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though of the same cubical capacity, should be of shorter diameter and greater depth. It was for the benefit of the heap. It prescribed, therefore, only the diameter, without mentioning the depth; but that diameter, for the bushel, is identically the same, 184 inches, as the act of parliament of the ensuing year declares to be the width of the Winchester bushel in the exchequer. As the provincial standard must have been the model from which the law of the province took its measure of a diameter, its perfect coincidence with the subsequent definition of the act of parliament, is a proof of the correctness of the copy from the Winchester bushel of the exchequer.

In 1705, the treasurer of the province was required by law to procure a beam, scale, and a nest of troy weights from 128 ounces down, marked with a mark or stamp used at the exchequer, for a public standard. Every town was to be provided with a nest of troy weights of different form from the avoirdupois: and a penalty was annexed to the use of any other than sealed troy weights, for weighing silver, bullion, or other species whatsoever, proper and used to be weighed by troy weights.

In the year 1707, there was an act of parliament, 6 Anne, ch. 30, "for ascertaining the rates of foreign coins in her majesty's planta❝tions in America." It had been preceded, in 1704, by a proclamation of the queen, declaring the value of many foreign silver coins, and particularly of the Spanish piece of eight, or dollar. At that period, as in a certain degree at the present, the Spanish dollar and its parts formed the principal circulating coins of this country. The act declares the value of the Seville, Pillar, and Mexican pieces of eight, to be four shillings and six-pence sterling, and their weight to be seventeen pennyweights and a half, or 420 grains. It forbids their being taken in the colonies at more than six shillings each: and this act constituted what, from that time till the period of the Revolution, in Virginia and New England, was denominated "lawful "money." The act itself was published in the province of Massachusetts Bay with the statutes of the provincial legislature, as was practised with regard to all the acts of parliament, the authority of which was recognized. It may be here incidentally remarked, that the laws of Congress, which estimate the value of the English pound sterling at four dollars and forty-four cents, are all founded upon the proportions established by this act, although the weight and value, both of the dollar and of the shilling and pound sterling, have since that time been changed. Some further observations on this subject are submitted in the appendix: from which it will appear, that the real value of our silver dollar, in the silver English half crowns or shillings of this time, is four shillings, seven pence, and nearly one farthing; and that the pound sterling of such actual English silver coins is, in the silver money of the United States, not 4 dollars 44 cents, but only 4 dollars, 34 cents, and 9 mills.

In the year 1715 a light house was built at the entrance of Boston harbor; and a tonnage duty being levied upon vessels entering the harbor, to defray the expense of building and supporting it, the rule

of measurement for ascertaining the tonnage, prescribed by the act, was, that a vessel of two decks should be measured upon the main deck, from the stem to the stern post, then subducting the breadth, from outside to outside, athwart the main beam, the remainder to be accounted her length by the keel, which, being multiplied by the breadth, and the product by one half the breadth for the depth, and the whole product divided by 100, the quotient was to be accounted the tonnage of the ship. Vessels of a single deck, or 14 deck, were to be measured in the same manner, except the depth in hold, which was to be from the under side of the main beam to the ceiling.

In 1730 a new set of brass and copper avoirdupois weights, and of measures, was imported from the Exchequer, with certificate of their being approved Winchester measure, according to the standard in the Exchequer. These were, by a new statute, declared to be the public standards of the province: and they continue to be those of the commonwealth at this day. It does not appear that the troy weights were renewed at the same time. The standards of them had been imported only twenty-five years before, and could not need renewing. In 1751 the act of parliament introducing the Gregorian calendar was adopted, in the usual manner, by inserting it among the laws of the provincial legislature.

Since the Revolution all the laws of the province have been revised: and, by an act of the Legislature of 26th February, 1800, all the principal regulations concerning weights and measures were renewed and confirmed.

