Page:British Weights and Measures - Superior to the Metric, by James W. Evans.djvu/35

Rh to any order to change, root and branch, our system of weights and measures, particularly when they know it is a good commercial system, and well suited to their requirements. Dispassionate observers have not been slow to point out that the troubles encountered in effecting changes on the Continent of Europe would be greatly multiplied in the mother country. In the report of the Standards Commission, presented to the House of Commons, there is this reference to the point referred to:—“ It is obvious that in this country, where the people are more accustomed to self-government than in other European countries, the Executive has far less power of compelling obedience to the law in all the small transactions of trade against the will of the people.”

A former President of the Board of Trade, the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, M.P., when asked his opinion on one occasion, declared there would be a vast amount of resistance to any change, and added:—“This is a free country, and the great mass of the people have the power of making themselves heard, and heard most effectually; and if they thought this was going to be a great inconvenience, I suspect we should feel it in the House in a kind of way likely to prevent any measure being successful. To introduce the new system would simply be a convenience to persons who are well able to meet the inconvenience that there may be in the calculations of goods on a different system.”

Mr. J. A. Franklin has flatly stated it as his opinion that it would be impossible to displace our present system, because there would be such an amount of public