The Northern Daily Times. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-29 00:00:00

South American colonies from Spain, they adopted the decimal system. In Canada they found the old system. of pounds, shillings, and pence so inconvenient, that they in troduced a law for the adoption of decimal coinage. Even in Bermuda they followed the example. Portugal, which had the decimal system of coinage, was about adopting the same system in weights and measures. Every gentleman who had travelled in Spain or in Germany knew the extreme difficulty of understanding their money ; and foreigners coming into England had just the same difficulty in under standing the system here. The coins recommended by the parliamentary committee were pounds, florins, cents, and mils, People might keep their accounts under this system In any way which they found most convenient. They might put down £l, 999 mils, if they thought fit, placing the deci mal point after the £l. They might call it £l, 9 florins, 99 mils, or farthings, for he might call them farthings, they only being 4 per cent. less than the the farthings in use at present. They might divide the account if they pleased into four columns, and write £l, 9 florins, 9 cents, 9 mils. The coins which it would be necessary for change, taking the sovereign as the unit, were the half-sovereign, which Would be 500 mils, the crown 2 50 , the half-crown 125, the florinloo, the shilling 50, and the sixpence, 25. They would perceive that none of these coins were coins of ac count except the sovereign and the. florin ; but they would be very convenient for change. It was further recommended by the committee that 10, 20, and 30 cent. pieces should be coined as the half-crowns, shillings, and sixpence were called in, gradually to replace them. It was by no means necessary that the present coins should be withdrawn Until the new coins were substituted. Provided each coin had the number of farthings marked upon it which it repre sented, the public could have no difficulty in understanding that the piece marked 50 farthings was precisely the same as the present shilling, and the piece marked 26 farthings the same as the present sixpence. It was also recommended that they should have a live-mil piece, a two-mil piece, and a one mil piece. He very much doubted, however, whether they did not rather overlook some very important evidence given by Sir John Herschel, and 'Mr. Miller, assistant cashier of the Bank of England. If those gentlemen's views had been entertained, the whole coinage of England might have been decimalised in a day by proclamation. The large penny which was in circulation in the country, and which was easily known by its broad rim, might, according to his suggestions, be marked 5 mils, the small penny 4 mils, the halfpenny 2 mils, and the farthing one mil. Mr. Miller explained that in his position in the bank he was aware that the large penny and the small penny came in in such proportions that the publii neither gained nor lost—if any thing the public gained two per cent and the government lost it, but so many of the coins were received that the government would probably lose nothing. If the copper coin of the country were equally distributed between the people, each individual would hold 9d., and those who held the small penny would be losers in one and one-twenty fourth of a farthing. The ex-governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Hankey, gave very good evidence, stating. that they had there found it convenient to adopt the decimal system in the buying and selling of bullion. Sir John Herschel stated that he approved of what the bank had done, and that he would follow their example at the earliest possible period, so far as the mint was concerned. General Paisley, who had written one of the most able and sensible works in 1834 which had been published upon the subject, a work which could not be too generally read, showed the great discrepancy in weights and measures which existed throughout the country, so that persons scarcely ever knew what a bushel represented in other places, or a pound, or what quantity other persons meant in using these terms. The pound of butter was 10 ounces in one place, 16 ounces in another, 20 ounces in another, and so with all other matters. General Paisley and Mr. Taylor gave very strong examples of the saving of labor which would be effected by the introduc tion of the decimal system. A calculation which with the decimal system, 66 figures, required, n what he might call their present barbarous system, 208 figures. Thus the saving of time was really of itself a consideration of very great importance. Professor de Morgan told the committee—and he believed with a great deal of truth, be cause it was confirmed by the other evidence they had re ceived that the saving of labor to the master in teaching, and the scholar in learning, arithmetic, would be more than half saved by the introduction of the decimal system. The astronomer royal confirmed the views of Professor de Mor gan as to the saving of time and labour in calculation ; and , stated that mapy astronomical observations could not be ear -1 ried on without it, and that it was essential to the man of ) science. It would be found that the introduction of the sys tem in the smaller coins would be equally important to the poor. Mr. Kirke and Mr. Lindsay gave very valuable evi dence upon that point. Each of them managed 12 or 14 shops, some in London and some in Liverpool. He had al ways felt convinced, and he thought the evidence before the parliamentary committee bore out the opinion, that they never sufficiently appreciated the intelligence and aptitude of the labouring classes ; and he did not think there would be any difficulty in the way of their understanding the pure decimal system, and nothing else but the pure decimal sys tem Would produce the advantages which were desired. Mr. Bevan, one of the bankers, gave very excellent evidence upon the advantages which would be produced by the decimal sys ' tem, in facilitating the operations of the banking system. The Duke of Leinster explained that when the currency was changed in Ireland, and the 13d. Irish changed to the 12d. British, he had no difficulty in enabling his labourers to un derstand it, when once he had explained to them that the 12d. English would go as far, in buying eggs or butter, as the 13d. Irish. In Ireland, owing to the great scarcity of coin, there had been issued tenpenny tokens. There was no difficulty whatever about it, because the people knew that they would be redeemed. In a visit to the north of Ireland in 1809, he found that the linen sellers were paid by the linen-drapers always in gold, and travelled from market to market with large rolls of gold in their poekets. It was thought desirable that they should become accustomed to receive bank notes in payment, and a large quantity of gold and silver was changed into notes, and in a short time they found the notes were much more convenient to carry, more safe and more portable than the guineas. Another effect was this, which appeared to him to deserve much considera tion. Many parties who could not read before learned to read in order that they might understand the bank notes in which they were to be paid, so that in an educational point of view the change was most desirable. Mr. Arbuthnot also gave very valuable evidence, but he remarked that the chief difficulty, he apprehended, was that the industrial people, the hard-working men w ould no t so readily com prehend the change. Now he (Mr. Brown) totally disagreed With that. He thought, that the industrial classes had a great deal of aptitude for calculation, and that they under ,• stood the value of farthings and pence better than many persons in the higher classes did of pounds. It had been suggested that if an attempt were made to equalise the coinage of all the great countries of the world it would be in advantage. There was no doubt that if every country adopted precisely the same quantity of gold and silver, and the same fineness, it would be an , advantage. But the objection was this. They were all aware, from history, that it had been frequently the practice of despotic monarchs in order to meet the exigences of the times, to put more alloy in the coin. He remembered himself that in the United States when gold and silver were equal tenders, the sovereign was taken at 4 dollars and 44 cents ; but as they found that their gold was leaving them in order to get more in, they raised the value of the sovereign to 4 dollars 84 cents at which it now stood. At this moment they were also contemplating depreciating the value of silver 7 per cent. With