THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



307 



guineas. During the recent sales in Shropshire, as mentioned I considerable increase iu the number imported. The rapid 



in the local papers, a very spirited compatition has induced 

 very high prices, and a great number of rams from the flocks 

 of known breeders have realised from 20 to 50 guineas each. 

 It has been known that this class of sheep has been most suc- 

 cessfully introduced into Ireland, and so valuable has it been 

 found, that an increased demand has this year Isd to a very 



march of progress in the productions of agriculture renders 

 imperative on all breeders to study closely any defects, and by 

 well-applied judgment to remove them ; remembering that the 

 production of that class of animal which the soonest comes to 

 the best profit must be a desideratum which cannot be too 

 highly estimated. . S, 



THE DECIMAL QUESTION AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS' COMMITTEE. 



We have adverted on former occasions to the many 

 important questions of internal improvement that 

 would he adjourned to a more convenient season, in 

 consequence of the party struggle which ended in 

 the late dissolution of Parliament. We added, 

 " Wlio can say what events may take place in 

 that interval to cause a further postponement of 

 them?" These fears have been realized by the 

 Indian mutiny. The Government will be too much 

 occupied, first in putting it down, and then in 

 discussing questions as to the causes of it, and the 

 manner in which India is to bo governed hereafter, to 

 have leisure to attend to such humble matters as the 

 education of the people, agTicultural statistics, and the 

 establishment of a decimal system of money and of 

 weights and measures. 



The last of these questions, moreover, is likely to be 

 retarded by a crotchet which has taken possession of 

 some minds as to the advantages which would be derived 

 from abandoning our present units of money, of weights, 

 and of measures, and adopting the French metrical 

 system. We admit the beautiful symmetry of that 

 system. We admit the advantages which would follow 

 from uniformity in these matters, and, as well as 

 from one language, prevailing all over the world. But, 

 then, one may be considered as attainable as the other. 

 There is no question, however, but that it would greatly 

 facilitate all calculations, if our present unit of money, 

 whether of circulation or account, the pound sterling, 

 were divided throughout by ten; if the yard, the unit 

 of linear dimensions, and the imperial gallon, the unit 

 of capacity, were divided in the same manner. The 

 change would be more beneficial to the rising genera- 

 tion, than to the jjartially-educated classes of the pre- 

 sent, who had their "tables" flogged into them in early 

 life, and have become familiar with the intricacies 

 and anomalies of the present system. The benefits, 

 then, would be the greatest to the young, who would 

 be saved all the trouble and annoyance of mas- 

 tering the present system ; and to the uneducated 

 classes, who, in the calculations required, would 

 be placed in this respect on a level with the rich 

 and the educated. The ad captandutii argument, 

 therefore, about the poor-man's-penny falls to the 

 ground. The excuse in high quarters for giving the 

 question the go-by has been that the bulk of the 

 people do not demand it ; and they'never will de- 

 mand it, because they are the creatures of habit. 

 They do not understand the question, and they are 

 not aware of the advantages which they would 



derive from it. The change, moreover, would be less 

 beneficial to those who are, from long habit, expert in 

 business calculations. They are, consequently, less 

 alive to the evils of a system the absurdities and ano- 

 malies of which they mastered in early life, while the 

 possession of such knowledge forms a portion of their 

 s'uperiority, in their own eyes at least, to others. The 

 classes, therefore, to whom the change would be most 

 beneficial are precisely those the least able to ask 

 it, the poor and the young. The question, conse* 

 quently, must be urged on by the disinterested few. 

 If we wait for a decimal system till it is required of 

 us by the masses, we may wait, like the clown on the 

 river's bank, till the river runs itself dry. The object 

 of this article, however, is not so much the advocacy 

 of a decimal system in general, as the retention of 

 our present monetary unit, and units of length and 

 capacity, divided uniformly by ten and multiplied by 

 ten. Confining- ourselves, moreover, to the question 

 of the pound sterling, we are reminded that the number 

 of those who are guided by authorities is greater than 

 that of those who are accessible to argument. To such 

 it may be satisfactory to know that the weight of au- 

 thority is entirely iu favour of the jiound sterling, 

 dividing it by 10 throughout, instead of by 20, by 12, 

 and by 4. 



The Committee of the House of Commons, ap- 

 pointed on the decimal question in 1853, reported in 

 favour of this. Out of 27 witnesses examined before 

 that Committee, consisting of men the most eminent in 

 science, in politics, and in business, 20 gave their evi- 

 dence in favour of the retention of the pound sterling 

 as the monetary unit, divided throughoutin thecolumns 

 of our account-books and in our coinage or money of cir- 

 culation, by ten. The full benefits of the change would 

 only be obtained by the application of the same process 

 to our measures of length and capacity. But the first 

 step gained, the masses would soon see the advantage 

 of the second, and would demand, or, at any rate, readily 

 accept it. 



We will begin with a man eminent in science, and 

 versed in intricate calculations demanded by the office 

 of Astronomer Royal. " I can scarcely conceive it 

 possible," says Professor Airy, *' except by the mo.st 

 violent and offensive measures, to change the principal 

 money of account from its present value of the pound 

 sterling. An alteration of the value of the pound would 

 unhinge every contract in England. I say advisedly 

 every contract ; for the shilling is inseparably con- 

 nected loith the jfound, and every contract which is 



