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 

 notation would result in a total failure. If Englishmen would con- 

 sider how much they would object to a decimal subdivision of the 

 Day and Hour, they would have some idea of the objection of the 

 Natives of India to a decimal division of Weight 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 sw^-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 proposed decimal 

 multiples* and binary sz^-multiples for India. The multiples of 

 the seer will bear a definite relation to British Weights and Mea- 

 sures ; the sw&-multiples will 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 Royal) 

 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 wiih English weights. 