respect to the exchanges, they all knew that through out the whole mercantile civilised world the pound sterling was the basis of all exchange operations, and that any change in that respect would cause a degree of derangement and inconvenience which could scarcely be contemplated. (Hear, hear). Indeed Pro fessor De Morgan and the astronomer royal stated that it would be fatal to any system to attempt to change the sovereign so as to make it otherwise than the unit of account. He had really felt the question to be of so much importance, that to endeavour to impress it upon the Public, he had taken some trouble in disseminating the report of the decimal coinage committee, and he had letters from the Society of Arts which quite approved of the steps he had taken. They were in correspondence with five or six hundred societies, and meant to publish the letter with such remarks as they thought fit to add. With regard to the government, he should observe that no government liked to move unless they found that public opinion sustained them ; and he believed that the government at present were per fectly in unison with the views of the decimal coinage com mittee if they got proper support. (Hear, hear). That was one reason why he took the liberty of calling upon his wor ship the Mayor to convene that meeting, that full informa tion might be supplied upon the subject. As there were many speakers who were qualified to place the matter before the meeting in a much better light than he could do, he did not know than it was necessary for him to take up any more of their time that by reading the resolution and moving its adoption. Mr Brown then again read the resolution and moved that it be adopted by the meeting. After which he resumed his seat amid loud applause. Mr. Boucir, the vice-president of the chamber of win k tierce, was then called upon to second the motion. He re marked that in the absence of the president it devolved upon him to second the resolution which had just been read. He ; did so with a great deal of pleasure, and after the very able speech which Mr. Brown had delivered, he would only be , needlessly occupying their time in at all expatiating on the subject. It was,_ however, necessary that he (Mr. Bouch) should give to Mr. Brown the credit which he had not taken to himself, and which he so richly deserved. Although he had been pleased to state that the chamber of commerce ap- Pointed a committee to investigate the question, it was right to tell the meeting that Mr. Brown brought the subject before the chamber of commerce by a letter expressly connected With it. (Hear, hear). It afforded him (Mr. Bouch) the greatest satisfaction, as an officer of the chamber of commerce, to find that the labours of the committee had been seconded, carried out, and confirmed by a committee of the house of commons, whose report they had been at the trouble to re- Print, and they would be glad if any gentleman present of take the trouble of perusing a copy of it. The house ut commons had satisfied itself, after a very patient investi gation, that the decimal system of coinage was absolutely ne c.csaary to carry on the commercial pursuits of this great nintry, and it did seem to him to be very remarkable that a aouatry like England should be almost the last to take up ' I lOWA which was becoming almost universal, and which there could be no question would eventually become uni versal. He would just add a few remarks, from the report of the committee, which really expressed everything which could be desired in favour of the alteration, and the result they had arrived at : "In conclusion, your committee, having well weighed the comparative merits of the existing system of coinage, and the decimal system, and the obstacles which must neces sarily be met with in passing from one to the other, desire to repeat their decided opinion of the superior advantages of :the decimal system, and to record their conviction that the obstacles referred to are not of such a nature as to create any doubt of the expediency of introducing that system, so soon as the requisite preparation shall have been made for the purpose by means of cautious, but decisive action on the part of the government. " They believe that the necessary inconvenience attending a transition state will be far more than compensated by the great and permanent benefits which the change will confer upon the public of this country, and of which the advan tages will be participated in to a still greater extent by future generations." This resolution did not commit the meeting to any particular mode in which this great measure should be carried out; but it merely asked them to confirm what the chamber of commerce in the first instance, the house of commons in the second, and the community at large, he hoped and trusted did think necessary ; and then the mode in which it should be carried out, they left to the parliament or country. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Bouch) had that morning received, and with that extract he would conclude what he had to to say, from one of the most active actuaries in town, a man at the head of a large public establishment here, and who came to them from :London, who was himself a mathemati cian of no mean celebrity ; in a letter hastily addressed to him (Mr. Bouch) that morning he used these words : " I do trust that Liverpool merchants will take the oppor tunity, without pausing to weigh the comparative values of the various plans proposed, unanimously to signify their wish for a decimal coinage. Professor de Morgan truly states that they diminish labor from one-half to four-fifths, or, indeed, he might have said more. Those computations, with which I am professionally more acquainted, would be almost impracticable if we did not first reduce the present coinage into decimals. Besides this, lam strongly im pressed with the conviction that decimal arithmetic is so admirably simple, that its knowledge :is attainable by the most ordinary intellect. It may almost be said of it that it pictorially represents the principle of computation to the eye of the pupil." (Hear, hear.) He thought that remark very much to the purpose. (Hear hear.) Before sitting down he would again allude to the merits of their worthy county member, not only on this, but on every public measure that had been his (Mr. Bouch's) good fortune to be engaged with him in, his services had been untiring, most strenuous, and had never failed to carry those measures through to a final result. He hoped he should be equally successful on this occasion. (Cheers.) Mr. BROWN wished to say one word in explanation. He had stated that a great deal of labour would be saved ; it would be a labour-saving machine, of which they quite understood the value in Lancashire, if they adopted the decimal system of accounts and calculations. But the effect would be this . it would enable us better to meet our com petitors in the markets of the world ; it would enable us to cheapen our fabrics, and so far from throwing people out of work here, it would increase the demand for hands, in order to produce the fabrics for foreign export ; and every labor saving machine was of the greatest national importance, as they had ample proof of in Lancashire. (Applause.) He was glad to see that the press generally had taken the same view of the subject as the resolution which he proposed took. (Applause.) He reminded the gentlemen present that all parliamer tary documents could be ordered through their booksellers from Hansard's, where they were always on sale. The resolution was then unanimously agreed to. Mr. TROY(As B. HORSFALL, M.P., came forward to pro pose the second resoluti on , an d was ondly cheered. He said he had great pleasure in briefly moving the second resolu tion ; that resolution, recognising the principle which was proposed in the first resolution, and which had been unanimously assented to by the meeting, pro ceeded to show the benefits which would accrue from the adoption of the decimal system to every class of the community,—to the scholar and school-master, the merchant and clerk,-the contractor, engineer, and man of science, the humblest individual as well as the wealthiest in the community, and as if it did not embrace everybody it should all other parties. