regards their distance from each other, with which the plants spring up, generally renders the crop superior to that sown in the other way. The machine has been described as adapted to the sowing of the common sorts of grain; but it is equally well calculated for sowing the cultivated grasses. The price of a machine is about L. 8.

THE

ON WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

HE subject of Weights and Measures has acquired more than usual interest, from the passing of the recent act of Parliament, and from the means already taken to carry it into effect. It is thought, therefore, that a short account of the objects sought to be obtained by the act, will prove acceptable to the reader.

Measures have, apparently, been derived originally from some part of the human person, and the designations, a foot, a pace, a palm, and some others, seem to be general over the world. It seems likely that these, in the ruder states of society, had been taken by each individual from the magnitude of his own person, and that it was not until the inconvenience of the diversity thence arising, came to be felt in the gradual progress of society, that a mean or standard length would be established by authority or general consent. As might be supposed from this origin, the measures to which the same names have been applied by ancient or modern states, come somewhat near to each other, though almost none of them are precisely alike.

This, however, from the description of commercial dealings between independent states, would be of little importance, did a strict uniformity prevail, in the corresponding weights and measures, throughout all parts of the same states, which is far from being the case. And, although to that extent a uniformity has been esteemed by all governments a thing to be encouraged and enforced, the means hitherto adopted for the purpose seem to have proved only in part adequate to overcome the force of habit, and the strong interest of many to keep up a system of uncertainty and deception.

The next step in the progress of improvement would be the

constructing of Standard Weights and Measures of wood or iron; and, at an early period, both in England and Scotland, standards of that kind were made, and laws were passed in both kingdoms prohibiting the use of any weights or measures differing from these. There was still, however, wanting some determinate object with which to compare these standards, to restore them if destroyed, and transmit them unimpaired to posterity. The distance of two mountains accurately measured and recorded, or the length of a pendulum vibrating seconds in a given latitude, early occurred as being the most suitable which could be devised for that purpose. From either of these the standard measure of length might, at any time, be restored, and made to serve as a foundation for all the other weights and measures of the kingdom. Thus, were a fixed scale or standard measure of length once determined, it would be easy to construct a vessel of any convenient form, the contents of which might be determined from that scale with the most perfect accuracy, and equally easy to ascertain the precise weight of distilled water of a given temperature, which, under a certain atmospheric pressure, that vessel contained.

During the fervour of the French Revolution, when a regeneration of every existing usage became a matter of political expediency, the weights and measures of that country experienced the same fate with its other existing institutions, and a mode of restoring them in perpetuity was adopted somewhat more splendid in its pretensions, than either of those to which we have before referred.

The Savans of France had been engaged in measuring the quadrant of the terrestrial meridian extending from the Pole to the Equator in the longitude of Paris, and the ten millionth part of that arc, called a "mètre," was, in 1795, adopted in the kingdom as the unit or standard of lineal measure, from which the following weights and measures of capacity were derived.

The Are, or unit of superficial measure, being a square, of which the side is equal to ten mètres.

The Gramme, or unit of weight; this, again, is the weight of a cube of distilled water, having its side equal to the hundredth part of a mètre.

The Litre being the unit of volume or capacity. This is a cube, having for its side the tenth part of a mètre. The cube of the mètre, called a Stère, was used also as a measure for firewood.

All the other weights and measures of the kingdom were derived by multiplying, or dividing these continually by 10. Thus, the weights and measures of the next lower denomination contain each a tenth part of the units here mentioned, and are named décimètre, déciare, décigramme, and décilitre. After which come those containing the hundredth part only of the original units, named centimètre, centiare, centigramme, and centilitre. The weights and measures next greater than the original units, again, contain each ten of them, and are named décamètre, décare, décagramme, and décalitre, and so on. The way in which all of these are derived from the mètre will be easily followed, and the nomenclature, with the opinion which men of science in France entertain of the invention, will be best illustrated by the following remarks taken from a modern French author of considerable celebrity. "Tel est le systême des poids et mesures; la nomenclature est renfermée dans cinq mots MÈTRE, ARE, GRAMME, LITRE, STÈRE; et leurs multiples désignés par les additifs déca, dix; hecto, cent; kilo, mille; myria, dix mille; puis les sous-multiples qu'on indique par déci, dix; centi, cent; milli, mille.

