THE METEIC SYSTEM. 
nor to introduce anything like order and regularity in our 
multifarious scales of weights- and measmes. Local customs^ 
combined with ignorance and prejudice^ are everywhere pre- 
valent^ to the great detriment of our home and foreign trade. 
Our standards are many and arbitrary_, and have no connexion 
one with another. *But of what use can standards be where 
there is no power to enforce them; where stability is un- 
known^ and nothing but abuses and caprice seem to govern 
our markets ? 
In hnear measure our scales are discordant nor does the 
same name indicate a fixed value. Our miles^ ells_, and 
fathoms are all variable^ according to circumstances ; and in 
difierent trades there are special measures of length particular 
to each^ but unknown to the rest of the world. Similar 
discrepancy exists in the measurement of simface^ with much 
enhanced difficulty and perplexity ; and we have^ besides the 
statute acre_, about six or seven others of difierent dimensions. 
But our measures of capacity and weight are positively in- 
tolerable^ and fiuctuate to an incredible degree^ with an 
infinity of names and designations^, chiefly of the most un- 
reliable and even suspicious kind. We have at least eleven 
difierent scales of weight. A stone may mean any one of ten 
difierent quantities ; and, - for climax of absurdity, the hun- 
dred-weight in some localities means 112 and in others 120 
pounds. For measures of capacity we have not fewer than 
twenty different bushels; the latter term is sometimes used 
to designate a weight, but in either acceptation a most 
variable quantity. The same may be said of quarters and 
loads, which have no fixed meaning, but vary from town to 
town. And as for pipes and hogsheads, who can teh their 
capacity ? It would be idle to pursue the tale any further, 
and we revert with sensible relief to om* proper subject. 
It ought to be observed, that England had been invited by 
France to co-operate in the work of reform, for it was the 
desire of the latter to frame a system of weights and measures 
which should be applicable to the requirements not only of 
the two countries themselves, but of all civilised nations. It 
was proposed that an equal number of commissioners, chosen 
from the French Academy and from the Boyal Society of 
England, should meet at some convenient parallel of latitude, 
between the equator and the north pole, in order to ascertain 
the exact length of the second^s pendulum, for the purpose 
of deducing an invariable standard, which should serve as 
unitary basis for the new system. This courteous proposition 
was not responded to by England, for reasons which it is not 
necessary nov/ to consider. The French Academy, therefore, 
waiving the co-operation of England, proceeded alone, and 