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Now he quite concurred with this resolution ; it would confer a very general benefit, he might say an universal benefit. (Hear, hell%) And he (Mr. Horsfall) was very much sun, prised, alluding to the object of the meeting, to hear the other day an objection, which he believed the mayor heard also, that this meeting was somewhat inopportune ; that questions of much greater importance than that of decimal coinage were now agitating the country—(hear, hear) ; that the necessities of her Majesty's government, and the anxie ties of the country were all engaged in the question of peace or war ; and that it would be somewhat out of place for the inhabitants of Liverpool to meet on the subject of decimal coinage instead of meeting on the subject of peace or war. (Hear, hear.) Now he (Mr. Horsfall) thought there was a little difference between meeting on those two questious. (Hear, hear.) They met to-day with the view of informing her Majesty's government what the view of the people of Liverpool was on the question of decimal coinage, to enable them to legislate on it ; but he apprehended if they were to have a meeting on the question of peace or war, they must wait until they know whether they were at peace or war ; they must wait until parliament met, and until they knew what her Majesty's government had done, and what they intended to do, and then it might be necessary in consequence to m ee t t o know whether they were to have peace or war, or what they were to do. (Hear, hear.) But they were not to let an important question like this, and he desired not to diminish its importance, to stand in the way of every other improvement. (Applause.) If that had been the case they might have been doing nothing for the last six months. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Horsfall) thought this a very important question, and one upon which the inhabitants of the town ought to inform the government what their views were, and that it was important they should have the decimal system estatablished. (Hear, hear.) They might not all agree as to the exact details, as to the exact method in which the system should be carried out. They had had many very excellent plat - is proposed to them. The first was a plan proposed by the chamber of commerce more thanitwelve moutheago, and to:which reference had been already made ; and he Would just like to add the scheme proposed by the chamber of commerce in a letter addressed to the president of the board of trade, before the appoint ment e l h t amwasbera, an le d tt p e r r op si o g se n d ed th b a y t th M e r c . oi H na o g r e nb sh y o , of th e comm i ttee of the House o Commons took place. u p id re b s e id a en so t ve o r f ei t g li n e equal to a thousand cents, half a sovereign equal to five hundred cents, a crown equal to two hundred and fifty cents, a half-crown equal to one hundred and twenty-five cents, a florin equal to one hundred cents, a shilling fifty cents, a sixpence twenty-five, and four' pence, if maintained, six teen and two-third cents, threepence twelve and a half cents, and one penny five cents. In that there were many of the views adopted by the the committee, but Mr. Brown had stated, perhaps more clearly than he (Mr. Horsfall) could state them, what the views of the committee of the house of commons were. He would just read an extract from their own report : "As respects the coins, it will be necessary to withdraw from circulation certain of the coins at present in use, and to substitute in their place certain other coins having refe rence to the decimal scale, before the decimal system can be considered as fully developed. Your committee contem plate the retention under any circumstances, of the present sovereign (1000 mils,) half-sovereigns (500 mils,) florin (100 mils,) and shilling (50 mils, or 5 cents.) The present sixpence, under the denomination of 25 mils, might be re tained, and the crown, or piece of 250 mils, of which few are in circulation, need not be withdrawn. On the other hand, it will be desirable to withdraw the half-crown, and the threepenny and fourpenny pieces, which are inconsistent with the decimal scale. " With regard to the coins not in actual existence at pre sent, but which it will be necessary eventually to introduce, your committee refer to the evidence taken by them on the subject. It appears to them that copper coins of 1,2, and 5 mils, and silver coins of 20 and 10 mils will be required, to which should be added such others as experience may show to be desirable. It is important, however, to bear in Fund, that the smaller the number of the coins with which it is practicable to effect purchases and exchanges, the better. " Your committee feel that a certain period of preparation, destined to facilitate the transition from the present to the new system, is indispensable. During such a transition pe riod, various measures should be adopted with a view to pre pare the way for ulterior changes, and to create in the public mind a desire for their completion. Several of the proceed ings on the part of her majesty's mint, which would ulti mately become necessary, might be adopted at the present time without introducing any elements inconsistent with the existing system of coinage and accounts. Your committee believe that no unnecessary delay should prevent the full in troduction, of the decimal system, and they recommend that the necessary preparatory measures should be entered on at the royal mint as soon as possible." This was much in unison with a part of the report of the chamber of commerce ; but there were other, and what appeared to him important, suggestions indeed, which had been thrown out in a very able pamphlet by Mr. Theodore Rathbone, which some of the gentlemen present might have seen. Mr. Rathbone was asked by some of his friends to put his statement in as simple a form as he could, and according to his view, which was to retain—it adopted 10d. instead of ls.— the penny and so forth. He said, there is literally nothing proposed or required, but to exchange shillings (or twelve pences) for ten pences, in our accounts, and to stamp in every circulating coin, what ever its value, the figure or figures giving that value in ten pence and pence. The legislature have but to render pounds, ten pence, and pence,—or (at option) simply ten pence and pence, the only legal forms of account, and to provide for stamping the existing coinage. That in his (Mr. Horsfall's) opinion, was a very valuable suggestion, and he merely laid it before the meeting, in order that they might consider the different views which had been proposed to them, that they might ultimately arrive at the best. (Hear, hear.) Now, in addition to that, there was one by Dr. Grey, the celebrated curator to the British museum. He confessed he was very much himself in favor of leaving as many of their coins in circulation as they could, (hear, hear,) and the two letters which Mr. Brown had read to them, one from a member of the committee, Lord Stanley proposed to substitute farthings for mill. Mr. Howson, the master of the Collegiate Institution, proposed to retain pounds, shillings, and pence, and substitute farthings for the mills. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Horsfall) only adduced those different views to show there was a con siderable difference of opinion as to carrying out the details. They were all agreed on the grand principle ; and at the preliminary meeting, it was decided they should ask the meeting to assent only to the great principle that the decimal system was advisable, leaving it to the legislature ultimately to carry out the details in the way that would be most applicable and most acceptable to the country. (Applause.) He (Mr. Horsfall) joined most cordially in the thanks which had been rendered to Mr. Brown, not only for his services in the committee of the chamber of commerce, with reference to their present meeting, but he knew well the assiduity with which he at tended to his duties as chairman of the parliamentary com mittee in London ; and if it had not been for Mr. Brown's practical experience in the committee, he (Mr. Horsfall) very much questioned whether they should, taken as a whole, have such an admirable report as they had now before them. (Applause.) He (Mr. Horsfall) spoke, of course, on the general principles ; the general system, differing as they all did, more or less, in the details. For his own part, although he had what might be called a comparatively limited view of the whole question—for he certainly had not given the question the time and attention which Mr. Brown had de voted to it—he confessed his own leanings at present were rather to the views proposed by Mr. Rathbone. He did not, however, commit himself to those or to any other views. He stood there very much in favour of the general principle, and if he could only ascertain, as one of their representa tives, what their views were on the details of this question, he would do his utmost to carry them