Weights and Measures of New York. Ill 



distilled water has been resorted to in preference as the surest 

 criterion. 



It might, in this stage of the discussion, be asked, Why pro- 

 pose a system founded upon principles and facts requiring so 

 much accuracy of determination and knowledge of science ? 

 And, Why not have recourse to England at once, and obtain 

 thence their new standards ? 



To the first of these it may be replied, that the practical ad- 

 justment of weights and measures is always liable to certain 

 errors ; that these, in the lapse of years, where no checks are 

 provided, would reach such an extent as wholly to obliterate 

 the recollection of the original standards. The more strict then 

 the provisions of the law, in respect to accuracy, the less will 

 be the danger of error, from the discouragement it will give to 

 rude and inartificial methods of comparison ; and the more 

 scientific the means of recovery and examination that are 

 pointed out, the greater will be the certainty of perpetuating 

 or restoring the standard in after-ages. As to a recurrence to 

 England, a variety of reasons would oppose, each of them valid 

 and sufficient in itself: a proper feeling of national pride would 

 forbid our asking aid of a foreign country, in a matter for 

 which our own artists and men of science are competent. 

 Economy also forbids it, as standards identical with those of the 

 British government could only be obtained by sending out a 

 competent person to superintend their construction, and com- 

 pare them strictly with the originals. The articles vended in 

 trade as accurate measures are not to be depended upon impli- 

 citly, and, however suitable to commerce, would be unfit for a 

 national object ; moreover, there are certain inaccuracies in the 

 English law itself, which I cannot but believe must ere long 

 require its revision in that country, and we should in that event 

 obtain and bring into use a system differing from that which 

 now exists among us, with every probability that it could not be 

 permanent. Neither is it likely that any agent of our State, 

 however fully authorised and accredited, could obtain all the 

 necessary facilities. 



The errors I allude to in the English law, which are fatal to 

 its own permanence, are — ^that the comparison with the 

 pendidum that is used to define the unit of lineal dimension 