"L'idée simple et grande qui a donné naissance à ce systême, repose sur la nécessité de prendre dans la nature un terme fixe et à en déduire toutes les mesures: par là, si quelque jour elles étoient perdues, il seroit facile de les retrouver.

L'esprit philosophique qui a présidé à cette belle conception, est digne de notre siècle; les hommes les plus célèbres y ont contribué; on y reconnoît le génie des Laplace, Lagrange, Monge, Delambre, Legendre, Méchain, Lefebvre-Gineau, etc. -L'ignorance et la mauvaise foi peuvent seules refuser d'admettre cette admirable invention *."

The old weights and measures of France were different and differently divided from those here mentioned, and the consequences

• TRANSLATION.-Such, then, is the system of Weights and Measures; the nomenclature is confined to five words, Mètre, Are, Gramme, Litre, and

which have attended the new system may suggest many useful and instructive considerations, to those who would rashly overturn, or refine upon, the habits and usages of a people beyond what their occasions require. In short, after a trial of seventeen years, it was found necessary, in 1812, to restore to them again the old weights and measures, to which they had been accustomed, after making upon them certain modifications to connect them with the mètre and other units already mentioned. The decimal division of the new system was also abandoned, and the duodecimal one adopted upon the express ground, "That the decimal division, though favourable for calculations, is not equally so for the daily operations of the people, and is not easily comprehended." The effects of these successive changes has been to throw the transactions of the country into the greatest confusion, and a recent English writer upon this subject has observed, "That the French, after all their labours to recommend a uniform system of measures, have ended in such a complication, that for the most simple purposes of practical mechanics and civil life, it is become usual to carry in the pocket a little ruler, in the form of a triangular prism, one of the sides containing the old established lines and inches of the royal foot, a second the millimetres, centimetres, and decimetres of the revolutionary school, and the third the new combination of the Jacobin measures with the old division."

There is certainly something sufficiently recherché in the new French system, but, upon the whole, the conception seems to partake more of the magnifique than of the truly practical and useful, -for it is almost vain to suppose that a series of observations so

Stère. The multiples of these are expressed by prefixing to them the words deca ten, hecto a hundred, kilo a thousand, myria ten thousand; and their submultiples, by prefixing déci a tenth, centi a hundredth, milli a thousandth.

The grand and simple idea in which the system has originated, is founded upon the necessity of selecting a standard in nature, and deriving all measures from it, so that should they ever happen to be lost, it may be easy to restore them.

The philosophic spirit which has led to this beautiful conception is worthy of our age. The most celebrated men have contributed towards it, and throughout, we may recognise the genius of Laplace, Lagrange, Monge, De. lambre, Legendre, Méchain, Lefebvre-Gineau, &c. Ignorance and bad faith can alone refuse to admit this admirable invention.

expensive and intricate should ever again be undertaken for the purpose merely of restoring or adjusting a measure of length. The length of the pendulum vibrating seconds, which has since been adopted in Denmark, and still more recently in Britain, appears, upon the whole, to afford a much more practical and useful standard of reference.

It has been already observed, that standard weights and measures had been prepared, at an early period, both in England and Scotland, by which all the other weights and measures of the two kingdoms ought to have been regulated. In England, the standards were deposited in the Exchequer, and duplicates made from these were kept at Guildhall and other public offices. In Scotland they were committed to the custody of some of the principal boroughs, the Elwand was kept at Edinburgh, the Firlot at Linlithgow, the Pint at Stirling, and the Stoneweight at Lanark. By the treaty of Union it was subsequently provided, that the same weights and measures should be used throughout Great Britain as were at that time established in England; but this provision seems to have been only partially carried into effect. The standards formerly existing, therefore, continued to be referred to, and, notwithstanding the laws made in both kingdoms against the use of any weights or measures differing from these, a variety of others existed. In England, before the passing of the recent act, 1824, the chain used for measuring land, and consequently the acre, differed in some counties; and besides the Troy and Avoirdupois pounds, various others had come into use, and numerous local varieties likewise prevailed in the measures of capacity. In Scotland the same kind of differences existed to a great extent, and it is only very lately that the size of the standard weights and measures of that kingdom have been accurately ascertained. Chains of different lengths, but none of them precisely equal, as they ought to have been, to 24 standard ells, were in use, giving acres of different sizes. The boll used for wheat, rye, pease and beans, was different from that used for oats, barley and malt, and the size of these bolls varied almost in every county, and even in some towns of the same county. Nearly the same kind of differences exist in the measures for liquids; and the reader will be fami