244 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



Sir G. C. Lewis, expressed his belief that the time was not 

 come for the change, and recapitulated other plans as 

 possibly preferable to the one before the House. He spoke 

 of the opinion, already reported, of Sir J. Herschel, the 

 Master the Mint, as involving great difficulties. 



Finally two resolutions were carried : 



6 That in the opinion of this House the initiation of the 

 decimal system by the issue of the florin has been eminently 

 successful and satisfactory.' 



And 



' That a further extension of such system will be of great 

 public advantage.' 



But the practical resolution for an address to her 

 Majesty, praying for the completion of the scale by the 

 issuing of cents and mils, was withdrawn. The question 

 was therefore left by the House of Commons much as 

 it had been before, with the exception of the greater 

 publicity given to the arguments on both sides by the 

 debate. But a Commission was appointed to investigate 

 the whole subject of weights, measures, and coinage. 



In an article in the Westminster Review, in which a sum- 

 mary of the question was given, Mr. De Morgan, writing 

 of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ' the chief of our 

 financial Arithmetic,' says, 



The right honourable gentleman, after saying that 'there 

 are differences of opinion,' proceeds to give ' some of the 

 plans ' which have come under his observation. One is 

 the tenpenny plan; others are as follows: 1st. 10 farthings 

 or mils, one cent ; 10 cents one dime ; 10 dimes one prime. 

 2nd. 10 farthings or mils one coin unnamed ; 10 of these a 

 florin ; 10 florins a Victoria. 3rd. 10 farthings or cash two- 

 pence ; 100 cash a cent; 10 cents a mil. 4th. 10 farthings a 

 lion ; 10 lions a florin ; 10 florins a queen. To these four 

 * plans ' we beg permission to add two of our own invention, 

 as distinct from the above as the above are from one another. 

 Our first plan is 10 farthings a what's-his-name ; 10 what's-his- 

 names a how-d'ye-call-it ; 10 how-d'ye-call-its a thingembob. 

 Our second plan is 10 farthings a George ; 10 Georges a Corne- 

 wall ; 10 Cornewalls a Lewis. 



