3i8 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1S14. 



for reasons which will be hereafter 

 stated, in the selection made by 

 that Committee in appointing 

 these standards. 



This Report was agreed to by 

 the House : and in the year 1765, 

 two bills were brought in by Lord 

 Carysfoit, who was Chairman of 

 the Committee of 1758, for the 

 purpose of carrying into effect the 

 resolutions of that Committee. 

 These bills were severally read a 

 first and second time, and com- 

 mitted ; and the bills, as amend- 

 ed by the Committee, were or- 

 dered to be printed on the 8th day 

 of May. Parliament was, how- 

 ever, prorogued in that year on 

 the 25th day of May ; and these 

 Bills, which (as far as can be col- 

 lected from the Journals), were 

 approved of by the House, were 

 thus unfortunately lost. 



Since that period, little has been 

 done to accomplish this important 

 object, A committee was in- 

 deed appointed in the year 1700, 

 but they" do not appear to have 

 made any progress, as your Co!h- 

 mittce have been unable to find 

 anj' minutes of their proceedings. 



Two acts were passed in the 

 years 1795 and 1797, the gotli 

 Geo. HI. cap. 102, and 37 Geo. 

 III. cap. 143, which empower 

 Justices of the Peace to search for 

 and destroy false weight*, and to 

 punish the person? in whose pos- 

 session they are found ; but no 

 mention is made in these acts of 

 deficient measures. 



Your Committee now proceed 

 to state what appear to them to 

 be the principal causes which have 

 prevented the establishment of 

 uniform weights and measures ; 

 and to state the reasons which 

 have induced them to differ from 



the Committee of 1758, in some 

 of their resolutions. 



It appears to your Committee, 

 that the great causes of the inac- 

 curacies which have prevailed, are 

 the want of a tixed standard in 

 nature, with which the standards 

 of measure might at all times be 

 easily compared, the want of a 

 simple mode of connecting the 

 measuies of length with those of 

 capacity and weight, and also the 

 want of proper tables of equaliza- 

 tion, by means of which the old 

 measures might have readilj^ been 

 converted into the new standards. 

 Some rude attempts seem to have 

 been made to establish a mode of 

 connecting the measures of capa- 

 city with weight. In an act of 

 the 51st of Henry Third, in- 

 tituled, " Assisa Panis et Cer- 

 visise," it is declared, <' that an 

 English penny, called the sterling, 

 round without clipping, should 

 weigh 32 grains of wheat, well 

 drie<! and gathered out of the 

 middle of the ear ; and 20 pence 

 to make an ounce, 12 ounces a 

 [Kjund, 8 pounds a gallon of wine, 

 and 8 trallons of wine a bushel of 

 London." 



Nothing, however, can be more 

 uncertain and inaccurate than this 

 method of determining the size of 

 a gallon measure by the weight 

 of a certain number of grains of 

 wheat, which must vary according 

 to the season and the nature of 

 the soil and climate where they 

 are produced. 



In order to obtain some infor- 

 mation as to what were the best 

 means of comparing the standards 

 of length, with some invariable 

 natural standard, your Committee 

 proceeded to examine Dr. W. 

 Hyde Wollaston, secretary to the 



