188 
Weights and Pleasures [no. 4, new series, 
If any system of Weights is to be selected from those now 
current in any part of India, the above seems to be the best, not 
only because it is founded on a defined standard, originating in the 
weight of the coin of the realm, but because it includes the " Seer" 
of 80 tolas, which is a weight known and acknowledged in some 
degree all over India. It is in short a Ponderary system which as 
far as facility of intpoduction is concerned, has a preference over 
any other. 
It may however be well here to notice a remark that is some- 
times made with reference to the Legislative Enactment above 
referred to, and the Official " Table" of Weights"; and this is, that 
it is needless to discuss any new scheme for a Metrical System, 
inasmuch as the law has been already declared on the subject, and 
the system actually in force ; all that is required being an endea- 
vour to extend its use where prejudice has already prevailed 
against it. 
In reply to this it may be observed, first, that the Enactment 
refers only to Weiyhts ; and secondly, that it only effects Govern- 
ment transactions. Surely that cannot be called a Metrical system 
which merely defines the Weights that the Government prefer 
for their own use, and which leaves untouched the subject of 
Measures^ a point (in India especially) quite as important, and much 
more difficult to arrange than that of Weight. Neither can it be 
said that a system is in force, which is a mere guide for the terms 
of account in Official papers, and by no means obligatory on the 
people. I can confidently assert that, as regards the 140,000 square 
miles comprised in the Madras Presidency, not a single bazar-man 
has altered his Weights one grain, or his Measures one fraction of 
a cubic inch in consequence of the Calcutta notification. Neither 
was the Act intended to go farther than legalise the tola as a unit. 
The " Table of Weights" has never been adopted in the Madras 
Presidenc^y, even in Government transactions. In the Fort St. George 
Gazette of the 20th October, 1846, the following Table of Weights 
was published as that which was to be used in that Presidency : 
180 Grains = 1 Tola. 
3 Tolas = 1 PoUum. 
