1872.] The Decimal System. 307 
proposed compulsory. Meanwhile, from the present date, 
numbers of specimens of the new weights, measures, and 
coinage might be made by the Government. These should 
not be for actual use in business, but merely for exhibition, 
in order to render the public familiar with them. We have 
already said that it is desirable to avoid translation as much 
as possible, and learn the new system from itself alone, and 
by its use. 
Let the Government supply each shopkeeper with a set 
of such weights or measures, on the new system, as he 
would use in his business on the condition of his displaying 
them in his window. On the ist of January, 1874, these 
sample weights and measures would become the property of 
the shopkeeper, and the Government would take up his old 
weights or measures and destroy them as such, utilising 
them in some other manner. 
Further, every school should be supplied with a complete 
set of weights and measures according to the new system, 
and the scholars should be instructed in their use, and made 
familiar with their appearance and size. 
Tables, of course, would be prepared showing the exact 
relations of the weights and measures of the new system to 
those of the old; but at the same time the comparison 
between the two systems should not be encouraged beyond 
what was absolutely necessary for the equitable settlement 
of claims. 
If we do not adopt the decimal system for our weights, 
measures, and coinage we shall deserve even greater 
reproaches than have been heaped upon the workmen 
who destroyed the machinery of Arkwright and_ his 
brother inventors. For here we have a machine which is 
beautifully simple, with the working of which we are 
already familiar, and which would save labour to every man, 
woman, and child in the kingdom, and we refuse even to 
apply it to a new use. 
There is no nation which has such a commerce as our 
own, and, consequently, there is no nation which would 
benefit so much by the adoption of a decimal system. 
Let us, therefore, no longer delay; let us recollect that the 
longer we delay the greater will the change be, and let us 
boldly make the change at once. 
In conclusion, it is scarely necessary to state that the 
present article has not been meant as a dissertation on the 
decimal system. There are already many and excellent 
publications on the subject. The writer of this article is 
convinced that it can only be the fact that the great 
