AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. XFH. 



would very soon be at an end. And if there 

 are any servitudes upon the lands payable in 

 kind, the matter might be easily adjusted, by 

 attending to the proportion which the present 

 measures bear to the -standard to be hereafter 

 used. The above weights and measures are par- 

 ticularly specified, not because they haVe in 

 themselves any natural right to a preference, 

 but merely for example's sake. Parliament may 

 adopt these, or any others they may think pro- 

 per. The only thing to be attended to, in thi-s 

 respect, is to fix upon such as are best known 

 and most familiar to the generality of the people, 

 because such could be brought more easily and 

 more quickly into general use. 



In order to fix a standard for the several 

 weights and measures henceforth to be used, 

 the following method appears to me the easiest 

 and most simple. Let the inch be adopted as 

 the radical measure, by which all the rest shall 

 be determined and adjusted. This measure, for 

 centuries back, has varied less, perhaps, and, at 

 this moment, is more uniform in Britain, than 

 any other. But should any diversity be sus- 

 pected, this may be easily discovered by com- 

 parison, a fair medium struck, and the inch 

 henceforth to be used, absolutely fixed. When 

 this is done, let the foot, as usual, be 12, and 

 the yard 36 of such inches. And let the inch, 

 with its parts and these multiples, be the stand- 

 ard measure for lines, surfaces, and solids ; or- 

 daining, at the same time, that quantities of 

 whatever denomination, whether miles, acres, 

 &c. ascertained by this measure, shall be fixed 

 and uniform all over the kingdom ; so that, sup- 



