Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/291

 Ch. 7. rent proportions, our antient hitorians inform us, that a new tandard of longitudinal meaure was acertained by king Henry the firt; who commanded that the ulna or antient ell, which anwers to the modern yard, hould be made of the exact length of his own arm. And, one tandard of meaures of length being gained, all others are eaily derived from thence; thoe of greater length by multiplying, thoe of les by ubdividing, that original tandard. Thus, by the tatute called compoitio ulnarum et perticarum, five yards and an half make a perch; and the yard is ubdivided into three feet, and each foot into twelve inches; which inches will be each of the length of three grains of barley. Superficial meaures are derived by quaring thoe of length; and meaures of capacity by cubing them. The tandard of weights was originally taken from corns of wheat, whence the lowet denomination of weights we have is till called a grain; thirty two of which are directed, by the tatute called compoitio menurarum, to compoe a penny weight, whereof twenty make an ounce, twelve ounces a pound, and o upwards. And upon thee principles the firt tandards were made; which, being originally o fixed by the crown, their ubequent regulations have been generally made by the king in parliament. Thus, under king Richard I, in his parliament holden at Wetminter, A. D. 1197, it was ordained that there hall be only one weight and one meaure throughout the kingdom, and that the cutody of the aie or tandard of weights and meaures hall be committed to certain perons in every city and borough ; from whence the antient office of the king's aulnager eems to have been derived, whoe duty it was, for a certain fee, to meaure all cloths made for ale, till the office was abolihed by the tatute 11 & 12 W. III. c. 20. In king John's time this ordinance of king Richard was frequently dipened with for money ; which occaioned a proviion to be made for inforcing it, in the great charters of king John and his on. Thee original tandards were called pondus regis, and Rh