presented are meas t bank paper, and em is strongly cor - vowels and the into the compo word area. The word stere is familiar in stereotype, stereoscope, EARLY ADVOCATED IN AMERICA. The importance of a standard at once invariable and universal has long been felt. President Madison said, "The great utility of a standard fixed in its nature and founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions, is sufficiently obvious." Jefferson desired to reduce " every branch to the same decimal ratio already established in coins, and thus bring the calculation of the principal affairs of life within the arithmetic of every man who can multiply and divide plain numbers." It John Quincy Adams says of the Metric System: "Consid- to which the futurity of mortal man has a mortal promise; if the Spirit of Evil is, summation of things, to be cast down from men and bound in the chains of a thousand here of man's eternal felicity; then this instruments to accomplish all the changes of commerce will furnish the links of sympat habitants of the most friendly regions; the r the world in use as well as in multiplied language of weights and measures will b equator to the poles. "The ounce, the drachm and the grain indefinitely applied as indefinite parts of a The English pound Avoirdupois is heavie Troy, but the ounce Avoirdupois lighter tha The weights and measures of the old system ual paradox of a whole not equal to all its p bers lose the definite character essential to dozen becomes sixteen, twenty-eight signifies hundred and twelve mean a hundred. T application of the same generic term to differe and the misapplication of one specific term t thing, universally pervade all the old systems haustible fountains of diversity, confusion and Says F. A. P. Barnard, LL.D., President o lege, "No cause, since the earliest organiza society, has contributed more largely to em transactions among men, especially by inter facility of commercial exchanges between dif or between different provinces, cities, or indiv the same country, than the endless diversity ities employed for the purpose of determining exchangeable commodities. For the inconven sion resulting from this course, but one effec possibly be suggested; and that is the ge throughout the world, of one common system measures. Such a common system is offer Metric-a system, according to which the weig sions of every material thing, whether solid, 1 a claim of more the s, before the final c m his dominion or d years the foreta s system of comma of social and friend pathy between the e meter will surrou extension; and be spoken from n are specific na f an indefinite whe vier than the po ро han the ounce T m present the pere parts. Even nu to their nature. fies twenty-five, The indiscrimi erent specific thi n to another spec ms and are the in and fraud." t of Columbia C ization of civili embarrass busine nterfering with different countrie dividual citizens ty of instrument ing the quantitie whether on land or on water, whether in the earth or in the heavens; and whether determined by the scale, plummet, balance, barometer, or thermometer, are ascertained by a method absolutely uniform, entirely simple, and equally suitable to the use of all mankind, resting upon a single invariable standard of linear measure, with multiples and sub-multiples like those of our monetary system, exclusively decimal, with appropriate names, similar in all languages, and itself secure against the possibility of change or loss through carelessness, or accident or design, by being constructed on scientific principles, and copied for distribution among the different nations of the world." Charles Sumner says: "The rising generation will embrace it, and ever afterward number it among the choicest possessions of an advanced civilization. A system of weights and measures born of philosophy rather than of chance, is what we now seek. To this end old systems must be abandoned. A chance system cannot be universal. Science is universal. Therefore, what is produced by science may find a home everywhere. The metric terms are equally intelligible in all languages. They are in their nature common or cosmopolitan, and in all countries the name instantly suggests the measure with exquisite precision." LATER PROGRESS. The old systems were as various as the nations that used them. If the standard had always been the length of the foot of their several kings, the variety would hardly have been greater. More than one hundred foot measures, each differing from all the rest, have been in use in Europe. At the beginning of the present century, the foot had not less than sixty values in Europe. There is great encouragement in the progress already made towards uniformity. At the International Exposition in enience and con Paris in 1867, where the measures of all the world were compared, ffectual remedy general adopti only eight of this discordant class survived. The last decade has witnessed still greater progress in this direction. The Metric em of weights System is now adopted by the Swiss, Swedes, Spaniards, Ger offered to us in t weight and dimen d, liquid, gaseou mans, Austrians, Italians, Portuguese, Dutch, Danes, Belgians, Greeks, Mexicans, Brazilians, and by most of the South American States, and in British India, and in the majority of these nations its use is compulsory. Sweden ha of its obligatory use till 1889, in order have time for its voluntary introduction, compulsion be avoided. But the intellig manufacturers of Sweden are already so the metric measures, that they are likely to there within three or four years. This Sys Germany in 1868, and after only four years of was made compulsory. The Educational pamphlets showing its advantages and ex values. It is due to the influence of the s that the people were so soon prepared for th reception of the metric system. It is strange that our country, which has many bondages of medieval or modern pre distanced by so long a list of nations, and e republics of our own continent, in the est Metric System. It is strange that a natio commenced a career of progressive policy wh wards to the construction and adoption of an system of coinage, should not at that time decimal system of weights and measures, as but it is yet more inexplicable that at the Exposition of 1876, the antiquated system still prevailing, in unpleasant contrast with th by which the French, German, and other 1 measured and weighed their goods. Had the son been heeded, the Metric System might eas have been introduced here in connection w currency. Had it been generally taught in ou even twenty years ago, the main objections to longer be heard. If, like Germany, we now for it through the vast and effective machinery it will, at no distant day, supplant our pre system, and leave it shelved in cyclopedias, curiosities of the feudal ages, where it belongs. has cut loose from precedent, should even by the west establishment of: ation which in which led soon a IF PROPERLY TAUGHT, EASILY LEARNED. Mr. Joseph Hall, the Principal of the Hartford High School, whose large observation and experience add weight to his opinion, writes me as follows: "It seems strange to me that any one can fail to see the necessity of teaching and learning the Metric System, to which we are undoubtedly coming in the near future, and which is already in use in nearly all the laboratories in the country. I hold that any person of ordinary intelligence ought to master the subject in twenty minutes, if it is properly presented." Many teachers inform me that they find from thirty minutes to two hours ample time for ordinary pupils in our common schools to master this subject. Already familiar with the deci mal system, they have only to apply a dozen words to decimal measurements. American teachers of wide experience concur in the opinion that the exclusion of all the rules, processes, and problems connected with compound numbers by the general adoption of the Metric System would save at least one year in the school life of every pupil. To the children of England who must be trained in pounds, shillings, pence and farthings, the gain would be far greater. an admirable dee ime have adopte as Jefferson desir he great Center: -m should be f 1 the admirable s ›r European nati the advice of Je easily and natur 1 with our deci our schools fift to its use would", >w prepare the ery of our schee present system ias, with the o igs. PROGRESS IN ENGLAND. At a convention of the friends of the Metric System, held in the Lord Mayor's mansion, London, which I attended in 1871, facts and statements were presented which indicated great progress of public sentiment in that country, and cautious and conservative as the English people are, promised its adoption within the next decade. The discussions then progressing in Parliament seemed to me to assure the same result. Its use was legalized in 1864 so far as relates to contracts. As early as 1862 the Weights and Measures' Committee unanimously recommended that "the use of the Metric System be rendered legal. No compulsory measures should be resorted to until they are sanctioned by the general conviction of the public. That the government should sanction the use of the Metric System (together with our present one) in levying the custom duties, thus familiarizing it among our merchants and manufacturers and giving facilities to foreign |