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able, is thrashed out and disposed of. Candlemas being also tlicatual Scots term of paying rent, the farmers of small capitalare rather in haste to convert their grain into cash, that theyway be ready for pay-day, thus occasioning some degree of glutof the market, and reducing the price below the average. Heproposes Whitsunday as a time for striking fiars ; when the pri-ces, from the preceding November, would give a fairer averageof the whole price through the year. In this opinion, we con-cur with him.
He notices also the mode of procedure which has been fol-lowed by the Sheriffs of East Lothian, to counteract these ca-useaof error;—a mode which seems peculiar to that county, butwhich ought, perhaps, in justice to all concerned, to be univer-sally adopted, unless Whitsunday, instead of Candlemas , shallbe fixed as the time for striking the liars. In regard to eachparticular grain, a general average is taken of the whole pricesproduced in evidence; and this average is fixed as the medium,or second price of that grain ; An average is then taken of allthe prices that have exceeded this medium, and this average isfixed as the highest, or first price: An average is then taken ofall tile prices that have fallen short of the medium, and this ave-rage is fixed as the lowest, or third price. This being done, 21,per cent, is added to each, to compensate for the lowness of price,from being taken at a cheap season of the year.
Weights and Measures.
The uniformity of these would prevent much embarrassmentand uncertainty in the commerce of corn, and of every other ar-ticle.
No new act of the Legislature is at all required to producefiiis desirable end. It is already perfectly provided for by the17th article of the treaty of Union betwixt the two kingdoms,which ordains that the same weights and measures, which cou-ititute the legal standard of England, shall, thenceforward, con-stitute the legal standard of Scotland , and that standards of weightand measure shall be sent from the standards kept in the Exche-quer in Westminster.
That there actually exists a legal standard in England, is as-certained by very recent decisions of the English courts, whofiave decerned in the legal penalty, for using other than these le-gal standards. *
The author referred to in the note, takes, indeed, notice of adifficulty that hath occurred, although it seems of a kind which’night easily be overcome. He observes, that, in regard to Scot-land, both the Legislature, and our Supreme Court , seem equal-ly to have overlooked this 17th article of the treaty of Union j
Hutcheson's Justice of the Peace.