304 The Decimal System. [July, 
and India alone would be very great in the uniformity that 
would thus be established in all accounts. 
To India, too, considered alone, the benefit derived from 
the system advocated would be very great. The substitution 
of a rational system of weights and measures for that now 
in use would be highly beneficial, and the introduétion of 
gold coins would be a great relief. It is hardly realised in 
Eng gland, because not experienced, what a nuisance in 
carriage ‘and loss of time in counting is occasioned by the 
payment of any large sum of money in silver. 
I do not at present recollect the exact proportion between 
the weight of the sovereign and that of the florin or rupee, 
but it will be near enough for our present purpose to use the 
following equation :— 
The weight of 5 florins or rupees=the weight of 8 
sovereigns = 2 ounces troy. 
In order, then, to pay a sum of £40 we, in India, have to 
pay 400 rupees, that is to say, a weight of about 160 ounces 
troy as against a weight of about Io ounces, which would 
be necessary to pay the same sum in England. In other 
words, we have now to use in India 16 times the weight of 
a coin that would be necessary to pay any sum were a gold 
coinage in circulation here. And since any weight of silver 
occupies more space than the same weight of sold, it follows 
that the comparison between the bulks of gold and silver coin 
necessary to pay any sum is still more in favour of the gold. 
It would seem, then, that there is a large amount of 
argument in favour of England’s making a change to a 
decimal system of weights, measures, and coinage, and that 
for the weights and measures the metric system should 
be adopted; whilst for coinage it should be a decimal 
system 7” connection with the system used in France, Belgium, 
Switzerland, and Italy, and which is a part of the metric 
system. It must here be noted that it is of importance to 
adopt a system in connection with one in use by several 
nations, rather than with one in use by one nation only, 
although that one nation may be of the combined importance of 
the several nations ; for we thus have the adhesion of several 
nations instead of one only, and are to this extent nearer to the 
realisation of a universal system of weights, measures, and 
coinage; and the wniversality of the system is only second 
in importance to the fact of its being a decimal system. 
The proposal to introduce a decimal system of weights, 
measures, and coinage seems to have set people to work to 
endeavour to find out all the difficulties of the scheme. This 
looking out for the difficulties of any new scheme is but 
