for the use of apothecaries, particularly when we recollect that they buy and sell their drugs by avoirdupoise, though they compound them by apothecaries' weight; whose pound is exactly the same as the pound troy; and consists of the same number of grains; differing only in the intermediate divisions which might have been as well effected by only subdividing the ounce into halves and quarters of ten and five pennyweights each; and the pennyweight again halved and quartered into twelve and six grains; even supposing it at all necessary to retain the pound troy independently of avoirdupoise, which is of so much greater utility, and should therefore be used exclusively. The pound avoirdupoise is already as well divided into ounces and drachms as it can possibly be; but below the drachm, and above the pound, the divisions and multiples should be so altered, as to continue the perfect series of squares and cubes, which can alone secure an infinite regularity.

The absurdity of dividing liquid measure into three distinct, or rather confused, branches, for wine, beer, and ale, is too glaring to detain you long; and the perplexing fractions which run through the whole of them, are equally unnecessary. I should therefore propose, that one simple and uniform measure, raised from the Winchester wine pint of 283 cubic inches, and containing exactly one pound avoirdupoise of pure water, should be adopted to the exclusion of them all; as will be seen in the table No. 3.

The different variations in dry measure appear in the preceding part of this letter; and I shall, therefore, without repeating them, propose in their place, that all corn shall be sold by weight. The pint (imperial, or any other title which may be thought more appropriate,) to measure 281 cubic inches, and to be so filled or heaped if necessary, as to contain exactly one pound avoirdupoise weight of wheat; and of other sorts of corn in proportion. The bushel to

measure 1848 cubic inches in solid contents; and to be filled up to 64 pounds avoirdupoise weight of wheat; and

so on.

In regard to the provincial irregularities, every member of the House of Commons can tell what deviations have taken root in his own county; for which reason it is hardly worth while to say more on this head, but that some variations obtain in almost every part of the kingdom. I shall, therefore, next proceed to exemplify the series of calculations on which the proportions of the proposed tables are founded. But as these, in order to be made intelligible, must be given at considerable length, and will occupy a much greater space than could possibly be assigned to the remaining limits of this letter, it will be found more convenient to make them the subject of another address to your lordship's judgment.

We have been termed, my lord, a nation of shopkeepers ;-be it so-and as we mean to bespeak the custom of the world, let us take pains to convince our customers that we intend to give them good weight and full measure, by way of invitation to our counter. It is with peculiar gratification, that, after the subject had been dropped by so many persons who failed in due perseverance, and the question had been suffered to slumber for so long a period, I find it now resumed in the legislative assembly at an epoch so peculiarly appropriate, as the conclusion of a general peace; when the extension of trade, the revival of manufacture, and, as I hope, the accompanying improvement of agriculture, will necessarily make the correction and simplification of the weights and measures, now so shamefully confused and miserably irregular, an object of extreme importance in your lordship's consideration, from whom, as well as from the other departments of government, I shall trust that it will meet with all due encouragement,

66

"Ego, autem, quidquid in me est studii, consilii, laboris, ingenii, quidquid auctoritate, fide, constantiâ possum, id

omne ad hanc rem conficiendam tibi et populo Romano "polliceor et defero."

LETTER VII.

FALKLAND.

28th June, 1814.

MY LORD,

Resuming the subject of Weights and Measures, where I broke off at the conclusion of my last letter, I now proceed to submit to your lordship the series of calculations on which it is proposed to found the proportions of the new tables. Premising first, that the pound avoirdupoise, as it now stands, is proposed to be retained under the name of the pound imperial; (or by whatever other designation you may choose to distinguish it ;) and that its drachm is to be subdivided into thirty-two equal parts, to be called grains imperial, each equal to one grain of the largest and heaviest wheat; and 8192 of which will constitute one pound imperial; which grain may also be subdivided again by squaring and cubing &c. as minutely as may be found necessary, in the same perfect series of proportions, for the use of apothecaries, jewellers, and moneyers. Then if—

1 Cicero.

14

1 grain imperial: 11 or about 1grain wheat.

100

Upon the above proportions, which I believe are as near the truth as the variable weight of corn will allow, have I founded the subdivision of the drachm into grains; which, at the same time that it continues the perfect series of squares and cubes, comes nearer than any weight hitherto found out to the actual weight of the corn; or at least to what it ought to, and may be, on land skilfully cultivated. That the present number of ounces in a pound, and drachms in an ounce, being 16, and therefore each the square of 4, the number of its quarters is incontrovertibly the simplest and best, both for arithmetical abstraction, and commercial practice, I have already ventured to assert; and shall, on the same principle, assume 16lbs. to. the stone, 8 stones (or 128 lbs.) to the cwt. and 16 cwt. to the ton, as much more correct divisions of the latter, than the present proportions of 14 lbs. to the stone, and 20 cwt. to the ton. The ton imperial containing only 2048 lbs. avoirdupoise, will also be much nearer to the original ton of 2000 lbs. than that in present use, which weighs 2240: at the same time that it avoids all the irregular divisions, which in both the old and present ton were unavoidable.

In regard to dry measure, I have before observed that in its combinations with weight, as more particularly affecting

the sale of corn, the latter (weight) is to be the legal and preponderating standard. If, therefore, we can contrive a bushel, whose solid contents shall be nearly equal to its corresponding weight in the combined table, it may be always so filled or heaped (provided the corn is not of a very inferior and unmarketable quality, and therefore unfit for bread-corn,) as to be made fully equal to the proper standard in point of weight. The great diversity of opinion in different writers on this head, starts many difficulties; but such, as I flatter myself, are nevertheless not insuperable. For instance: In the Philosophical Transactions, the following proportion is given:

lb.av. lb. oz. dwt. gr.troy. lbs.im.-1bl. lbs. troy.

From whence, if 11 2 11 17 :: 64

599 1000

77 &c.

But according to Greaves, in his origin of weights and

833

So from the first calculation the imperial bushel weighing 64 lbs, avoirdupoise (or imperial) should contain 2311 eubic inches, and from the second only 1765, The

42669

100000

1000

difference is too great to allow of striking a medium, and the one or the other must be widely erroneous. I am strongly inclined to lean to the latter; because eight standard wine gallons of 231 inches each will constitute a bushel of 1848 cubic inches; and if the gallon is really but 224, then the bushel would contain only 1792. The first of these two last I have, therefore, adopted, and proposed the im