out. (Applause.) He had great pleasure in moving the resolution, which will be found in our advertising columns. Mr. PICTON seconded the resolution. He said the subject they were met to consider, was one which they all admitted was of great importance, not merely to a, great commercial community, but to every man, woman, and child in the kingdom. He was glad their attention was rather directed to the principle of decimal coinage, than to the particular mode in which it might hereafter be expected to carry it out. The object which he (Mr. Picton) had in view was, to ren der the principle as simple and as intelligible as he possibly could, because in certain quarters there was a mistrust and misapprehension of what was proposed by the present plan. It seemed to be thought by many, that the system of deci malising their coinage was one of artificial difficulty and abstruse character ; and consequently, to those not masters of figures, and not accustomed to computation, it would be a work much more difficult than at present. Now, on the contrary, so far from being artificial, it was the only natural system of arithmetic in existence : and so far from having complicated calculations, it would be so simple under the decimal system, that any person who was now able to add two figures together, could calculate decimally to the greatest amount. The system of decimals was simply the art of computing by tens. Why was it, that after counting ten,they began again, and counted on to twenty, thirty, and so on ? Any man who had got ten fingers, and was able to count them, could furnish an answer. The system was derived from the digits, as they called the fingers. They found in every nation the least ad vanced in civilisation this system of computing by tens in full operation. This being so, the next step in the progress of figures was to write them down. That had been done in a variety of ways, which, for the purposes of calculation, were found extremely cumbrous, until, a few centuries ago, the Arabic numerals were introduced in Europe. Thcse figures increased ten, from one to another, as they went from right to left. By adopting this system they carried out the principle of decimal computation with completion and satis faction, and so far as the integers went there was nothing to be desired. They had the decimal system complete, but un fortunately when they attempted to apply it to fractions, they were met by this difficulty, that the sub-divisions of the in teger of their coinage and weights and measures, did not fit the decimal system. They originated in a rude state of so ciety to which they might be very well fitted ; but in the present day, when quickness of computation was of the greatest importance, there was the greatest difficulty in making the systems fit each other, and hence the present plan. The present movement should not be confined to the coinage alone, for its advantages would be equally felt when carried out as regarded weights and measures. They would hear the advantages to be derived from this system in teach ing. Arithmetic was the great bugbear of the school-boy. They all remembered the school-boy rhymes after getting past simple arithmetic— " Addition is not my ambition, Subtraction drives me to distraction; Multiplication is my vexation, And long division drives me mad." If this system were changed, arithmetic, instead of being a school boy's dread, would become a recreation ' as simple as learning to read, and could be c arr i e d ou t with the great est ease in every department of life they should be, accom plishing a great step in regard to the education of their young persons. There were some questions according to their present system of computation which could not be resolved without referring to a round-about cumbrous system. For instance, if he had £l6 17s. 21d. to pay in sums of 13s. 7d. each, how was he to do it ? They had no rule in arithmetic which told him how to do it ; and the only way to do it was to bring the sums into the lowest de nominations, farthings, then divide the one by the other, and then bring the denomination to shillings and pounds back By yeals could the h again. If decimals were adopt e d they had only to divide yunwt which they one by the other, and the thin g was done without any trou ble. 17s.Ag a 4 in id t . h b ey y hadthe same o me ruleamthingg multiply could be done without difficulty. Look at the difficulty to a young person of computing a question of this kind, 165 cwt. 2qrs. and 271b5., at £1 2s. 7d. per cwt. What a cumbrous difficult question this was. They were obliged to have recourse to tables which were liable to misprints and mistakes, when if they had the simple decimal of the pound they could work the question with the greatest ease and facility. If instead of 165 cwt. 2qrs. and 271bs. that were written down with divisions, and £1 : 2 : 7 were multiplied into it, the simple product was what you exactly required, and see what an enormous amount of time was saved by the operation. Such was the simplicity of this system that was forcing itself into use, that the bank of England had aban doned the ordinary method of computing the value of bul lion, and had adopted the decimal system, which was also adopted by the bullion brokers of London. In computing the interest of the national debt for the purpose of paying the dividends at the bank of England, if they were to con fine themselves to the ordinary denomination of pounds, shillings, and pence, there would be in us i ng f ract i ons either a loss by omitting them, or a gain to the creditor, by taking the next higher denomination, of many thousands a year, and the consequence was the decimal system had forced itself into use there, and the result was by that sys tem the loss or gain instead of being so many thousands was reduced to somewhere about £5OO. In land measuring the decimal system had been in use for a long period, for it was f oun d i mposs ibl e to obtain denominations to compute the area of land without recourse to the decimal system, and for that purpose a chain of 22 yards, the square of which formed one -tenth of an acre, had been for many years in use. Engineers and t con ractors, in the various business which they had to carry on, availed themselves in computing for earthworks, &c., in connection with railways, machinery, the power of steam engines, the proportion of wheels, and the various matters to which scientific men di rected their attention. There was a point to which he wished to direct the attention of the commercial public. On 'change there were two methods of computing prices —the one by the large integer, such as tons, hundreds, &c. ; the other, re lating to cotton, and articles in greater value, which were sold by the lb., in the sales of which they quoted farthings, one-eighths, and seldom one-sixteenths. Therefore, there was seldom a break in the prices from one-eighth to one sixteenth, or from one-sixteenth to one-eighth; but, as the one-eighth was the 1,920 part of a pound, every break in prices corresponded with the amount. If it were rendered into a thousand parts, under the decimal system, by simply adding the figures, they obtained ten thousand; therefore they had a wide range, and prices would adjust and accom modate themselves much nearer than by anything at present in use. So, also, with regard to frei g ht s . F re i g h ts on cotton were paid by halfpence, one-eighths, &c., an.' if the decimal system were adopted, the calculations could be made so as to meet the slightest shade of difference. He needed not to say, in time of speculation, and where large transactions were taking place, what a great advantage this m us t b e b o th to buyer and seller ; and whatever tended to facilitate transactions on change between merchants and brokers, and brokers and consumers, must in the long run act beneficially for the public. (Hear, hear.) There was one other point to which he wished to direct attention. In calculating inte rest and discount, the per centage was 4, 44, 41, and some times 4 ; but if the decimal system was adopted, the cal culations for both could be made with marvellous facility. (Hear, hear.) This he (Mr. Picton) was glad to see was not a political movement. They had got there the respected member for the county, and on the other side they had the equally respected member for the borough ; for all felt satisfied of the great improvement that an alteration in the preeent system would be, all were equally of one mind in endeavoring to force it on public attention. In conclusion, he wished to express the obligations under which he consi dered Mr. Brown had laid the town, not only with reference to this, but to