1872.] The Decimal System. 301 
this would do away with most of the inconvenience of which 
he so loudly complains. 
Further, it must be remembered that while the advantages 
of the change will extend to all ages, the zuconveniences will 
be confined to the generation existing during the transition 
stage, and to most even of them fora year or so at the furthest. 
The shorter the transition stage the less will be the inconvenience. 
We will now turn to the question of the system of coinage. 
Here another consideration complicates matters, viz., what 
metal shall be employed as the standard. In England we 
have gold, whereas the French standard is silver. As it is 
to be expected that gold and silver will vary in their relative 
value, it is necessary to choose one of the two as our standard, 
so long as we employ them for the purposes of the currency. 
Opinion in England seems decidedly in favour of keeping 
gold as the standard; and, moreover, the franc, the standard 
coin of the French, is very small for such a purpose. 
It has been proposed to coin a piece of 25 francs, and to: 
divide this into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. This 
would differ but little from our present sovereign, and if 
France would adopt gold as her standard, this system would 
seem the most feasible that could be devised. 
It would be a great advantage to introduce the decimal 
system for coinage at the same time as the decimal system for 
weights and measures. ‘There would thus be only one 
change. ‘The metric system of weights and measures has 
already been largely adopted, and therefore it seems desirable 
for us to adopt that system in preference to any other decimal 
system. ‘The franc, too, has been adopted to some extent, 
as, for instance, by Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. It 
would be a step gained, therefore, if we could adopt a decimal 
system of coinage which would chime in as much as possible 
with the system already in use in several countries. 
The afore-mentioned proposal would effect this. A coin 
might be struck exactly equal to 25 francs, and approximately 
to our present sovereign. Thismight becalled the ‘‘ standard,” 
and would have the advantage of giving as its tenth part a 
piece equal to 2 francs 50 centimes exactly, and approximately 
equal to our florin, and also (what 1s of no mean importance) to 
the vupee, which may be called the universal coin of India. 
The hundredth part of the standard would be exactly 25 
centimes, or approximately 23 pence, and the thousandth 
part exactly 23 centimes, or about our farthing. The tenth, 
hundredth, and thousandth parts might, if it were thought 
desirable, receive names, and for this purpose the words 
““ dimes,” “ cents,” and “‘ mills” have been proposed. 
