Page:Madras journal of literature and science vol 2 new series 1857.djvu/198

188 If any system of Weights is to be selected from those now current in any part of India, the above seems to be the best, not only because it is founded on a defined standard, originating in the weight of the coin of the realm, but because it includes the "Seer" of 80 tolas, which is a weight known and acknowledged in some degree all over India. It is in short a Ponderary system which as far as facility of introduction is concerned, has a preference over any other.

It may however be well here to notice a remark that is sometimes made with reference to the Legislative Enactment above referred to, and the Official "Table" of Weights"; and this is, that it is needless to discuss any new scheme for a Metrical System, inasmuch as the law has been already declared on the subject, and the system actually in force; all that is required being an endeavour to extend its use where prejudice has already prevailed against it.

In reply to this it may be observed, first, that the Enactment refers only to Weights; and secondly, that it only effects Government transactions. Surely that cannot be called a Metrical system which merely defines the Weights that the Government prefer for their own use, and which leaves untouched the subject of Measures, a point (in India especially) quite as important, and much more difficult to arrange than that of Weight. Neither can it be said that a system is in force, which is a mere guide for the terms of account in Official papers, and by no means obligatory on the people. I can confidently assert that, as regards the 140,000 square miles comprised in the Madras Presidency, not a single bazar-man has altered his Weights one grain, or his Measures one fraction of a cubic inch in consequence of the Calcutta notification. Neither was the Act intended to go farther than legalise the tola as a unit. The "Table of Weights" has never been adopted in the Madras Presidency, even in Government transactions. In the Fort St. George Gazette of the 20th October, 1846, the following Table of Weights was published as that which was to be used in that Presidency:

180 Grains = 1 Tola.

3 Tolas = 1 Pollum.