other subjects. He had a right to speak on this subject from the position he held in the commercial world—from the extent and complication of the mercantile transactions which were carried on annually in the concern over which he so worthily presided. (Hear, hear). No man had a better right to speak from experience as to the advan tages of the proposed system. They were quite sure Mr. Brown was too much of a man of business to advocate any change of this kind, unless it would promote the interests of the commercial world in which he ranked so high, as well as the interests of the whole community. (Hear, hear). Mr. Brown had a right to speak on this su bj ec t, an d he thought his opinion would carry weight in the community, wh ere h e was so well known for the weight of his character. (Cheers). Mr. Brown made his fortune from commercial transactions, and what use had he made of the fortune he so made ? Had he, iii a miserly manner, hoarded it ip in. hll strong box, or THE NORTHERN DAttY TIMES. kept it from circulating amongst the people of Liverpool ? Let recent events answer. They had not yet forgotten the noble, the generous, the princely he might say, donation of 6,0001., lately given towards the erection of a free public li brary for the use of the community. (Applause). When that building was erected, as he hoped it shortly would be, he had the authority of Mr. Brown to say it should not be spoiled for sake of a trifle. (Hear, hear). He hoped a niche would be left for a statue of Mr. Brown, to be erected during his life tima, and not after his death, where it might be said that William Brown was the means not only of the erection of that magnificent building, freely open to all classes of this great community, but to him also in a large measure the public of England were indebted for the' adoption of the de cimal system of coinage. (Applause). The resolution was then unanimously carried. Mr. J. R. JEFFERY then proposed the next resolution. In doing so he remarked that if this question were confined to the merchant, the banker, and the bullion dealer—if it ef fected alone their balance sheets at the end of the year, he apprehended that this meeting would not have been at present convened. But seeing the interests of the whole community was involved in it, it became the duty of those who were impressed with the importance of its adoption to cause it to be widely spread, as it was in their power to lay the advantages of the decimal system before the public, as contrary to that which was at present in use. However advantageous it might be to the gentlemen to whom he had mado reference, it was, in its results, of still greater advantage to those who occupied spheres in society beneath them. Let him take, for example, a poor boy who might be placed at school, and the longest time that could be afforded for his education, with many interruptions, should not exceed three or four years. His whole time is occupied in learning enumeration, addition, substraction, multiplica tion, and tables—troy, avoirdupois, and apothecaries. Then, as if to make confusion more confounded, we come into the compounds—addition, substraction, and so on. Nor did his troubles end here ; they had practice to contend with, which is stated in a well-known bit of doggrel, to " make one mad," and as though they had not enough, we must add, what, in his opinion, was the worst of all decimals, or what was very properly . termed cross-multiplication, feet reduced into inches give parts, &c. Now this would be swept away by the adoption ofa decimal system of eninage, and who could doubt but they should have instead of ignorance, and its frequent companion crime, in its place education, and its frequent companion, though not so frequent as they . could wish, virtue ? In self-defence, as a commercial country, we must clear away thee° obstacles to education, and thereby lighten our counting-houses of unnecessary ex penses, or other countries adopting the decimal system would be sure to beat us in the race. He illustrated more clearly what he meant by saying that he attended, a few nights since, an admirable lecture delivered at the royal institution by their talented scientific examiner, under the new seaman's act, Mr. Towson, on composite circle sailing, when he stated that a ship, which he would for distinction, and better refer ring to it, call A; left Melbourne on a given day; B, another ship, left the same port 30 days after her, but reached Liver pool 65 days before her, both being bound for the same port. The ship A took 170 days, the other, B, only 75, being a difference of 95 days. How could this arise, it may be asked ? He replied that by recent observations, they might know that at the Cape there were always rotatory gales, which, if a vessel once got into, she would have nothing but per plexity and difficulty, but, by keeping somewhat further south, she would avoid them altogether, and save herself time, annoyance, loss, and everything that was desirable to avoid. What then, those, gales were to the mariner, so was our complicated system of arithmetic to the schoolboy, the merchant, shopkeeper, and even the artisans. It serves to distract and weary, instead of to encourage and cheer on. He had it from Mr. Towson himself that if a decimal sys tem were adopted, he would be enabled to impart to those whom he was sometimes called upon to instruct, more real education in six weeks than he could now hope to do in six months. Let them consider the benefit to the artisan. Our attention had been lately very much called to the many fail ures of sick and burial clubs to answer the objects sought ; but he would venture to say that loss would not have been one tenth if they had had a purely decimal system of arith metic. He held in his hand a book containing the rules and tables of an annuitant society, for widows, which were re vised in 1849. A competent actuary was sought, but could not be obtained for less than £250, a sum too much for the poor mechanics to pay for what they were seeking. The duties of an actuary were universally admitted to be exceed ingly difficult—a man, then, to be an actuary must be a talented man—there were comparatively few of them, and of course, like every other scarce commodity, must be well paid for to be obtained. What, then, made the duties of an actu ary so difficult ? Our complicated system of accounts (Hear, hear). The difficulties were quite as great to reduce our sterling into decimals, and bring them back again as they were to make the decimal calculations themselves lose nothing ; buf establish decimal coinage, and everything would be comparatively easy. In proof of this he would say the institution refused to employ no professed actuary, but Mr. Towson, residing among them at the time, offered his services, as did Captain Parker, of the royal navy, gratui tously, but a great part was done by a lady. The tables were produced, and he believed, found to work well. The services of the parties were gratefully acknowledged by to one, a gold snuff-box,' to another, a silver ink-stand, and so on. So that they saw to those who well understood the de ' cimal system of calculations, even "the duties of an actuary were comparatively easy, and in a few years after its adop tion, he would venture to say that the false data upon which some of the existing sick and burial clubs were based, would be discovered by some of the more enlightened me chanics themselves, and they would cease to exist. (Hear, hear). Nor in endeavouring to improve our system of arith metic were we doing more than our forefathers did. They used sticks notched, which were called exchequer sticks, and which we happened to know to our cost, for it was he be. hayed in the burning of them a few years since that we set fire to our then houses of parliament. The legislature had already partially adopted the decimal system. In the year 1853, the commissioners appointed by the government, for computing tonnage of ships, recommended the decimal sys tem for taking their measurements, which the ',legislature adopted, and made the law of the land. In 1849, the mode of computing tonnage was again revived, but the decimal system was again made legal, and the only means to be adopted. (Hear, hear.) Scarcely was it of less importance, that our money system should be of a purely decimal cha racter, for the same importance in his opinion, which at tached to money also attached to weights and measures. (Hear, hear). Names as well as proportions were also im portant for a country like Great Britain and Ireland, and in making such a mighty change, great care should be taken to adopt a pure decimal system. (Hear). One of the