary system. 
 
 
 
 UNITED STATES,.... 
 
 1. T. R. Snowden, 
 Esq.. director of 
 
 1. The necessity and the con- 
 stitutional duty imposed 
 on Congress of establishing 
 a uniform currency for the 
 
 1. The different value assign- 
 ed to the old currency in 
 the several States which 
 created inconvenience and 
 
 1. The people were familiar 
 with the Spanish dollar. 
 The decimal division of it 
 was the result of an abstract 
 
 mint of United 
 
 States at the separation of 
 
 confusion, and the com- 
 
 preference for a decimal 
 
 States. 
 
 the States from the mother 
 
 plexity of a system which 
 
 system. 
 
 2. Edw'd Everett, 
 Esq. 
 
 country. 
 2. The uncertain valuation of 
 foreign coins which filled 
 
 has an irregular ratio of 
 multiplication and division. 
 Felt by all classes in paying 
 
 2. The dollar was not adopted 
 from any preference of the 
 decimal system, for it was 
 
 
 the channels of circulation. 
 
 and receiving and account 
 
 not so divided. 
 
 
 and the superior simplicity 
 of the decimal notation. 
 
 keeping. 
 2. All the inherent inconven- 
 
 The decimal system was 
 adopted from considerations 
 
 
 
 iences of the pound sterling 
 
 of convenience and simpli- 
 
 
 
 and its subdivisions, with the 
 
 city. 
 
 
 
 additional complications of 
 
 
 
 
 the various colonial curren- 
 
 
 
 
 cies. 
 
 
81 
 
 its results. ( Continued.) 
 
 Was the change compul- 
 sory and immediate ? 
 
 Has it been effectual ? 
 
 Was it unpopular: if so, 
 with whom? 
 
 Is the present a system 
 more convenient than 
 the former? 
 
 Each canton fixed a day 
 
 1. Yes ; with the exception 
 
 1. There was, at first, an 
 
 1. The uniformity through- 
 
 for the change, and pro- 
 
 of lowest classes in the 
 
 aversion on part of those 
 
 out the cantons has ren- 
 
 hibited the use of the old 
 
 agricultural districts, 
 
 cantons bordering on 
 
 dered transactions far 
 
 system. 
 
 where "batz" are still 
 
 Germany to use the 
 
 more easy, as is also the 
 
 The old system continued 
 
 spoken of. 
 
 French system, but it has 
 
 case with France. 
 
 to be in use at cattle 
 fairs and markets till 
 
 The new system is exposed 
 to this danger, that the 
 
 gone off. and people are 
 well satisfied. 
 
 2. The numerous subdivis- 
 ions of the unit facilitate 
 
 recently. 
 
 silver coinage is being 
 
 2. Popular, because it was 
 
 small transactions. 
 
 
 replaced by French gold, 
 
 well understood. 
 
 
 
 which is not " en rap- 
 
 
 
 
 port" with the metrical 
 
 
 
 
 system. 
 
 
 
 The change in accounts 
 was compulsory and im- 
 mediate, and enforced by 
 law. 
 
 1. In popular language, 
 among the lower classes 
 only. The old denomi- 
 nations are still used, but 
 
 1. The change was accom- 
 Elished without unpopu- 
 irity or uneasiness. 
 2. Rather unpopular with 
 
 Certainly more convenient 
 both in large and small 
 payments. 
 
 The old system was en- 
 
 rarely. 
 
 unlettered and old; but 
 
 
 tirely discontinued. 
 
 2. Most effectual. 
 
 this feeling has been 
 
 
 The coins were changed 
 
 
 transitory. 
 
 
 gradually. 
 
 
 The Dutch are for the most 
 
 
 
 
 part opposed to innova- 
 
 
 
 
 tions. 
 
 
 Immediate and compulsory. 
 The use of old or Turkish 
 
 Accounts are now univer- 
 sally kept in drachme 
 
 The change was decidedly 
 popular. 
 
 If the coins really existed 
 it would be very conve- 
 
 was under penalty of fine 
 and confiscation ; but, 
 notwithstanding this, ac- 
 
 and lepta, except in some 
 of the border villages of 
 northern Greece. The 
 
 
 nient ; as it is, there is in- 
 convenience, for the cop- 
 per coinage only exists, 
 
 counts were kept for 
 
 copper coins only are in 
 
 
 and every denomination 
 
 several years in piastres 
 
 existence; no gold or 
 
 
 of foreign coin circulates 
 
 and paras. 
 
 silver. 
 
 
 at values fixed by law. 
 
 Compulsory and immedi- 
 
 1. Effectual, as to abandon- 
 
 1. The change was popular 
 
 1. Far more convenient.. 
 
 ate for all federal courts 
 and offices. The law did 
 not operate in respect- 
 
 ment of pound sterling 
 and use of dollars and 
 cents, but not as to use of 
 
 with all classes, but not- 
 withstanding the habits of 
 the people were very 
 
 The unit is sufficiently 
 large to be represented in 
 a gold coin, and its hun 
 
 ive State goverments. 
 These came to the aid of 
 the federal government 
 by special legislation, 
 but at intervals varying 
 from two to twenty ye'rs, 
 
 mills. Fractions of cents 
 are expressed hinarily. 
 The old Spanish silver 
 coinage of one-quarter, 
 one-eighth, one-sixteenth 
 of a dollar, expressing 
 
 slowly supplanted, al- 
 though the advantages of 
 the new system were unan- 
 imously conceded. 
 2. The simplicity and beauty 
 of the decimal system 
 
 dredth part is smaL 
 enough to represent the 
 least price at which it is 
 desired to sell by retail. 
 2. There is some trifling in- 
 convenience in the con- 
 
 and consequently the 
 banishment of the old 
 
 twenty-five, twelve-and- 
 a-half, six-and-a-quarter 
 
 were immediately felt by 
 all. The change not being 
 
 current popular use of the 
 binary divisions of the 
 
 pound unit was but 
 
 cents, still circulate and 
 
 compulsory, could have 
 
 dollar, but these are in- 
 
 slowly effected. 
 
 are used in market trans- 
 
 aggrieved no one. 
 
 stantly converted into 
 
 2. It was compulsory on 
 
 actions. 
 
 
 cents in the mind of 
 
 public officers, but on no 
 
 2. It was gradually adopted 
 
 
 buyer and seller. 
 
 others. 
 
 by the people, but one 
 
 
 
 
 occasionally hears the 
 
 
 
 
 old denominations, be- 
 
 
 
 
 cause we retain the coins 
 
 
 
 
 one'quarter, one-eighth. 
 
 
 
 
 one-sixteenth, of a dollar. 
 
 
 
 
 Shopkeepers more readily 
 
 . * 
 
 
 
 say two shillings and six- 
 
 
 
 
 pence than thirty-seven- 
 
 
 
 
 and-a-half cents. 
 
 
 
 11 
 
82 
 
 The evidence and opinions here collected, confirmed as they are by the 
 expressed opinions of most of the members of the commission, may suffice 
 to warrant the conclusions of the last international statistical congress. 1st. 
 As to the general recommendation of the decimal system of money and 
 accounts ; and, secondly, as to advising a common degree of fineness in gold 
 and silver coins. They may serve also as an answer to the last questions as 
 to what inconveniences have resulted from the changes in any country in 
 which- the decimal system of coinage has been adopted. It seems to be 
 almost universally admitted that no difficulty has been experienced and no 
 practical inconveniences have been felt in effecting these changes. Many 
 arguments have been produced in favor of the adoption of the franc as a 
 universal money unit based upon the metric system, such as 
 
 1. Its very extensive use on the continent of Europe, and its adoption by 
 several nations in lieu of their former system, as in France, Belgium, Switzer- 
 land, Italy. 
 
 2. The division of the franc into 100 parts allows of the greatest accuracy 
 and minuteness in computations of small values, whilst, if a new denomina- 
 tion were given to the value of 100 francs, it would greatly facilitate the 
 comprehension of great money transactions, whether in trade or finance. 
 The increase of commerce all over the world, the large amount of govern- 
 ment loans or funds, and the capitals of great commercial enterprises, all 
 seem to require a unit even higher than the sterling, by which they could 
 be more simply and briefly expressed. 
 
 3. The largest denomination, 100 fr., might be called either a sovereign, a 
 royal, or imperial, or any other name preferred, in different countries, pro- 
 vided the value remains the same. The international decimal system would 
 then be 
 
 The royal, lOOfr. 
 
 The franc, Ifr. 
 
 The cent, Olfr. 
 
 It is to be noticed that in the price currents in the British markets, we 
 constantly find quotations made in shillings up to about 80 shillings or 100 
 francs. 
 
 4. That as the metric system of weights and measures is gradually 
 extending, it is evidently of importance that the value of coins should be 
 expressed in weights of the system likely to be most popular and best 
 understood. 
 
 5. The advantage which it has, in common with any other system which 
 might be adopted for one universal currency, would be the saving in the cost 
 and risk of transfer of the precious metals from one country to another, and 
 of the cost of constant recoinage ; the rapidity of transfer of coins where- 
 ever needed by the exigencies of trade or finance without the delay of con- 
 
83 
 
 version into a new currency, and the time gained in general and commercial 
 education. 
 
 6. Lastly, the point which more especially concerns this statistical congress 
 is the great facility that would be given by this system for the study of the 
 comparative statistics of all countries. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all these arguments in its favor, we cannot hope to 
 overcome the obstacles to the universal adoption of the metrical or any one 
 system of money. We may, however, venture to propose an alternative 
 somewhat in advance of the conclusions of the last congress. Having agreed 
 that the unit of money in each country should be decimally subdivided, we 
 might urge the importance of such slight alterations in the weight of the pure 
 metal in current coins as would bring them under the metrical system of 
 weights, and would render them, by a simple multiplication or division, 
 exchangeable for current coins of other countries containing corresponding 
 weights of pure metal gold or silver. Thus, as an example, the English 
 sovereign in gold, equal to 20 shillings in silver, contains 123.274 troy grains, 
 with 1-1 2th alloy. The pure gold, consequently, is 113.002 troy grains = 
 7.322 grammes. The gold Napoleon of France, equal to 20 francs in silver, 
 weighs 6.452 grammes, with l-10th alloy, containing 5.807 grammes pure 
 gold; consequently, 
 
 5.807 : 20 : : 7.322 : 25.22 
 
 To reduce the English sovereign to a weight of pure gold exactly equiva- 
 lent to 25 francs in silver 
 
 Grammes. Grammes. 
 
 25.22 : 25 : : 7.322 : 7.258 
 a reduction of about 64 milligrammes would be necessary. 
 
 On the other hand, to raise l Napoleon in gold to the exact weight of 
 the English sovereign, 5.807 X l = 7.258, would require an addition of 64 
 milligrammes of pure gold to the weight. 
 
 Admitting that, to suit the customs or convenience of different nations, 
 more than one unit of money is desirable, we may yet agree to restrict them 
 to a very small number, and that these should be convertible, by a simple 
 calculation, from one into the other. Thus, the franc, the florin, the dollar, 
 and the sterling might be allowed as units, the coins to be in all cases 
 nine-tenths fine, and decimally subdivided, and the weight of pure metal to 
 be the equivalent weights in the metric system. By multiplication or division 
 by a single figure, and the proper placing of the decimal point, values to any 
 amount in one of these monetary systems might then be reduced to ^ihe 
 equivalent values in any other of them, as shown in the following comparison : 
 
84 
 
 Coins. 
 
 Weight. 
 
 "Weight of 
 pure metal. 
 
 EQUIVALENT VALUE. 
 
 1 sterling. 
 
 1 dollar. 
 
 1 florin. 
 
 1 franc. 
 
 Multiplied by 
 
 Franc 
 
 Grammes. 
 5 
 12.5 
 25 
 (In gold, to be 
 adjusted.) 
 
 Grammes. 
 4.5 
 11.25 
 22.5 
 
 L. 
 
 .04 
 .1 
 .2 
 
 .2 
 .5 
 
 5 
 
 .4 
 
 2 
 10 
 
 10-4 
 5 
 
 100-4 
 
 
 Dollar, 
 
 > sterling . . . ] 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 By this means the various countries would have such a choice of a money 
 unit as might be found most convenient for general use, or the habits of the 
 people, and yet the greatest facility would be given in commercial calcu- 
 lations, and in providing a system of coins interchangeable in different 
 countries. 
 
 We have good authority for supposing that the English sovereign, now so 
 extensively used as money of account^ is likely to be greatly displaced by a 
 coin which has always been popular. The dollar, so much used in eastern 
 commerce, is about to be coined in the mint of Hong Kong, and will, it is 
 reasonable to suppose, be the principal current coin, as well as money of 
 account, in the extensive trade with China. No doubt it will thence be 
 largely used in the Indian commerce, so closely connected with that of 
 China. To what extent it may eventually displace the English sterling, 
 especially if an equivalent gold coin be introduced into this country, it is 
 difficult to say ; but from the numerous countries in which the dollar, or a 
 coin nearly equal to the five-franc piece of France, has been the leading coin, 
 it is likely to assume a very important position. It therefore becomes of the 
 utmost consequence to inquire if this new coin, and others bearing the samo 
 name and nearly equivalent value, could not be in all cases, made of the 
 same weight in silver as the five-franc piece of France, viz., 25 grammes of 
 nine-tenths fine and one-tenth alloy. 
 

 
86 
 
 The following table shows the current coins of different countries which 
 expressed in grammes, and the value in francs, (being 
 
 Country. 
 
 GOLD. 
 
 SILVER. 
 
 Coins nearly equal to the sovereign or Napoleon, 
 
 Dollar. 
 
 Coins. 
 
 Weight, in 
 grammes. 
 
 Fineness. 
 
 it 
 
 > 
 
 Coins. 
 
 France, ) 
 
 Napoleon 20 francs. 
 5 francs. 
 
 25 
 
 6.451 
 1.612 
 
 8.062 
 
 .900 
 .900 
 
 20 ) 
 
 - 
 
 25 ) 
 
 5 franca. 
 
 Belgium, f 
 
 Italy .. 4 
 
 Switzerland / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Convention thaler, 
 6 livres, 
 Convention thaler, 
 Crown, 
 
 
 Doppia . 
 
 6.320 
 9.744 
 7.181 
 6.60 
 8.336 
 6.878 
 
 .908 
 .771 
 .917 
 .896 
 .9QD 
 .902 
 
 19.76 
 25.66 
 25.20 
 25.32 
 25.84 
 21.37 
 
 
 Carolin . . 
 
 Great Britain, 
 Denmark . 
 
 Sovereign, 
 Frederic (1848), 
 
 Rix thaler 
 
 Spain, 
 
 Doubloon (100 reals,) 
 10 florins 
 
 Dollar 
 
 Baden . 
 
 
 
 Rix thaler, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rix thaler . .. 
 
 Hesse Ca^sel 
 
 Pistole 
 
 6.650 
 6.700 
 
 .900 
 .900 
 
 20.50 
 20.72 
 
 
 Hesse Darmstadt 
 
 Double pistole 
 
 2 florins, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2thaler, 
 
 Greece 
 
 20 drachmes, 
 
 5.760 
 
 .900 
 
 17.82 
 
 5 drachmes, 
 
 
 
 Rix thaler, 
 
 Holland 
 
 10 florins . 
 
 6.729 
 
 8.867 
 6.682 
 5.471 
 6.545 
 6.670 
 
 .900 
 .917 
 .903 
 .917 
 .916 
 .900 
 
 20.85 
 28. 
 20.78 
 17.28 
 20.66 
 20.75 
 
 2X gulden, . . 
 
 Portugal, 
 
 Half couronne, (5,000 reals) 
 Frederic,. . 
 
 
 Prussia 
 
 Rix thaler, 
 
 
 Pistole 
 
 Scudo, 
 
 
 Half imperial 
 
 
 Saxony, 
 
 5 thalers, 
 
 Thaler, 
 
 Rix thaler . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Specie, 
 
 Turkey, 
 
 100 piastreSi .... 
 
 7.191 
 
 .916 
 
 22.68 
 
 20 piastres, 
 Rix thaler, .. 
 
 
 
 I>vpt, . 
 
 New double sequin, 
 
 8.600 
 8.358 
 
 .875 
 .900 
 
 25.80 
 25.91 
 
 New piastre, 
 Dollar, 
 
 United States of America,. . . . 
 Mexico 
 
 5 dollars 
 
 
 Piastre, 
 
 Guatemalo, 
 
 
 
 
 
 do. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 Chili, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Peru 
 
 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 Bolivia 
 
 
 
 
 
 do 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Brazil, 
 
 10 000 reals,. . .... 
 