This law declares that the brass and copper measures, formerly (1750) sent out of England with a certificate from the Exchequer, shall be and remain the public standards throughout the commonwealth and it requires the treasurer of the commonwealth to cause to be had and preserved a complete set of new beams, weights, avoirdupois and troy, and measures of length and of capacity, wet and dry, to be used only as public standards. This act is to continue until Congress shall have fixed by law the standard of weights and

measures.

A statute of 9th March, 1804, recites, that the troy weights used by the treasurer of the commonwealth, as state standards, had, by long use, diminished and undergone an alteration in their proportions. (They had then been just one century in use.) It directs him, therefore, to add, or cause to be added, a specified number of grains to each of the weights, from that of 128 ounces to the half ounce; or to procure new weights of the same denomination, and conformable to the state standards, with such additions: which weights, so corrected, are declared to be the standards of troy weight for the commonwealth. By information from various sources, it is known that the standards of the state of Massachusetts are, at this time, perfectly conformable to those of the Exchequer.

There are a multitude of laws regulating the assize of casks, assigning different dimensions for containing different articles. They generally prescribe the length of the staves within the chime, and

sometimes the diameter of the heads. They also specify the weight of the article which the cask is to contain. Staves are an article of exportation; and their length, breadth, and thickness, are regulated by law.

NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT.

The laws of New Hampshire, and of Vermont, relating to weights and measures, appear to have been modelled upon those of Massachusetts. In both these states the standards are required to be according to the approved Winchester measures, allowed in England, in the Exchequer. The first act of New Hampshire to that effect was of 13th May, 1718, and the last of 15th December, 1797. The statute of Vermont is of the 8th of March, 1797. Neither New Hampshire nor Vermont has established the authority of the troy weights by law.

RHODE ISLAND.

Rhode Island has no statute upon the subject. Her weights and measures are, however, the same, and her standards are taken from those of Massachusetts.

CONNECTICUT.

In the laws and standards of Connecticut there are peculiarities deserving of remark.

A statute of October, 1800, contains the following provisions: "That the brass measures, the property of this state, kept at the "Treasury, that is to say, a half bushel measure, containing one "thousand and ninety-nine cubic inches, very near, a peck measure "and half peck measure, when reduced to a just proportion, be the "standard of the corn measures in this state, which are called by "those names respectively; that the brass vessels ordered to be pro"vided by this Assembly [one of the capacity of two hundred and "twenty-four cubic inches]* and the other of the capacity of two "hundred and eighty two cubic inches, shall be, when procured, the "first of them the standard of a wine gallon, and the other the stand❝ard of an ale or beer gallon, in this state; that the iron, or brass "rod or plate, ordered by this Assembly to be provided, of one yard "in length, to be divided into three equal parts, for feet, in length, " and one of those parts to be subdivided into twelve equal parts, for "inches, shall be the standard of those measures respectively; and "that the brass weights, the property of the state, kept at the Trea"sury, of one, two, four, seven, fourteen, twenty-eight and fifty-six "pounds, shall be the standard of avoirdupois weight in this state."

These brackets, in the printed volume of the laws of Connecticut, indicate that the part enclosed has been repealed.

A subsequent section (5) requires of the selectmen of each town to provide town-standards, of good and sufficient materials, which, for the standards of liquid measure, shall be copper, brass, or pewter; also, vessels for corn measure, of forms and dimensions thus described: "A two quart measure, the bottom of which, on the inside, is "four inches wide on two opposite sides, and four inches and a half "on the two other sides, and its height from thence seven inches and "sixty-three hundredths of an inch;" [187.54 cubic inches.] A quart measure of " three inches square from bottom to top, throughout, and its height seven inches and sixty-three hundredths of an "inch;" [68.67 cubic inches.] A pint measure of three inches square from bottom to top throughout, and its height three inches and eighty-two hundredths of an inch; [34.38 cubic inches.]

