UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 235 



while in teaching the Metric System in all the schools ; and it would be well 

 if a knowledge of the same should be required at least in all the normal schools 

 in the United Kingdom. Your Committee have deemed it advantageous to 

 present a copy of the Mural Standard of the Metro and Yard procured from 

 Mr. Casella, to the Mayor of Newcastle for public exhibition, Newcastle being 

 the seat of extensive mechanical and chemical works, where the decimal 

 measures of the metre and the gram are preferred to the corresponding mea- 

 sures and weight in the imperial system. Another copy of the same Mural 

 Standard your Committee have presented to the Museiim of Science and Art 

 in Edinburgh, an institution very largely frequented by the people. And 

 they have also purchased a complete set of all the weights and measures of 

 the Metric System, with accompanying tables and diagrams, for the purpose 

 of illustrating Lectui'es and offering information on the subject. 



Your Committee have seen with much satisfaction the successful introduc- 

 tion of the Metric System into the Indian Empire. From a parliamentary 

 paper recently published, it appears that the representations made by your 

 Committee to Sir Stafford Northcote, the Secretary of State for India, has 

 had much influence in inducing the Government of India to adopt the Metric 

 in preference to any other system. Your Committee have taken much in- 

 terest in the enlightened steps taken by Colonel Strachey in furtherance of 

 this important reform. In Canada a Select Committee of the Senate reported 

 in favour of a uniform International Decimal System of Weights, Measures, 

 and Coins. And an International Standard Commission has been appointed 

 to meet in Paris for the construction of new Primary Metric Standards. 

 But how soon will that Commission meet, it is extremely difficult to say, 

 since the breaking up of this unhappy war. 



With regard to coinage, your Committee are informed that a Commission on 

 the Monetary Standards held in Paris, after careful consideration, reported in 

 favour of a single gold standard. But no practical step has hitherto been 

 taken with regard to it, either here or elsewhere. Your Committee have 

 done much to diffuse information on the general subject, but they feel that 

 they have yet much to accomplish, especially in inducing the various learned 

 bodies in different countries to adopt the same standard of money, weights, 

 and measures as a common language. They therefore suggest the reappoint- 

 ment of the Metric Committee, and that another grant, of at least .£'25, be 

 asked from the Committee of Eecommendations, whereby further copies of 

 the Mural Standard may be sent to towns and places where they may be seen 

 and studied by large masses of the people, and for the general object of 

 extending the knowledge of a question eminently calculated to further the 

 progress of science and civilization. 



