136 REAR-ADMIRAL F. W. BEECHEY'S ADDRESS. [May 2G, 185G. 



close, and a full detailed accotint of them is in the press, and 

 wdll be shortly published. The latitudes and longitudes are now 

 being engraved on the marginal lines of all the first published sheets 

 of the Survey of Great Britain. The progress of the detailed 

 Survey of Scotland and the northern counties of England has fre- 

 quently been brought to the notice of this Society, and much dis- 

 satisfaction has been expressed at the slow progress which has been 

 made. Since 1851, when the Committee of the House of Commons, 

 of which Lord Elcho was chairman, reported upon the subject, the 

 question as to the scale upon which the MS. plans should be drawn 

 may be said to have been under constant discussion ; and for two 

 yeara of this period, the officers engaged in the survey, in consequenxto 

 of the frequent change of orders and the long period during which 

 they were without any orders whatever, made scarcely any progress 

 at all. Another Committee of the House of Commons has recently 

 reported upon the subject. They had before them, the written 

 •opinions of the most able professional and scientific men in the 

 kingdom ; and, continues Col. James, it is to be hoped that the re- 

 commendations of that Committee will now be finally adopted for 

 the future guidance of the officers on the survey. They are, as nearly 

 as possible, having reference to the difference in the standards of 

 measure in the two countries, conformable to the instructions for 

 the survey of France, viz. — 



1. For the cultivated distiHcts the original plans are to be drawn on 

 the scale of ^-Jo s of the linear measure of the ground, or 25-334 inches 

 to a mile, which is sensibly the same as one square inch to one acre. 



2. The uncultivated districts are to be drawn on the scale of 6 

 inches to a mile, and the 25-inch plans are also to be reduced to this 

 scale, previous to the whole being reduced to the scale of one inch to 

 a mile, to complete the general map of the kingdom on that scale.* 

 The object which the Government now has in view is, to make the 

 National Survey the basis for the valuation and registration of the 

 sales of property, to facilitate the transfer of property, and for all 

 general or local engineering purposes, including the Hydrographical 

 and Geological Surveys, and every purpose for which an accurate, 

 authentic plan or map is required. This gives an importance to the 

 !^urvey which it never before possessed ; and with the ample funds 

 which the Government appear disposed to grant, it is expected that 



* An ai-rangeraeut wliich will, I am sure, be gratifying to our excellent ci-dcvant 

 President, Sir R. Murchison, who so strenuously advocated it in his last Address 

 . to this Society.— ^c'c Vol. XXIII. 



