LEAVE.—FIRST READING. (Hansard, 27 April 1858)

§ MR. JOHN LOCKE
said, he rose to move for leave to bring in a Bill to amend an Act of the 5th & 6th years of King William IV., c. 63, relating to Weights and Measures. The object of the Bill was, in the first place, to provide that corn and all other grain should be sold by measure. In the next, he desired to correct an error which had been committed in the framing of the Act of William IV., which Act, although intended to abolish all local measures, nevertheless contained provisions by which its main object was defeated. 13y the 6th and 11th sections of that Act it was enacted that articles should be sold by imperial weights and measures, and if it had stopped there no objection could be taken to it; but the 6th section, went on to provide that persons might sell by vessels which were neither imperial nor local, nor customary measures, and by a proviso in the 11th section any sale by a multiple or aliquot part of a pound might be made. In consequence of these provisos, and some decisions of the Courts upon them, the Act was entirely broken into, and at the present time there were all sorts of weights and measures in use throughout the country. Great inconvenience was occasioned to purchasers in ascertaining the proportion which these measures bore to the imperial bushel, and he believed, judging from the petitions which had been presented on the subject, that an alteration of the system was most anxiously desired. With respect to grain, he believed that the advantages of selling by measure were very great, and, above all things, such an arrangement was calculated to close the door against fraud. 1840 They were all, he believed, agreed in favour of uniformity in the system of weights and measures throughout the country. Some, however, contended for a system of uniformity by weight; others, like himself, for uniformity by measure in the sale of corn. Mr. Page, an eminent authority upon the question, and who wrote to The Times under the name of "Jacob Hardcastle," was examined before the Committee on the sale of corn which sat in 1834, when he stated that the proper mode of regulating the sale of grain was by measurement, although the most perfect mode would be measurement tested by weight. However, he only proposed to make it compulsory by the present Bill, that the sale should take place by measurement, and that was quite in accordance with the evidence of Mr. Page. What the Committee of 1834 recommended was, that corn should be sold by measure, tested by weight; and undoubtedly, by that plan, the purchaser arrived in the most certain manner at the quality of the grain; for, although a pound of bad corn might weigh as heavy as a pound of good corn, a bushel of bad corn would not weigh as heavy as a bushel of good corn. He did not, however, wish to attempt more than there was a probability of carrying out. He proposed, in the next place, that the copies of all weights and measures used for public purposes should be reverified from time to time; and the 3rd section of the Bill imposed a penalty upon all persons making or selling false beams and scales, or weights and measures, a provision strangely enough omitted from the Act of William IV. By the 4th clause of the Bill inspectors were empowered to examine the beams, scales, weights and measures used by persons huckstering in the streets, in the same manner as they were authorised to inspect those used in regular shops. Another section of the Bill provides that the owners of the market should supply beams, scales, balances, weights, and measures for the use of the market. That, he believed, was done at present in the case of Covent Garden Market, but nowhere else. Trusting, then, that the measure contained no provision in any way interfering with the liberty of the subject in the conduct of his trade, he should commit it to the indulgent consideration of the House.

§ MR. M'CANN
said, he did not mean to oppose the Motion; but, in his opinion, corn ought to be sold by weight, and not 1841 by measure, and, indeed, that was the general practice throughout the country, and consequently those who advocated the adoption of the measure in the sale of corn really wished to make nine-tenths of the people of this country conform to practices of the remaining one-tenth. His hon. and learned Friend himself would, in reality, introduce a system of selling by weight, and not by measure. [Mr. LOCKE: By measure, tested by weight.] He really could not understand how selling by measure to ascertain the weight was not selling by weight. In a Bill which he (Mr. M'Cann) intended to introduce he proposed that corn should be sold by a pound avoirdupois, its multiples and its aliquot parts; and this he thought would be the most convenient system.

§ MR. BASS
believed that the proposal of the hon. and learned Gentleman was calculated as nearly as possible to procure for the country an uniform system of weights and measures. The House must bear in mind that the sale by measure did not preclude any one from ascertaining at the same time what was the weight of the contents of that measure.

MR. MILES
said, he was very glad that the hon. and learned Gentleman had introduced the Bill, and he wished him well through with it. At the same time he thought the question was surrounded with great practical difficulties, for he had heard many discussions upon similar questions, and never had he heard more dissonance of opinion than upon this subject. For his own part, he thought that the arguments in favour of the measure were fallacious, inasmuch as where, in some instances, 60lb. weight of corn went to a bushel, his own often weighed 64lb, or 65lb. Therefore, he hoped the hon. and learned Gentleman would allow himself plenty of time to mature his scheme.

MR. EGERTON
said, he thought the attempt to reconcile two things so opposite as weight and measurement must be vain, he believed, also, that all schemes to produce uniformity of weights and measures throughout the country must be futile.