I 
Sale of Corn lij Weight. 
725 
com varies so considerably. We should put many to grave inconvenience 
if we su^<^ested as a magnitude one fixed weight per bushel. We are not 
dealing with a thing of a fixed quality which can be dealt with and manipu- 
lated as gold is, but we are dealing with a natural thing, and we must take 
it as we find it, and we cannot fix the weight of that natural thing (Q. 142). 
Asked by Mr. Maguire to state the precise difference between 
measured weiglit and measure and weight, Mr. Chaney re- 
plied : — 
Measured weight is where the seller is buying a definite weight per 
bushel fixed at the time of sale. Buying by measure and weight is where 
the seller is buying a fixed measure of grain, as 100 quarters, the grain 
being subsequently delivered by weight ; rather the converse of the other 
operation (Q. 169). 
When the question of the proposed standard of uniform 
weight is under consideration, the cental, and in connection 
therewith the decimal system generally, naturally present them- 
selves for discussion. 
In 1853 a Committee of the House of Commons, of which 
Mr. Ewart was chairman, met to consider the introduction of 
the metric system into England, and reported in its favour. 
Before this system was established in France, at the end of the 
last century, the French Government proposed to the English to 
have a joint conference on a uniform system of weights and 
measures for both countries. This offer, owing to the ill-feeling 
then existing between the two nations, was unfortunately not 
acknowledged, but a Committee of the House of Commons sat to 
consider the question in 1790. The result of a deliberation be- 
tween authorities of both countries at that time would not only 
have been of extreme interest, but would possibly have been 
the means of effecting a uniform system throughout the world. 
The opportunity, however, was lost. The metric system was 
adopted in France, and has since been adopted by other foreign 
Governments. The Select Committee of 1853 was followed by 
a Royal Commission, whose inquiries extended over several 
years. The decimal system at that time found its strongest 
opponent in Lord Overstone, who drew up a series of questions 
to be answered by the witnesses before the Commission. He 
attacked the decimal system root and branch, pointing out that 
960, the number of farthings in a pound, is divisible by nearly 
twice as many divisors as 1,000, the numbers being really 27 to 15. 
Mr. Lowe attempted without success to advance the decimal 
system by a motion in the House, and it has since made little 
progress in England. There is, however, a decimal system 
association, comprising many leading men, and there have been 
two International Conferences on the subject, one at Berlin and 