 8.963 
 5.832 
 
 .917 
 .917 
 
 28.30 
 18.41 
 
 2,000 reis, 
 
 India (British) .. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
87 
 
 correspond the nearest to one or other of the preceding units, the weight being 
 the equivaknt value of the pure metal contained therein.) 
 
 Dollar, 
 
 Florin. 
 
 Franc. 
 
 Weight in 
 grammes. 
 
 Fineness. 
 
 jl 
 
 Coin. 
 
 Weight, in 
 grammes. 
 
 Fineness. 
 
 .2 
 
 "* OB 
 
 aTq 
 
 1* 
 
 Coin. 
 
 Weight, in 
 grammes. 
 
 Fineness. 
 
 "A 
 
 ** 
 > 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 28.074 
 25.986 
 28.064 
 28.251 
 26.800 
 26.290 
 21.212 
 28.064 
 
 .900 
 
 5 
 
 2.50 francs. 
 
 12.50 
 
 .900 
 
 2.50 
 
 Franc. 
 
 5 
 
 .900 
 
 .833 
 .900 
 .833 
 .925 
 .S3:J 
 .900 
 .900 
 .833 
 
 5.19 
 
 5.20 
 5.19 
 5.81 
 4.96 
 5.25 
 4.24 
 5.19 
 
 Florin, 
 
 14.032 
 12.993 
 10.606 
 11.300 
 
 13.145 
 
 10.606 
 
 10.606 
 10.606 
 10.606 
 
 .833 
 .900 
 .900 
 .925 
 
 .900 
 
 .900 
 
 .900 
 .900 
 .900 
 
 2.60 
 2.60 
 2.12 
 2.32 
 
 2.62 
 
 2.12 
 
 2.12 
 2.12 
 2.12 
 
 
 4. as 
 
 4.331 
 5.650 
 5.258 
 
 4.476 
 
 5 
 
 5.360 
 
 5.790 
 6.017 
 
 6.682 
 5 
 
 6.373 
 5.832 
 
 .900 
 .900 
 
 .925 
 .900 
 
 .900 
 
 .917 
 .900 
 
 .875 
 .830 
 
 .900 
 .900 
 
 .917 
 
 917 
 
 0.86 
 0.86 
 
 1.16 
 1.05 
 
 0.90 
 
 1.02 
 1.05 
 
 1.12 
 1.11 
 
 1.33 
 1 
 
 1.30 
 1.18 
 
 3 livres 
 
 Lira 
 
 Florin, 
 
 Shilling 
 
 do 
 
 Half dollar 
 
 Peseta . . 
 
 Gulden or florin, . . 
 
 Gulden or florin,., 
 do 
 do 
 
 
 29.233 
 18.560 
 21.212 
 
 .889 
 .900 
 .900 
 
 5.78 
 3.71 
 4.24 
 
 37.120 
 22.385 
 29.213 
 25 
 
 .900 
 .900 
 .878 
 .945 
 
 7.42 
 4.48 
 5.70 
 5.26 
 
 Florin, 
 
 10.766 
 12.500 
 
 13.416 
 10.362 
 
 .898 
 .917 
 
 .900 
 
 .878 
 
 2.14 
 2.55 
 
 2.65 
 2.00 
 
 2 testons, 
 
 5 testons, 
 
 22.271 
 26.835 
 20.724 
 22.271 
 33.925 
 28.949 
 24.068 
 28.064 
 24 
 26.729 
 27 
 27 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 27 
 27 
 27 
 25.495 
 
 .750 
 .900 
 .878 
 .750 
 .750 
 .875 
 .830 
 .833 
 .830 
 .900 
 .903 
 .903 
 .900 
 .900 
 .900 
 .903 
 .903 
 .875 
 .917 
 
 3.71 
 5.36 
 4.00 
 3.71 
 5.66 
 5.63 
 4.45 
 5.19 
 4.40 
 5.34 
 5.41 
 5.41 
 5 
 5 
 5 
 5.41 
 5.41 
 5.25 
 5.19 
 
 Half Bcudo, 
 
 1-5 scudo, (20 baiocchi).. 
 Marc, (> specie) 
 
 Half rouble, 
 
 
 10 piastres 
 
 12.034 
 13.364 
 12.500 
 
 12.747 
 11.614 
 
 .830 
 .900 
 .900 
 
 .917 
 .917 
 
 2.22 
 2.67 
 2.50 
 
 2.60 
 2.37 
 
 Half dollar, 
 50 cents 
 
 X dollar, 
 
 
 l.OOOreis 
 
 500 reis, 
 
 
 Half rupee, 
 
 
 
 
The selection of the unit, and the best means of introducing the new pro- 
 posed coins, and making them current for their equivalent values in different 
 countries, together with the very important questions whether gold or silver 
 should be the standard, and the relative value of the precious metals silver 
 and gold, could only be settled by agreement in a convention of delegates, 
 such as masters of the mint, or other parties skilled in these subjects, who 
 should be appointed by the various governments to discuss and decide on 
 the points in debate. 
 
 Some influential attempts have already been made to bring about the 
 desired uniformity between two or more countries, but not on the enlarged 
 scale which the subject requires, nor with the authority to which the differ- 
 ent governments would be disposed to submit. In 1857, the monetary con- 
 vention was made between the the German States of the Zollverein, when 
 they decided upon fixing the exact value of the Prussian, Rhenish and 
 Austrian coinage, and in coming the Verein thaler to have the same currency 
 as the national coins of each state. In 1858, the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the United States of America passed a resolution desiring the 
 Secretary of the Treasury to appoint some commissioner to confer with the 
 proper functionaries in Great Britain, in relation to some plan or plans of so 
 mutually arranging, on the decimal basis, the coinage of the two countries 
 as that the respective units shall be thereafter easily and exactly commen- 
 surable, and Professor Alexander was appointed for that purpose. The 
 United Kingdom is on the eve of changing or considerably reforming the 
 entire system of weights, measures, and coins, and any change made by the 
 home government would necessitate a corresponding change in all her vast 
 colonies and dependencies. The greater part of Europe has already a com- 
 mon system, and Russia and the northern Scandinavian powers have mani- 
 fested their entire willingness to co-operate with other countries. 
 
 In conclusion, as far as regards money, we beg to submit the following 
 propositions for discussion or adoption by the congress : 
 
 1. That the congress recommend that the existing units of money be 
 reduced to a small number ; that each unit should be decimally subdivided, 
 and that the coins in use should all be expressed in weights of the metric 
 system, and should all be of the same degree of fineness, namely, T \ths fine 
 and T Vth alloy, and should be current by law, and interchangeable in all the 
 countries agreeing to this proposition. 
 
 2. That from their extensive use in commerce and in monetary transactions, 
 the sterling, the dollar, the florin, and the franc seem the units the most 
 desirable to be recommended for universal adoption, each country not 
 possessing one of these in actual use selecting the one most convenient for 
 its own use. 
 
 3. That in regard to the silver standard, the dollar be made equal to 5 
 francs, and the florin to 2^- francs, and the franc, as at present, being 5 grams 
 in weight, and containing 4.5 grams of pure silver. 
 
89 
 
 4. That the different governments be invited to send to a special congress, 
 delegates authorized to consider and report what should be, in the metrio 
 system, the relative weights of the gold and the silver coins, and to arrange 
 the details by which the monetary system of different countries may be 
 fixed, and the coins made current and interchangeable according to the terms 
 of the preceding propositions. 
 
 The subjects discussed in this report may not seem to bear a strictly statis- 
 tical character. But they are so intimately involved in the study of interna- 
 tional statistics, that at the preceding congresses they have successively 
 assumed a more important place in the programme. Some of the most 
 prominent objects of international statistics are to ascertain the causes of 
 the progress of nations ; to elicit what tends to the improvement of their 
 social and material condition ; and to show the effect of removing restric- 
 tions upon commerce and national intercourse, by which the industry of every 
 people may be utilized for the benefit of all. One of the most efficient means 
 to arrive at these happy results must be the obtaining, as nearly as possi 
 ble, uniformity in those elements of exchange, weight, measure and value, 
 which, under the multifarious and cumbersome systems in use, cause a vast 
 amount of unnecessary labor and expense, and present constant impediments 
 to commercial progress. If the enlightened men assembled from all parts of 
 world at this congress succeed, either by force of their united opinion, or by 
 their individual influence at home, in simplifying or reducing to a few the 
 numerous existing systems, they will not only give a great impetus to the 
 study of comparative statistics, but will greatly promote that commercial 
 and social intercourse which is the true interest of nations, and the most 
 effectual bond of order, harmony, and peace. 
 
 DOCUMENT B. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL DECIMAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 President. The Baron James de Rothschild. 
 
 Vice-Presidents for Great Britain. His Grace Richard Whateley, D. 
 D., Archbishop of Dublin ; Right Hon. The Earl of Rosse, K. P., F. R. S. ; 
 Right Hon. The Earl Fortescue ; The Very Rev. Richard Dawes, M. A., 
 Dean of Hereford ; Richard Cobden, Esq., M. P. ; James Yates, Esq., M. A., 
 F. R. S. 
 
 Council for 1863. Samuel Brown, Esq., F. S. S., 11 Lombard street, E. 
 C. ; G. Buchanan, Esq., M. D., 75 Gower street, Bedford Square ; Harry 
 Chester, Esq., Rutland Gate ; L. T. D'Eyncourt, "Esq., Hadley House, near 
 Barnet ; William Ewart, Esq., M. P., 6 Cambridge Square ; William Farr, 
 Esq., M. D., F. R. S., general registrar's office, Somerset House ; G. A. 
 Hamilton, Esq., Treasury, Whitehall ; John Pope Hennessy, Esq., M. P, 2 
 12 
 
90 
 
 Harcourt Buildings, Temple ; James Hey wood, Esq., F. R. S., Kensington 
 Palace Gardens ; Edwin Hill, Esq., Inland Revenue Office, Somerset House ; 
 Thomas Hodgkin, Esq., M. D., 35 Bedford Square ; Prof. Hofmann, F. R. S., 
 Royal College of Chemistry, Oxford street ; Charles Jellicoe, Esq., 3 Cres- 
 cent, New Bridge street; T. W. Jones, Esq., M. D., 19 Finsbury Pavement, 
 Finsbury Square ; J. P. Lorsont, Esq., 56 Cannon street west ; Thomas De 
 Meschin, Esq., LL. D., 44 Chancery Lane; David Mocatta, Esq., 29 Glou- 
 cester Square ; Tito Pagliardini, Esq., 75 Upper Berkeley street, Portman 
 Square; J. B. Smith, Esq., P. M., 105 Westborne Terrace; Peter Squire, 
 Esq., 277 Oxford street; Thomas Winkworth, Esq., Gresham Club, Old 
 Broad street ; James Yates, Esq., F. R. S., Lauderdaie House, Highgate. 
 
 Honorary Secretaries. R. G. Williams, Esq., M. A., 3 King's Bench 
 Walk, Temple; John Middleton Hare, Jr., Esq., B. A., War Office, Pall- 
 mall. 
 
 Resident Secretary. Leone Levi, Esq., LL. D., F. S. S. 
 
 Auditors. R. G. Williams, Esq., M. A.; E. Bellroche, Esq. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is gratifying to the Council of the International Association to state 
 that the House of Commons has affirmed the principle of introducing into 
 the United Kingdom the metric system of weights and measures. Mr. Wil- 
 liam Ewart's bill, which was read a second time by a majority of 110 to 75, 
 provided for the establishment by law of four new units, of length, of sur- 
 face and land measure, of capacity, and of weight, identical with those of 
 the metric system, with the same nomenclature as that in existence in this 
 country, with the addition of the word "new," correspo>!ding with the 
 metric nomenclature of "Metre," "Are," "Litre," and "Kilogram;" the 
 new system to be permissive for three years from the passing of the act, and 
 obligatory after that time. 
 
 Nothing is easier than to form a correct view of the whole metric system. 
 The unit of length, which is also the basis of all the weights and measures, 
 is the metre, which is about three inches longer than the yard. Advancing 
 decimally, we have in a thousand of such yards the unit of road measure, 
 which is the kilometre, or mile ; and, descending decimally, we have in the 
 tenth of the metre the hand, and in the thousandth part of the metre the 
 smallest unit required for machine work. The square metre is the unit of 
 superficial measure, called the are, and a hundred such is the hectar or new 
 acre. This new acre will be larger, certainly, than the present one. Instead 
 of 4,840 square yards it will be 11,960 square yards ; but the Cheshire acre 
 now in use is 10,240 square yards. The gram is the unit of weight, and a 
 
91 
 
 thousand grams make the kilogram, the half of which is very similar to our 
 present pound, whilst a thousand kilograms is nearly the same as our ton. 
 
 In the debate it was objected that, instead of taking the French metre as 
 the unit of measure, the bill gave the number of inches contained in the 
 metre. It would, perhaps, be better to take as a unit the " Standard Metre " 
 in the hands of the Royal Society. But it is important, for the purpose of 
 comparison, to give the exact equivalent of the metre in standard inches, 
 especially as this has been already ascertained. A reference to the report of 
 the commissioners on weights and measures, in 1820, will show that the 
 length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in a vacuum on the level of the 
 sea, in London, by which the standard yard was intended to be computed, 
 in case of loss, has been found to be 39.13929 inches, and that of the French 
 metre 39.37079 inches, the English standards being employed at 62 Fahren- 
 heit. In the same manner the kilogram, a standard of which is kept at the 
 Royal Observatory, has been ascertained by the most careful calculation to 
 be equivalent to 15,432.34874 grains, of which our pound contains 7,000. 
 
 The question of nomenclature is quite a subordinate one, and it is quite 
 open for us either to adopt that in use in France and other countries, or to 
 do the same as has been done in Holland, where they adopted the old Dutch 
 nomenclature for the new quantities. 
 
 Much has been- said upon the expediency of making the measure permis- 
 sive only, and not compulsory. The bill was permissive for three years, a 
 certain time being absolutely necessary for preparation. The question simply 
 is, whether or not we shall fix a time beforehand when the new system of 
 weights and measures shall be made compulsory. No one will advocate the 
 permanent introduction of another system side by side with the existing one ; 
 that would add to the present confusion. The great advantage of fixing a 
 time when the new weights and measures shall be compulsory is, that the 
 nation will be thereby forced to adapt itself to the use of the new system, 
 and teachers of schools will find it necessary to give themselves in earnest 
 to teach the system in all the schools of the United Kingdom. 
 
 The sense of the House, however, being adverse to any compulsory mea- 
 sure in the first instance, and the committee of the House of Commons hav- 
 ing left the matter open, the council are prepared to support a bill to that 
 effect, and rejoice to find that notice of a permissive bill for the next session 
 of Parliament has been given by Mr. Ewart. 
 
 The recommendations of the committee of the House of Commons on the 
 subject were as follows : 
 
 1. That the use of the metric system be rendered legal, though no com- 
 pulsory measures should be resorted to until they are sanctioned by the 
 general conviction of the public. 
 
 2. That a department of weights and measures be established in connec- 
 tion with the board of trade. It would thus become subordinate to the 
 
92 
 
 government and responsible to Parliament. To it should be intrusted the 
 conservation and the verification of the standard, the superintendence of 
 inspectors, and the general duties incident to such a department. It should 
 also take such measures as may from time to time promote the use and 
 extend the knowledge of the metric system in the departments of govern- 
 ment and among the people. 
 
 3. The government should sanction the use of the metric system, together 
 with our present one, in the levying of the custom duties ; thus familiarizing 
 it among our merchants and manufacturers, and giving facilities to foreign 
 traders in their dealings with this country. Its use, combined with that of 
 our own system, in government contracts has also been suggested. 
 
 4. The metric system should form one of the subjects of examination in 
 the competitive examination of the civil service. 
 
 5. The gram should be used as a weight for foreign letters and books at 
 the post office. 
 
 6. The committee of council on education should require the metric sys- 
 tem to be taught (as might easily be done, by means of tables and diagrams) 
 in all schools receiving grants of public money. 
 
 7. In the public statistics of the country, quantities should be expressed in 
 terms of the metric system in juxtaposition with those of our own, as sug- 
 gested by the International Statistical Congress. 
 
 8. In private bills before Parliament the use of the metric system should 
 be allowed. 
 
 9. The only weights and measures in use should be the metric and impe- 
 rial, until the metric has generally been adopted. 
 
 10. The proviso in the 5th and 6th William IV, c. 63, s. 6th, should be 
 repealed. 
 
 11. The department which it is proposed to appoint should make an annual 
 report to Parliament. 
 
 The expediency of introducing the metric system has thus been admitted, 
 first, by the unanimous opinion of the select committee of the House of 
 Commons ; and, secondly, by a large majority of the House itself. 
 
