442 On the Standard Weights of England and India. [Oct. 



other grounds for specifying the date, but the Purdna is clearly sub- 

 sequent to the development of the whole body of Hindu literature : 

 the Vedas and their divisions are particularised, the names of all the 

 Purdnas are given as usual, and reference is repeatedly made to the 

 Itihdsa and Dherma Sdstras. In the fourth section of the third book 

 also Parasara says, Who but Narayana can be the author of the 

 J\J ' ahdbhdrat ? It is consequently posterior to that work, in common it 

 is most probable with all the Purdnas. Notwithstanding this recent 

 origin, however, the Vishnu Purdna is a valuable compilation, particu- 

 larly in its being obviously and avowedly derived from more ancient 

 materials. 



II. — On the Standard Weights of England and India. 



The Westminster Review, No. 31, contains an able article on the 

 imperfections of the system of measures and weights adopted by the 

 legislature in England, upon the report of the parliamentary commis- 

 sion in 1825. 



The reviewer justly remarks, that the fear of innovation seems to 

 have curbed the free exercise of judgment by the commissioners, so that 

 in fact, after all their deliberations, they did little more than settle the 

 discrepancies of various standards to the thousandth part of a grain, and 

 lop off four and a half grains from the avoirdupois pound ! In most other 

 respects the country is left in as much confusion as before, with two 

 kinds of lineal measure ; — two kinds of superficial measure ; — three 

 kinds of cubic measure ; — and not only two kinds of weight, but these 

 so exquisitely varied, that the larger pound has the smaller ounce ! 



In lieu of so perplexing and anomalous a state of things, the re- 

 viewer proposes to substitute a system founded on a simple and a 

 rational basis : viz. — that some fixed length, a foot for instance, shall be 

 taken as the unit of lineal measure ; that the square of this shall become 

 the unit of superficial measure ; and the cube, the unit of solid measure. 

 We do not propose at present to advert to his arguments on the 



inconveniences of our numerous linear and square measures, but 



on the subject of weights, we will endeavour to show the kind of 

 system which he represents as capable of formation out of mate- 

 rials at hand, with only such little modifications as would not practi- 

 cally be felt in the ordinary affairs of commerce. 



He first premises as a maxim of utility, that the current coin of 

 the country should be closely connected with the weights ; accord- 



