"This last decree is a compromise between philosophical theory and inveterate popular habits. Retaining the principle of decimal multiplication and division for the legal system, it abandons them entirely in the weights and measures which it allows the people to use."

This "usual system" permitted the employment of old names, and also of old divisions, both binary and duodecimal. But it did not restore the old things; for all the weights and measures allowed were derived from the metric units. Mr. Adams wrote in 1821. The prospect of the speedy triumph of the system even in France appeared to him at that time to be anything but encouraging. Sixteen years later, however, the usual system was abolished; and since that time-that is, for more than thirty years-nothing more has been heard of that resistance on the part of the French people to the use of metric weights and measures, or of their refusal to learn their nomenclature, or of their discontent with the decimal principle, which Mr. Adams evidently believed to be hopelessly confirmed, and which so much excited his apprehension.

Mr. Adams's able report embodies, and presents in a forcible manner, all the material objections which have ever been raised against the metric system; and in answering him, all other objections are answered at the same time. It is worth while now to cite his own personal opinions of the merits of this system, and his hopes as to the future which may yet be in reserve for it, in spite of the (to his view) unpromising aspect of things in his own time. He remarks, “The French system embraces all the great and important principles of uniformity which can be applied to weights and measures, but that system is not yet complete. Considered merely as a labor-saving machine, it is a new power offered to man, incomparably greater than that which he has acquired by the new agency which he has given to steam. It is, in design, the greatest invention of human ingenuity, since that of printing; but like that, and every other useful and complicated invention, it could not be struck out perfect at a heat. Time and experience have already dictated many improvements of its mechanism, and others may, and undoubtedly will, be found necessary for it hereafter. But all the radical principles of uniformity are in the machine, and the more universally it shall be adopted, the more certain will it be of attaining all the perfection which is within the reach of human power." By the "improvements," here mentioned as having been made in the system, are intended probably those modifications which were authorized by the law of 1812-the law which created the "usual system." Subsequent experience has shown that those modifications were mainly unnecessary; and that the system, though originally "struck out at a heat," was produced as nearly perfect as any creation of human origin is ever likely to be. The lesson of this experience must be kept still in mind in reading the following glowing eulogy of the system, from another part of the same report:

This system," says Mr. Adams, " approaches to the ideal perfection of uniformity applied to weights and measures, and whether destined to succeed or doomed to fail, will shed unfading glory upon the age in

which it was conceived, and upon the nation by which its execution was attempted, and has been in part achieved. In the progress of its establishment there, it has been often brought in conflict with the laws of physical and moral nature--with the impenetrability of matter, and with the habits, passions, prejudices and necessities of man. It has undergone various important modifications. It must undoubtedly still submit to others, before it can look for universal adoption. But if man be an improvable being; if that universal peace, which was the object of a Saviour's mission, which is the desire of the philosopher, the longing of the philanthropist, the trembling hope of the Christian, is a blessing to which the futurity of mortal man has a claim of more than mortal promise; if the Spirit of Evil is, before the final consummation of all things, to be cast down from his dominion over men, and bound in the chains of a thousand years, the foretaste here of man's eternal felicity; then this system of common instruments to accomplish all the changes of social and friendly commerce, will furnish the links of sympathy between the inhabitants of the most distant regions; the metre will surround the globe in use as in multiplied extension; and one language of weights and measures will be spoken from the equator to the poles."

The period thus clearly foreseen, at which all the world, on a subject so nearly affecting the daily and hourly interests of its inhabitants of every race and couutry, shall be "of one language and of one speech,” is certainly much nearer than the eloquent prophet could have anticipated when these words were written. Opinion," which he elsewhere says, "is the queen of the world," without whose favoring voice no great measure of public policy can be pressed to a successful consummation, has marched with a rapidity which he certainly by no means contemplated; so that, already, that uniformity for which he longed, but hardly dared to hope, except as a crowning glory of the millenium, has been reached by nearly half the population of the civilized and Christian world, and promises at no distant day to prevail universally.