 We shall now conclude our observations with a brief summary of the 
 principal reasons in favor of the measure : 
 
 1st. The uniformity in weights and measures, which it has always been 
 the great object of the legislature to establish, is defeated by the vast variety 
 of weights and measures in use in every part of the country and in many 
 branches of trade. 
 
 2d. The existence of so many weights and measures other than the imperial 
 proves that we do not at present possess a system adequate to the require- 
 ments of trade, and adapted to daily intercourse, and to the purposes of 
 science. 
 
3d. The metric weights and measures are universally admitted to fulfill the 
 conditions of a sound and convenient system. 
 
 4th. This system has been adopted not only in France, but in Belgium, 
 Holland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland and Greece, and is 
 rapidly extending over other parts of Europe and in America. 
 
 5th. The increase of our trade with those countries which use the metric 
 weights and measures renders its adoption by ourselves a matter of great 
 practical importance. 
 
 6th. The pel-missive use of metric weights and measures is highly expe- 
 dient for the purpose of legalizing the transactions now carried on according 
 to that system. 
 
 7th. The country has already expressed itself in favor of the decimal 
 method of calculation, on which the metric system is based. 
 
 8th. The metric weights and measures admit of binary divisions. 
 
 9th. By decimalizing the weights and measures we best pave the way for 
 the decimalization of our coinage. 
 
 10th. Extensive inquiries have been proved that the introduction of the 
 proposed system would secure an immense saving of time in education. 
 
 llth. The adoption of the metric system has been decidedly and unani- 
 mously recommended by a committee of the House of Commons after most 
 careful inquiry and discussion. 
 
 Up to the 10th of July, nineteen petitions were presented to the House of 
 Commons, among which were the following : 
 
 Members of the Chamber of Commerce of Huddersfield, in the county of 
 York, Thos. P. Crosland, vice-president. 
 
 Members of the council for the Chamber of Commerce for Birmingham 
 and the Midland district. Signed by the direction and on behalf of the 
 council, George Dixon, vice-president. 
 
 Members of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce, through its president, 
 Darnton Lupton. 
 
 Members of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, Henry W. Ripley, 
 President; John Darlington, Secretary; 29th June, 1863. 
 
 Members of the Hertford Literary and Scientific Institution. 
 
 Halifax Chamber of Commerce, through its president, Edward Akroyd. 
 
 Hull Chamber of Commerce and Shipping, John Lumsden, president of 
 chamber. Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce. Signed on behalf of 
 the chamber, Edward Perry, president. 
 
 Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. Signed on behalf of the Liverpool 
 Chamber of Commerce, R. A. Macfie, president. 
 
 Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures. Robert Jackson, 
 president. 
 
 Pharmaceutical chemists of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Gateshead. 
 
 Physicians, surgeons and chemists in the borough of Wakefield, in the 
 county of York. 
 
 Inhabitants of Highgate, in the county of Middlesex. 
 
 Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom, of which 
 are members the Chambers of Commerce of Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, 
 Bristol, Coventry, Dewsbury, Gloucester, Goole, Halifax, Huddersfield, 
 
94 
 
 Hull, Kendall, Leeds, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield, Stafford- 
 shire Potteries and Wolverhampton. Signed on behalf of the association, 
 Sampson S. Lloyd, chairman. 
 
 Members of the Chamber of Commerce of the town of Batley, in the 
 West Riding of the county of York. Signed on behalf of the Batley 
 Chamber of Commerce, John Jubbs, president. 
 
 A petition was also intrusted to Mr. Ewart for presentation, from the 
 merchants and traders of the city of London, numerously signed, and com- 
 prising the signatures of some of the largest merchants in the city. 
 
 The following is the text of some of the petitions : 
 
 The petition of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United 
 Kingdom, of which are members the Chambers of Commerce of Belfast, 
 Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Dewsbury, Gloucester, Goole, 
 Halifax, Hudderstield, Hull, Kendall, Leeds, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Notting- 
 ham, Sheffield, Staffordshire Potteries and Wolverhampton, humbly 
 showeth : 
 
 That the numerous evils and inconveniences to which the trade of this 
 country is exposed from the almost endless differences existing in the weights 
 and measures used in the United Kingdom have long been matter of regret 
 to the commercial and trading classes of this country. 
 
 That these evils would be effectually remedied if the weights and mea- 
 sures of the United Kingdom were decimalized and made to correspond 
 with those of other countries. 
 
 That the great and rapid increase of the trade of this country with those 
 of foreign countries in which the metric and decimal system is adopted ren- 
 ders this a question of increasing practical importance. 
 
 That at the annual meeting of the Association of Chambers of Commerce 
 of the United Kingdom, held at the Westminster Palace Hotel on the 24th 
 of February in the present year, it was unanimously resolved to petition 
 both houses of Parliament in favor of such a measure. 
 
 That a bill for this purpose is now before your honorable House, entitled 
 "A bill for decimalizing our existing system of weights and measures, and 
 for establishing an accordance between them and those of foreign countries," 
 which, if carried into a law, will effect this most desirable object. 
 
 Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that your honorable House will 
 pass the above named bill. 
 
 And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the association, 
 
 SAMPSON S. LLOYD, Chairman. 
 
 The petition of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce humbly showeth : 
 That a bill is now before your honorable House for the introduction of a 
 metrical decimal system of weights and measures in lieu of several cumbrous 
 and confused methods formed by no rule and adhering to no standard (save 
 local custom) now existing throughout the United Kingdom. 
 
 That your petitioners believe that such a system as that advocated would 
 be a boon to the educator, the merchant, the dealer, and the working man. 
 That it would simplify all commercial calculations, bringing them within 
 the capacity of the humblest trader. That its assimilation to the system of 
 so many other countries would facilitate and enlarge the operations of com- 
 merce, promote peace, and must therefore be considered as needful to secure 
 and complete international free trade. 
 
95 
 
 Your petitioners, therefore, pray for the adoption of the bill now before 
 your honorable House for the decimalization of weights and measures and 
 their assimilation to those of foreign nations as far as practical. 
 And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 R. A. MACFIE, President. 
 
 The humble petition of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Manu- 
 factures showeth : 
 
 That your petitioners have had under their consideration the provisions 
 of a bill introduced by Mr. Ewart and other members into your honorable 
 House, entitled, "A bill for decimalizing our existing system of weights 
 and measures, and for establishing an accordance between them and those of 
 foreign countries. 
 
 That the said bill has been so introduced in compliance with a request 
 made to Mr. Ewart by the Associated Chambers of Commerce of the United 
 Kingdom. That in consequence of recent alterations in foreign tariffs an 
 active trade between this country and continental houses is rapidly springing 
 up ; and your petitioners are constantly made to feel the inconvenience arising 
 from the difference which exists between the British system of weights and 
 measures and that of foreign countries. 
 
 Your petitioners, therefore, pray that your honorable House will endeavor 
 to pass such a measure as will speedily establish an accordance between the 
 system of weights and measures of this country and that of foreign countries. 
 
 And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. 
 
 ROBERT JACKSON, President. 
 
 The humble petition of the council of the Chamber of Commerce for Bir- 
 mingham and the Midland district showeth: 
 
 That your petitioners, as* merchants or manufacturers, are extensively 
 engaged in commercial transactions in both the home and foreign trade of 
 this country. 
 
 That great irregularities at present exist in the ordinary transactions of 
 trade, in consequence of the variety of measures and weights now established 
 by law or custom in this country, which are so ill adjusted to each other as 
 to occasion loss of time, liability to error, and other serious inconvenience in 
 conducting mercantile operations. 
 
 That it is of the utmost importance that measures and weights, which 
 have reference to innumerable transactions in daily life, should be established 
 upon a clear and intelligible basis, and should be easy to comprehend and 
 remembered, capable of simple and uniform subdivisions, and generally 
 adapted to the wants and understanding of all classes. 
 
 That the metric decimal system which is gradually extending itself 
 throughout the continents of Europe and America is eminently distinguished 
 by these advantages, and if it were adopted in this country for commercial 
 as well as scientific purposes would confer great benefits on all classes. 
 
 That the increased intercourse between this country and the continent of 
 Europe, arising from the treaty of commerce with France, from the reduction 
 of rates of postage, the abolition of passports, the progressive adoption of 
 more liberal tariffs by other European States, and generally the increased 
 facilities for traveling and international communications, renders it of the 
 
96 
 
 highest importance that the measures and weights in use in the United 
 Kingdom and on the continent of Europe should be assimilated as much as 
 possible. 
 
 That, in the opinion of your petitioners, the present is a favorable time for 
 introducing this change, to be enforced after a sufficient interval of prepara- 
 tion, and they therefore pray that the- bill now before your honorable House 
 for the establishment of a metric decimal system may, with such changes of 
 details as may be deemed expedient, pass into a law. 
 
 And your petitioners will ever pray. 
 
 Signed by the direction and on behalf of the council. 
 
 GEORGE DIXON, Vice-President. 
 
 DEBATE ON METRIC WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 Mr. William Ewart moved the second reading of the weights and mea- 
 sures (metric system) bill. He said a committee, of which he had the honor 
 to be chairman, had been directed last session " to inquire into the practica- 
 bility of adopting a simple and uniform system of weights and measures." 
 Two main considerations guided their inquiries the benefit of our home 
 trade, and the benefit of our trade with foreign countries. The occasion of 
 the international exhibition was thought a favorable opportunity for ascer- 
 taining the improvements which had been effected, and the opinions which 
 prevailed among continental nations. About twelve eminent foreign wit- 
 nesses were examined, at the head of whom might be named M. Michel 
 Chevalier. They were unanimously favorable to the metric system. The 
 committee also, whatever might have been their first impressions, unanimously 
 recommended the gradual adoption of that system. What did they find to 
 have been the history of our own system ? Before the time of Magna 
 Charta, in the reign of Richard I, (and even in the Saxon times,) it was 
 declared that "there should be one weight and measure throughout the 
 land." From those days down to the last modern act, uniformity was the 
 aim or the dream of our legislation. (Hear, hear.) Yet what did we find 
 as the result ? We had at present no less than ten different systems of 
 weights. For our ordinary measure, we had the inch, foot, and yard. For 
 cloth measure, we used yards, nails and ells. We had about seven sorts of 
 acres. We had an Irish mile, a Scotch mile, and an English mile. There 
 were twenty different bushels, ten different stones, three sorts of hundred 
 weights, several kinds of tons, and many sorts of gallons. He believed we 
 might lose ourselves in these mazes of numerical confusion. It might literally 
 be said of our system, as was said by Horace of a more poetical one, 
 " numerisque fertur Lege solutis" Every one, he thought, would agree that 
 certainty is the soul of commerce, yet our transactions between man and 
 man are full of uncertainty. (Hear, hear.) Meanwhile the number and 
 
97 
 
 extent of those transactions were constantly increasing. They became more 
 and more accelerated and multiplied as the post, as railways, as the electric 
 telegraph gave wings to the internal commerce of the country. Therefore, 
 as exchanges between man and man increased, the impediments to those 
 exchanges were felt to be more and more oppressive. (Hear, hear.) On 
 this point the right honorable the member for Oxfordshire gave them the 
 benefit of his evidence. He observed (and his observations were sound and 
 intelligent) that "the great facility of intercourse now taking place has 
 made the necessity or the wish for uniformity in weights and measures 
 stronger than it was ten years ago." "I think," he added, "there is a 
 greater tendency in the public mind to consider the question now. The rail- 
 ways have brought people from the east, west, north and south to every 
 market. It is a great inconvenience to those traveling dealers to go down 
 to markets of which they do not understand the custom. They may have 
 bought and sold, and they really do not know what they have bought and 
 sold." Such were the great and increasing disadvantages of the present 
 system in our home trade. They were also strongly apparent in our foreign 
 commerce and our foreign intercourse. (Hear, hear.) They had made 
 themselves manifest during the great exhibition of 1851. In comparing the 
 weights and measures of foreign and British articles, the jurors of the exhi- 
 bition could not understand each other. A similar difficulty occurred at 
 the great Paris exhibition of 1855. The international jury thus expressed 
 their opinion, "They" (the jury) "deem it their duty earnestly to recom- 
 mend to the consideration of their respective governments and the friends 
 of civilization, the adoption of a uniform system of weights and measures 
 computed decimally, both u*regard to its multiples and divisors, and also 
 in regard to the elements of all the different units." In 1860, at the London 
 Statistical Congress, the Prince Consort, a name ever memorable, not only 
 in the history of this nation, but in the history of the world, used the follow- 
 ing words : " The different weights and measures, and currencies in which 
 different statistics are expressed, cause further difficulties and impedimentSc 
 Suggestions as to their removal have been made at former meetings, and 
 will, no doubt, be renewed." Can we doubt that an improvement of the 
 present system would have found a supporter in that illustrious prince, 
 
 whose philosophic mind 
 Joy'd in the general good of all mankind ! 
 
 After 1860 repeated discussions on the subject took place in the Society 
 of Arts; and in 1861 the associated chambers of commerce passed the fol- 
 lowing resolution : " It is highly desirable to adopt the metric system, 
 which has been introduced into other European countries, with great advan- 
 tage in saving time in trading and other accounts." Now, what was the 
 metric system ? It was a defiimal system based on the metre as the unit of 
 length, from which the units of weight, capacity, and surface are derived, 
 13 
 
98 
 
 with multiples expressed in Greek, and divisors expressed in Latin terms. 
 In fact, it is a framework of decimal calculation, a machine, saving a large 
 amount of labor in the transactions of life. The great men, La Grange, La 
 Place, Condorcet, Monge, and others, who presided at its creation, chose to 
 take the metre from the ten-millionth part of a quadrant of the meridian. 
 It was now represented by a fixed standard, kept in the archives at Paris, of 
 which the nations adopting the metre secure an authentic copy. For a long 
 time a mixed system, the old weights and measures and the new system, con- 
 flicted with each other in France. The great Napoleon, as he rose in power, 
 favored the usages of antiquity, and discountenanced the metric system. 
 With the imperial purple he put on the policy of reaction : " Cum pulchris 
 tunicis sumpsit nova cwisilia et spes" The result was doubt and disorder 
 in commercial dealing. That doubt and disorder continued under the Bour- 
 bons. But under Louis Philippe, the monarch o the middle classes, a final 
 law was passed, which insured the introduction of the metric system after 
 an interval of three years, dating from 1837 and ending in 1840. France 
 then passed under the dominion of the metre, and a very competent witness 
 had declared that it was " one of the greatest blessings ever bestowed on 
 France." As to other nations, Holland had long ago adopted the metric 
 system, though retaining her national terms. Belgium had also long since 
 adopted it. So had Spain. Portugal and Spain were now undergoing the 
 process of adoption, ten years being the term allowed. All Italy, following 
 in the footsteps of Sardinia, was rapidly passing within the orbit of the 
 metric system. Switzerland has already done so. In South America it is 
 largely used. Only within the last few weeks its adoption has been approved 
 of in an assembly of the three Scandinavian j^itions. The following resolu- 
 tion was passed on the 20th of May, at the Scandinavian meeting for politi- 
 cal economy, consisting of near 500 Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish 
 members of the three parliaments, and others : " It is expedient to adopt 
 the French metric system, with attendant subdivisions and denominations 
 for weights and measures in the three Scandinavian countries, and to adopt 
 the French franc of five grammes, nine-tenths silver and one-tenth copper, as 
 the unit of Scandinavian coinage, with decimal subdivisions." Since then, 
 the King of Denmark has appointed a commission to study the question, and 
 to draw up a bill applying the decimal system to the money, weights, and 
 measures of Denmark. Within the last few days our own post-office, in 
 unison with all those of the continent, has adopted the metric system for 
 postal objects.* So that we are silently lapsing into the general European 
 system. (Hear, hear.) Ought we, then, to remain behind other nations 
 
 * Resolved, "Le systeme m^trique decimal e"tant de tons les systemes de poids celui qui 
 satisfait le mieux aux exigences du service des Postes, .11 y a lieu de 1'adopter pour les rela- 
 tions de poste Internationale, zk 1'exclusion de tout autre systeme." 
 
