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rior art and expensive means. But when we have found, in the case of specimens submitted to us, apparently of great excellence and the result of a combination of talent or machinery, that a very good imitation has been produced in a short time, without any peculiar expense, and by the application of means only which are within the reach of very many artists and engravers in England; and when we reflect, to how very few hands the business of forgery appears to be at present confined, we cannot doubt that in the event of bank-notes being formed from any of such specimens, an equal number at least of persons would very soon indeed be found capable of fabricating those notes to a considerable extent, and with a degree of skill quite sufficient to deceive the public. Another consideration has also had weight in inducing us to hesitate much before we venture to recommend any specific plan. The adoption of any new form of note presenting peculiar and characteristic marks, but the imitation of which we could not confidently feel to be extremely difficult, would not only not do good, but would produce much evil; and would induce a false security, by accustoming the public to rely upon the appearance of such marks and peculiar character, rather than upon a cautious and general observation of the whole note.

Our remarks, however, as to imitation, do not apply to all the specimens which have been offered to us. There are a few of singular and superior merit, produced by means which it is very

improbable should ever come within the reach of any single forger, and the imitation of which, except by those means, appears in a high degree difficult.

Safety, or rather comparative safety, is to be sought, to a certain extent, in a combination of excellence in various particulars; but chiefly, as we conceive, in the application of a principle beyond the reach of the art of the copper-plate engraver, which in its different processes is possessed of the most formidable power of imitation. One plan, before alluded to as apparently affording this advantage, has been, with the most liberal assistance from the Bank, for some time past in a course of trial for its greater perfection, and with a view to combination with other improvements, satisfactory experiments of which have already been effected. The result, if our expectations be not disappointed, will afford a specimen of great ingenuity in the fabric of the paper, of great excellence in the workmanship, and of a very peculiar invention and difficult machinery in the art of printing. We confidently hope, that no long time will elapse before we are enabled to lay before your royal highness that result; and we have every reason to know, that the Bank directors are seriously anxious to adopt any plan which shall be found, after patient examination, to be worthy of adoption. In the mean time, we have thought it right not to delay informing your royal highness of the course of our proceedings. The investigation in which we have been engaged, has strengthened rather

than

than removed our feeling of the difficulties with which the whole subject is surrounded. We do not wish to represent those difficulties as precluding the propriety of an attempt to remove the exist ing evils, by a change in the form of the notes issued by the Bank of England; but we do feel them to be such as make it imperative upon those with whom the responsibility rests, to be fully satisfied that they shall produce an improvement before they venture to effect a change.

All which is humbly submitted to your royal highness's consideration and judgment.

Jos. BANKS.
WILLIAM CONGREVE.
WILLIAM COURTENAY.
DAVIES GILBERT.
JER. HARMAN.

W. H. WOLLASTON. CHARLES HATCHETT. Soho-square, Jan. 15, 1819.

COLONISTS TO THE CAPE OF
GOOD HOPE.

Official Circular.
Downing-street, London, 1819.
I have to acquaint you in re-
ply to your letter of the

that the following are the conditions under which it is proposed to give encouragement to emigration to the Cape of Good Hope.

The sufferings to which many individuals have been exposed, who have emigrated to his Majesty's foreign possessions unconnected and unprovided with any capital, or even the means of support, having been very afflicting to themselves and equally

burthensome to the colonies to which they have proceeded, the government have determined to confine the application of the money recently voted by address in the House of Commons, to those persons who, possessing the means, will engage to carry out, at the least, ten able-bodied individuals above 18 years of age, with or without families, the government always reserving to itself the right of selecting from the several offers made to them those which may prove, upon examination, to be most eligible.

In order to give some security to the government, that the persons undertaking to make these establishments have the means of doing so, every person engaging to take out the above-mentioned number of persons or families shall deposit at the rate of 10l. (to be repaid as hereinafter mentioned) for every family so taken out, provided that the family does not consist of more than one man, one woman, and two children under 14 years of age. All children above the number of two will be to be paid for, in addition to the deposit above-mentioned, in the proportion of 51. for every two children under 14 years of age, and 51. for every person between the ages of 14 and 18.

In consideration of this deposit, a passage shall be provided at the expense of government for the settlers, who shall also be victualled from the time of their embarkation until the time of their landing in the colony.

A grant of land, under the conditions hereafter specified, shall be made to him at the rate of 100 acres for every such per

son

son or family whom he so takes out; one-third of the sum advanced to government on the outset shall be repaid on landing, when the victualling at the expense of government shall cease. A further proportion of one-third 1 shall be repaid, as soon as it shall be certified to the governor of the colony that the settlers under the direction of the person taking them out are actually located upon the land assigned to them; and the remainder at the expiration of three months from the date of their location.

If any parishes in which there may be a redundancy of population shall unite in selecting an intelligent individual to proceed to the Cape, with settlers under his direction, not less in number and of the description abovementioned, and shall advance money in the proportion abovementioned, the government will grant land to such an individual at the rate of 100 acres for every head of a family, leaving the parish at liberty to make such conditions with the individual, or the settlers, as may be calculated to prevent the parish becoming again chargeable with the maintenance of such settlers, in the event of their return to this country.

But no offers of this kind will be accepted, unless it shall be clear that the persons proposing to become settlers shall have distinctly given their consent, and the head of each family is not infirm or incapable of work.

