UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 377 



nesday, the 15th of March, 18G5, Rev. Charles Evans, M.A., Head Master 

 of King Edward's Grammar School, in the chair, it was unanimously decided, 

 " That, having regard to the merits of the metric system of measures and 

 weights now Legalized in this countiy hy Act of Parliament, to the facility 

 with which it may he learnt and afterwards retained in the memory, to the 

 great saving of time which would thereby he gained in education, to the 

 convenience it offers for the largest as well as the most minute calculation, 

 and to the decided advantages of the decimal method in any arithmetical 

 system, this meeting is of opinion that the metric system of measures and 

 weights should he introduced as a branch of instruction in the schools of 

 the United Kingdom." At a meeting of British teachers connected with the 

 British and Foreign School Society in the Borough Boad, London, the same 

 question was discussed, and there is no doubt that the teachers see the 

 importance of giving instruction in a system which will speedily replace the 

 present uncouth practice. What is now wanted for the purpose of educa- 

 tion is a book sufficiently elementary yet complete in itself, likely to be used 

 as a text book in all schools and colleges. Several books on arithmetic 

 already give considerable prominence to the decimal and metric system. 

 More especially we may mention the treatises on Arithmetic by the Bev. 

 Barnard Smith, Mr. Dowling's Comparative Tables, and also the useful Beady 

 Beckoner published in this town by Mr. Bickard, the able teacher in King 

 Edward's School. In Continental schools M. Carpentier's " Nc'cessairc 

 Metrique," which is a smaU cabinet containing samples of all the smaller 

 weights and measures, the cubes, &c., is largely used, and there is no doubt 

 that the children on the Continent obtain much more early in life an accu- 

 rate knowledge of numbers, their properties, and their combinations, with 

 the metric system than the English boys do with the imperial scale. 



Nowhere could we see more clearly the need of altering the present practice 

 than in the practical routine work in railway management. With the enor- 

 mous traffic of our railway companies, the inconvenience of the present sub- 

 division of weights produces a decided appreciable loss to the income of the 

 shareholders. Eor example, the London and North-Westem Bailway Com- 

 pany, whose annual income equals the entire revenue of the majority of Euro- 

 pean states, carries to every station in the Empire some thousands of packages 

 of all sizes, many exceedingly small, and nearly all having fractions of weights. 

 At the head station in Camden Town nearly 1200 entries are made of such 

 packages eveiy day, which are sent to the station in the course of the day, and 

 despatched on the same evening. Before they are sent, however, such pack- 

 ages must nearly all be weighed or measured, and taxed at a great variety of 

 rates. But great is the liability to error arising from our cumbrous system, when 

 the calculations are to be performed in a hurried manner. It is in fact calcu- 

 lated that, on an average, the clerks commit one error in every 500 items ; and 

 the consequence is that the London and North- Western Company are under 

 the necessity of nearly doubling the number of clerks. For every 100 clerks 

 employed in weighing, or measuring and taxing packages, nearly another 100 

 are wanted to correct the errors committed. But with a decimal and metric 

 system this liability to error is immensely reduced, and therefore a practical 

 economic benefit would certainly arise from the adoption of that system in 

 railway traffic. A Boyal Commission has been recently appointed on railway 

 management, and they are to inquire into the more economic arrangements 

 for the working of railways, so as to make a considerable reduction in the cost 

 of conveyance. This is a favourable opportunity for calling attention to the 

 question, and the Committee is pleased to find that the Council of the Inter- 



