306 The Decimal System. [July, 
exactly in his mother-tongue. The best way of learning a 
foreign language is undoubtedly to do without the aid of 
one’s own as soon as possible, and the same is true with 
regard to the change to the decimal system of weights, 
measures, and coinage. The less comparison there is 
between the old system and the new the better, and the 
more we learn the new system, so to speak, from itself, by 
its use and without reference to the old, the quicker and the 
better shall we be able to understand it. 
The great argument of our opponents seems to be that 
‘‘the common people would not understand the system, | 
and would not be able to use it.” Now on what is this 
belief based? Is there any reasonable ground for supposing 
that this would be the case? The change has been success- 
fully made in several other nations under as great difficulties 
as we should have to encounter. Do our opponents wish us 
to suppose that our own common people are below the 
common people of other nations in intelligence? For my 
own part, I cannot but think that, having the experience of 
other nations before our eyes, there is no reason to believe 
that we should fail on this score, and surely the common 
people of the United Kingdom are not willing to lie under 
the imputation thus thrust upon them. No; let us take all 
needful precautions; let us make the change as easy as 
possible; let us give all reasonable means to every man, 
woman, and child of learning the use of the decimal 
system, and then we need not fear to make the change. 
Moreover, I submit that, in that case, we should not be 
justified in delaying the change. It is neither reasonable 
nor desirable to make the lower classes the measure of the 
nation. We are bound to give them facilities for acquiring 
the use of the system, but, having done that, it is not our 
fault if they do not choose to avail themselves of those 
facilities; and the rest of the nation should not be deprived 
of an advantageous reform on their account. 
Let us now see how the change might best be effected ; by 
what precautions we can best overcome the difficulties that 
must inevitably arise. 
In the first place, as we have seen, the difficulty les 
in the change itself, and only exists during the transition stage. 
What is the conclusion? It is, that the transition stage 
should be made as short as possible. How may this best 
be done? Let it be agreed that the present system shall 
remain in force until some certain date, say, for instance, 
until the 1st of January, 1874, and that, from that date, its 
use shall be zlegal, and the use of the decimal systems here 