99 
 
 we who have been accustomed to lead them, and of whom Milton has de- 
 clared it to be the privilege " to teach the nations how to live ? " (Hear, 
 hear.) This circumstance is also worthy of consideration, our trade with 
 nations using the metric system is larger than our trade with nations using 
 the English system. To the former our exports in 1861, in round numbers, 
 amounted to 55,000,000 ; our exports to the latter were only 24,000,000. 
 Our exports to countries using the metric system was greatly increasing. 
 In 1853 there were 32,000,000 in value ; in 1861, 55,000,000. It appeared 
 also that, in 1859, 40 per cent of the tonnage of our shipping were employed 
 in trade with countries which use the metric system. According to tho 
 returns just published by the board of customs, our exports to France (the 
 primary metric-system country, if he might use such a compound) were, 
 including foreign and colonial goods, in 1860, 12,700,000 ; in 1861, 21,800,- 
 000. But let us look forward to the future. Our trade with France and 
 Italy, Spain and the Mediterranean, and eastern countries, is probably only 
 in its infancy. " The metric system," says a mercantile witness, " will be 
 adopted in a few years throughout Europe." Will it then be possible 
 for England to remain isolated ? (Cheers.) Let us now view the question 
 under another aspect the saving of labor by means of the metric system 
 in the common operations of commerce. Mr. Lorsont, a Belgian and Eng- 
 lish merchant, says, in his evidence before the committee, " By using the 
 metric system I could spare two clerks, and prevent a great deal of error." 
 He adds, that the maintenance of our system is as bad as if we retained the 
 old Roman figures. Mr. Dickson, a manufacturer and landed proprietor 
 near Dunkirk, also says that, " by using the metric system he could carry ou 
 his trade with fewer clerks. < He considered the metric system one of the 
 greatest blessings ever conferred on France." Mr. Fellows, a British manu- 
 facturer and merchant, says, " the calculations of a French merchant may be 
 made in one-half the time, or less than half the time we employ." The 
 associated chambers of commerce stated, in 1861, that "the present system 
 is very inconvenient to a great commercial nation," and that " the use of the 
 metric system is likely to be a boen to all the community." But there was 
 another important aspect of the question. He meant its reference to machinery 
 and manufactures. We ought, in consequence of our iron, our coal, and our 
 mechanical powers, to be the greatest machine makers in the world. Now, 
 Mr. Crossley, an engineer, says in his evidence that "the demand for our 
 machinery would extend much more if an international system of weights 
 and measures were adopted." Mr. Fairbairn, himself celebrated as a mech- 
 anist, is of opinion that, " the decimal system will ultimately be introduced 
 into all our mechanical operations. The metric system is, of all he knows, 
 the best." An important point in machine-making is exactness of admea- 
 surement. Can we, under our own system, make machines of such exact 
 dimensions as arq made in Belgium, where they make use of the metric 
 
100 
 
 system ? The importance of minute exactness was shown in the formation 
 of Armstrong guns, where the nice fitting of the concentric circles of iron is 
 of the utmost consequence. For all such operations the use of the millime- 
 tre was said by an eminent civil engineer, Mr. Siemens, to be highly advan- 
 tageous. But, if it be true that we should be the machinists of the world, 
 our workmen must probably travel abroad for employment. How important 
 it is, if not indispensable, that they should previously know the foreign 
 weights and measures, and be instructed in the metric system. (Hear, hear.) 
 But another point remained for consideration. He meant the time which 
 might be saved in education by the adoption of the metric system. Some 
 time ago the international association for decimal weights and measures 
 caused an inquiry on this branch of the subject to be extensively circulated 
 among the schoolmasters of the United Kingdom. The answers they 
 received led to this conclusion, that learning arithmetic by the youth in our 
 schools now ordinarily takes two years, but that under the decimal and 
 metric system it would only take ten months ; but let us suppose that the 
 time saved is only a year is that no great gain to the cause of education ? 
 Professor De Morgan stated before the committee that " the time devoted to 
 education in arithmetic might, by the new system, be reduced by one-half, 
 if not by more." Dr. Farr said, " you would get rid of all compound arith- 
 metic, and make calculations simple and mechanical." We should thus 
 liberate ourselves from reduction, practice, and other elaborate expedients, 
 to the contentment of our children and the emancipation of their intellect. 
 (Hear, hear.) Dr. Ihne, a German teacher of great experience at Liverpool, 
 stated that the new system gave " a great advantage to boys in foreign 
 schools over our own ; and added that " our boys were deterred by the 
 present system from pursuing the higher mathematics." The Rev. Mr. Bar- 
 rett, also extensively engaged in teaching, says that, on account of the 
 difference between the two systems, "education in the French military 
 academies is much higher and more forward than in ours." " Boys," he 
 adds, " are deterred and disgusted " by our present complicated system. 
 May we not, in fact describe these impediments as so many toll-bars on the 
 highway of education ? (Cheers.) But it was shown that, even at a more 
 advanced age, our working men could easily master the metric system. Mr. 
 Dickson, an extensive employer of them abroad, said that " his overseers 
 came from Scotland, knowing nothing of French weights and measures ; but 
 they soon acquired the metric system." The committee examined a working 
 man, Mr. Wyse, who had been twenty years in the employment of Mr. 
 Brassey, the great contractor. Mr. Wyse said that " he very soon under- 
 stood the metric system, and found it easier to learn than the English scale 
 of yards, feet and inches." He adds, "All the workmen I ever had to do 
 with prefer the French method to the English." In fact, to pursue our 
 system when we could take advantage of a new one, was like avoiding a 
 
 ' 
 

 101 
 
 a railway to go by the old turnpike road. (Cheers.) In these circumstances, 
 what course shall we adopt ? There are, to use the often-quoted phrase of 
 Sir Robert Peel, " three courses open before us." First, shall we retain our 
 present system? The answer, he thought, would be a universal "No." 
 Next, shall we create, or rather patch up, a tesselated system out of the worn- 
 out materials of the present ? That course would involve as much trouble 
 as the adoption of the foreign system, and it would have the immense inter- 
 national disadvantage of not agreeing with the system of other nations, a 
 system with which, after all, we should eventually be obliged to conform. 
 It would be taking two steps, or rather two journeys, when we need only 
 take one. Lastly, shall we gradually adopt the metric system ? That sys- 
 tem has succeeded wherever it has been tried. All the foreign witnesses, 
 without exception, are in its favor. It is a perfect decimal system, with 
 ascending decimals to multiply, and descending decimals to divide by. It 
 is no longer a theory. It has become a practical system, involving no pre- 
 liminary scientific measurement. We have only to copy an existing stand- 
 ard, to pursue the path already trodden by other nations. In short, to use 
 a familiar phrase, it is " ready-made to our hands." He (Mr. Ewart) would 
 therefore say^ " Begin." Inquire how Portugal is successfully proceeding ; 
 what preliminary steps she took. Inquire of other nations. In the mean- 
 time (as the committee advise) give instructions in the metric system in your 
 schools, use it in the customs department, and, where available, in the other 
 departments of the government. Prepare for the coming change. Defer it, 
 if needful ; but prepare. The bill before the House, for the construction of 
 which we are indebted to the skill and ability of Professor Levi, gives three 
 years' time for preparation. If at the end of that time we are not ready, 
 we have only to give three years more, or as much time as might be needed. 
 Next, he came to the objections. It was objected that the bill should have 
 been only a permissive bill. He had indeed had a permissive bill framed, 
 and he was still quite willing to assent to a permissive bill. That was the 
 suggestion of the committee. But practical men objected to a permissive 
 bill. They said, "Give us something positive and final; we are tired of 
 alternatives." It was true that in France they went on hovering between 
 two systems for forty years, but those were forty years of confusion, and 
 they were obliged to fix a term at last. But, as he had said before, we are 
 not bound to three years. A continuation bill is an easy and common 
 remedy ; or if the House willed it, they could try a permissive system. 
 There was another objection, of which he fully felt the force. It was, the 
 trouble which any change of system would cause to the retail trader. To 
 his case every consideration should be given, and every indulgence shown. 
 He thought that some allowance might be made for the cost which the 
 change in weights and measures would inflict upon the retail dealers, but 
 they also would eventually profit by extended trade and facility of calcu- 
 
102 
 
 lation. It was shown in the evidence of M. Visschers, of Brussels, that 
 the " tradesmen of Belgium were much benefited " by the introduction of 
 the metric system ; and Mr. Dickson stated that its advantages, in saving 
 time and trouble, were felt by the " small traders " in France. Another 
 objection raised by the opponents of the metric system was, that it did 
 not admit of the same binary subdivisions as the duodecimal system. That 
 was true. But we give a power of using the binary system to a sufficient 
 extent in our bill, and our mode of arithmetical notation being (like that 
 of other nations) decimal, what other system can we adopt but the decimal ? 
 Repugnance might be felt to the use of the Greek and Latin terms in the 
 metric table. But in our bill we retain the English units, and it would be 
 easy to substitute English words for the classic terms in the metric scale. 
 The Greek and Latin names are indeed too long. They presuppose some 
 knowledge of the classic languages, and all experience is in favor of mono- 
 syllables, which the people seem to have chosen as the most rapid vehicles 
 for bargain and sale. The pound, the ounce, the yard, the foot, and many 
 more such terms, prove this tendency. (Hear, hear.) Nevertheless it was 
 easy, even for a child, to learn the French metric table, with all its Greek 
 and Latin numerals. Could every, or any, member present correctly repeat 
 the English table of weights and measures ? (Laughter and cheers.) Yet 
 all of them, he thought, could learn the French metric table in a quarter of 
 an hour. In fact, they had only to learn seven prefixes and four principal 
 units. On the whole, he was justified in concluding that the disadvantages 
 ascribed to the metric system were slight and transitory ; the advantages 
 substantial and lasting. But, it may be said, the adoption of the metric 
 system of weights and measures would be incomplete without a decimal 
 system of coinage. That he granted ; but, when a decimal system of coin- 
 age was under consideration, a great authority, Lord Overstone, said, that 
 " it would be a mistake to decide in favor of a decimal coinage without 
 determining the best course as to other parts of the metric system. If the 
 number ten should be selected as the base of the general metric system, the 
 question of the coinage would be greatly simplified." And in other parts 
 of his report, Lord Overstone seemed to think that the consideration of a 
 decimal system of weights and measures ought to precede the consideration 
 of a decimal coinage. In his (Mr. E wart's) opinion they ought to be as nearly 
 as possible simultaneous, but the introduction of the metric system of weights 
 and measures would, in itself, be a great acquisition. (Hear, hear.) Revert- 
 ing to the former part of his speech, he thought he had established the fol- 
 lowing propositions that the present state of our weights and measures is 
 intolerable ; that it is growing worse as our internal trade increases ; that it 
 impedes our trade with foreign nations, and will impede it more as that 
 trade increases ; that other countries have adopted, and are rapidly adopting, 
 the metric system ; that it is acknowledged to be a great boon by all the 
 
103 
 
 countries in which it has been established ; that our trade with the nations 
 using it is rapidly extending ; that it would save time in commercial opera- 
 tions ; that it would confer great advantages on our machine-makers and 
 manufacturers ; that it would save a large amount of time in education ; 
 lastly, that if we failed to adopt it we should be behind almost all the 
 nations of Europe. At all events (said the honorable gentleman) let us not 
 remain in the " slough of despond," or the " Serbonian bog " in which we 
 are engulfed. We have achieved the great victory of free trade ; let us 
 adopt the machinery by which free trade may be set in motion among the 
 nations of the earth. Let us remember that different provinces of the same 
 country were once distracted and divided by discordant systems of weights 
 and measures, as different nations are now. Why should not one uniform 
 system bind countries, as it has bound provinces together ? We have, by 
 solemn treaty, interwoven our interests with those of France and of other 
 nations. Let us, by adopting a common system of weights and measures, 
 give to our commercial intercourse a common language. Let us, in the 
 words of one of our greatest moral and religious poets, not only 
 
 "Give to the north the products of the sun," 
 but also 
 
 ' "Knit the united nations into one." 
 
 So shall we best pursue and accomplish the great mission prescribed to all 
 nations, but pre-eminently to our own to promote the peace, by extending 
 the commerce, of the world. (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Henley said he had certainly expressed an opinion that the metrical 
 system was a good one, but that had nothing to do with the question whe- 
 ther it was desirable to agree to the bill which made so great a change as 
 that now proposed. No one was more sensible of the inconvenience and 
 uncertainty of the present system of weights and measures than himself. 
 The imperial bushel was definite a measure as could be set up, and twenty or 
 thirty years ago the legislature attempted to make that the uniform bushel. 
 The imperial bushel was declared to consist of a certain number of cubic inches. 
 All bargains made in any other bushels were declared void, and penalties 
 were enforced against those who used any other. What had been the result ? 
 The bushel still meant one thing in one town, and another elsewhere ; nay, 
 people who went to the same market could not always agree as to what kind 
 of bushel was meant. He did not believe that a more stringent law could 
 be passed to enforce the use of a new metrical system, and what greater 
 security could the honorable gentleman have that his new weights and mea- 
 sures would be adopted? He agreed with the honorable gentleman that it 
 would not be desirable to adopt such words as myriametres, decametres 
 and centimetres. He did not think they would ever go down with an Eng- 
 lish mouth. (A laugh.) But how would the honorable gentleman prevent 
 people from continuing to use the present weights and measures? He did 
 
104 
 
 not believe that Parliament could prevent it. A great deal has been said of 
 the inconvenience of the present want of uniformity in the foreign trade. 
 No doubt, if it had pleased God that there should never have been a Tower 
 of Babel, it would have been a great convenience to merchants and those who 
 went about visiting different countries. (A laugh.) But the honorable gen- 
 tleman could not bring about the uniformity he desired by act of Parliament. 
 (Hear.) What the honorable gentleman had said about France was not 
 very encouraging. The new system was no doubt introduced in France by 
 very scientific men, but it was carried after the French revolution, when 
 everything that had formerly been accepted was torn up and displaced, and 
 when the mind of the nation was engaged in setting up something that had 
 not existed before. The honorable gentleman had not told the house how 
 many years had gone over before the new system became settled in France; 
 but, if he remembered aright, it was a great way down into the present cen- 
 tury. The honorable gentleman told the house something about the spread 
 of the French system over other countries, but he did not tell them that that 
 was materially facilitated by the French occupation of those countries up to 
 1814 ; that all those countries had had a most debased coinage, and that it 
 was a great benefit to them to have the French 20-franc piece in their deal- 
 ings with other countries. It was not pretended that the trade of this 
 country with countries which had the metrical system was to be compared 
 for a moment with our trade with countries which had it not, and, therefore, 
 the adoption of the system would introduce great confusion in our transac- 
 tions with the latter. (Hear, hear.) This bill did not take, as one would 
 have expected, the French metre as the unit of measure. The French, he 
 believed, took the ten-millionth part of the distance between the equator 
 and the pole, but the bill proposed to take a certain multiple and decimal 
 part of an inch. But, then, it would be necessary to lay down what an inch 
 was ; and if we wanted to know whether that was right we should have to 
 march over to Paris to compare our standard with the French, and see if 
 they agreed. There was a great deal of Gallo-mania going about this coun- 
 try and elsewhere just now; but he did not think it very convenient to have 
 to settle our measures by going over to France. He had always believed 
 that the size of the world was a fixed quantity, but learned pundits were of 
 opinion that the world was growing. (A laugh.) If that were the case the 
 quarter of it must be growing too, and then what was to become of the 
 metre ? (Laughter.) While the earth was growing, perhaps the scientific 
 men in France might find some little variation in their metre. (Hear.) It 
 would not be very easy to establish that Chinese exactness in all things 
 which was expected. But coming to the practical part of the business, the 
 tithe was levied on land measured by the acre, and was it a light thing to 
 unsettle the tithe commutation ? Was it a light thing to compel people, 
 from the great millionaires down to the poor shopkeeper who had not a 5 
 
105 
 
 note in the world, to get a new set of weights and measures ? (Hear, hear.) 
 The benefit to be obtained ought to be very great and certain before putting 
 people to that inconvenience. (Hear, hear.) Then the foreign names would 
 be very inconvenient, and would never suit the mouths of Englishmen. 
 (Hear, hear.) It was proposed to remedy that by the introduction of a sort 
 of Graeco-Latin names, such as decil or deil; but if he knew anything of his 
 countrymen, they would soon get to corrupt such a word into devil. (A 
 laugh.) It would be a very good thing, no doubt, to have a uniformity in 
 language and other things all over the world, but we had not arrived at that 
 yet ; and the question was, whether the evil and inconvenience of the pro- 
 posed change to the greater number of the people woujd not more than 
 counterbalance the advantages. (Hear, hear.) He believed it would ; that 
 the uncertainty under the new system would be quite as great as existed at 
 present, and he was therefore disposed to vote against the bill. 
 