wit nesses examined before the committee, stated, and in his opinion, very truly, that there was but one purely decimal system. He had seen several that had proposed with manifest earnestness that the best should be adopted ; now he was bound to state that in his opinion, the only pure decimal system that had yet been proposed was that by the committte of the House of Com mons. (Hear, hear). Alter the name of florin into dime, and he conceived their propositions to be perfect. the name of every coin carried with it its own meaning and the same meaning was applicable to weights and measures as to coin, and that this would be found necessary he thought no one who had at all considered the subject would question. We take our sovereign as our unit in money; say the ton for weights, and acre and mile for land measures, it may be pipe for liquid measure, &c., and they might have the same terms in all cases signifying similar proportions of a filed quantity. The mind would then be no longer confused, . as for instance was the case with the mariner. To him, as to all of us, the word " second" when applied to time, meant the 60th part of a minute, but not so when applied to space ; it took 15 seconds of space to be equal to one of time. How many ships, what a vast amount of property, and who could say how many hundreds of lives may not have been lost by this one term having two such different meanings ? He considered, with our large transactions, three denomina tions in accounts was preferrable to two. It was an easier and more desirable mode of expressing any large amount. Take our national debt for example. We were frightened with its magnitude as it is, what would be our feelings if we had to express it in figures, multiplying by four as would be the case if dollars were our highest denominations in stead of eight hundred millions, we shouid have to say forty thousand millions. He believed the Americans would ere long, introduce a higher denomination than that of a dollar. He had to thank Mr. Theodore Rathbone for a copy of a pamphlet which he had written and was good enough to send to him ; but having carefully perused that work, he had no hesitation in saying his plan was defecti re, and would lead to serious inconvenience becouse he proposed to alter the value of the sovereign. The sovereign carried its own sterling value, and was the basis of all our contracts. The house of commons' plan simply altered the representa tive value of what are now only taken, and only proposed to do in the United Kingdom what was once done in Ireland without inconvenience. (Hear, hear.) It was then, because he considered that the system of decimal coinage was manifestly beneficial not only as regarded the balance sheets of the merchants, the bankers, and the dealers in bullion, but beneficial to the mechanics, the shopkeepers, the poor emigrant, even the mariner, that he had great plea sure in proposing for the adoption of the meeting the reso lution which he had previously read. (Mr. Jeffrey then concluded his address amid loud applause. Mr. M‘levEnrs, of the Liverpool Mechanics' Institution, seconded the resolution, and after referring to the high scientific and practical knowledge of the parties who h a d given evidence on the subject of decimal coinage before the committee of the house of commons, and the unanimous opinion which had been come to, that it would be attended with beneficial results and mach convenience to the public, said, it behoved every intelligent gentleman in the country to use the influence he possessed to impress on her Majesty's go vernment that the time for making the contemplated change should not be postponed beyond the approaching session of parliament. He next contrasted their arithmetical system with their monetary one—the former suggesting order, propriety, and civilisation ; the latter barbarism and igno rance ; and he contended that as the decimal system of arithmetic, in the abstract, had been adopted, the necessary result, namely, taking all the consequences, should follow the adoption of the abstract, which would ensure uniformity and simplicity. Having referred to the objections which had been raised against the system, he expressed his belief that the time had fully arrived for the adoption of the deci mal system, and he thought it was mot creatable to the first commercial nation in the world that it had not ado ted the improvements of the decimal system. (Hear, hear. Mr. THORNELY, M.P., fully coincided with all t at had been said, and expressed a strong desire for the adoption of the decimal system. He instanced the different values at tached to the Spanish dollar, in different parts of the United States forty or fifty years ago, and traced the impediment in American currency to the fact that the American govern ment refused to receive duties at any custom-house unless paid in dollars and cents/ If a similar system were adopted in this country, the decimal system would be at once established. The resolution was then put and unanimously carried. Mr. J. P. HEYWOOD proposed the next resolution, request ing his worship, to forward the resolutions adopted to the premier, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, the president of the board of trade. In moving the resolution, Mr. Hey wood remarked they were all agreed as to the propriety of adopting the decimal system of coinage ; the difference existing being as to the mode which would produce the greater or lesser inconvenience. In early life he had been in a French counting-house, and had consequently become conversant with the decimal system ; and when he returned to England he was perfectly astonished how a great country like this could go on with the present system. There was no comparison between the two. In London he was in a house which did a great business in exchanges, and in conse quence of having to turn every thing into decimals, and back again ? he had been often kept there until ono o'clock in the morning, when, if the decimal system were then in operation, he might have been home at ten. (Hear, hear.) He hoped the government would take this in hand, and that on the Ist of Jan., 1855, they would bring their balances down on the new system. (Loud cheers.) Mr. F. CLINT seconded the motion. Mr. MOORE enumerated a number of works upon the sub ject of business calculations, which helstated were not gene rally known. Mr. J. R. JEFFERY observed that Mr. Towson, of the Sailors'-home, had stated to him that he would be able to impart as much information to sailors before the mast who were anxious to become mates, and to mates who were anxious to become masters, under the decimal system in six weeks as he could now do in six months. And refereneo to the assimilating of the weights and measures in connec tion with the coinage, the same gentleman stated that it would be exceedingly important if the terms " seconds in time and seconds in space," represented the same decimal quantity. A second of time was equal to fifteen seconds of space, and more accidents in navigation occurred than people were aware from the term seconds being of such different propur tiouo. The resolution was then put, and uuanimomly adopted. Mr. W. BaowN, M.P., then moved that the thanks of the meeting be given to the Mayor, observing that on no occa sion, he felt sure, could there have been a more concurrent sentiment as to the merits of a chairman and his claim to such a compliment. Mr. THORNELY, M.P., seconded the resolution, which was carried by acclamation. - The MAYOR briefly acknowledged the compliment ; after which, the meeting separated. IRELAND. [FROX OUR OWN CORRESroxprarr.] DUBLIN, DEC. 28. THE WINTER GARDEN.—The attraction of the Dublin winter garden, late the Exhibition build ing, continues as great as ever, and indeed it ap pears to grow more popular, for on Tuesday last the numbers that entered were 2000 in excess of those present at the opening. There has been a heavy fall of snow in Dublin. RATHER IRISH.—The guardians of the union of of Dunshaughiin, county Meath, in Ireland, have made " a religious question " of a proposition to dispense with the Protestant chaplain inasmuch as he has no duties to perform and is not likely to have. The opposition contend that there may be Protestants hereafter and that there has been one who, however is, it is said, about to emigrate. FATAL EFFECTS OF EXCESSIVE D RIN KING . —On Wednesday, the 14th instant, John Crothers, a large farmer, residing at Lissera, near Poyntzpass, county of Down, returned home from Tandragee market under the influence of drink. On Thurs day he lay in bed drinking. On Friday he was up, but still under the influence of drink. On Satur day he was again in bed. On Sunday he was up again, but still drinking; and on Monday he was again in bed, and lay there drinking until Thurs day, on the afternoon of which he died. HOMICIDE AT BALLINASLO E.