It is further proposed, that in any case in which one hundred families proceed together, and apply for leave to carry out with

them a minister of their own persuasion, government will, upon their being actually located, as-, sign a salary to the minister whom they may have selected to accompany them, if he shall be approved by the secretary of state.

The lands will be granted at a quit rent to be fixed, which rent, however, will be remitted for the first 10 years; and at the expiration of three years (during which the party and a number of families, in the proportion of one for every hundred acres, must have resided on the estate) the land shall be measured at the expense of government, and the holder shall obtain, without fee, his title thereto, on a perpetual quit rent, not exceeding in any case 21. sterling for every 100 acres; subject, however, to this clause beyond the usual reservations*. that the land shall become forfeited to government, in case the party shall abandon the estate, or not bring it into cultivation within a given number of years. I am, your most obedient humble ser

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for the purpose of considering how far it may be practicable and advisable to establish within his Majesty's dominions a more uniform system of weights and measures, having obtained such information as we have been able to collect, beg leave to submit with all humility the first results of our deliberations.

1. We have procured, for the better consideration of the subject referred to us, an abstract of all the statutes relating to weights and measures which have been passed in the United Kingdoms from the earliest times; and we have obtained from the country reports, lately published by the Board of Agriculture, and from various other sources, a large mass of information respecting the present state of the customary measures employed in different parts of the United Kingdom. We have also examined the standard measures of capacity kept in the Exchequer, and we have inquired into the state of the standards of length of the highest authority. Upon a deliberate consideration of the whole of the system at present existing, we are impressed with a sense of the great difficulty of effecting any radical changes, to so considerable an extent as might in some respects be desirable; and we therefore wish to proceed with great caution in the suggestions which we shall venture to propose.

2. With respect to the actual magnitude of the standards of length, it does not appear to us that there can be any sufficient reason for altering those which are at present generally employed.

There is no practical advantage in having a quantity commensurable to any original quantity existing, or which may be imagined to exist, in nature, except as affording some little encouragement to its common adoption by neighbouring nations. But it is scarcely possible that the departure from a standard once universally established in a great country, should not produce much more labour and inconvenience in its internal relations than it could ever be expected to save in the operations of foreign commerce and correspondence, which always are, and always must be, conducted by persons, to whom the difficulty of calculation is comparatively inconsiderable, and who are also remunerated for their trouble, either by the profits of their commercial concerns or by the credit of their scientific acquirements.

3. The subdivisions of weights and measures at present employed in this country, appear to be far more convenient for practical purposes than the decimal scale, which might perhaps be preferred by some persons for making calculations with quantities already determined. But the power of expressing a third, a fourth and a sixth of a foot in inches, without a fraction, is a peculiar advantage in the duodecimal scale, and for the operations of weighing and of measuring capacities, the continual division by 2 renders it practicable to make up any given quantity with the smallest possible number of standard weights or measures, and is far preferable in this respect to any decimal scale. We would

therefore

therefore recommend, that all the multiples and subdivisions of the standard to be adopted should retain the same relative proportions to each other as are at pre. sent in general use.

4. The most authentic standards of length which are now in existence being found, upon a minute examination, to vary in a very slight degree from each other, although either of them might be preferred without any difference that would become sensible in common cases, we beg leave to recommend, for the legal determination of the standard yard, that which was employed by general Roy in the measurement of a base on Hounslow heath, as a foundation for the trigonometrical operations that have been carried on by the ordnance throughout the country, and a duplicate of which will probably be laid down, on a standard scale, by the committee of the Royal Society appointed for assisting the astronomer royal in the determination of the length of the pendulum; the temperature being supposed to be 62 degrees of Fahrenheit, when the scale is employed.

5. We propose also, upon the authority of the experiments made by the committee of the Royal Society, that it should be declared, for the purpose of identifying or recovering the length of this standard, in case that it should ever be lost or impaired, that the length of a pendulum vibrating seconds of mean solar time in London, on the level of the sea, and in a vacuum, is 39.1372 inches of this scale; and that the length of the metre em

ployed in France, as the ten-millionth part of the quadrantal arc of the meridian, has been found equal to 39.3694 inches.

It

6. The definitions of measures of capacity are obviously capable of being immediately deduced from their relations to measures of length; but since the readiest practical method of ascertaining the magnitude of any measure of capacity is to weigh the quantity of water which it is capable of containing, it would, in our opinion, be advisable in this instance to invert the more natural order of proceeding, and to define the measures of capacity rather from the weight of the water they are capable of containing, than from their solid contents in space. will therefore be convenient to begin with the definition of the standard of weight, by declaring, that 19 cubic inches of distilled water, at the temperature of 50 degrees, must weigh exactly 10 ounces of troy, or 4,800 grains; and that 7,000 such grains make a pound avoirdupois; supposing, however, the cubic inches to relate to the measure of a portion of brass, adjusted by a standard scale of brass. This definition is deduced from some very accurate experiments of the late sir George Shuckburgh on the weights and measures of Great Britain; but we propose at a future period to repeat such of them as appear to be the most important.

7. The definitions thus established are not calculated to introduce any variation from the existing standards of length and of weight, which may be considered as already sufficiently well ascertained. But, with respect

to

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