 Mr. Locke said he had paid some attention to this subject, and he con- 
 curred in several of the remarks that had fallen from the right honorable 
 gentleman (Mr. Henley). No doubt great inconvenience would arise in the 
 ordinary transactions of life if this system were introduced, but he did not 
 think that such inconvenience existed in our mercantile transactions -with 
 foreign nations. His honorable friend who had introduced this bill was no 
 doubt familiar with that popular work, Murray's Handbook of France, and 
 would remember that in the first pages of that book there were tables giv- 
 ing the comparative value of coins of the two countries, and also the com- 
 parative proportions of their weights and measures. But there was no 
 doubt our system of weights and measures was a most inconvenient one. 
 It was perfectly immaterial what we took for our unit ; the difficulty arose 
 from the complicated way in which the unit was dealt with. The troy 
 weight, for instance, was very different from the avoirdupois. In the one 
 case 12 ounces, in the other case 16 ounces made a pound; and then we had 
 grains and pennyweights and drams, and to learn the distinction between 
 these different weights was to the youthful part of the population one of the 
 most painful processes which they had to undergo. (A laugh.) But if the 
 unit were treated in a different way and were not twisted about, there would 
 be none of the inconvenience which was now so much complained of. As 
 an instance of the treatment of the unit, let the house take what was called 
 the imperial measure of length: 12 inches make one foot, three feet one 
 yard, and then five and a half yards one rod, pole, or perch. The right 
 honorable gentleman seemed to think there would be some difficulty in find- 
 ing the French standard and comparing it with the metre proposed by the 
 bill; but that was not the case. If the right honorable gentleman, the next 
 time he was in Paris, would go to the Place Vendome, he would find the 
 metre there already made to his hand, painted in a most conspicuous place 
 on the front of one of the government offices. (Hear, hear.) The right 
 14 
 
106 
 
 honorable gentleman was mistaken when he supposed that a metre different 
 from the French was proposed to be adopted by this bill. The inch and 
 parts of an inch in the bill made up the exact measure of the French metre. 
 (Hear, hear.) But while he gave great credit to his honorable friend who 
 had introduced the bill, he thought that an effort should have been made to 
 perfect the present law, with a view to uniformity. By the 5th and 6th 
 William IV, cap. 63, sec. 6, all local and customary measures were abol- 
 ished, and a penalty imposed on persons selling by any denomination of 
 measure other than by one of the imperial measures. If the section had 
 stopped there the law would have been perfect, and uniformity in the use of 
 measures clearly established ; but at the instance of interested parties, the 
 House was induced to introduce a proviso, which had entirely defeated the 
 object of that section of the act. The proviso was as follows : " That noth- 
 ing herein contained shall prevent the sale of any article in any vessel, where 
 such vessel is not represented as containing any amount of imperial measure, 
 or of any fixed local or customary measure heretofore in use." So that 
 articles were now sold in all kinds and descriptions of vessels, whose capa- 
 city was undefined. In the year 1858, he (Mr. Locke) had introduced a bill 
 to amend the 5th and 6th William IV, cap. 63, which bill contained a clause 
 for the regulation of the sale of fruit and vegetables, requiring that all ves- 
 sels other than the imperial measures used for that purpose should have 
 marked upon them the amount of imperial measure which they contained. 
 This clause had been strenuously opposed by market-gardeners and others, 
 and he (Mr. Locke) had met a deputation from these parties at the Board of 
 Trade, before the right honorable gentleman the member for Oxfordshire, 
 who took the side of the market-gardeners. However, the bill had been 
 defeated only by a majority of eight. He (Mr. Locke) had brought it in 
 again the next year, and passed, but with this clause omitted. Thus by this 
 proviso in the section regulating measures the intention of the act had been 
 entirely evaded ; but how did the law stand with regard to weights ? The 
 llth section commenced by defining what a stone should be it was to con- 
 sist of 14 pounds; and at the end of the section a proviso was introduced, 
 which stated that that was not to interfere with selling by the pound, or any 
 multiple or aliquot part of the pound. A case came before Baron MAETIN at 
 the Middlesex sittings, in Michaelmas term, 1853, which was afterwards 
 argued in the court of exchequer, June 15, 1854, and again in the exchequer 
 chamber, June 30, 1855, (Jones and Another vs. Giles and Another, 10 
 Exchequer Reports, p. 119, and 11 Exchequer Reports, p. 393,) in which a 
 bargain had been made by what was called "the long ton," consisting of 
 2,400 pounds ; but as that was not one of the legal weights named in the 
 act, one of the parties refused to complete the bargain. It was, however, 
 decided that "the long ton," after all, was a multiple of a pound, and that, if 
 the legislature had intended to exclude " the long ton," they should have intro- 
 
107 
 
 duced such words as "multiple of a pound niinicrirnlly expressed." Now, if 
 the words "numerically expressed" were introduced into the 5th and 6th Wil- 
 liam IV, a perfect certainty would be obtained. If the names given to weights 
 and measures used in diiferent places meant the same thing, there would be no 
 difficulty, but they meant a different thing in every different place. (Hear, hear.) 
 The consequence was, that, with respect to measures, the introduction of 
 the proviso in the 6th section, and the absence of the words " numerically 
 expressed" in the llth, opened the door to all the inconvenience. There 
 would no doubt be great difficulty in carrying such a system as was now 
 proposed into effect. He would, however, support the second reading, hop- 
 ing that at a subsequent stage some useful suggestions might be made. It 
 was proved before the committee which sat in ] 834, on the sale of corn, and 
 over which the right honorable gentleman the present speaker presided, that 
 even in France people could not be induced to adopt the metrical system. 
 
 Mr. Baines. It was not compulsory before 1837. 
 
 Mr. Locke. Well, there was one thing they all had to do with when they 
 went over to France, though he did not know that his honorable friend (Mr. 
 Baines) had, and that was the wine-bottle. (A laugh.) But every honorable 
 gentleman knew that the French bottle, and more especially the German 
 bottle, varied very much ; it was growing " small by degrees and beautifully 
 less," and he was satisfied that the ingenuity of that great nation would 
 make it smaller and smaller, till it reached the vanishing point at last. 
 (Laughter.) He was informed that in the country districts of France the 
 people still used the weights and measures which their ancestors did, and 
 such as Napoleon I, were he resuscitated, would have approved. In 
 answer to a question it was stated some few nights back that the standards 
 of weights and measures had not been reverified for the last thirty or forty 
 years; and previously to his introducing a bill in 1859, and which passed, 
 being the 22d and 23d Vic., c. 56, he was informed that the models or copies 
 of the imperial standards deposited in the several districts for the inspection 
 of weights and measures in course of time became incorrect, and therefore, 
 in that bill a clause was contained, making it necessary that these models 
 should at stated periods be reverified ; but if the models were to be com- 
 pared with the standards in the metropolis, it was necessary that the latter 
 should be ascertained to be correct. He was told, however, that such was 
 not the case, and that these standards were bricked up in one of the walls 
 of this house, and never used for the purpose for which they were intended. 
 This was certainly a very curious state of things, and should the New Zealan- 
 der who was pictured viewing at some future time the ruins of this city, dis- 
 cover them, he would no doubt exclaim, " That was a most wonderful and 
 extraordinary people!" On one occasion he moved for a return of the 
 number of convictions which had taken place throughout the country for 
 selling by false weights and measures; and he was told that the return 
 
108 
 
 would be most voluminous. He consequently limited the return to the 
 metropolis, and it was voluminous then. The great majority of the offenses 
 which had been committed were of the most trifling description, but he was 
 informed that the magistrates considered that they were obliged to impose 
 a fine, when it was shown that weights and measures were not accurate, and 
 that they had no right to inquire whether the use of these inaccurate weights 
 and measures was willful or not. This was a very great hardship on trades- 
 men, and he wished that that House would attempt to perfect the English 
 system before adopting a French one. He did not think that there was any 
 difficulty at present about the imperial bushel. They all knew what its con- 
 tents were ; but the difficulty was in preventing persons from using a local 
 or customary bushel, or something they chose to call a bushel. He wished 
 his honorable friend, the proposer of the present measure, success in his 
 attempt, and though he did not mean to say that he would support all its 
 clauses, yet he regarded the bill as a step in the right direction, and capable 
 of affording the opportunity of remedying the inconveniences of the present 
 system. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Mr. Pollard-Urquhart observed that the honorable member for Oxford- 
 shire had dwelt at considerable length on the inconveniences attendant upon 
 the change now proposed, but it was satisfactorily established before the 
 select committee that to secure uniformity throughout the whole of the 
 United Kingdom some change was necessary. If that were so, why should 
 not the best standard be adopted a standard which would facilitate through- 
 out the whole of Europe the commercial operations of this country ? (Hear, 
 hear.) The want of a decimal system was equivalent to a tax on mercantile 
 transactions ; and one of the witnesses before the committee stated that it 
 was equal to a tax of 10,000 a year on the profits of the London and 
 Northwestern railway. In these days of free trade, was it right that this 
 heavy tax should be continued on book-keeping and exchanges? It had 
 been remarked by Sir K. Hill that, for want of a system such as the honor- 
 able member for Dumfries advocated, great difficulty was experienced in 
 arranging postal treaties and fixing international' rates of postage. This 
 difficulty was felt more and more every day, and he sincerely hoped that the 
 government, who came into office very much on the free-trade principle, 
 would give their support to the bill of the honorable member for Dumfries. 
 
 Mr. Adderley said that no one had denied that some simplification of the 
 present English system was desirable. One could not hear of twenty various 
 bushels, and fractional computations of relative values, without recognizing 
 the disadvantage under which English commerce labors. In reply to the 
 honorable gentleman who spoke last but one, and who objected to going to 
 France for a pattern before the system in England should be improved, he 
 remarked that the best way to improve the system in England was to adopt 
 the system in France, because it was a good system, and because, a world- 
 
109 
 
 wide commerce being the subject, it was a principal requisite to adopt :i 
 system which was already understood in a great number of countries. 
 (Hear, hear.) It was better, he thought, when an object was confessed to 
 be most desirable, to manifest wisdom in endeavoring to attain it, than to 
 exercise wit in showing up the difficulties connected with it. He conceived 
 that the difficulties suggested by the right honorable member for Oxford- 
 shire were most far-fetched and absurd. The right honorable gentleman 
 spoke of the French metre, and of some fantastical notion of the growth of 
 the earth, which might throw out calculations based on a fraction of its 
 meridian, but the right honorable gentleman must be aware that the basis 
 of the English measure of length was the " seconds pendulum," and that 
 that depended on gravitation, which would equally vary with his fantastical 
 supposition. The introduction of a more simple system of weights and 
 measures would be an enormous addition to the wealth of this country, as 
 railways, by economy of time and facilitation of commerce, had been practi- 
 cally increments of national capital. (Hear, hear.) The right honorable 
 gentleman seemed to think that during the French revolution everything 
 new was set up and everything old was cast down, and he supposes every- 
 thing new must be bad and everything old good. This metrical system 
 certainly was one of the wonderful products of the seething brain of revo- 
 lutionary Europe ; yet it must be admitted that hardly anything could be 
 more beneficial than the simple process of calculation which was now under 
 the consideration of the House ; and it was a rational proposition, wherever 
 it came from, that this country should take the unit which so many countries 
 of the world had already satisfactorily adopted. (Hear, hearr) The metri- 
 cal unit of measure at once applied to calculations of length, area, capacity, 
 and weight ; and with singular luck it was, within a tenth, identical with 
 our existing yard, so that our adoption of the metre would little vary our 
 old calculations. There was, of course, a difficulty connected with the 
 introduction into this country of a new system and a new nomenclature, for 
 their adoption must inevitably be repugnant to English conservatism, and 
 could not be so easily enforced in this country as in nations where the 
 government was autocratic. The difficulties of a new nomenclature had been 
 exaggerated and caricatured ; but even Englishmen might as soon learn to 
 drink a tentol as to invest in consols ; the etymology was not more fanciful 
 in one than in the other. He did not think that the honorable gentleman 
 would pass his bill as a compulsory measure. But there were other modes 
 of facilitating the introduction of the system the honorable gentleman advo- 
 cated. The system, in fact, was rapidly introducing itself by its own beauty, 
 and by the necessity of the case. In all the large transactions of the country, 
 and in various departments, such as the mint, the Bank of England, and the 
 post office in short, wherever operations were on a very extended scale, or 
 in concert with foreigners, it proved, not a matter of choice, but of necessity. 
 
110 
 
 In respect to science, it was impossible to have any other system, for the 
 calculations were constantly growing much larger than they used to be, and 
 the old system was not found sufficient for modern science. Students in 
 mathematics were kept back in their pursuit, if they attempted to make use 
 of the old system, by which the higher branches of mathematics could not 
 be reached, and the adoption of a new system was also, in reference to 
 international commerce, imperative. (Hear.) Under these circumstances 
 he would suggest that all means should be made use of for facilitating the 
 self-introduction of the new system. The children of the laboring classes 
 were now in schools aided by the state, and the department of education 
 had more or less the pqwer of teaching that system to the next generation 
 of the working men of this country, employed as they would be all over the 
 world. Diagrams illustrating its simplicity might be distributed throughout 
 the kingdom. We were spending a million yearly now in conquering " the 
 three r's at elementary schools. This system would reduce one of them to 
 easy conquest. Compound arithmetic would cease. Another mode by 
 which the introduction of the new system might be facilitated would be by 
 the government going on a little faster in making their departments adopt 
 it. Every department into which the system might be introduced would be 
 found able to reduce the number of clerks, and consequently this became 
 also a money question. (Hear, hear.) It had been alleged that the present 
 law on weights and measures was rendered nugatory by the permissive 
 clause which relieved from penalty those who used measures, though not 
 imperial, provided they did not profess to be so. But that proviso seemed 
 to him to suggest exactly the right way to proceed with any legislation in 
 England on the subject. They might now legalize the metrical weights and 
 measures, or even substitute them as imperial for those now so designated, 
 leaving it a matter of permission to use others, but not as imperial or 
 standard. An amending bill of the existing statutes, to this effect, would, 
 in his mind, be the most practical measure to attempt. He thought it was 
 not necessary that the bill should be compulsory in its enactments, and he 
 therefore suggested that it should be converted into a permissive measure. 
 The decimal coinage must no doubt follow the adoption of the decimal sys- 
 tem of weights and measures, but it was not necessary to complicate the 
 matter by propounding the two subjects at once. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Mr. Baines would not detain the House more than a few moments, because 
 he saw his honorable friend, the member for Rochdale (Mr. Cobden,) who, 
 he hoped, would tell the House the results of his great experience of the 
 English and French systems during the negotiation of the late commercial 
 treaty. He would, however, draw the attention of the House briefly to two 
 points : the first was, the great number of eminent authorities who were in 
 favor of the new and improved system. The chambers of commerce through- 
 out the country had almost all petitioned in favor of the measure. The 
 
Ill 
 
 international statistical congress, composed of the most able statists of all 
 nations, had also passed resolutions to the same effect. The jurors of the 
 great exhibition of 1851 and 1862, comprising men eminent in trade, science 
 and official life, were almost unanimous in recommending the metric system, 
 which was the simplest, easiest, most scientific and perfect that had ever 
 been devised. (Hear, hear.) It was of the utmost importance that a people 
 so largely engaged in trade as we were should discard the present compli- 
 cated, vicious and irregular system for the new and improved one. M. 
 Michel Chevalier had described the ease and celerity with which the metric 
 system had been introduced into France. A law was passed in July, 1837, 
 rendering it compulsory on and after the 1st January, 1840, but it was very 
 generally in operation before that time arrived. (Hear, hear.) In 1841, M. 
 Chevalier, in the course of a long journey, on inquiring of the postilions as 
 to distances, found that they almost invariably calculated by kilometres, and 
 not by the old measure of postes. The second point to which he would 
 refer was the very great gain there would be to the education of the young 
 from the introduction of the metric system. It had been estimated, on 
 reliable grounds, that as much as a year's schooling would be saved to the 
 young by the adoption of the easy and improved method, instead of the 
 present difficult one. As there were 2,000,000^ children in this country in 
 the course of receiving their education, it was easy to conceive the immense 
 saving of time which would thus be secured. (Hear, hear.) If put in an 
 arithmetical form, it would give the startling result of a gain to the nation 
 of two millions of years with every generation of children who passed 
 through their schools. This would not indeed be a money saving, but it 
 would not the less be a real saving, inasmuch as it would enable the young 
 to acquire other branches of knowledge and a more perfect education. He 
 thought, therefore, the advantages of the new system would be vast and 
 permanent, and such as immeasurably to outweigh the inconveniences of 
 the change. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Sir M. Farquhar observed that the committee comprised representatives 
 from each division of the empire England, Scotland and Ireland who had 
 come almost unanimously to a conclusion in favor of the metric system. He 
 supposed his honorable friend would accept the modifications which had 
 been suggested, and would withdraw the compulsory clauses of his bill. If 
 the system were gradually introduced, it might, in course of time, be estab- 
 lished as a whole. The extraordinary diversity of weights and measures 
 which now prevailed was intolerably perplexing. Professor Leone Levi, in 
 an able pamphlet on the subject, observed : 
 
 " For measures of length we have the ordinary inch, foot and yard. In 
 cloth measure we have yards, nails and ells. There are four different sorts 
 of ells. For nautical purposes we have fathoms, knots, leagues and geo- 
 graphical miles, differing from the common mile. The fathom of a man-of- 
 
112 
 
 war is 6 feet ; of a merchant vessel, 5| feet ; of a fishing smack 5 feet. We 
 have also the Scotch and Irish mile, and the Scotch and Irish acre. There 
 are several sorts of acres in the United Kingdom, and there are a great 
 variety of roods. We have in almost every trade measures of length specially 
 used in those trades. For the measurement of horses we have the hand ; 
 shoemakers use sizes; and we are compelled to adopt gauges where the 
 French use the millimetre. The gauges are entirely arbitrary. The custom 
 of the trade is the only thing which would decide the question in case of 
 dispute. For measures of capacity we have twenty different bushels. We 
 can scarcely tell what the hogshead means. For ale it is 54 gallons ; for 
 wine, 63. Pipes of wine vary in many ways ; each sort of wine seems to 
 claim the privilege of a different sort of pipe. For measures of weight we 
 have about ten different stones ; a stone of wool in Darlington is 1 8 pounds ; 
 a stone of flax at Downpatrick, 24 pounds; a stone of flax at Belfast, 16f 
 pounds, but it is also at Belfast 24^ pounds, having in one place two values. 
 The cwt. may mean 100 pounds, 112 pounds or 120 pounds. If you buy an 
 ounce or a pound of anything you must inquire if it belongs to Dutch, troy, 
 or avoirdupois weight." 
 
