6 mission, embracing representatives of high attainments, from fourteen different nations and countries, was instituted at the Congress of 1860, lield in London, to report a system for consideration at the present session. The undersigned, on taking his seat in the body, was invited, in behalf the United States, to confer and unite with that Commission in its proposed and forthcoming report. A draft of that report had been printed, presenting, in review, the different nations which had adopted, or were disposed to adopt, tlie metric system of weights and measures, but in which it was stated that “ the Confederate States of America have expressed a desire to introduce the metric system of weights and measures.” The undersigned, on perceiving the statement, protested at once against its propriety, or its admission into the report, on the ground that the “Confederate States,” so called, had no separate, national lawful existence, but still formed integral portions of the United States of America. The objection was acquiesced in, and the words in question were modified so as to read, “ Some of the States of America have expressed a desire,” &c., Ac. The statement is known to be true in respect to some of the States of South America, and possibly as to some of the States of our American Union. The propositions presented by that Commission to the Congress in respect to weights, measures and coins, looking to an eventual change in the weight of the British sovereign and of 'the American dollar to reduce them to even multiples of the franc, with the modifications which these propositions underwent in the Congress, are of so much importance and gravity, that the undersigned will require some little time for reporting them fully, with the necessary accompanying documents, to the Government of the United States. He will seek to do so, with all practicable despatch, after his return to America. The subject necessarily embraces the grave and difficult question of the relative value of gold and of silver, present and prospective, and
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