1/2 First Report of the Commissioners appointed to consider 



In this instance the hypothetical constitution coincides even 

 more nearly with the facts than in the former case. It must, 

 indeed, he acknowledged that the explanation rests on hypothesis 

 only ; hut it is on an hypothesis uhicli is perfectly consistent 

 with a copious and increasing induction of facts, all tending to 

 estahiish a limitation to the proportions in which bodies com- 

 bine ; while the opposite explanation \i at variance with this ge- 

 neral law of chemical union. 



XXXI. First Report of the Commissioners appointed to consider 

 the Subjects of Weights and Measures. 



May it please Your Royal Highness, 



We, the Commissioners appointed by Your Royal Highness for 

 the purpose of considering how far it may be practicable and ad- 

 visable to establish within His Majesty's dominions a more uni- 

 form system of weights and measures, having obtained such in- 

 formation as we have been able to collect, beg leave to submit 

 with all humility the first results of our deliberations. 



1. We have procured, for the better consideration of the sub- 

 ject referred to us, an abstract of all the statutes relating to weights 

 and measures which have been passed in the United Kingdoms 

 from the earliest times; and we have obtained from the County 

 Reports, lately published by the Board of Agriculture, and from 

 various other sources, a large mass of information respecting the 

 present state of the customary measures employed in different 

 parts of the United Kingdom. We have also examined the stand- 

 ard measures of capacity kept in the Exchequer, and we have in- 

 quired into the state of the standards at length of the highest 

 authority. Upon a deliberate consideration of the whole of the 

 system at present existing, we are impressed with a sense of the 

 great diflBculty of effecting any radical changes, to so consider- 

 able an extent as might in some respects be desirable; and we 

 therefore wish to proceed with great caution in the suggestions 

 which we shall venture to propose. 



?. With respect to the actual magnitude of the standards of 

 length, it does not appear to ns that tliere can be any sufficient 

 reason for altering those which are at present generally emi)loycd. 

 There is no practical advantage iti having a quantity commen- 

 surable to any original cjuantity existing, or which mav be ima- 

 gined to exist, in nature, except as affording some little encour- 

 agement to its common adoption by neighbouring nations. But 

 it is scarcely possible, that the departure from a standard once 

 universally established in a great country, should not produce 



much 



