The Standard of Weights, Measures, and Coinage. 297 



STANDARDS OF WEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND 



COINAGE. 



BY JOSEPH NEWTON. 



Last year saw carried into effect certain recommendations in 

 reference to the above-named subject, which had been ear- 

 nestly made and frequently reiterated many years previously. 

 By virtue of an Act of Parliament, which received the Royal 

 assent, on the 6th of August, 1866, the custody of the Imperial 

 standards of length and of weight, together with all secondary 

 standards of weights and measures, all balances, apparatus, 

 books, documents, and things relating thereto, and of the Trial- 

 plates for testing the purity of the coin of the realm, was trans- 

 ferred from the office of the Exchequer to the Board of Trade. 

 The change of arrangement thus ordered to be made was in 

 all respects a remarkable one, for it disturbed a system which 

 had existed from the days of William the Conqueror, when the 

 Exchequer Court formed part of j? the well-known Aula 

 Regia. 



The actual transfer of the custody of the standards, etc., 

 and the determination of his powers and duties connected with 

 them were reported by the Comptroller- General of the Exche- 

 quer on the 31st August, 1866, to the Treasury. The same 

 communication made reference, also, to the speedy transfer of 

 the coinage trial-plates to the Board of Trade. Thus the Ex- 

 chequer was quietly denuded of important duties associated 

 with it from a remote period of English history, whilst a great 

 amount of extra responsibility was imposed upon its more 

 modern and, it must be added, more active successor, the 

 Board of Trade. It would be interesting to trace the annals 

 of the Court of Exchequer from its origin to its partial demise, 

 but it is no part of our present purpose to do so.* We have 

 no intention either to say one word in disparagement of the 

 venerable institution, or of those who filled offices in it. It is, 

 nevertheless true that for many years past the Court of Exche- 

 quer, which had charge and care of the \ national standards of 

 length, weights, and measures, paid no attention whatever to 

 their exactitude. The legislature, and not the Exchequer, 

 must be held accountable for the neglect, for in reality there 

 existed, up to last year, no legal authority whatever for veri- 

 fying the standards. They had remained, therefore, exactly 



* Those who wish to obtain authentic and quaint information of the early 

 history of the Exchequer are referred to the " Dialogus Scaccrario," written by 

 Richard Eitz-Nigel, Treasurer to King Henry II., and printed at the end of 

 Madox's " History of the Exchequer." 