In anticipation of the period at which the metric system shall be introduced among the peoples by whom it has not yet been received, it becomes the governments of those peoples to make such preparation for the changes which it will bring, as shall prevent the inconvenience and confusion which attended its first introduction into France. To this end, first of all, the principles of the system should be thoroughly taught in all the schools for the education of the young. Let but a single generation be thus instructed, and the obstacle to change which has been found in men's inveterate habits of thought, will be practically removed. Let there then be a progressive introduction of the denominations of the system into different branches of the public service successively; beginning with those which concern international relations, as for instance, the collection of the revenue from customs, and the foreign postal and telegraphic service; and subsequently advancing to matters of internal administration, such as the construction of public works, the management of the navy yards, of the military posts, and of mines operated by gov

ernments, the statements of the census and statistical bureaux, &c.; so that at length, when the people shall have become sufficiently familiarized with the system, by seeing these examples of its application, it may be extended to commerce and to the ordinary affairs of private life. An additional advantage may be secured, by adopting the practice of stating, for a time at least, all quantities or values specified in public documents, in duplicate form; the first being the metric numbers, and the second the numbers belonging to the familiar system. By means of this expedient, every such document will become an educational lesson, and the people will become familiarized with the system almost without knowing it. This is, in general, the plan which, by a unanimous vote of the international conference of weights, measures and moneys, held in Paris in June, 1867, was recommended for adoption to the governments of all nations which have as yet taken no steps looking to the introduction of the metric system among them. It is to be hoped that the recommendation will not be permanently disregarded by any.

While these pages are passing through the press, there has been received a compendious treatise on the metric system, prepared by Prof. Leone Levi, of London, Honorary Secretary of the Metric Committee of the British Association, and published in June, 1871, from which are derived some additional facts in regard to the progress of metrological reform. The most important of these relates to British India. It is stated that, by an act passed in 1870 with the approval of the home government, the kilogramme is adopted as the unit of weight in India, and the metre as the unit of length; and the Governor-General in Council is empowered to cause the new weights and measures to be used by any government office or municipal body or railway company; and to require that, after a date to be fixed, these weights and measures shall in every district be the basis of all dealings and contracts in any specified business or trade.

In Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Baden, additional progress has been made by laws, initiated or passed in 1868 and 1869, toward the introduction of the metric system in full.

In Roumania, the metric system has been established by law since January 1st, 1865.

On the American continent, the metric system has been established in the Republic of Equador since 1856, and in Peru since 1863. In Venezuela, the government proposed to Congress the introduction of the system as long ago as 1856.

From the report of the International Conference of 1867, on weights and measures and coinage, it appears that Turkey has given a metric value to her unit of length, the Turkish archine having been made equal to three-fourths of a metre.

From Prof. Levi's work, and from other sources, are derived the following numbers, representing the populations which have adopted the metri

system in full, and those which have adopted metric values for their units.

IV. In Sweden (population [1867] 4,195,681) and Norway ([1867] 1,701,478 = total 5,897,159) the decimal division has been adopted, without as yet the metric values.

As the peoples in the second class above may be regarded as committed to the ultimate adoption of the metric system in full, we may count as already enlisted on this side of the question, a total of about 420,000,000.

On the 26th of July, 1871, an act making the metric system of weights and measures henceforth compulsory in Great Britain, was lost by a majority of only five votes in the House of Commons.

ARTICLE 509. The metric system of weights and measures

adopted for international purposes.

510. The metric system to be employed in nego-
tiations and intercourse between govern-

ments.

511. Customs duties to be levied by metric weight
and measure, and postal tariffs to be regu-
lated by metric weight.

512. Standard units of length and of weight.
513. Copies of the standards to be made and
carefully preserved, as standards of veri-
cation.

514. Working standards, or standards for daily
use, to be constructed and periodically
verified.

515. Standard measures of capacity.

516. Certain denominations, not decimally re-
lated to the units of length, capacity,

surface and weight, to be allowed.

The metric system of weights and measures adopted for international purposes.

509. All contracts for the purchase of movable property of any description, and all accounts rendered for the sale or delivery of such property, when the parties to the transactions belong to different nations, shall be expressed, as to the quantities specified, in denominations of the system of weights and measures known as the metric system; and the denominations of such metric system named in the following tables shall be taken as equivalent to the values set opposite to them, in the denominations of the several systems of national weights and measures therein named.

Tables exhibiting the Metric Equivalents of the principal Units of Weight and Measure at present in use in the civilized world.

NOTE. From these Tables are omitted the names of all countries in which the metric system of weights and measures already prevails. The authority mainly relied on in computing these equivalents has been ALEXANDER's "Dictionary of Weights and Measures," Baltimore, 1850; a work of remarkable comprehensiveness and singular accuracy. Use has also been made of the "Rapports et Proces-verbaux du Comite des Poids et Mesures et des Monnaies," Paris, 1867; and of the "Second Report of the Standards-Commission" of the British Parliament, London, 1869.