 It was surely high time that these anomalies should be corrected. (Hear.) 
 France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, and several other countries, 
 even down to some of those of South America, had adopted the metric sys- 
 tem, and others were anxious to introduce it. Why, then, should we not be 
 able to do so ? Some thought that our present system should be amended, 
 and advised that, we should be satisfied with the introduction of uniformity 
 in our own weights and measures, whilst others urged that it would be far 
 better that England should establish a system which would not only be 
 uniform within our limits, but in accordance with that of those nations 
 which had accepted the metric system. (Hear.) The last course would 
 certainly be the most desirable one. The whole world traded with us ; and 
 if a uniform system could be established between us and the other nations, 
 many existing difficulties would be corrected, and the interests of the trading 
 community, both here and abroad, materially advanced. (Hear, hear.) His 
 honorable friend said that the Emperor Napoleon had been a supporter of 
 the metric system until he put on the imperial purple, when he became a 
 tory. Now he (Sir M. Farquhar) did not know what a Napoleonic tory 
 meant, but his honorable friend was mistaken if he thought that the party 
 among whom he had the honor to sit, now often again called the tory party, 
 was opposed to the introduction of improvements and well-considered 
 reforms. Stare super antiquas vias was an expression which he cheerfully 
 accepted in its meaning of opposition to sudden and organic changes ; but 
 where the road was difficult, he for one was anxious to have it made easy ; 
 where it was rutty and heavy, to have it made smooth and light. (Hear, 
 hear.) There were no doubt difficulties in the way of carrying out the con- 
 
113 
 
 templated change, but they were not insuperable, and should not be per- 
 mitted to daunt the supporters of the improved system. There was habit, 
 and prejudice too, and the present system of weights and measures was so 
 impressed upon the minds of those who used them in their different locali- 
 ties, that the change to another and uniform plan must necessarily require 
 time. He trusted his honorable friend would bring his measure forward 
 nuaiii next year amended, as suggested, and he had no doubt he would then 
 receive the support of the house and the country. This question had lately 
 been much discussed in the literary and scientific institutions of the country. 
 He had received a communication upon this subject, about a fortnight ago, 
 from the members of the literary and scientific institution in the town of 
 Hertford, of which he had the honor to be one of the representatives, and 
 this morning he had received a " refresher," and although it was not accom- 
 panied by the fee which gentlemen learned in the law knew something about 
 (a laugh), he should be happy to give his willing support to the efforts of 
 his honorable friend to introduce the metric system of weights and measures 
 into this country. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Mr. Hubbard reluctantly fulfilled the ungrateful task of objecting to a 
 measure prepared by men of great intelligence who were animated by no 
 other wish than that of promoting (as recited in the preamble of the bill) 
 our foreign and our internal trade ; yet he felt bound to express the con- 
 viction which he formed when on the royal commission on the decimal 
 question, that while the decimalization of coins was, on the whole, inex- 
 pedient, the decimalization of weights and measures was out of the question. 
 (Hear, hear.) The example of other nations had been cited, but it should 
 be remembered that the decimal system was introduced on the continent at 
 the time of the French revolution, when men were prepared to accept the 
 most extreme changes, and when it was contemplated to decimalize not only 
 coins and weights and measures, but even the measurement of time. 9 ne 
 argument in favor of the new system was its intrinsic perfectibility, but let 
 it be remembered that in the attempt to decimalize time the reformers 
 failed, for nature itself declared against them. He could not regard the 
 decimal system as a revelation from Heaven, or believe that the present 
 method could have grown up without possessing some convenience or adv.an- 
 tage. (Hear, hear.) France had, by the aid of conquest, imposed the deci- 
 mal system on some of her neighbors, and other adjoining countries had 
 found it convenient to use it too. That was, however, no reason why 
 England should adopt it. It had been said that it would extend by facili- 
 tating commerce. As a merchant, he must express his belief that its intro- 
 duction would not facilitate in the slightest degree any foreign trade which 
 he carried on. (Hear, hear.) It would not diminish the price of any com- 
 modities that were imported, or affect their quantity. Of course the calcu- 
 lations of price and quantity would be more simple and more rapid under a 
 15 
 
114 
 
 decimal metric system, and thus, as far as mere counting-house work was 
 concerned, some economy might be effected. (Hear, hear.) A house carry- 
 ing on a large business might perhaps save the salary of a clerk. (A laugh.) 
 As to the operations in bills of exchange, the equivalents were so familiar 
 to merchants that they experienced no difficulty now, and needed no relief. 
 The honorable member for Leeds had stated the saving of time in the educa- 
 tion of the young, through the use of the new method in very formidable 
 figures. If it were true that a whole year was thrown away at present, 
 then he would willingly agree to the change, but he could not admit the 
 correctness of that statement. Could it be said that to teach a child to 
 multiply and divide decimally constituted a sufficient arithmetical education ? 
 Admitting that the more complex rules now requisite for children to learn 
 occupied an additional portion of their school life, was the time so expended 
 wasted ? Was it not rather well bestowed in improving their intelligence ? 
 (Oh, and hear, hear.) The value of education did not consist in merely 
 enabling a child to buy a pound of butter or an ounce of snuff, but in the 
 development of his mental powers, so as to render him in after life a wise 
 and useful citizen. (Hear, hear.) Therefore he did not grudge this additional 
 year spent at school, and could not allow that it was wasted. In consider- 
 ing the convenience of the new system, it should not be forgotten that a vast 
 number of small trade transactions were carried on by old women, children 
 and illiterate men in the markets, streets and alleys of every large town. 
 How would these people be able to adapt themselves to the change ? Their 
 monetary unit was the penny their unit of weight was the pound most 
 of their staple articles of consumption were bought by the pound or by its 
 aliquot parts, and paid for by the penny or its quarter parts. These standards, 
 either of quantity or value, were familiar to their minds, and a change in 
 either would produce a serious and universal annoyance. It was right that 
 their case should be taken into account in dealing with this matter. Fifty 
 years after the decimal system had been introduced into France it was found 
 necessary to enforce it by a compulsory law. Was the House prepared to 
 carry out this measure by imposing penalties on the great body of the 
 people ? Such measures might be very well for despots, but they did not 
 suit the genius of the English people. (Hear, hear.) Even at this moment 
 the system was not perfect in France. In parts of France the old weights 
 and measures were still in use. Even in Paris one found that the bougies 
 were practically sold by the old measure, for they were done up in packets 
 of as many grammes as made the livre. (Hear, hear.) It had been said that 
 the advantages of the metric system were permanent and positive, while its 
 disadvantages were only temporary and accidental. He denied its advan- 
 tages ; and when it was said it would entail inconvenience only on the next 
 generation or two, he must observe that that was really no small matter. 
 (Hear, hear.) It had been said that Lord Overstone had expressed the 
 
115 
 
 opinion that the decimalization of weights and measures and of the coinage 
 should go together ; but he was able to state that his lordship meant only 
 that a perfect system would involve that duplicate decimalization, and did 
 not in the least intend to give any countenance whatever to a change in 
 either respect. (Hear, hear.) If the House approved the decimalization of 
 weights and measures, the same process would have to be applied to the 
 coinage, and great expense as well as inconvenience would accompany the 
 recoining of the currency. On the whole, the balance of advantages seemed 
 to him to be on the side of leaving things as they were. (Hear, hear.) 
 Those who would gain anything by the change would be those who could 
 best endure the drawbacks of the existing system. Trade did not want it, 
 science was independent of it, and those who would suffer most disadvan- 
 tage from it were the people who carried on the petty but by no means 
 unimportant industry of the country. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Mr. Cobden. There are two subjects before us which have been rather 
 inconveniently confounded in the course of this discussion the question of 
 decimalization and the question of adopting the metric system. You may 
 have the decimal system without the metric system. I think there is a 
 unanimity of opinion in favor of the decimal system in preference to our 
 present mode of notation. There may be the exception of Lord Overstone, 
 but whenever I am advocating a reform, especially one about which the com- 
 mon sense of the community is pretty well agreed, I have made up my mind 
 not to have the honor of the company and countenance of Lord Overstone. 
 Looking to the evidence given before the committee on which I sat last 
 year, there is a weight of authority in favor of the decimal system, on scien- 
 tific, educational, and commercial grounds, such as I hardly ever before saw 
 equaled in any committee. There was, for example, the evidence of Pro- 
 fessor De Morgan, the great mathematician and actuary. He was not of 
 opinion that the metric system should be adopted, but he declared and it 
 is a fact that should be deemed important in this discussion that boys 
 would save one-half the time they spent in the study of arithmetic by follow- 
 ing the decimal instead of the present system. The Rev. Alfred Barrett, a 
 clergyman who instructs youths for the artillery service, made the following 
 statement to the committee : " It appears to me that the work of education 
 in the French military academy is much more forward than ours, and arises 
 very much from the time of the juvenile pupils being lost in the stupid 
 system of arithmetic which we adopt." He was asked, " How much do you 
 think the time spent in education would be shortened by adopting the decimal 
 system ? " He answered, " Two years." He was asked if learning according 
 to the decimal system would be more agreeable, and his answer was, " Yes, 
 I think so, and more complete." Dr. Farr produced a letter from Lord 
 Brougham, who had collected the testimony of schoolmasters on the subject, 
 and he had come to the conclusion that one-third of the time spent by boys 
 
116 
 
 at school in learning arithmetic would be saved by adopting the decimal 
 system. My friend Mr. Edwin Chadwick has given his attention to a new 
 system of education for the poorest class of schools, by which he proposes, 
 without any diminution of the amount of their education, to shorten the 
 time for the instruction of children to three hours a day instead of six. Mr. 
 Chadwick says that more than one hour out of three is wasted by the poor 
 children learning arithmetic, in consequence of the complicated system which 
 they are taught. The gentleman who just sat down (Mr. Hubbard) has 
 offered a most astounding argument in defense of his views : he is in favor 
 of puzzling the children's heads with the present system of arithmetic, for the 
 purpose of exercising their brains ; but does not the honorable gentleman 
 know that if you give to those poor children greater facilities for studying 
 the simple rules of arithmetic, they will be able to mount up to the com- 
 pound rules, or even to the higher regions of mathematics ? They will be 
 stopped soon enough by the rules of mathematics, which will abundantly 
 exercise their brains ; but let it be done for a useful object, rather than for 
 the mere purpose of tormenting them. I commend to the honorable gentle- 
 man those doggerel lines, written, no doubt, by some despairing urchin in a 
 moment of distraction : 
 
 " Multiplication is vexation, 
 
 Division is as bad ; 
 The rule of three it puzzles me, 
 But practice drives me mad." 
 
 The question of education is mixed up with the question before us in this 
 way : You cannot teach children the decimal system with any advantage 
 unless it is to be available in the ordinary transactions of the affairs of life. 
 My honorable friend the member for Staffordshire has been arguing for a 
 permissive and temporizing treatment of this measure. He pities the boys 
 who are learning the present system of arithmetic, and says he would allow 
 the decimal system to be permissive ; but what would follow ? The poor 
 boys would learn the decimal system and the present system, and that would 
 be no relief to them. Now, I apprehend that what will come out of this dis- 
 cussion is this : You must either adopt the whole of it, or not take a step 
 in it at all. You must adopt the system of decimalizing your coins and your 
 weights and measures. Then comes the question, What mode of decimaliza- 
 tion will you adopt? The right honorable gentleman, the member for 
 Oxfordshire, says he is in favor of taking a foot measure for decimalization, 
 but objects to the proposed metre as outlandish. I think he has some objec- 
 tion to the origin and source from which the new metre is to come. I sup- 
 pose the right honorable gentleman would not object to mechanics or 
 scientific men decimalizing their foot rules and carrying it through a calcula- 
 tion of measurements : but what is the use of decimalizing a foot or yard 
 unless you decimalize all the measures into which these merge and to which 
 
117 
 
 they have relation? If you agree to decimalize your foot, you must 
 decimalize your inch and yard to make it of any value; and if you 
 decimalize your pound, you must decimalize your ounce and other weights. 
 If you adopt the decimalizing system at all, about which everybody is 
 agreed, you must enter upon a complicated change of your own weights 
 and measures that will be just as troublesome to you and cause as much 
 embarrassment to your trade as if you adopt the French system. What 
 is the French system? The honorable member for Leeds said that I 
 had an opportunity of forming an opinion respecting the systems of 
 France and England. I had that opportunity, and probably should not 
 have taken part in the discussion of this question if it had not been forced 
 upon my attention. I was engaged, for I believe six months, in the constant 
 study and conversion of English weights, measures and prices into French 
 weights, measures and prices. To say I felt the disadvantage of our system 
 as compared with that of France, and felt mortified and annoyed, would not 
 express my feeling at the time ; I felt humiliated. The one is simple, sym- 
 metrical, logical, and consistent; the other is dislocated, complicated, 
 uncouth and incoherent. We need not be alarmed about the French system 
 because it is French. The French system is not founded upon anything 
 peculiar to France. Before the French metric system was adopted, 
 the French government, in 1790, invited the English government to send 
 learned fellows of our royal society to France to devise a system of 
 weights and measures for the world. We declined to interfere, and what 
 is the result? Instead of taking anything peculiar to themselves, the 
 French government adopted a cosmopolitan standard. They took for 
 their unit of length, weight and capacity, a geographical and mathematical 
 fact, the ten-millionth part of the quarter of the circumference of the globe, 
 or a little more than an English yard. There is nothing in that to excite the 
 jealousy of Englishmen. If we were asked to take the meridian of Paris 
 for the calculation of the longitude in our navigation tables you might resent 
 it, but in this case a cosmopolitan standard has been adopted which has no 
 special reference to France. You may adopt the system, therefore, without 
 making the slightest concession to French ideas. I don't know that I could 
 explain the advantages of the system more clearly than by quoting a few 
 words from the evidence of M. Chevalier. He said that " the evidence in 
 favor of a good spinning or weaving machine, instead of an obsolete one, 
 would be also evidence in favor of the metric system of calculation." If it 
 were discovered by a traveler in France that the ploughs or scythes used by 
 our agriculturists were inferior to those used in that country, we should 
 instantly change the form of those agricultural instruments, and adopt the 
 model from abroad. But here is a tool that is not merely used by our agricul- 
 tural laborers in cultivating the land ; in every family in the United Kingdom 
 it is in daily use ; it offers facilities for saving one-half the time in arithmetical 
 
