UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 3G5 



moting the proposed Exhibition, and appointing official delegates to the 

 Conference. 



My best thanks are due to M. Le Play for his kindness towards me during 

 my visit to Paris, and I should fail in my duty were I not to acknowledge 

 with gratitude the care and interest shown by M. De Chancourtois in the 

 promotion of the object of my mission to that great metropolis. 

 I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servant, 



Leone Levi. 

 Farrar's Building, Temple, 

 July 18G6. 



Report on the Mural Standard. By James Yates, FM.S. 



I TAKE up the account of the Mural Standard, exhibiting in immediate 

 apposition the Yard and the Metre with their divisions, where I laid it down 

 last year at Birmingham*. 



The want of Mural Standards of the linear measures has been shown qn 

 the authority, — 



1st, of the Commissioners for the restoration of the Standards, whose 

 Eeport, with the evidence, was published by order of Parhament in 1841 

 (see pp. 16, 17) ; 



2ndly, of G. B. Airy, Astronomer-Eoyal, in his letter to Lord Monteagle, 

 Comptroller of the Exchequer, dated Eeb. 1st, 1859 ; 



Srdly, of Lord Monteagle himself, in his letter transmitting that of Pro- 

 fessor Airy to the Secretary of State for the Home Department (see Appendix 

 to the Eeport quoted below) ; 



4thly, of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Weights and 

 Measures, a.d. 1862 (see their Eeport, p. ix). 



These Commissioners and public officers all conciu- in advising that Mural 

 Standards of length should be exhibited in public places, where they may be 

 accessible to the people generally. But, although this subject has been 

 earnestly and repeatedly recommended to the attention of the Government, 

 and although the advice so given is agreeable to the general practice of 

 civilized nations both in Europe and America, yet nothing has been done by 

 our Government to give effect to these recommendations. 



Parliament has, however, passed a law, which received the Eoyal Assent 

 on the 6th instant, and which may be regarded as a first step. The Select 

 Committee of the House of Commons, to which I have alluded, adopted 

 (a.d. 1862) a series of Eecommendations, one of which was, " that a De- 

 partment of Weights and Measures be established in connexion with the 

 Board of Trade." This has been done by the Standards of Weights, Mea- 

 sures, and Coinage Act, 1866, Sections 1, 10, 11, 12. But much remains 

 to be done, and Mr. Ewart, the Chairman of the before-mentioned Select 

 Committee, has accordingly given notice of a motion next Session to re- 

 appoint the Committee with a view to facilitate the introduction into this 

 country of the Metric System of Weights and Measures. The task imposed 

 on the Comnrittee will be no less arduous than that Avhich they executed 

 with such distinguished success in the spring of 1862. It will be the duty 

 of those who are friendly to this great improvement to avail themselves of 

 the interval by collecting all kinds of evidence, which may guide the Com- 

 mittee in their determinations ; and we trust that they will continue to act in 



* See Eeport of the Birmingham Meeting (Sections), p. 159. 



