Page:British Weights and Measures - Superior to the Metric, by James W. Evans.djvu/48

40 to the comforts, conveniences, and most useful employments of the mass of the nation, and especially of the many and the poor. Yet, in Great Britain, those who should feel most directly and immediately concerned, do not seem in any way sufficiently awake to the dangerous crisis which is passing. The heart, indeed, of the people, we are happy to believe, is not on the wrong side in these metrological matters, it is only apathetic.”

Point by point, as we consider the matter, reason accumulates upon reason, why, as it has been well put by one writer, “The Anglo-Saxon race should hesitate long before plunging itself into such a turbulent sea of revolution and folly.”

Far-reaching as would be the effect upon all branches of industry caused by the adoption of the metric scheme, the confusion created in other directions would be incalculable. All our charts, surveys and land records would require revision, entailing upon the people monetary outlays and inconveniences beyond conception, and involve us in complications which would take generations to straighten out. The slightest consideration of this aspect of the question will open up a view of unending possibilities in the way of the creation of difficulties. The man who holds title deeds to so many feet frontage in a busy street, or to so many acres of land in the country districts, will naturally protest against having to pay for the re-drawing of his plans, embellished with terms which are unfamiliar and not understandable.