118 
 
 education, and one-third or one-fourth of the time spent in all the transactions 
 in which you are to make use of this tool ; and yet there is a difficulty set 
 up in adopting it. Its adoption is resisted by the v is inertice of the country. 
 It is recommended by all the highest authorities amongst those who have had 
 occasion to use it. It is recommended by Sir Rowland Hill, because it is 
 most desirable for the arrangement of his postage. It has been recommended 
 by Dr. Fair, the head of the statistical department of the register of deaths, 
 births and marriages. It is recommended by Mr. Anderson, the head of 
 your gun factory at Woolwich, and by Mr. Graham, the master of the mint. 
 It is stated that Mr. Whitworth finds the decimal system necessary for minute 
 computation and admeasurement. The metric system has been petitioned 
 for by the Associated Chambers of Commerce. All the bodies and classes 
 most likely to be served by using this instrument have petitioned to be 
 allowed to use it ; and are we to meet them with the argument that the old 
 system answers very well we will go on in the ancient way we object 
 to take anything from the French ? Are the whole interests of the country 
 to stand still on that account ? If we were satisfied with things as they are, 
 I could understand why we should be indifferent to a change ; but what 
 places us completely in the wrong is that we are all agreed that our present 
 system of weights and measures is unsatisfactory. I have been asked 
 whether the French people have universally adopted the metric system, and 
 I say no. They have, in remote country districts, persons who still estimate 
 the extent of their land by the old measurement ; but there is this difference 
 between France and England. The French have no idea of abandoning their 
 new system, which is being rapidly adopted by the other nations of the 
 continent, and only waits our adoption to become the system of the civilized 
 world ; all they want is time to make those poor people who adhere to the 
 old method better acquainted with the new one, whereas, though we are dis- 
 satisfied with our system, we are still looking about for the means of remedy- 
 ing it. Our weights and measures are supposed to be a part of JVIagna 
 Charta, and to be founded upon a declaration of the Barons at Runnymede, 
 more than six hundred years ago, who said there should be only one standard 
 in England ; but we have actually about one hundred and fifty measures, 
 which, though illegal, are constantly being used in defiance of the law. We 
 have also penalties to compel the use of legal weights and measures, but they 
 are not inflicted. What is the reason why we have never had one uniform 
 system of weights and measures ? It is that we have never presented to the 
 public a motive for uniformity. We have passed a law that the Winchester 
 bushel should be abolished and the imperial bushel used in its stead, but the 
 imperial bushel offered no more facilities in measurement and calculations 
 than the Winchester bushel. So in other cases. But the distinctive merit 
 of the present proposal is that it promises a great economy of time and 
 labor in the adoption of the decimal and metric system. Above all, it 
 
119 
 
 appeals to the youth of the country, which I consider a point of vast impor- 
 tance. It has been said that there can be no immortality for authors unless 
 their books are read by the young. So it might be said in this case, that 
 the greatest hope of success from the adoption of the decimal and metric 
 system is founded upon the appeal made to the sympathy and interest of 
 every young person in the country. The logical sequence with which the 
 decimals in the French metric system follow one another afford satisfac- 
 tion to the reasoning faculties ; it gives a constant triumph to the reason ; 
 but we have nothing of the sort in our illogical, inconsistent and dislocated 
 system. I might compare the distinction between the two systems to the 
 difference between mining in a country full of " faults," and mining in a 
 district where there is one continuous vein. The French are generally con- 
 sidered a more logical people than the English. I believe they are so, and I 
 am sometimes disposed to attribute the fact to their having this decimal 
 system of calculation. I admit that we should have considerable difficulty 
 in the transition, but think that those difficulties might be successfully 
 encountered by the board of trade, under the guidance of my right honor- 
 able friend the member for Ashton, who has a mind peculiarly suited for 
 dealing with such a question. At the very outset the board of trade would 
 have to prepare and issue a table of equivalents in order that the people 
 might know by comparison with the past what they .were buying. Such a 
 table could be produced with the greatest ease, and in a very short time 
 there would be no occasion for its use at all. It was in evidence that an 
 English workman going to Paris mastered the French system in a month, 
 and one witness has stated that a man of superior intelligence might master 
 it in two days. Now that our old disputes as to financial and commercial 
 questions are disposed of, I think the president of the board of trade could 
 not do better than take this matter in hand. Lord Chesterfield endured in 
 history as a great name very much from having been the means of introduc- 
 ing the Gregorian Calendar. I trust that the president of the board of trade 
 in addition to his successful labors in the cause of free trade in corn and free 
 trade in newspapers, will do his utmost to obtain what certain boys who 
 threatened to petition the House have called free trade in arithmetic. 
 
 Mr. Ferrand remarked that a small shopkeeper, with a capital of 50, had 
 probably spent 3, 4, or 5, in the purchase of weights and measures. It 
 was now proposed to sweep away the whole of that property. He submitted 
 that if the bill was to be compulsory it ought to be compensatory also. 
 (Hear, hear.) The honorable gentleman, amid cries of " question," called 
 attention to the large sums demanded from hawkers for licenses, and com- 
 mended the subject to the attention of the chancellor of the exchequer. 
 
 Mr. M. Gibson confessed that he did not feel very sanguine of being able 
 to induce the people of this country to conform, without great resistance, to 
 any considerable change in their weights and measures. (Hear, hear.) Such 
 
120 
 
 alterations, if desirable, could, of course, be effected, but they ought to be 
 introduced in a cautious manner and by successive steps, so as to cause as 
 small an amount of loss and inconvenience as possible. He had not a word 
 to say against the decimal and metric system of France ; on the contrary, 
 he thought it convenient, neat and beneficial ; but the question was, whether 
 the House would give its assent to a compulsory measure which enacted 
 that, from and after a certain time named in the clauses, every person in the 
 United Kingdom who did not use in transactions of trade, whether of an 
 extensive or whether of a petty character, the metric system, should be liable 
 to a penalty of forty shillings. (Hear, hear.) Now, his opinion was, that, 
 in such a case as this, we must endeavor to fit matters a little to society, and 
 must not expect that society would all at once adapt itself to new legislation 
 unless some public conviction existed in its favor, and unless the minds of the 
 people were prepared to co-operate with the law. That was the opinion of 
 the select committee, which, while recommending that the metric system 
 should be rendered legal, declared that no compulsory measures should be 
 resorted to unless they were sanctioned by the general conviction of the 
 public. (Hear.) What evidence had we that such a change as that proposed 
 by the honorable member for Rochdale was sanctioned by a general convic- 
 tion of the public ? None whatever. Many steps ought to be taken before 
 we ventured upon compulsory legislation, which, if attempted prematurely, 
 must have the effect of throwing back the change that many desired to see 
 accomplished. Such has been the case in France, where fifty years expired 
 after the premature decree of the national assembly before the metric and 
 decimal system was brought into general operation in the time of Louis 
 Philippe. There could be no doubt of the advantage of the decimal system 
 in all matters of accounts, but he contended that we could not make that 
 system the only mode of division which persons should be compelled to use 
 under a penalty. He had no objection to any bill, if such should be thought 
 necessary, which should legalize and license the use of the decimal division ; 
 but he should be sorry to see any measure passed to confine men exclusively 
 to that system, and prevent them from having recourse, if their convenience 
 required it, to the binary system now in ordinary and daily use. Uniformity 
 in weights and measures they would all agree, was most desirable ; but what 
 was their experience of previous attempts to enforce it? We had now 
 established by law two simple and primary units, the standard yard for 
 length and the avoirdupois pound for weight ; and from these all our other 
 legal weights and measures were derived. The 5th and 6th of William IV, 
 cap. 63, enacted that any person using any weight or measure other than 
 those authorized by that act should be subject to a penalty not exceeding 
 5, and also that all contracts made in other measures or weights should be 
 null and void. Yet there was, no doubt, at present a great number of local 
 and customary measures and weights in use in this country, in Wales, and 
 

 121 
 
 in Scotland, contrary to that statute, although common informers had power 
 to sue for the penalty which it imposed. Why, then, was the law not en- 
 forced ? He could not give any other reason than that it was found an 
 extremely difficult thing to enforce, in any brief space of time, any great 
 change in weights and measures throughout the country, and that in many 
 districts public opinion would not sanction the prosecution of persons for 
 adhering to usages with which they had been accustomed to conduct their 
 business with convenience and safety. In the metropolis and other large 
 towns no infractions of this law, perhaps, took place, and the introduction 
 of railways and other changes had a tendency to lead to the voluntary adop- 
 tion of uniformity in weights and measures on account of its superior conve- 
 nience. It was better, therefore, to trust to the gradual appreciation of the 
 advantages of an improved system, than to seek, by the rough and compul- 
 sory expedient of legal penalties, to bring about a change all at once. He 
 agreed with the honorable member for Rochdale that it was the duty of all 
 who approved the decimal and metric system to do what in them lay to 
 prepare the public mind for receiving it. But he was convinced that, al- 
 though those persons, comparatively few in number, who were engaged in 
 the foreign trade, and whose transactions were generally on an extensive 
 scale, might be favorable to this change, yet, from the innumerable petty 
 traders and shopkeepers scattered throughout the country, any sudden at- 
 tempt to make it compulsory would meet with a general resistance. He 
 could not, therefore, assent to a compulsory enactment, nor could he see his 
 way, if passed, to its practical enforcement. On such a subject they must 
 proceed by single steps ; and if the honorable member for Dumfries would 
 withdraw this bill, and introduce another of a merely permissive character, 
 that might by degrees familiarize the public mind to the idea of the proposed 
 change, and pave the way for further advances in the same direction here- 
 after. Although himself in favor of the theory of the metric system, all the 
 scientific witnesses examined before the committee did not support it. Pro- 
 fessor De Morgan, while strongly advocating the decimal system for account 
 keeping, regarded the metre as not a good unit of length. Professor Aircy 
 also thought that uniformity and harmony with the system of foreign 
 countries might be purchased at too high a price. Still, of the practical 
 difficulties of introducing into trade a new system, the scientific men were 
 not such good judges as the chambers of commerce. But it would not be 
 fair to let the House suppose that there had been unanimity among the 
 philosophers, and even at the present moment several of them inclined to 
 the opinion that it was not desirable to adopt the metre as our unit. With 
 regard to a question which had been put to him as to the testing of the 
 standards, the act provided that the local standards should be compared with 
 the standards in London, but it contained no provision for the periodical 
 verification of the working standards in London by comparison with the 
 16 
 
122 
 
 primary standards kept in a stone box, which were the units and constants 
 upon which all our weights and measures were by law to depend. He pre- 
 sumed, however, that the authority of the government would be sufficient 
 to warrant that comparison being made ; and, as the matter was one of great 
 importance, it would not fail to receive the attention it deserved. The 
 International Statistical Congress, which sat in London two years ago, 
 appointed a committee to inquire into the best means of overcoming the 
 obstacles which prevented the adoption of the metric system in various 
 countries. He would suggest, therefore, that it would be well for the 
 honorable member for Dumfries to wait till that committee had presented 
 its report to the next meeting of the congress before seeking to legislate on 
 this subject. He saw that Portugal, after ten years of hard preparatory 
 work, had just arrived at the stage for compulsorily introducing the metric 
 system. He was quite willing to help individually as a pioneer in paving 
 the way for the adoption of that change in this country, but he believed 
 that if he were to attempt, by a sort of surprise, to compel people by law in 
 all parts of the country to throw away their present weights and measures, 
 and to provide themselves with new ones based on wholly novel principles, 
 he would require the assistance of a body of police of no ordinary magni- 
 tude. 
 
 Mr. Bazley thought the president of the board of trade, in his very plausi- 
 ble speech, had conjured up imaginary difficulties. In the departments of 
 the customs and excise the decimal system was already largely used ; and 
 where would be the difficulty of applying the same principle to the trans- 
 actions of the general public ? Many of the working men of Lancashire 
 were now in the habit of computing upon the decimal system in the dis- 
 charge of their ordinary duty. (Hear, hear.) He should support the bill 
 because it would materially economize time and promote the wealth of the 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Roebuck said the right honorable gentleman had recommended the 
 honorable member for Dumfries to withdraw the bill and bring in another 
 of a permissive nature. He would suggest that the House should agree to 
 the second reading before the bill was withdrawn (hear, hear), because by 
 that course they would at least have affirmed its principle. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that unhappily compulsion was a 
 vital portion of the measure, and could not be separated from its principle. 
 (Hear, hear.) To compulsion in this matter the government was not pre- 
 pared to accede, and they would be only deluding the House if they for a 
 moment assented to the second reading of a measure involving compulsion 
 as a means of giving effect to the decimal system. 
 
 Mr. R. Hodgson said that the compulsory power was not the principle of 
 the bill, but only the means by which it was to be carried out. The honor- 
 able member for Dumfries should state, before they divided on the second 
 
123 
 
 reading, whether he would agree to change the compulsory provision into a 
 permissive one, and in that case, after the second reading, the bill might be 
 committed, pro formd, and altered and printed, and circulated for con- 
 sideration by the country during the recess. 
 
 Mr. J. B. Smith said that he was of opinion, with the honorable member 
 for Tynemouth, that the bill should be read a second time, because the 
 principle of the bill was the adoption of the metric system of weights and 
 measures. Whether its adoption was to be enforced or permissive was a 
 matter of detail, and might be dealt with in committee on the bill. The 
 president of the board of trade had observed that the philosophers were not 
 agreed on the metric system. It was true that there were two philosophers 
 examined before the committee on weights and measures, who were opposed 
 to the metric system. One was in favor of the decimalization of our exist- 
 ing weights and measures ; the other, the astronomer royal, was opposed to 
 any change at all. Now, he knew that the House had great respect for the 
 opinions of philosophers ; he was, therefore, desirous of reading the evidence 
 of the astronomer royal before the committee, from which they would be 
 able to judge of the practical value of his opinions on this subject. This 
 learned gentleman was asked, " In the case of a railway company having 
 hundreds of charges to make every day for the carriage of goods, which 
 may be of every conceivable weight from a pound up to 100 tons, in such a 
 case having cwts. and Ibs. as part of the weight, do you suppose, that any 
 table could be devised thac would aid their calculations?" Answer. "I 
 never had to send goods by railway, and therefore I cannot say." Question. 
 " Then I tell you that they charge tons, cwts. and Ibs. Do you not think 
 that in France, where a railway has 1,000 kilogrammes for transmission, they 
 would find their calculations greatly facilitated by dividing the 1,000 kilo- 
 grammes by 10 ? " Answer. " Yes." Question. " Is not a large amount of 
 the business of the country the railway carriage of the country ? " Answer. 
 " No ; it is a good deal, but it depends that is, the convenience or incon- 
 venience depends entirely on the extent to which large measures or weights, 
 and small ones, are used at the same time." Question. " Of course it 
 does." Answer. " Generally speaking, in all business I have any acquaint- 
 ance with, they are not used much together." Question. " You do not 
 dispute that the railway companies charge the weight by the ton, cwt., qrs., 
 and Ibs. ? " Answer. " I do not know how far they go, but I should think 
 they would not go below the quarters. It would depend entirely upon the 
 extent to which the small weights are combined with the large weights." 
 Question. "Assuming that the railway companies charge below the 
 quarters, then do you think the adoption of the decimal system would be an 
 economy of time ? " Answer. " Yes ; but it scarcely would if they do not 
 go below the quarters." No doubt the opinions of so distinguished a 
 philosopher as the astronomer royal on questions connected with his own 
 
124 
 
 pursuits is entitled to great deference; but so much of his life is spent 
 among the stars that he appears to have little practical acquaintance with 
 what is passing in the world below. There was, however, another philoso- 
 pher examined before the committee, Professor Miller of Cambridge, no less 
 distinguished than the others, but possessing the advantage over them of a 
 practical acquaintance with the subject of weights and measures. Professor 
 Miller was one of the members of the committee for the restoration of the 
 lost standard, and to him was intrusted the restoration of the standard of 
 weight. He is of opinion that the metric system should be adopted in the 
 place of our present system of weights and measures, because it is a perfect 
 system, and because it is now adopted by a very large portion of the world. 
 He was asked by the honorable member for Staffordshire, " Do you find in 
 the course of your learned pursuits that our present system of weights and 
 measures interfere with scientific investigation in any way ? " He answered, 
 " Not in the least ; they are so complicated it is quite impossible to use 
 them. The balance makers provide balances made for accurate purposes 
 with decimal weights of some kind." It appears, then, that scientific men 
 cannot use our present system of weights and measures ; the astronomer 
 royal himself never uses them in his calculations; there has been no reason 
 urged why the public should be condemned to use them except that any 
 change would be attended with temporary inconvenience, and would be 
 especially distasteful to old women. He (Mr. Smith) did not believe that 
 the English people were less intelligent than the Dutch, Swiss, Spanish, or 
 those of any other country which had adopted the metric system with so 
 much public advantage, and he therefore hoped the House would allow the 
 bill to be read a second time. 
 
 Mr. Griffith was ready to support that part of the measure relating to 
 decimal computation, but was unwilling to pledge himself to the adoption 
 of the metric standard. 
 
