310 REPORT— 18G9. 



this couiitiy. At tliat time, the subject beiug under the consideration of the 

 Standard Commission, the answer was delayed ; but as it became known that 

 the Commissioners were favourable to the introduction of the Metric System, 

 and that a decided opinion existed in this country in favour of advancing still 

 further in the policy of the Permissive Act of 186-1, the Duke of Argyll sent 

 a despatch to the Indian Government appro^dng of the introduction of the 

 kilogram as the unit of weight throughout British India ; and thus nearly 

 15,000,000 more of people will in a short time join the large family having 

 one common system of weights, the adoption of the metric unit of length 

 being certain to follow at no distant date. From India, with reference to 

 the many colonies and dependencies of the empire, your Committee waited 

 upon the Secretary of State for the Colonics, urging the advantage of at least 

 a permissive law to use the Metric System in all the Colonies, and also the 

 need of having the system taught in all their schools ; and, with the consent 

 and cooperation of the Secretary of State, your Committee, in conjunction 

 with the Council of the International Association, sent a letter to all the 

 Governors of the Colonics to the same effect. Judging from the great success 

 achieved in India, we trust it will not be long before a decided uniformity of 

 weights and measures shall be realized in Canada and Australia, the Cape and 

 the West Indies, Malta and Gibraltar, in short in every colony of the empire. 



In their last Keport your Committee alluded to the unsatisfactory condition 

 of the law in this country, which, whilst making it permissive to make con- 

 tracts on the terms of the Metric System, made no provision for the stamping 

 of metric weights and measures in general use. This anomaly having been 

 brought by your Committee to the notice of Her Majesty's Government, the 

 subject was remitted by the Eoard of Trade to the Standard Commission for 

 their consideration, and your Committee are pleased to state that the second 

 report of that Commission, just published, recommends the removal of every 

 difficulty and the fuU and legal introduction of the Metric System. The 

 resolution of that Commission on the subject is as follows : — 



"Considering the information wliich has been laid before the Commission, 

 of the great increase during late years of international communication equallj* 

 in relation to trade and commerce, of the general adoption of the Metric 

 System of Weights and Measures in many countries both in Europe and other 

 parts of the world, and more recently in the Jforth-German Confederation 

 and in the United States of America, of the progress of public opinion in this 

 country in favour of the Metric System as a imiform international system of 

 weights and measures, and of the increasing use of the Meti'ic System in 

 scientific researches and in the practice of accurate chemistry and engineering 

 construction, we are of opinion that the time has now arrived when the law 

 should provide and facilities be afforded by the Government for the introduction 

 and use of Metric Weights and Measures in the United Kingdom, and that for 

 this object Metric Standards, accurately verified in relation to the primary 

 Metric Standards of Paris and deposited in the Standard Department of the 

 Board of Trade, should be legalized, and that verified copies of the official 

 Metric Standard should be provided by the local authorities for inspection of 

 such districts as may require them." The Commissioners were not favourable 

 to the compulsory measure on the subject ; but they recommended that 

 customs duties should be allowed to be levied by Metric Weights and ]\f ea- 

 surcs as well as by Imperial weight and measure ; that the use of the Metric 

 System concurrently with the Imperial System should be adopted by other 

 public departments, especially the Post-Office, and in the publication of the 

 principal restilts of the statistics of the Board of Trade, as well as for the 



1 