The assumption of the old Guildhall wine gallon, of 224 inches, in this act, is the more surprising, inasmuch as a colonial statute of the year 1752 had already established the gallon of 231 inches. What the occasion of it was, has not been ascertained; but it was probably taken from an existing standard, which had been originally taken from the Guildhall gallon. Whatever the cause of it may have been, this part of the act was repealed the next year, (October, 1801) and the Treasurer was directed, without delay, to provide a vessel of brass, of five inches square from bottom to top throughout, and nine inches and twenty-four hundredths of an inch in height, containing two hundred and thirty-one cubic inches, which was declared the standard wine gallon of the state.

The half bushel measure, which in 1800 was the property of the state, kept at the treasury, containing 1099 cubic inches very near, was of course not originally derived from the Winchester bushel. By the colonial aws of Connecticut, it appears, that, as early as the year 1670, there were colony standards kept at Hartford: and the half bushel, which in the year 1800 was there at the treasury, the property of the state, was either one of those same standards of 1670, or a copy from it. That it was not borrowed from the Massachusetts standards is also manifest, because the Massachusetts bushel was copied from the Winchester bushel. It may be concluded, with great probability, that the Connecticut half bushel was first taken from the bushel in the exchequer of Henry the Seventh with a copper rim; though it contains thirteen cubie inches less than in proportion to that standard. This difference, in so large a measure, may have been the effect of very slight inaccuracy in the first copy, increased by the decay or the change of the vessel. The bushel with the copper rim was deposited at the exchequer after the act of 1496; and was made from the wine gallon of that act, with the rule of the act of 1266, and the pound of fifteen ounces troy weight. The quart and pint at the exchequer of 1601, were formed from this bushel. The pint differs less than half an inch from that prescribed by this act of Connecticut of 1800.

In the laws of Connecticut, as in those of New Hampshire and Vermont, there is no formal establishment or recognition of troy

weights; nor does there appear to be any standard of them existing in the state. But in the lists of rateable estate, prescribed by the laws of Connecticut, silver plate is estimated at one dollar eleven cents per ounce, which must obviously be intended the ounce troy. The assize of casks is regulated by various laws and the dimensions of the barrel for packing salted provisions for exportation are the same as those established in Massachusetts and New York. The London assize of tight casks, from the puncheon of 126 to the barrel of 314 gallons, was co-eval with the first legislation of the colony; and was re-enacted by a statute of 1795. It expressly declares that these gallons shall be of 231 cubic inches; and directs that they shall be computed by taking, in inches and decimal parts of an inch, the bulge or bung diameter, each head diameter, and the length within the cask, with Gunter's rule of gauging.

The assize of staves is the same as in Massachusetts.

By an act of October 1796, the standard weight of wheat is declared to be sixty pounds nett to the bushel.

NEW YORK.

New York was originally the seat of a colony from the Netherlands, the settlers of which doubtless brought with them the weights and measures of their own country. Towards the close of the seventeenth century it fell into the possession of the English; and on the 19th of June, 1703, an act of the colonial legislature established all the English weights and measures, according to the standards in the exchequer. This act was drawn with great care, and evidently with the purpose of embracing all the provisions of the then existing English statutes, regulating weights, measures, and casks, particuJarly those of 1266, 1304, 1439, and 1496, without being aware of the utter incompatibility of those statutes with one another.

Instead, however, of adopting in terms the London assize of casks, from the ton of 252 gallons downwards, this act prescribes in inches the length and head diameters of the various casks; and, by a very remarkable peculiarity, changes the names of all the dry casks. It directs that

The Hogshead shall be 40 inches long, 33 inches in the bulge, 27 inches in the head.

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But it adds, that tite barrels shall contain 314 gallons wine measure, or within half a gallon more or less, and all other casks in proportion. This last provision adopted the whole London assize for tight casks. But the dimensions prescribed for the hogshead, give a cask of about 126 gallons, which, in the London assize, made the butt or pipe and thus the New York tierce was of 80 gallons, which constituted the real contents of the London puncheon; the New York

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