§ Order for Third Reading read.
THE DUKE OF ARGYLLsaid, that he should not have troubled the House with any observations on this stage of the Bill, had not his noble Friend behind him (Lord Wrottesley) who was a Member of the Commission, proposed to introduce a clause, which he (the Duke of Argyll) thought an improvement. The Select Committee on the Bill, though approving of the line measure for scientific purposes, were clearly of opinion that end measures were to be preferred for general and commercial purposes; and the proposed clause provided for the legalisation of the latter, when constructed, through the agency of Orders in Council, without requiring any further intervention of the Legislature.
LORD WROTTESLEYsaid, that in the restoration of these Imperial Standards, a vast amount of highly skilled labour had been given gratuitously to the nation by Mr. Sheepshanks and Professor Miller of Cambridge, the two gentlemen, to whom the actual construction of the standards of length and weight had been committed by their colleagues in the Commission, and some public acknowledgment was due to them. Various difficulties had arisen during the progress of the work, e. g., in fixing upon the material of which the standards were to be made, and as to the mode of supporting, illuminating, and estimating the temperature of the bars compared and in making the comparisons themselves; but they had all been successfully overcome. Had not their Lordships been impatient to listen to the eloquence of the noble and learned Lord opposite (Lord Lyndhurst) he (Lord Wrottesley) would have detailed some particulars of the proceedings of the Commission, which he thought would have interested their Lordships. He would not, however, sit down without informing them, that the secondary 112 standards in the Exchequer were in a state unworthy of the nation, that the whole subject required to be carefully examined into, and that proper measures should be adopted for correcting the evil.
§ LORD MONTEAGLEsaid, that those who had the charge of these measures were always ready to listen to any suggestions for their improvement—and eulogised the Dean of Ely, who was a member of the Commission.
§ Bill read 3a.