§ MR. RITCHIEasked leave to introduce a Bill to legalise the use of weights and measures of the metric system. He explained that the Government did not propose to pass the Bill this Session. It had been prepared in compliance with the wishes of many Chambers of Commerce. They desired to know on what lines the Government were inclined to legislate on this subject, and they would be able to consider the Bill during the Recess.
MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)gave the right hon. Gentleman notice that he should oppose this Bill with all his power. If the right hon. Gentleman was going to impose a metric standard on the country, and try to drive out of the country the present system, which provided accommodation for all 1057 the purposes of the people, he was entering upon a crusade which would be long and which he would find very difficult. He was not prepared to depart from the English yard or quart as standards, in I order to render unintelligible a great part of the literature of the country. At every stage he should give to this most audacious Bill all the opposition in his power.
Bill to legalise the use of weights and measures of the metric system, ordered to be brought in by Mr. Ritchie and the First Lord of the Treasury; presented accordingly, and read the First time; to be read a Second time upon Monday next, and to be printed.—[Bill 329.]