UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 485 
mous impulse from the increased facility of locomotion, and.the growth of 
telegraphic as well as postal communication between the nations of the world. 
The French Metric System has already been adopted as an international 
system in several countries of Europe, and by the United States of America. 
Its introduction into British India in substitution for the existing complicated 
system is now in contemplation. There can be no question as to the advan- 
tage to all persons engaged in transactions with foreign countries involving 
weights and measures in such an international system; and considering the 
great advantages of the simplicity of its decimal scale, and of the relation of 
the measures of length, weight, and capacity to each other, as well as the 
adaptation of all these to the coinage, and the fact of its having been already 
adopted by several countries as an international system, it must be admitted 
that if a new system is to be adopted in this country, it can be none other 
than the Metric System as established in France.” The whole discussion on 
the second reading of the Bill which resulted in its being so read by a 
majority of 217 against 65, is calculated to further the object in view, and as 
a means of diffusing information on the subject, your Committee have con- 
tributed a small amount to the expense of publishing the same in a separate 
form for general circulation. Owing to the lateness of the season, and the 
enormous amount of work before the House, Mr. Ewart agreed to withdraw 
the Bill, and the President of the Board of Trade urged the same course in 
order to give time to the Royal Commission on the Standards to make their 
report. The First Report of that Commission has just been issued, and your 
Committee are glad to find that the Commissioners have given to the Metric 
System considerable prominence ; but it is quite evident that the object of 
the Commission, which is now confined to inquire into the condition of the 
Exchequer Standards, must be enlarged before the Commissioners can be ex- 
pected to deal with the question of substituting altogether the metric for the 
old standards. Your Committee are pleased, however, to find from the second 
Report of the Warden of the Standards, that he has laid before the Commis- 
_ sioners the laws, ordinances, and official instructions relating to the Metric 
System and its establishment in France, and that he was collecting the same 
information as regards other countries. In connexion with the Bill in the 
House of Commons, your Committee learn with great regret the retirement 
from parliamentary life of Mr. William Ewart, whose labours in the cause 
have been as judicious as they were persevering and successful. 
Public opinion having manifested itself so strongly in favour of the Metric 
System, your Committee hope that Her Majesty’s Government will proceed 
further in the direction of introducing it as soon as it is practicable. And 
again would they urge that the Government should without delay adopt the 
Metric Weights and Measures in the Post-office, in the Dockyards, and in 
the Customs. 
With a view to exhibit the relation of the metre to the yard, your Com- 
mittee have obtained the Mural Standard described in their previous Réports. 
_A copy of the same has been forwarded to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. 
A copy has been placed in the long room of the Custom House in London and 
Liverpool. One has been deposited in Dundee, and other copies have also 
been promised for public places in the United Kingdom. Having regard also 
to the efforts made by the United States of America to advance pari passu 
with this country in the introduction of the Metric System, your Committee 
have taken advantage of the presence in this country of Mr. Barnard, Profes- 
sor of Astronomy in Harvard College, for presenting to that College a copy 
of the Mural Standard that it may be publicly exhibited. Such Mural Stand- 
