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from the fountain-head. Laplace's account of it has been 

 taken as such, because he was one of the most important 

 members of the committee appointed by the French Govern- 

 ment for the purpose. It is taken from his Exposition du 

 Systeme du Monde, where it is introduced collaterally with 

 the discussion of the length of the second's pendulum as a 

 measure of the force of gravity at the earth's surface. The 

 committee consisted of five of the most distinguished French 

 mathematicians of the day. It is perhaps to be regretted that 

 their findings were not subjected to revision by a committee 

 of ordinary business men 424 



The fundamental excellence of the system is the simple 

 relation between the unit of weight and the unit of length, and 

 it cannot be doubted that its far-reaching advantages would 

 have been disengaged by such a committee from its funda- 

 mental defect, namely, the inconvenience of the unit of length 

 selected . 425 



It is pointed out that, at the date of the sitting of the 

 commission, there was already, and there had existed for ages, 

 a common and convenient unit of length, the subdivision of 

 which was decimal, and it was in universal use by all sea- 

 faring nations. It was the nautical mile, which is subdivided 

 into ten cables and each cable into one hundred fathoms, 

 whence the nautical mile was one thousand fathoms . . 426 



Previous to the year 1870 it would have been easy to 

 secure the rectification of the unit of length, because, at that 

 date, it would have been only France that would have had to 

 alter her system, instead of the whole of the rest of the world. 



When Germany accepted the metrical system without 

 criticism, it became immediately more difficult. Nevertheless 

 the population which is affected by a change is still so large 

 that it is worth while that, before surrendering their old system, 

 they should insist on getting in exchange one less affected 

 by easily rectifiable defects than the French metrical system . 428 



No. 20. THE POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN. (From the Scotsman, 



March 26, 1897.) 430 



This letter was suggested by an article, having the same 

 title, which appeared in the Hamburger Nachrichten, the 

 German paper which was always considered to represent 

 Prince Bismarck's personal views. Although it occupied a 

 whole column of the Scotsman, the subject was not alluded to 

 in the editorial part of the paper, and copies of the letter 

 which were sent to two important London morning papers 



