110 REPORT 1864. 



paid by stamps, with French weights. Sir Eowlaud Hill informed the House 

 of Commons Committee, that if the prepaid letter does not exceed the French 

 allowance, no additional charge is levied ; if it does exceed that allowance, it 

 is marked as insufficiently paid. 



Local letters in France are charged hy a scale similar to that of England. 

 It begins at 15 gTammes, then it advances to 30, then to 60, and then to 90 

 grammes, and so on. 



Ten grammes are equal to nearly ird of an ounce, 15 grammes are a little 

 more than g an ounce, an ounce being 28"349 grammes. 



The use of metric weights and measures has recently been legalized in 

 Great Britain ; and the Act on this subject has been passed in 1864, " for the 

 promotion and extension of our internal as well as our foreign trade, and for 

 the advancement of science." 



Mr. William Ewart, M.P., has ably conducted this measure through the 

 House of Commons ; Earl Fortescuc has had the successfid charge of it in the 

 House of Lords ; and the BILL has been also supported by the International 

 Decimal Association, in whose labours Mr. James Yates has taken an 

 active and leading part. The investigations of the Committee of the House 

 of Commons on Weights and Measiu'cs, in 1862, have assisted in forming 

 an influential parliamentaiy party in its favour. 



Various recommendations were made, in 1862, by the House of Commons 

 Committee, at the close of their Eeport, among which were the following : — 



" That a Department of Weights and Measures be estabUshed in connexion 

 with the Board of Trade. 



" The metric system should form one of the subjects of examination in the 

 competitive examinations of the civil service. 



" The qramme should be used as a weight for foreign letters and books at 

 the Post Office. 



" The Committee of Council on Education should require the metric system 

 to be taught (as may easily be done, by means of tables and diagrams) in all 

 schools receiving grants of public money. 



" The Committee further suggest that, in the public statistics of the 

 country, quantities should be expressed in terms of the metric system, in 

 juxtaposition with those of our o'mi, as suggested by the International 

 Statistical Congress." 



It will be satisfactory to notice that, in a Beport in 1862, by Mr. J. Ball, 

 published by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 " On Thermometric Observations in the Alps," the temperatures are given 

 according to the Centigrade scale, the corresponding temperatures according 

 to Falironhcit being frequently added in brackets. 



Sometimes the observations in this Beport merely record the fluctuations of 

 the mercury in the Centigrade thermometer. 



Observations vany, in like manner, be easily registered, both according to 

 the English and French scales of temperature, and the fluctuations of the 

 barometer may also be noted so as to be intelligible both in France and Great 

 Britain. 



At the end of Mr. Dowling's " Metric Tables," a comparison of the scales 

 of Fahrenheit's, the Centigrade, and Beaumur's thermometers is given, as 

 well as a comparison of the British and metric barometers, the latter con- 

 taining the equivalents, from 27 inches to 30*98 inches, in linear inches and 

 millimetres. 



Under the head of Chemistry, in the Matriculation Examinations of the 

 University of Loudon, candidates are frequently asked, among other ques- 



