not allowing sufficient mortar to be used; or too thin, and requiring too much mortar.
Perhaps one of the most effectual means that could be adopted, in the first instance, to remedy this unsatisfactory state of things, would be for the Government to supply corporate bodies with proper standards of length—such as the inch, the foot, and the yard. The corporate bodies themselves might then have their own standards of size, founded on these, and made to suit the particular wants of the different trades in the locality. The only standard of length at present supplied by the Government and kept by the corporate bodies is the standard yard; but there is so little attention paid to accuracy, that to the engineer and machinist it is not of the slightest use, and is only employed to adjust yard sticks for measuring woven goods.
There is also another subject which bears upon this question, and which has lately been before the Legislature—that of decimalising weights and measures. There can be no doubt of the beneficial results that would follow the passing of such a measure. There may be a difference of opinion as to what the unit or integer of lineal measure should be; but I think that it should be the inch, for, from the accuracy with which we can now measure that length, there would be no difficulty in determining and fixing
