298 The Standard of Weights, Measures, and Coinage. 



as they were constructed in 1824, plus certain alterations made 

 in them by climatic influences, and the hand of time. Oxida- 

 tion and other deteriorating powers were, of course, not idle, 

 and the standards suffered accordingly. It was nobody's busi- 

 ness to attend to their periodical verification, and nobody did 

 attend to it. Hence, the fountains of justice, as it were, be- 

 came tainted at the source, the so-called standards were no 

 standards at all, and the primary instruments upon which 

 depended (by comparison) the accuracy of all subsidiary 

 weights and measures of the United Kingdom were false 

 guides — blind leaders of the blind. Even in 1853, when new 

 theoretical standards of weights and of length were legalized 

 and promulgated, no comparisons of the old material standards 

 were instituted.* It may seem passing strange that such an 

 omission should have been permitted, but it is for us at present 

 simply to record it as a fact, without further comment. 



From these premises it will be readily conceded that the 

 reformatory movement of last year was not made one moment 

 too soon, and, doubtlessly, the interests of the public will be 

 largely promoted by it. There now exists in connection with the 

 Board of Trade, and, of course, subordinate to it, a distinct 

 branch, known as the Standards Department, with an efficient 

 staff of officers, and all necessary appliances, for the express 

 purpose of verifying and maintaining in exact order the impe- 

 rial standards, primary and secondary, of Great Britain and 

 Ireland. To ensure and facilitate the comparison and verifi- 

 cation of provincial, colonial, and local, with and by aid of the 

 master standards, the abolition of all fees and of the stamp- 

 duty payable hitherto for the operations, has been decreed. 

 At the head of the new: department, the office of which is in 

 Old Palace Yard, "Westminster, is Mr. H. W. Chisholm, whose 

 title — a very appropriate one — is that of Warden of the Stan- 

 dards. Under his energetic and practical guidance it is toler- 

 ably certain that the important duties of the whole department 

 will be zealously and efficiently performed, and that the stan- 

 dards will shortly be in as perfect a condition as such arbiters 

 should be in the first commercial nation of the Avorld. 



In fact, the Warden has, during his first year of office, just 

 closed, evinced a considerable amount of activity, and caused 

 thereby many valuable improvements as compared with the 

 compulsory " let-it-alone" system of the Exchequer. His 



* A perfect standnrd 19 only found in nature, and is, therefore, immutable ; 

 but a measure ia variable at the will and pleasure of man. In Franc?, a standard 

 of length ia found in the •100,000,000th part of the earth's circumference, which 

 ia equal to 39,370 English inches, and is known as a metre. In England, the 

 philosophical standard of length is a pendulum, vibrating seconds in the Latitude 

 of Greenwich, and this ia, by a law of nature, invariable. From this standard 

 comes the yard and all other measures of length. 