 Colonel Sykes said, as a member of the committee on weights and mea- 
 sures, and concurring entirely in the recommendations of the committee, he 
 mio-ht not have risen after the conclusive statements that had been made ; 
 
 O 
 
 but some observations of the right honorable member for Oxfordshire needed 
 remark. The right honorable gentleman said that the metric system in 
 France had originated in the revolution, when there was a mania to abolish 
 every previous institution, and its adoption had been abrogated by Napoleon 
 the First. The fact was, that, as early as the 8th of May, 1790, a commis- 
 sion of the Academy of France was ordered by the constituent assembly, 
 upon which sat academicians and mathematicians whose names have taken a 
 place forever in science. The commission at first thought of adopting the 
 length of a pendulum vibrating seconds in the meridian of Paris as the basis 
 or standard ; but as gravity is not uniform throughout the globe, the plan 
 was given up, and an immutable standard of the ten-millionth part of the 
 
125 
 
 quarter of a meridian was adopted. On the 26th March, 1701, the recom- 
 mendation of the commission of the academy was sanctioned ; but it was 
 not until the 1st August, 1793, that the new system, with its decimal nota- 
 tion, became law, and it was slightly altered in 1795. It continued in ope- 
 ration until 1801, when some relaxation took place owing to Napoleon's 
 opposition to the system; and in 1812, when Emperor, he let the people 
 substitute the old terms ; but under Louis Philippe it was found that such 
 confusion had ensued, that the Chambers restored the metric system, which 
 has continued in operation ever since. The argument of the right honorable 
 gentleman, therefore, told against himself, for so far from the metric system 
 being abandoned because it would not work, it was in fact restored because 
 of the confusion consequent on its abandonment. The right honorable gen- 
 tleman said, also, that the majority of the European nations had not adopted 
 the metric system, but this was not the fact ; Russia, European Turkey and 
 Wallachia, were the only European countries where there had not been a 
 movement in its favor. The three Scandinavian nations, Sweden, Norway 
 and Denmark, had recently passed resolutions in its favor, and even in Rus- 
 sia the thin end of the wedge was being inserted. Surely, therefore, his 
 right honorable friend would not wish to have England left in the same cate- 
 gory with Turkey and Wallachia. England had a great commercial inte- 
 rest in the metric question ; for the value of her trade annually in those 
 countries where the metric system prevailed was fifty-five millions sterling, 
 while in those countries in which the metric system did not exist the value of 
 the trade was only twenty-four millions per annum. A practical illustration 
 of the economy of time and figures, by the use of decimals in arithmetical 
 calculations, had not been given by the speakers who had 'preceded him, and 
 he would offer one from a paper he had in his hand. It was the determina- 
 tion of the value of 5,760 yards of calico at 3JJ. per yard, by compound 
 multiplication, by the rule of three, by practice, and by the aid of a decimal 
 table ; the answer, of course, was the same, viz., 93, by each mode ; but 
 compound multiplication required 43 figures ; the rule of three, 44 figures ; 
 practice, 33 figures; and by the aid of the decimal table only 14 figures 
 were required. This was conclusive. Great stress had been laid upon the 
 difficulties attending the introduction of the metric system, particularly in 
 respect to the prejudices against the Gra3co-Latin terms to be used. But 
 these terms might be dispensed with, and our own old and familiar mono- 
 syllabic " ton," " pound," " ounce," " quart," " pint," <fcc., be retained, the 
 present quantities of each designation only being altered, to make them cor- 
 respond with the terms and quantities in the metric system. The objections 
 to the bill on account of its penal clauses have no force, for every " weights 
 and measures bill " already passed has its penal clauses, which are constantly 
 put into operation. Moreover, with respect to all the difficulties alleged, 
 every nation which has adopted the metric system equally experienced them, 
 
126 
 
 and it cannot be believed that England would fail to do what other countries 
 had succeeded in doing. He would, therefore, heartily vote for the second 
 reading of the bill. 
 
 Mr. W. Ewart, in reply, said he was willing to accept the government 
 proposition if they would undertake to use their endeavors to prepare the 
 country for the change by introducing the metric system into schools, and 
 in any other manner that might be open to them. 
 
 Mr.. Gibson said he could not, off-hand, pledge the government to any par- 
 ticular course, nor could he speak for the committee of privy council. 
 
 The Solicitor-General pointed out that the bill was essentially a compulsory 
 measure, for it spoke throughout of the unity of weight and of capacity, and 
 did not say that persons might use that unity or not as they pleased. 
 
 The House then divided, when the numbers were : 
 
 For the second reading, 110 
 
 Against, 75 
 
 Majority, 35 
 
 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (METRIC SYSTEM) BILL. 
 
 Order for second reading read. Motion made and question put, " That 
 the bill be now read a second time." The house divided yeas, 110; nays, 75. 
 
 Teas. William Patrick Adam, Right Hon. Charles Bowyer Adderley, Sir 
 Andrew Agnew, Edward Baines, Thomas Barnes, Thomas Bazley, John 
 Blake, Lord John Thomas Browne (Mayo), Walter Buchanan, General 
 Buckley, James Wentworth Buller (Devon, !N~.), James Caird, Stephen 
 Cave, Lord Alfred Spencer Churchill, James Clay, Colonel Clifford (Here- 
 ford), William Coningham, Right Hon. Henry Lowry Corry, Robert Dalg- 
 lish, Colonel Ferguson Davie (Barnstaple), C. George Du Pre, Sir James 
 Buller East, Colonel Edwards, Sir James Dalrymple Elphinstone, Viscount 
 Enfield, Joseph Christopher Ewart (Liverpool), Humphry Ewing Crum 
 Ewing, Colonel John William Fane, Sir Minto Farquhar, Henry Fenwick, 
 Alexander Struthers Finlay, Hon. C. W. W. Fitzwilliam, Henry W. Foley, 
 William Edward Forster (Bradford), Richard Sommers Gard, John Ralph 
 Ormsby Gore (Salop, N".), George Joachim Goschen, Hon. F. Leverson 
 Gower (Bodmin), Henry R. Grenfell (Stoke), Colonel Fulke Greville, Sam- 
 uel Gurney (Penryn), George Hadfield, Thomson Hankey, Michael Hassard, 
 Sir John Charles Dalrymple Hay, John Pope Hennessy, Lord Alfred Her- 
 vey, John Tomlinson Hibberd, Grosvenor Hodgkinson, Richard Hodgson 
 (Tynemouth), Edward Holland, Sir Alexander Acland Hood, Thomas Berry 
 Horsfall, Viscount Ingestre, William Jackson, Sir Jervoise Clarke Jervoise, 
 Right Hon. Sir W. J. H. Jolliffe (Petersfield), James King King (Hertford- 
 shire), John Laird (Birkenhead), Edward A. Leatham, Anthony Lefroy, 
 
127 
 
 Harvey Lewis, Hon. Henry George Liddell, William Schaw Lindsay 
 (Sunderland), John Locke, George Lyall, William Alexander Mackinnon 
 (Lymington), John Francis Maguire, Lord George J. Manners (Camb. Co.), 
 Phil. Wykeham Martin (Rochester), William Nathaniel Massey, Humphrey 
 Francis Mildmay, Walter Morrison, William Nichol, Sir John Ogilvy, Rich- 
 ard Padmore, Charles Paget (Nottingham), Right Hon. Sir John Pakington, 
 Colonel Wilson Patten, John Pender, Hon. Colonel Pennant, James Pilking- 
 ton, William Pollard-Urquhart, Hon. Ashley Ponsonby, Edmund Potter, 
 David Pugh, C. W. Giles Puller, Sir John William Ramsden, Viscount 
 Raynham, George William John Repton, John Arthur Roebuck, William 
 Scholefield, Charles Seeley, Henry B. Sheridan (Dudley), John Benjamin 
 Smith (Stockport), Abel Smith (Herts), Joseph Somes, John Steel, Hon. 
 Gerard Sturt (Dorset), Colonel William Henry Sykes, Colonel Taylor (Dub- 
 lin Co.), William Tite, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles George Tottenham, Sir 
 John Salusbury Trelawny, Edward Warner, Colonel Lloyd Watkins, 
 Thomas Matthias Weguelin, George Hammond Whalley, Henry Whitmore, 
 William Williams (Lambeth). 
 
 Tellers of the yeas, Mr. William Ewart and Mr. Cobden. 
 
 Nays. Hon. William Wells Addington^ Hon. General Arbuthnott, Sir 
 William Atherton, Acton Smee Ayrton, Henry S. Baillie (Invernesshire), 
 George W. P. Bentinck (Norfolk West), G. Cavendish Bentinck (Taunton), 
 Peter Blackburn, John Bonham Carter, James Brown (Malton), Henry 
 Austin Bruce (Merthyr Tydvil), Hugh Culling Eardley Childers, Sir Mon- 
 tague John Cholmeley, Right Hon. William F. Cowper, William Cox, Sir 
 H. R. Ferguson Davie (Haddington shire), Mount Elph, Grant Duif (Elgin), 
 Right Hon. Sir D. Dundas (Sutherland), Sir Philip Grey Egerton (Cheshire 
 S.), Sir De Lacy Evans (Westminster), James Farrer, Edward Fellowes, 
 William Orme Foster (Staffordshire S.), Viscount Gal way, Major Gavin, 
 Right Hon. Thomas Milner Gibson, Charles Gilpin (Northampton), Right 
 Hon. William Gladstone, Samuel Gregson, Christopher Darby Griffith, 
 Right Hon. Joseph Warner Henley, Lord Henley, Right Hon. Henry A. 
 Herbert, Viscount Holmesdale, Lord Hotham, John Gillibrand Hubbard, 
 Philip Stapleton Humberston, Right Hon. William Hutt, Sir John Johnstone 
 (Scarboro), Samuel Trehawke Kekewich, W. Francis Knatchbull (Somerset 
 E.), HugessenE. Knatchbull (Sandwich), Austin Henry Layard (South wavk), 
 Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, Arthur Mills (Taunton), William Townley Mit- 
 ford, Right Hon. James Moncrieff, David Morris, Right Hon. John Robert 
 Mowbray, William Murray, Colonel North (Oxfordshire), Lord Clarence 
 Paget (Sandwich), Sir Roundell Palmer (Richmond), Major Windsor Parker, 
 Right Hon. Frederick Peel (Bury), Sir Matthew White Ridley, Thomas 
 James Agar Robartes, Hon. Richard Thomas Rowley, Arthur Russell 
 (Tavistock), Mr. Alderman Salomons, Sir John Villiers Shelley, Augustus 
 
128 
 
 Smith (Truro), Patrick Boyle Smollett, James Stansfield, Michael Sullivan, 
 John Tollemache (Cheshire S.), Lord Arthur Edwin Hill Trevor, Charles 
 Turner (Lancashire S.,) Colonel Vandeleur, Harry Foley Vernon, Right 
 Hon. C. Pelham Villiers, Admiral Wallcott, John Walter, Luke White 
 (Kidderminster), Charles Watkin Wynn (Montgomeryshire.) 
 
 Tellers for the nays, Mr. Brand and Sir William Dunbar. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 By the published proceedings of the House of Commons, 
 recently received, it appears that the bill thus ordered to a second 
 reading in July last, and which was compulsory in its provisions, 
 has been withdrawn during the present session of Parliament, 
 and that a new bill has been introduced which is merely permis- 
 sive. 
 
 The following report of the debate which took place on the llth 
 of March, 1864, on the bill thus substituted, appears in the Eng- 
 lish newspapers : 
 
 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (METRIC SYSTEM) BILL. 
 
 Mr. W. Ewart, in moving the second reading of this bill, said it was a 
 permissive bill, for the introduction into this country of the metric system 
 of weights and measures, which had met with universal approbation on the 
 continent of Europe. He called attention to a resolution which had been 
 adopted at the Congress of Berlin, in favor of the principle, and also to reso- 
 lutions adopted in its favor at the meeting of the British Association at 
 Newcastle, and in Chambers of Commerce throughout the country. There 
 were many professions and trades which would be glad to use a metric 
 system. It would be a great advantage to English watchmakers. It was 
 also shown to the select committee that civil engineers would greatly benefit 
 by the introduction of the system. Chemists acknowledged the advantage of 
 the system, and said that when it came into operation, the pharmacopoeia 
 would probably be founded upon it. A great number of architects also 
 petitioned the house for a measure of this nature; and as regarded our 
 export trade in coal, the system would be of great utility. Indeed, there 
 could be no doubt that in all international transactions in trade and com- 
 merce, the advantages of this system would be unquestionable. He trusted 
 that after a few years' experience of it, the measure would be converted 
 from a permissive into a compulsory one. 
 
 Mr. Locke, in seconding the motion, said the present system of weights 
 and measures was most defective. Having read the report of the select 
 17 
 
130 
 
 committee, he was satisfied that under the existing system a great injustice 
 was done to the working classes, in their small dealings. There was no 
 analogy, as in France, between our coinage and our weights and measures, 
 the consequence being that these classes, when they came to buy a small 
 quantity of an article, found no equivalent for it in English money, and had 
 to pay more than they ought. It would therefore be a great advantage to 
 the labouring population if they had coins to pay for the smallest quantity 
 of any articles they might stand in need of. If parties found that under 
 such a system their dealings became more distinct and accurate, they would, 
 for their own interests, readily put it into practice. Nothing could be more 
 intricate or detestable than the tables of weights and measures which they 
 had to learn in their youth. He undertook to say that scarcely one member 
 of that House could repeat his tables. (Laughter.) The French system was 
 extremely simple. It appeared from returns which he had moved for, that 
 thousands of tradesmen were annually fined for using false weights and 
 measures. In cases where there was the smallest deviation, though it might 
 not be intentional or for the purpose of committing a fraud, the magistrate 
 had no option but to impose a fine. This was a great grievance, and 
 especially when it might appear that the test applied was erroneous. He 
 believed that if this bill came into operation, a decimal system of coinage 
 must necessarily follow, and then this country would be placed in this matter 
 in a position perhaps more philosophically right, but certainly more consis- 
 tent with common sense than it was at present. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Mr. M. Gibson had no doubt the decimalization of the coinage and 
 weights and measures would be productive of considerable advantage to the 
 working classes. With regard to weights and measures, he apprehended 
 that it might be done by order in council, or even by persons individually 
 without any authority at all. The decimalization of the coinage was of 
 course a question for the Executive. At present there were two standards 
 the yard, and the weight by avoirdupois which regulated all our weights 
 and measures, but if the honorable gentleman's bill passed there would be 
 three national standards. The bill provided that the new weights and mea- 
 sures should be sent to about 700 places, but he did not think that that was 
 a duty which the board of trade would be prepared to undertake, especially 
 as at present those places provided weights and measures for themselves. 
 He should not oppose the introduction of a permissive bill, but he must 
 very carefully guard himself against agreeing to the clauses contained in the 
 bill. He hoped that the honorable member who introduced the bill would 
 be satisfied if he got the legal use of the metric system without pressing the 
 matter further. 
 
 Mr. Henley said that if this system were introduced the poorer classes 
 would be defrauded if one person sold by the metric system and another by 
 the pound. 
 
131 
 
 Mr. Adderley considered that the bill would be of essential importance to 
 international commerce. The bill would secure uniformity and (simplicity, 
 and nothing could be said against it except the difficulty of introducing the 
 principle. If its introduction were impossible they should dismiss the bill 
 at once. If possible it should receive every attention from the Government. 
 
 Mr. Walter said he hoped he should not be thought guilty of presumption 
 when he said that he intended to divide the House on this bill. He objected 
 to the bill partly because it was a permissive bill, although he should object 
 to it more strongly if it were compulsory. But he entertained a stronger 
 and more substantial objection to the measure. It was a revolutionary mea- 
 sure. It interfered with the present system of weights and measures, and 
 it introduced a foreign nomenclature, to which he was sure the poor would 
 have a great disgust. Why not keep to the existing weights and measures ? 
 Why should we, because a number of French people, in a spirit the most 
 fanatical, determined during the French revolution to change everything, do 
 the same ? He said, let us keep to our own nomenclature at all events, and 
 with regard to this bill, he for one should not accept the proposal of his 
 honorable friend, that it should be read a second time, but he moved that it 
 be read a second time that day six months. 
 
 Mr. J. B. Smith, in supporting the bill, said he had expected to hear more 
 enlightened views from the honorable member for Berkshire who had just 
 sat down. 
 
 Col. Sykes, although he approved of the principle of the bill, did not 
 think it would have any practical effect unless the Government took it up. 
 
 Mr. Buxton thought that if the President of the Board of Trade did not 
 divide against the bill, he should entirely adopt the principle, and seek to 
 work it out. 
 
 Col. Bartelot did not believe that the small traders throughout the country 
 would accept the bill, while in the agricultural and rural districts it would 
 be viewed with great suspicion and distrust. Large traders might be 
 induced to adopt it for their own convenience. 
 
 Mr. Baines strongly advocated a uniform system, and pointed to many 
 countries in Europe where it had been successfully introduced. The new 
 system was spreading over the whole world. He regretted that the honor- 
 able member for Berkshire (Mr. Walter), had taken the course he had. He 
 should have been glad to see his admirable talents arrayed on the side of 
 improvement. 
 
 The House divided : 
 
 For the amendment, 52 
 
 Against it, 90 
 
 Majority for the bill, 38 
 
 The bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed. 
 
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