17-2 Report Jrom the Select Committee 



or sanctions are provided to "compel the use of the established 

 weights and measures, 'or to punish disobedience. The com- 

 mittee then point out wliat appeared to them to be the princi- 

 pal causes whicli had prevented the attainment of that uni- 

 formity, so much and so wisely desired by parliament. These 

 are stated to be the want of skill in the artificers who from 

 time to time made copies of the standards kept in the Exchequer ; 

 and as these imperfect measures were again copied from, every 

 error was multiplied, till the variety of standards rendered it 

 difficult to know what was the real standard, or to apply any 

 adequate remedy.' 



In the second place, the multiplicity of statutes made on this 

 subject, many of which are at variance with one another, and 

 in many of which tliere are partial e>:ceptions of particular 

 counties, and particular articles, from the opeiation of the acts, 

 appeared to the connnittee to be the principal cause of the va- 

 rious errors which were every where found to prevail. 



Upon an accurate comparison of the various mtrisures pre- 

 served in the Exchequer, and which are directed to be used for 

 sizing and adjusting ail other measures, they were found to differ 

 materially from each other, and yet (the committee o!)serve) as 

 the law now stands, all these measures must be understood to 

 contain the like quantities^ are equally Icgal^ and may be indis- 

 criminately used. 



Of these various measures, the committee recommend the 

 adoption of the ale gallon of 282 cubical inches, and to abolish 

 the use of aU the others. They also recommend that the troy 

 pound sliould be the only standard of weight. Though your 

 connnittee agree entirely wish the Report of the committee of 

 1758, that there sl)ould be only one gallon for measuring all 

 articles whatsoever, and only one denomination of weight ; yet 

 they cannot concur, 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 Carysfort, who was 

 chairman of the committee of 1758, for the purpose of carrying 

 into effect the resolutions of that committee. These bills were 

 soA'crally read a first and second time, and committed ; and the 

 bills, as amended by the committee, were ordered to be printed 

 on the 8th day of May. Parliament was however prorogued in 

 that year on the 25th day of May; and these bills, which (as far 

 as can be collected from the Journals) were approved of by the 

 house, were thus unfortunately lost. 



Since that period, little has been done to accomplish this im- 

 portant object. A committee was indeed appointed in the year 



1790 ; 



