JULY — SEPT. 1857.] for India, 
203 
I have also had occasion to recommend a decimal notation of the 
Assay reports of the Madras Mint. My own feeling on the sub- 
ject would therefore make me most anxious to adopt a Decimal sys- 
tem, and I would advocate it most strongly for England ; but for 
India, as India is at present, I cannot do so conscientiously, for I 
am convinced that it will be difficult enough to introduce any new 
Metrical system among a* people so peculiarly wedded to custom 
and usage, and that to attempt at the same time to introduce a new 
flotation would jesult in a total failure. If Englishmen would con- 
sider how much they would object to a decimal subdivision of the 
Dai/ and Hour, tliey would have some idea of the objection of the 
Natives of India tvP a decimal division of Y>'^eight and Measure. 
There is not the same difficulty in the decimal multiples of an ac- 
cepted Unit of Weight or measure, as there is in the 6'2<6-multiples. 
In England there would be less difficulty in introducing Weights 
of lOlbs. and lOOlbs., than those of lOths and lOOths of lbs., and 
Measures of 10 and 100 Gallons, than those of lOths and lOOths of 
Gallons, and it is on this account that I have jDroposed decimal 
multiples* and binary 5w6-multiples for India. The multiples of 
the seer will bear a definite relation to British Weights and Mea- * 
sures ; the s?/5-multiples w'ill not, but then the definite relation is 
not so much required when small quantities only are in account. 
The question is not which is theoretically the best system, but 
which can be so introduced, as to secure equivalents with the Bri- 
tish system, and at the same time preserve some established stand- 
ard of the country. The intrinsic merit of a Decimal Coinage 
will not be denied, and yet I have not met with any one acquaint- 
ed with India, who would venture on a change. The same rea- 
sons influence me in objection to a Decimal Metrical System for 
India. In some respects, the latter is of more difficult introduc- 
tion than the former. Professor Airy, (the Astronomer Ro\''al) 
stated in his address at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Feb. 
28th, 1854, that " a decimal scale could be, and ought to be, en- 
forced in coinage, but scarcely in any thing else ;" and as regarded 
* That is multiples of the seer. No decimal multiples of the tola, will cor- 
respond ^vith English weights. 
J 
