Page:British Weights and Measures - Superior to the Metric, by James W. Evans.djvu/52

44 of at least half a million pounds would be involved in obtaining new and altering present appliances. The replacement of official standards would cost another £250,000, and a huge staff would need to be employed in enforcing the change, and in instructing the people in interpreting the differences between the old and new codes.

Pre-eminently a commercial, practical people, we have found the system in use adequate to and suitable for our requirements. It is more than that, it has been found superior to any other, and defects which exist are not so grave as are to be found in other methods. The late Warden of Standards of Great Britain (Mr. H. J. Chisholm), said:—“There can be no question of the convenience of our weights and measures over those of the metric system for the practical purposes of weighing and measuring,” and Jackson writes that an examination of the English commercial measures will show them to be “either as good, or nearly as good as any other, excepting in one or two respects; while if the whole of the circumstances and conditions be taken into consideration, it may be considered the first, from being most suited to circumstances and the people. A country of large commercial transactions in every branch of trade is necessarily most liable to a superfluity of measures, and hence also to a considerable extent of incongruity; but when the extent and the diversity of English commerce is borne in mind, it is a fact worthy of notice that the natural English system is a single system,