UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 309 



the appointment of local Committees in each Presidency to deliberate and 

 report on the whole matter, with instructions to submit their views to the 

 Central Committee at Calcutta for their consideration. In course of time, 

 "when these answers were I'cceived, it was found that in Madras and Bombay, 

 the North-west Provinces and the Puiyaub, the Committees were in favour 

 of a uniform system, based on the Imperial, their recommendation being that 

 the unit of weight should consist of a Seer fixed at two lbs. avoirdupois, that 

 the Imperial quart should be the unit of capacity, and the Yard and Acre 

 the units of linear and superficial measure. The Bengal Committee, however, 

 thinking that the days of the Imperial System were numbered, and that 

 when all the rest of the world had adopted, or is about to adopt, the French 

 Metric System it would be a retrograde step to adopt the English weights 

 and measures, proposed the gradual but complete adoption of the French 

 Metric System, and their recommendation received the support of the Bengal 

 Government. 



On the 1st October, 1867, Colonel Strachey, the President of the Central 

 Committee, with the view of bringing forward an expression of public opinion, 

 published a memorandum in which he supported the proposal of the Bengal 

 Committee. In his opinion, the assimilation of the English weights to those 

 of France was a mere question of time, and the existing English system could 

 not last, and he therefore advocated the adoption of the French kilogram as 

 the basis of the new system of weights in India. But Colonel Strachey's 

 memorandum did not meet with the assent of a majority of the Committee, 

 and he retired from it almost at the beginning of its labours, whereupon the 

 Committee, with a new President, completed their labours, and concluded by 

 recommending a new system based on Imperial units with decimal multiples 

 and binary divisions. Thus the question stood when a Deputation from your 

 Committee and the Council of the International Decimal Association waited 

 on Sir Stafford Northcote, the then Secretary of State for India, for the pur- 

 pose of urging the importance of introducing the Metric System in India; and 

 it is gratifying to yoiu- Committee to state that, in a despatch dated 1st Feb. 

 1868, in conveying to the Government of India a full report of the represen- 

 tation of the Deputation, Sir Stafford Northcote wisely urged that whilst it 

 would be better for the Committee to endeavour to establish a system more 

 nearly approaching the best theoretical system than to adopt the English, 

 the Government should be cautious not unduly to sacrifice practical conve- 

 nience to theoretical symmetry. Soon after this a change of opinion appears 

 to have taken place in the Indian Government. A decisive minute was made 

 by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir W. R. Mansfield, dated 5th September 1868, 

 in favour of the Metric System. The same was confirmed by the Governor- 

 General, Sir John Lawrence ; and after the subject had been fully discussed in 

 Council, the whole matter was summed up in a despatch to the Secretary of 

 State for India, recommending that the new unit of weight should be a Seer 

 equal'to the Kilogram, or 2-20o lbs. avoirdupois, and that a system of decimal 

 multiples and subdivisions of the unit of weight should be accepted as a 

 fundamental part of the new scale to be recognized by law. The Govern- 

 ment of India further urged that the best preparation for the general adoption 

 of the new metric weights would be their introduction and authoritative use 

 in the first instance by all the Departments of the Government, by all Muni- 

 cipal bodies, and on the Eailways. On the receipt of this despatch with the 

 accompanying documents, the Duke of Argyll, the new Secretary of State for 

 India, remitted the whole question to the Board of Trade, and asked tlicm 

 whether any measure is under consideration for a change in the weights of 



