Sale of Corn hj Wevjht. 
721 
I wheat, one-third in barley, and one-third in oats, at their average 
price ascertained by the weekly official returns of the price of 
corn in 120 markets the seven years preceding Cliristmas 1835 ; 
fourthly, in every future year to make payable the price of the 
same quantity of wheat, barley, and oats at the average prices 
founded on a like calculation of the returns for the seven years 
ending at each preceding Christmas. A similar system ap- 
plicable to rent had been in practice in Scotland, and gave 
satisfaction, because it fixed the amount of the rentcharge in 
grain, whilst it allows of a variation in value according to the 
average market price of the grain of which the rentcharge con- 
sists. But the reason for choosing this principle for the com- 
mutation of tithe, namely, that the value of grain would be 
found more constant than money, has proved, as Earl Grey, the 
only survivor of those who passed the Tithe Commutation Act 
of 183G, has confessed, a considerable mistake. 
No consideration of using for tithe purposes the corn ave- 
rages which then existed was present to the members of the 
Committee of 1834. In their exhaustive repox't, occupying thirty 
pages, the two feelings that predominate are, first, that the pub- 
lic have a right to know the true price of grain on which so 
many transactions of life are based ; secondly, that the farmer is 
placed at a disadvantage with the dealer who is experienced in 
these weights, and from lack of equal knowledge does not get 
the full price for his grain, and that if a uniform system might 
be objected to by other classes as inconvenient, yet the interests 
of the farmer should predominate to cause this to be done. 
Mr. Talbot, when Secretaiy of the Board of Trade, moved for 
a return of the different weights used in the markets from which 
corn returns wei-e made, and I moved in 1887 for a return of 
the fiars prices in Scotland, and of the returns made from the 
markets selected for making the corn returns, which showed a 
remarkable number of " nil " returns, and the very small quan- 
tities returned from other markets. 
Mr. Chaney handed in to the Corn Sales Committee a sum- 
mary of returns from the principal inspectors of weights and 
measures throughout the United Kingdom, from which the 
analysis given on page 722 has been made. "With respect to 
these returns, and the difficulty of their preparation, the follow- 
ing explanation was given by Mr. Chaney : — 
It is almost a matter of opinion with local officers as to what is the 
meaning of weig'lit and what is the meaning of measure. That difficulty 
may also have arisen when the Corn (Measures and 'Vi''eights) Eeturns were 
made in 1870 and 1879. Hardly two officers agree as to what is weight, 
and what is measure. In a sale by the bushel, for instance, the bushel is 
merely the unit of measure ; the bushel is filled and its weight determined, 
VOL. II. T. S.— 8 3 B 
