54 
THE METRIC SYSTEM. 
BY JAMES SPEAE,, ESQ. 
to* ■ 
“ Le nouveau systeme des poids et mesures est une des choses les plus 
utiles h rhumanite.” — Laplace. 
a r¥10 estimate each species of magnitudes, a fixed unity or 
measure is necessary which shall serve for term of com- 
parison. Formerly^ in France, as in other countries, there reigned 
the greatest confusion in all measures; each province had its own 
particular measures, and the result was extremely embarrassing 
to trade and commerce. The kings of France attempted, but 
in vain, to establish uniformity, and to bring back all the 
measures to those of Paris. At length, on the 8th of May, 
1790, the Constituent Assembly issued a decree, whereby it 
recognized the necessity of a complete reform. A commission, 
nominated by the Academy, and composed of Borda, Lagrange, 
Laplace, Monge, and Condor cet, was charged to prepare a 
general system of measures. The new system was adopted 
by the Convention, sanctioned later by the Legislative Corps, 
and declared obligatory from the 2nd of November, 1801. 
It reigns this day throughout the whole extent of France, 
and is called the Metric system, because all the unities of 
measurement derive from the unity of length, that is, from 
the Metre.’’ — Briot’s Aritlim. Transla.y chap. vi. 
The law above referred to was destined, however^ to remain 
for a lengthened period in abeyance, or with only partial 
fulfilment ; nay, even to encounter the hostility of the 
Revolutionary authority itself and of successive Governments, 
until that of Louis Philippe took up the matter with earnest- 
ness and promptitude, and after a sharp struggle succeeded 
in passing a law which should abolish all the old and com- 
plicated machinery of weights and measures still existing in 
the different departments of France, and reinstate the new 
system called Metrique” in all its fulness and simplicity. 
This law, now in vigour, came into operation January 1st, 
1840. 
The confusion and disorder which formerly prevailed in 
France could scarcely exceed that which is prevalent in Eng- 
land at the present day from the same cause. Nor have 
successive Acts of Parliaments been able to arrest the evil,. 
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