Commissioners of Weights and Measures. 45 
water at 40°, or common water at 62° ; the adoption of these 
measures would preserve, and even improve the connexion be- 
tween the English quarter, , and 10,000 Avoirdupois ounces : 
And the being obliged to use ounces and quarters of an ounce, 
in making or proving a gallon measure, and ounces as well as 
pounds in verifying a bushel, would occasion more accuracy than 
if a round number of pounds was made the standard of either 
the bushel or the gallon. It deserves, also, here to be consider- 
ed, that the actual wine gallon of commerce, which contains 224 
inches, wants a fifth part of the contents of the gallon here re- 
commended ; that, in fact, most of the gallon measures in the 
wine and spirit trade contain 225 inches, so that a fifth part add- 
ed to the price of the gallon, which these dealers use at pre- 
sent, could easily be added, and a conamon gallon for . both li- 
quid and dry measures would not be obnoxious to them or their 
customers. It may also be mentioned, that by scooping out a 
very little from the inside of a wooden corn measure, it could 
easily be adjusted to the standards of 2T0 inches for the gallon, 
540 for the peck, and 2160 for the bushel: And it may be add- 
ed, that though the common brewer might not be willing to 
give 2T7.3 cubic inches for every gallon of his ale or beer, 
when he is only allowed 282 inches to himself, or 4.7 inches to 
supply his loss from both waste and absorption, he might be 
willing to raise the size of his gallon to 270 inches, having still 
12 inches of difference between the gallon of Excise, according 
to which he pays taxes, and the common gallon of commerce, at 
which he sells his malt liquor. Here justice requires that the 
taxes on ale, spirits, wine and malt, should be either proportion^ 
ed to the contents of this common gallon, or continue to he 
charged according to the present laws qf Excise. The great 
object is to get the standards which are used in commerce^ sim- 
plified, and the measures both made with great accuracy, and 
established with as little trouble as possible. The establishing 
a common gallon of 277.3 will occasion much inconvenience 
and great expence,— ‘ten times as much as would be occasioned 
by using a gallon of 270 cubic inches ; would destroy all connec- 
tion between the English quarter and 10 cubic feet, which 
ought to be increased or confirmed ; and by raising the dimeur 
sions of our standard corn measures 4| per cent would prevent 
