Table of the Liquid Measures of the following Commercial Places, with their Contents in Imperial Gallons.

As general observations on foreign liquid measures, it may be noticed that they are usually more regular than the dry measures; that in most of the wine and oil producing countries the deliveries to merchants are, especially for the latter, more frequently by weight than by measure; and that in most of the Eastern countries weight only is used, even in minor transactions, except in the sale of imported spirits, when the English gallon, meaning the late wine gallon of this country, is commonly used.

Table of Commercial Measures of Length for the following Places, with their Equivalent Lengths in Imperial Yards.

Besides commercial measures of length, there are, in all countries, various other long measures, used for particular purposes. It is also to be observed that, except the metre of France, which is also used in the Netherlands, Belgium, and, partly for commercial purposes and generally for government purposes, in the Sardinian States, Lombardo-Venetia, other parts of Italy, Egypt, &c., no other measure has been compared with the English yard, with such precision as to warrant any great reliance being placed on their exact relations.

A Table of Corn Measures for the following principal Commercial Ports, with their Equivalent Contents in Imperial Quarters.

ASSESSMENT OF SPIRITS AND WINES.

The duties on spirits and wines are levied on quantity and strength conjointly.

The quantity in bottles and similar vessels is ascertained by measurement of their contents, and in casks by gauging -a branch of geometry or mensuration which determines the capacity of hollow bodies. The first of these processes calls for no special remark; with regard to the second, although it would be beyond the scope and intention of this work to repeat the detailed instructions which are promulgated at length in official books, a few general observations upon the substance and form of casks, and also upon the principles by which the strength of spirits is ascertained, may be found useful. As respects substance, if the interior of the cask or other vessel were accessible, the gauger's admeasurements would of course be internal; but as access to the interior is closed, except at the tap or bunghole, they are necessarily external, an allowance or deduction being made for the substance of the cask. It would be comparatively easy to make this allowance if the intervening substance were of an invariable or uniform thickness; but as the very opposite is generally the rule, the most careful examination and experienced judgment-and occasionally even experimental means-are requisite to determine the uncertainty. As regards form, the computations of the gauger are not made with the pen seriatim, and according to every variety of shape-a proceeding which would be too long and intricate for practical purposes, as well as liable to clerical errors-but by a scale calculated upon a fixed fundamental figure, any departure from which in the cask under examination has also to be rectified or compensated by certain additions to or deductions from the actual dimensions.

The changes and combinations of substance and form are infinite, and it is therefore impossible to give absolute directions to meet every variety. Any table or scale of allowances must always be subject to the judgment and

experience of the gauger: as his guide, only quantum valeat, it might otherwise be just as likely to mislead him; and the experienced officer entertains a wholesome distrust of appearances when he finds how often they are made the means of deceiving or over-reaching him. It will therefore be not infrequently found advisable to bore the cask in one or more places in the quarters and heads. This will seldom fail to detect any internal irregularity causing error or incertitude, and should never fail to lead to the discovery of any means of deception beyond the range of ordinary examination. Should the question, however, remain unsettled, recourse should be had to actual measurement by the standard gallon measure-the ultimate and only infallible test of accurate gauging; and every opportunity of applying it, if only as a corrective even, should be availed of, consistently with the despatch of business.

The object in view is to obtain an account of the quantity in the most convenient and expeditious way; and although gauging recommends itself by its practical merits for this purpose wherever it can be advantageously applied, still it is not infallible, and to refuse in cases of doubt or dispute to submit it to comparison with the measure it should represent, and was intended to ascertain, and which remains the rule in every other case, would be unreasonable. expense and loss of time, together with the possible deterioration to which it exposes delicate and valuable wine, will always operate as a sufficient check upon any abuse of it by the merchant.

The

The first step in gauging exhausts the difficulties, so that when the "content" is settled, further progress is comparatively simple and certain, and the "ullage," as the quantity contained is technically termed, can be charged from that point to the fraction of a gallon. Charging to a fraction, however, as a rule, is confined to spirits, chiefly to put them on the same footing as British spirits.

The means of ascertaining quantity are the same both for spirits and wines, but the strength is arrived at in a way peculiar to each, being direct in the one and indirect in the other.

The spirits of commerce are a mixture of water and alcohol in varying proportions. The first of these ingredients-water-is of no account in itself, being merely the