238 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1856. to decimalise the money, and Sir John Bowring soon 

 after went to China. 



There is an article in the Companion to the Almanac 

 for 1848 by Mr. De Morgan. 1 He describes the state of 

 feeling at that time on the question as compared with 

 what it had been when it was first agitated. Eeferring 

 to the debate on Sir John Bo wring's motion, which re- 

 sulted in the introduction of florins, he says ' the Chancel- 

 lor of the Exchequer, in yielding the first step, rested his 

 non-acquiescence in the whole extent of the motion on 

 the want of public interest in favour of the question, and 

 the slow growth of belief adverse to existing usages. He 

 said, as plain as a Chancellor of the Exchequer could 

 speak, " Force me, and here I am ready to be forced." 



Since issuing the florin Government had taken no 

 further steps towards the complete decimalisation of the 

 coinage, but Sir John Bowring, who was in England in 

 1853, was still hopeful for more, and many of the most 

 enlightened friends to the measure, both mercantile and 

 scientific, were anxious that the efforts already made 

 should not be lost. In 1852 Mr. William Brown called 

 the attention of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce to 

 the importance of the question as regarded currency and 

 accounts, and a memorial was presented by the Chamber 

 in favour of the proposal already made. About the same 

 time the Royal Commission last appointed made its re- 

 port, which confirmed all the recommendations that had 

 been made by the Commission of 1838. The Com- 

 missioners expressed their hope that no new coins should 

 be issued except such as should be expressible by one 

 figure in the decimal scale, descending from the pound 

 sterling, and that every new coin should have marked 

 upon it its value with reference to the pound sterling. 



Early in the year 1853, Mr. (afterwards Sir) William 



1 In this article the Commission of 1838 is spoken of as the last 

 Commission on the subject, but it must be remembered that that of 

 1843 was still sitting, and did not report till 1853. 



