its law, is, perhaps, a fortunate circumstance, in reference to the principle of uniformity, for both. If this report were authorized to speak to both nations, as it is required to speak to the legislature of one of them, on a subject in which the object of pursuit is the same for both, and the interest in it common to both, it would say-Is your object uniformity? Then, before you change any part of your system, such as it is, compare the uniformity that you must lose, with the uniformity that you may gain, by the alteration. At this hour, fifteen millions of Britons, who, in the next generation, may be twenty, and ten millions of Americans, who, in less time, will be as many, have the same legal system of weights and measures. Their mile, acre, yard, foot, and inch-their bushel of wheat, their gallon of beer, and their gallon of wine, their pound avoirdupois, and their pound troy, their cord of wood, and their ton of shipping, are the same. They are of the nations of the earth, the two, who have with each other the most of that intercourse which requires the constant use of weights and measures. Any change whatever in the system of the one, which would not be adopted by the other, would destroy all this existing uniformity. Precious, indeed, must be that uniformity, the mere promise of which, obtained by an alteration of the law, would more than compensate for the abandonment of this.

If these ideas should be deemed too cold and cheerless for the spirit of theoretical improvement; if Congress should deem their powers competent, and their duties imperative, to establish uniformity as respects weights and measures in its most universal and comprehensive sense; another system is already made to their hands. If that universal uniformity, so desirable to human contemplation, be an obtainable perfection, it is now attainable only by the adoption of the new French system of metrology, in all its important parts. Were it even possible to construct another system, on different principles, but embracing in equal degree all the great elements of uniformity, it would still be a system of diversity with regard to France, and all the followers of her system. And as she could not be expected to abandon that, which she has established at so much expense, and with so much difficulty, for another, possessing, if equal, not greater advantages, there would still be two rival systems, with more desperate chances for the triumph of uniformity by the recurrence to the same standard of all mankind.

The system of modern France originated with her Revolution. It is one of those attempts to improve the condition of human kind, which, should it even be destined ultimately to fail, would, in its failure, deserve little less admiration than in its success. It is founded upon the following principles:

1. That all weights and measures should be reduced to one uniform standard of linear measure.

2. That this standard should be an aliquot part of the circumference of the globe.

3. That the unit of linear measure, applied to matter, in its three modes of extension, length, breadth, and thickness, should be the standard of all measures of length, surface, and solidity.

4. That the cubic contents of the linear measure, in distilled water, at the temperature of its greatest contraction, should furnish at once the standard weight and measure of capacity. 5. That for every thing susceptible of being measured or weighed, there should be only one measure of length, one weight, one measure of contents, with their multiples and subdivisions exclusively in decimal proportions.

6. That the principle of decimal division, and a proportion to the linear standard, should be annexed to the coins of gold, silver, and copper, to the moneys of account, to the division of time, to the barometer and thermometer, to the plummet and log lines of the sea, to the geography of the earth and the astronomy of the skies; and, finally, to every thing in human existence susceptible of comparative estimation by weight or mea

sure.

7. That the whole system should be equally suitable to the use of all mankind.

8. That every weight and every measure should be designated by an appropriate, significant, characteristic name, applied exclusively to itself.

This system 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 of 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 upon earth be an improveable 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 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 well as in multiplied extension; and one language of weights and measures will be spoken from the equator to the poles.

The establishment of this system of metrology forms an era, not only in the history of weights and measures, but in that of human science. Every step of its progress is interesting: and as a statement of all the regulations in France concerning it is strictly within the scope of the requisitions of both Houses, a rapid review of its origin, progress, and present state, with due notice of the obstacles which it

has encountered, the changes through which it has passed, and its present condition, is deemed necessary to the performance of the duty required by the call.

In the year 1790, the present prince de Talleyrand, then bishop of Autun, distributed among the members of the constituent assembly of France a proposal, founded upon the excessive diversity and confusion of the weights and measures then prevailing all over that country, for the reformation of the system, or rather, for the foundation of a new one upon the principle of a single and universal standard. After referring to the two objects which had previously been suggested by Huyghens and Picard, the pendulum and the proportional part of the circumference of the earth, he concluded by giving the preference to the former, and presented the project of a decree. First, that exact copies of all the different weights and elementary measures, used in every town of France, should be obtained and sent to Paris Secondly, that the national assembly should write a letter to the British parliament, requesting their concurrence with France in the adoption of a natural standard for weights and measures, for which purpose Commissioners, in equal numbers from the French Academy of Sciences and the British Royal Society, chosen by those learned bodies, respectively, should meet at the most suitable place, and ascertain the length of the pendulum at the 45th degree of latitude, and from it an invariable standard for all measures and weights: Thirdly, that, after the accomplishment, with all due solemnity, of this operation, the French Academy of Sciences should fix with precision the tables of proportion between the new standards and the weights and measures previously used in the various parts of France; and that every town should be supplied with exact copies of the new standards, and with tables of comparison between them and those of which they were to supply the place. This decree, somewhat modified, was adopted by the assembly, and, on the 22d of August, 1790, sanctioned by Louis the Sixteenth. Instead of writing to the British parliament themselves, the assembly requested the king to write to the king of Great Britain, inviting him to propose to the parliament the formation of a joint commission of members of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Sciences, to ascertain the natural standard in the length of the pendulum. Whether the forms of the British constitution, the temper of political animosity then subsisting between the two countries, or the convulsions and wars which soon afterwards ensued, prevented the acceptance and execution of this proposal, it is deeply to be lamented that it was not carried into effect. Had the example once been set of a concerted pursuit of the great common object of uniformity of weights and measures, by two of the mightiest and most enlightened nations upon earth, the prospects of ultimate success would have been greatly multiplied. By no other means can the uniformity, with reference to the persons using the same system, be expected to prevail beyond the limits of each separate nation. Perhaps when the spirit which urges to the improve