—The following is from the Saunders' News Letter of this morning : Ballinasloe, Monday night.—The town of Ballinasloo was, on yesterday evening, thrown into a state of painful excitement by a report that a man had been killed in the streets. On hastening to the scene of the outrage, I found that the report was but too true. A man named Michael Carty, a herd of Mrs. O'Shaughnessy's of Birchgrove, had been in town (as hun dreds of the peasantry were, the day being Christmas), and had been drinking with his friends and acquaintances, both male and female. It appears that some dispute had arisen about the payment of a round of punch in Earners public-house • but it does not appear clear that this was the real cause of t he mur der. At all events, a party of five or six,including two females, were on their way out of town at about four o'clock in the evening, when some words occurred in ill-feeling. The .party had just crossed the river Suck, and entered the count y o•- common, when three men, named James Kelly, Michael Kelly, and Michael Bailey, commenced a furious onslaught on Michael Carty, beating him severely, knocking him down, and then jumping on his body when down. The police were promptly in attendance, but the miscreants had decamped, Carthy breathed slightly, but before he reached the police barrack, to which he was conveyed, he breathed his last. The town was shortly in a state of dreadful excitement—dense crowds of the peasantry, country people, and inhabitants, having congregated in the streets. A detachment of the constabulary was dispatched to scour the country, and if possible arrest the offending parties, but to no purpose. To-day, an inquest was held in the court house of this tom before the coroner of the county Roscom soon. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against James Kelly and Michael Bailey. The sailors' home atiCork is now full ; amongst the inmates are nineteen of the crew of two vessels recently wrecked off the coast of Ireland. FRIGHTFUL SUICIDE OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL LAYARD. The following is from the Daily Express of this morning:— It is with feelings of the deepest regret we have to an nounce that Colonel Layard, a gentleman who lately held the rank of lieut-colonel in the 9th infantry, terminated his existence shortly after eight o'clock yesterday morning, by cutting his throat. The unfortunate gentleman, whose resi dence is situated near Palmerston, had been for the past three weeks in a very desponding state of mind, and ap peared to imagine that his affairs were in a state of hopeless embarrassment. He was advised by his medical attendant to remove into town, and he and his lady took lodgings on last Wednesday in South Frederick-street, where he com mitted the fearful and melancholy act of self-destruction. The appearance of the body was frightful in the extreme ; the bed-clothes were saturated with blood, and on his throat were the marks of seven deep cuts. The severest wound penetrated into the cavity of the mouth, dividing the eater. nal jugular veins on each side, and severing several branches of the external carotid artery. The deceased gentleman re presented Carlow for several years, and unsuccessfully con tested that borough in 1847, when Mr. John Sadleir was returned. John E. llyndman, Rsq., city coroner, held an inquest on the body yesterday, at half-past one o'clock. A highly re spectable jury having been sworn, the following evidence was given : The first witness examined was the wife of the deceased gentleman, Mrs. Elizabeth Layard. It was most affect ing to observe that lady whilst she was giving her evidence. Even during that short time she was several times attacked with hysterics,and was scarcely able to speak. She said— De ceased was my husband, and we have been married about seventeen years ; for the past three or four weeks I thought he had been rather strange in his manner ; he was subject to fits of depression, but I never apprehended that he would injure himself; last night he was more excited than he has lately been ; he continued so during the entire evening and night, until I fell asleep ; I cannot say at what hour I fell asleep ; in the course of the evening he walked vehemently up and down the room, and said he would be taken from me to a lunatic asylum, and asked me not to let him want for any comfort ; there was nothing in his circumstances that could have tempted him to destroy himself; we had not very large means, but he attached undue:importance to a diminu tion of income; it preyed too much upon his mind; I cannot say the e tact hour at which I awoke this morning, but it must have been eight o'clock, for it was light at the time ; he was excited at that time ; I left him in bed after me, and went into a closet to dress ; he called me by my name before that, and said, " Give me some laudanum, you have got it in your dressing-box ;" I said, " I have a little, but I will not give it to you, for Dr. Carroll will be here in a few minutes and set you all right ; " when I went into the dressing-room I emptied the bottle of laudanum into the basin ; I did that before I put on my clothes, because I was nervous ; some impression was on my mind that he might make me give it to him; I then returned back to the bed-room for some articles of dress which I had forgotten, and I saw the clothes all full of blood ; more than two minutes could not have elapsed from the time I left the bed until I went back into the room ; I thought at first he had spit blood, for he had done such a thing ; then I looked him and saw he was brandishing a razor; I shrieked out, and rushed at him; I thought he would kill me, I was so frightened, and I called out for help ; I was unable to take the razor out of his hand, and he kept gashing at himself ; the people of the house then came in, and did all they could to save him ; I saw him once again before he died; when I had my clothes onti looked into the room, and he grasped my hand and said, "God bless you," or something to that effect; he seemed to know me, but I am fully persuaded he was out of his mind; he was a man of good disposition, but rather an authorita tive self-willed person; he was most affectionate to us all. Dr. Carroll examined—l live in Leinster-street, and have known the deceased gentleman for eight years ; I have been attending on him about three weeks; he was nervous, and in an uneasy state of mind; I got him into town on last Wednesday ; he formerly resided at Riversdale, Palmers town ; I have seen him twice every day since last Wednes day; this day week he and I took these lodgings: I always considered him a hypocondriac ; he used to complain of various fanciful diseases; his mind for the past week was low and desponding about the state of his affairs ; from what he told me, I believe his means were not so good as they had been ; he never expressed anything about self destruction ; he would frequently, even in the midst of cheerful conversation, jump up and rush round the room, and say his mind would surely give way, and that he would become a lunatic ; I saw him last evening, and he was speaking cheerfully about six o'clock ; but he still said his affairs would be the ruin of him; he told me that Mr. Kirk had tried to mesmerise him ; but was not able to do so ; I remained with him about twenty minutes ; I saw him this morning about a quarter before nine ; he was then alive, but it was after he had cut his throat; he lived aboui thirty minutes ; I left him in charge of Surgeon Wilmot, and Mr. Gordon. and went for Mr. Cusack ; the Messrs. Porter came back with me, and he was alive when I returned ; he was a man of very temperate habits ; I think he was about forty five years of age; he was in the 9th infantry, and sold out about eight months since ; he was fond tt mesmerism ; it was in bed he cut his throat; I thought he was the last man in the world who would commit such a deed. _ _ _ Mr. Daniel Edward Daly examined—l lodge in this house; on Wednesday last I saw the deceased for the first time, in the street; after eight o'clock this morning, while I was still in bed, I heard some woman screaming, and some person, I think, called out my name ; I got out of bed at once and ran down stairs ; I met the girl on the stairs, and, in answer to my inquiry of what was the matter, she said, " There is a man down stairs cutting his throat ;" I went into the gentleman's bed-room, and saw him pulling the razor across his throat; he was sitting up in bed, and had the razor in his right hand; I went over to take the razor from him, and he held out his hand and said. " RP nir," I oWpped back and looked in tho rue-place if there was anything w i t h witieli I could strike the razor out of his hand ; there was nothing there, and as I turned back I saw him making an other dreadful gash at his throat ; I then seized hold of him by the hand, and pressed the razor down on the bed, and he then commenced to kick; the razor was then taken out of his hand by the gentleman of the house, who assisted me in holding him down ; other persons came in, and I then went up and dressed myself; he said to me when struggling, that he had cut himself about twenty times ; one of said,the o y rs o a ff s a k i e r d g, himor something whatcaused t to hih The jury returned the Rano wing tvain.tredffticoetct:d.l,i:, We andfinhde that the deceased gentleman died from loss of blood, caused by his having cut his throat in a moment of tempo rary insanity. OUTRAGEOUS FAMILY SCENE AT CORK.