DECIMAL COINAGE. 243 



whole, put a stop to the work, and rendered all the efforts 1856. 

 which had been spent on it of no avail. 



After more meetings and much correspondence it was Renewed 

 agreed to bring the question again before Parliament, p^n! f 

 This was done on June 12, 1855, by Mr. Wm. Brown, who ment - 

 moved, after referring to the recommendations of the 

 Commission of 1838 for restoring the standards, to those 

 of the subsequent Eoyal Commission, and the Committee 

 of the House of Commons, that an address be presented 

 to her Majesty, praying her to complete the decimal 

 scale (already existing in the pound and the florin) by 

 authorising the issue of silver coins to the value of l-100th 

 of a pound, and copper coins to represent 1-1 000th part of 

 a pound, to be called respectively cents and mils, or such 

 other names as to her Majesty should seem advisable. 



The motion was seconded by Lord Stanley, now Earl 

 Derby, who cited the authorities of Babbage, De Morgan, 

 Pasley, and Huskisson, on the practicability and advantage 

 of the change. After showing the defects of several plans 

 proposed, he advocated that supported by the Decimal 

 Association, and introduced to the House by Mr. William 

 Brown. 



Mr. J. B. Smith moved an amendment that a humble 

 address be presented to her Majesty, praying that she 

 would be pleased to invite a congress of all nations in 

 some convenient place, with the view of considering the 

 practicability of adopting a common standard of money, 

 weights, and measures. 



Mr. Lowe (then M.P. for Kidderminster) made a very 

 amusing speech, to show, first, that the present system of 

 coinage did very well, and that the mischief of a change 

 would be greater than any good which could result from 

 it. Secondly, that the method proposed of decimalising 

 by division and not by multiplication was fallacious. He 

 would have a low unit, and multiply by tens. He 

 made humorous illustrations and allusions, and caused 

 much laughter. The then Chancellor of the Exchequer, 



B 2 