ment of the social condition of man, shall have made further progress against the passions with which it is bound, and by which it is tramelled, then may be the time for reviving and extending that generous and truly benevolent proposal of the constituent national assembly of France, and to call for a concert of civilized nations to esta blish one uniform system of weights and measures for them all.

The idea of associating the interests and the learning of other nations in this great effort for common improvement was not confined to the proposal for obtaining the concurrent agency of Great Britain. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland, were actually represented in the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences to accomplish the purposes of the national assembly. But, in the first instance, a committee of the Academy of Sciences, consisting of five of the ablest members of the academy and most eminent mathematicians of Europe, Borda, Lagrange, Laplace, Monge, and Condorcet, were chosen, under the decree of the assembly, to report to that body upon the selection of the natural standard, and other principles proper for the accomplishment of the object. Their report to the academy was made on the 19th of March, 1791, and immediately transmitted to the national assembly, by whose orders it was printed. The committee, after examining three projects of a natural standard, the pendulum beating seconds, a quarter of the equator, and a quarter of the meridian, had, on full deliberation, and with great accuracy of judgment, preferred the last; and proposed, that its ten millionth part should be taken as the standard unit of linear measure; that, as a second standard of comparison with it, the pendulum vibrating seconds at the 45th degree of latitude should be assumed; and that the weight of distilled water at the point of freezing, measured by a cubical vessel in decimal proportion to the linear standard, should determine the standard of weights and of vessels of capacity.

For the execution of this plan, they proposed six distinct scientific operations, to be performed by as many separate committees of the academy.

1. To measure an arc of the meridian from Dunkirk to Barcelona, being between nine and ten degrees of latitude, including the 45th, with about six to the north and three to the south of it, and to make upon this line all suitable astronomical observations.

2. To measure anew the bases which had served before for the admeasurement of a degree in the construction of the map of France.

3. To verify, by new observations, the series of triangles, which had been used on the former occasion, and to continue them to Barcelona.

4. To make, at the 45th degree of latitude, at the level of the sea, in vacuo, at the temperature of melting ice, observations to ascertain the number of vibrations in a day of a pendulum equal to the ten millionth part of the arc of the meridian.

5. To ascertain, by new experiments, carefully made, the weight in vacuo of a given mass of distilled water at the freezing point.

6. To form a scale and tables of equalization between the new measures and weights proposed, and those which had been in common use before.

:

This report was sanctioned by a decree of the assembly and four committees of the academy were appointed; the three first of those enumerated objects having been intrusted to one committee, consisting of Mechain and Delambre. The experiments upon the pendulum were committed to Borda, Mechain, and Cassini; those on the weight of water to Lefevre Gineau, and Fabbroni; and the scale and tables to a large committee on weights and measures.

The performance of all these operations was the work of more than seven years. Two of them, the measurement of the arc of the meridian, and the ascertainment of the specific gravity of water in vacuo, were works requiring that combination of profound learning which is possessed of the facts in the recondite history of nature already ascertained, with that keenness of observation which detects facts still deeper hidden; that fertility of genius which suggests new expedients of invention, and that accuracy of judgment, which turns to the account, not only of the object immediately sought, but of the general interests of science, every new fact observed. The actual admeasurement of an arc of the meridian of that extent had never before been attempted. The weighing of distilled water in vacuo had never before been effected with equal accuracy. And, in the execution of each of these works, nature, as if grateful to those exalted spirits who were devoting the labors of their lives to the knowledge of her laws, not only yielded to them the object which they sought, but disclosed to each of them another of her secrets. She had already communicated by her own inspiration to the mind of Newton, that the earth was not a perfect sphere, but an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles: and she had authenticated this discovery by the result of previous admeasurements of degrees of the meridian in different parts of the two hemispheres. But the proportions of this flattening, or, in other words, the difference between the circles of the meridian and equator, and between their respective diameters, had been variously conjectured, from facts previously known. To ascertain it with greater accuracy was one of the tasks assigned to Delambre and Mechain; for, as it affected the definite extension of the meridian circle, the length of the metre, or aliquot part of that circle which was to be the standard unit of weights and measures, was also proportionably affected by it. The result of the new admeasurement was, to show that the flattening was of; or that the axis of the earth was to the diameter of the equator as 333 to 334. Is this proportion to the decimal number of 1,000 accidental? It is confirmed as matter of fact, by the existing theories of astronomical nutation and precession, as well as by experimental results of the length of the pendulum in various latitudes. Is it also an index to another combination of extension, specific gravity, and numbers, hitherto undiscovered? However this may be, the fact of the proportion was, on this occasion, the only object sought. This fact was attested by the