—The following is from the Cork Examiner of Monday : CORK, DECEMBER, 26.—An investigation was held on Sa turday, at twelve o'clock,. in the magistrate's office, before his worship the mayor, in which a respectable young man named Jeremiah Murphy was charged with havin g 0. fired either one or two pistol shots in the house of Mr. Denis Hickie, on Friday night, with intent to do some of the in mates grievous bodily harm. Mr. Denis Hickie, master cooper, living in Blackpool, sworn and examined, deposed—A few minutes before eleven o'clock on Friday night a rap was heard at his door, at which. time he was up stairs in his house, as were also his wife, and her niece; the servant girl was below and she opened the door ; it then appeared that Jeremiah Murphy came in, and, as the cross door at the stairs was locked, he came down' and asked the servant who was there ; she said it was Mr. Murphy, and he replied there was no admittance for him. _ _ The Mayor : Who is Jeremiah Murphy ? Is he any relative of yours? Witness : He is married to my wife's niece. The Mayor : Had you any misunderstanding with him ? Witness : There was a misunderstandinc , between himself and his wife ;he turned her out, and misunderstanding went to Mr. White's, where she stopped for three or four days, but she was again obliged by him to leave that place, and she then came to my house. Examination continued : She was at witness's house at the time Murphy called, and witness's servant told him he would not he admitted, immediately . on which he fired a pistol into the hall; at that time witness was at the other side of the door, and the door was locked; he was fumbling at the door, endeavouring to open it, and when he found he could not open it, he fired the shot ; witness got greatly terrified, the servant screamed out dreadfully, and he was certain she was shot; witness's wife called out to the servant several times but she got no an swer, and they became convinced that she had been shot dead ; his wife then threw up the window and called for the police; she asked some gentlemen to go for them, but they paid no attention to what she was saying ; witness hearing no further noise got a pistol, and went down stairs, and opened the door ; when he opened the door he saw Murphy with a pistol in his hand presented at him ; witness then fired, and his opinion is that, though he heard but one shot, the pistols went off together ; Murphy flashed the pistol, and witness immediately fired ; the shot from Murphy's pistol did not touch him, but Murphy said he was shot. The Mayor : How do you know that he fired off the pistol a second time ? Witness : There were marks in the door. The Mayor : May not those have been the marks of the first discharge ? Witness : I am certain both pistols went off together. The Mayor : I cannot understand how you escapt — Pit inpgs : After opening the door I stood behind it, and only put var-i,..y 1 - Ight arm; when he presented la.,e pistol I was in terror of my IA for .tuire," was under the impression that the serval.. aad been shot, inasmuch as she did not answer the call that was made to her. The servant of Mr. Hickie corroborated the foregoing evidence and deposed that Murphy had a pistol on the present before Hickie came down. She also stated that he was tipsy. The Mayor said he would issue a warrant on the evidence that had been sworn to, the warrant not to be enforced until the defendant was capable of being removed. But, in the meantime, in order to prevent any further violence, he would immediately take measures to have Mr. Murphy bound to keep the peace, and if necessary he would visit him at his house for that purpose. The defendant is, we understand, a respectable young man, living on Patrick's-hill, and doing business as a pawn broker and publican; and Mr. Hiskie is in a very respectable position, as a master cooper. Morgan Singer, Esq., R.N., third son of the Lord Bishop of Meath, has been awarded the Lieutenant's commission given by the Admiralty to the best answerer among the students at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. ALARMING FIRE. Last night, about eleven o'clock, the inhabitants living in the locality of Bevington Bush, were thrown into the greatest consternation by an alarm of fire, which it was found had broken out in the extensive tenancy occupied by Messrs. Barton and Son. No sooner had the alarm been given, than the intelligence was received at the fire station in Temple Court, and Mr. Hewitt, the superintendent of th e fire brigade, with all the appliances connected with that establishment were on the move. No sooner had the fire broke out, then, from the nature of the property on the premises, it immediately burst out into a great flame, which was seen at sonic distance, and, combined with the stench from the burning leather, causcdhundreds of persons to repair to the scene. The premises are very extensive, the upper part of which are chiefly wards or drying room, in whicicthe leather, after going through the process of tanning, is placed for drying, and beneath is the depot for cork, and other products. It appears that the fire broke out in one of the tan sheds, but at present no positive cause has been ascertained as to how the fire originated ; but it opened with great vehemence, and before the fire brigade could possibly get there, the whole place was in flames, and the tire was distinguishable for miles round. As soon as the fire brigade arrived the hoses were placed, and with judi cious management, and a plentiful supply of water, the fire was extinguished, considering its magnitude, in a very short time. There cannot be a doubt, but had it not been for the invaluable assistance of the fire brigade, who were speedily in attendance, and who are so well trained for such emergency, that the loss of property would have been immense. The fire was extin guished with the greatest alacrity, and the chief constable, Captain Greig, was in attendance as soon as the fire was discovered, and by his judicious arrangements mainly assisted in keeping order, and thus preserved pro perty which must otherwise have been destroyed. Having witnessed a great number of fires, in some of which an im mense amount of property was involved, but we never saw a greater amount of efficiency shown on any occasion than was displayed by the fire brigade. The loss is considerable, but the property is fully insured. WHAT WH OUGHT TO Do.—A "Naval Officer," in the Times, makes the following suggestions which are indeed obvious enough to all those who direct their speculations to the question "What ought we to do ?" We have little doubt that they would be equally effective as obvious : Until the 10th of April the Russian Baltic fleet may be con sidered hors de combat, and the shores of England safe from aggression. The first step, therefore, should be the collec tion in the Black Sea of every disposable ship belonging to the allies. Before the end of January 13 English, 13 French, and 4 Turkish sail of the line might be concentrated there, and Sebastopol and the Russian fleet of 18 sail of the line should be totally destroyed. A small squadron of five sail of the line from each of the allies might be left to as sist the Turkish arms, but the fleets of France and England, with that exception, should by brought to England, and with slight exertions a fleet of 34 sail ot the line might ren dezvous in Yarmouth Roads before April was far advanced. This formidable fleet, flu.4lted with victory, w )uld, on its ar rival in the Baltic, paralyse the Russian flea of 28 sail ot the line, and, if Cronstadt be not impregnable, might de stroy it there,