1SS 



Weights and Measures [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 denned 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 introduction 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 Weights ; 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 

 Presidency, 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 Pollum. 



