The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-10 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL AND MARKETS.

WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PRODUCE
MARKETS.

Mistcuso-Lstels, SATVROAY MORNING.
The colonial markets have been very quiet during the
week, and a small quantity of produce was brought forward.
The first of the new crop of West India Sugar was put
up to auction, and realised full prices, whiht Ttfaurildus
and Bengal sorts, which were very sparingly offered, also
brought former quotations. The foreign market has been
steady, and to do business previous prices must be paid.
Coffee has been in very limited demand; plantation
Ceylon has been chit fly bought in at extreme
rates ; bat native sorts have barely supported formes
prices ; one parcel sold this day at 38s. to 38s. 6d.
per cwt. Rice has been very fiat. The holders of
Saltpetre continue firm, but little has been done. The
Tea market has in some instances experienced • further
alight decline, but in congous only. Good greens are in
request. The colonial markets have closed until the 14th

ghe erpreini.

To CORIMPONDINTS.

• owed Maim 1 TM 6apres,`;iia—lms-aitis moo main'.
▪ thasite."l. palliebed envy Tusiday and Friflay .401, ta Use
kr or&
••••t••••••,1•1•011•1 ter one Uprose," Lefties tee alag paper,
weft Mat Os Ofter, 10. Illostert&atrem. !, No esioca an Uh.
doi el 1•11186•8•.

MOH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE
TAN MAT—Morralsg. Mi. Mat....„....Mbmion. 24%.
TlMosamaw—Mormag, Mi. 19a.

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 10.

Ir has not been without hesitation that we venture
to congratulate the public, on the first serious step
taken towards realising that grand desideratum—a
decimal coinage. It is so frequently the case in Eng-
land that the very best projects fail just at the mo-
ment when there no longer appears any obstacle to
their success, that there seemed every reason to fear
the new coin might be condemned to the melt-
ing pot a few moments after the QCEEN'S proclama-
tion had legalised its circulation. Evcrybxly knows
how the omission of a couple of letters on the
face of the first fh: rise was said to render it
unfit to be a representative of value in a
Christian country. And it was impassable before-
hand to say whether the presence of 1). F. on the
new coin might not be as fatal to its existence as
the absence of I). G. on the old. 1). F. (Dr:tensor
jilh,i) is the title which has descended to our monarchs
from HENRY VIM, and was conferred upon the
royal theologian by the Port: as a reward for a de-
fence of the seven sacraments against LUTHER.
Now, if any section of ultra.rotestants choose to
argue against the orthodoxy of the new coin on this
ground, they surely stand as good a chance of post-
poning the establishment of a great public benefit as
their friends who demolished the old florin on account
of the omission aforesaid.

Ilowevir, nothing as yet has been said on the
subject, and the florin is to be considered as a jiiit
at This being the ease, it is time to congra-
tulate the country as being on the verge of po.lol/.88-
ing the most paled system of decimal coinage in the
world. plow loug our rulers will allow us to re-
main on the verge without entering into full pos-
session of all the advantages of a perfect 53 stem, it
is impossible to say. 'This depends, perhaps, as much
upon outsehes us upon them.
The reason why the decimal system which it is
now in the power of the government to establish in
Englund will be stipci ior to that in use in any other
country is, that it is much more susceptible of
varied divisions. What is called the decimal system
in France is really a centesimal system. They
do not reckon by tenths, hut by hundredths. The
interval between the franc and the abstraction a
centime is divided into a hundred imaginary parts.
Besides this, the franc being the unit of the mone- ,
tary system, sums even of a few pounds require to
be represented by a large number of figures, and
when the sum is very great this number is so ex-
tended as to take it out of the grasp of immediate
comprehension. It requires an arithmetical calcula-
tion to understand what the long array of figures re-
presenting the l'aistOENT'a dotation in francs really
means. The unit of coinage in America—a dollar—
is larger than in France, but here also the decimal
division has been superseded. They reckon in dollars
and cents, or hundredths of a dollar.
Now among the requisites of a good coinage we
may enumerate these. The unit must be tolerably
large, so that moderate amounts may be represented
by few figures. We possess this in our pound. 'there
are not many persons fortunate enough to be
troubled with calculations in which more than three
figures, with the interesting above them, enter.
The second requisite of a good coinage is that the
various coins should not differ too much in value. We
get an instalment of this in the florin. To give change
for a pound in florins would not need a pocket full
of these coins. The next desideratum is that there
should be several denominations. This we possess in

adhere to the determination he expressed, " strenu-
ously to resist the endeavour to exempt them." For,
if Christ's Hospital is, as Aldermma THOMPSON
wishes. to be made an exception, why loot the
Foundling Hospital, why not the Bedford
Charity, why not the Crewe Mast; all, we
dare say, equally well managed according
to the tenour of their treats? If one great founda-
tion, why not all P And thus claim for exemption
will follow claim, until the measure may be entirely
confined to the smaller charities; and they will not be
able to defray the coat of its machinery. There has
already been time enough lost in legislating on this
subject. Parliament first began examining into these
charities in 1818; and notwithstanding the tons of
Blue Books which the investigations yielded, the re-
sult as yet has only been a multiplicity of tedious
costly chancery suits, and no general and compre-
hensive scheme for the continuous control of our
charities. So now that the legislature (in the face of
a general election) is in the humour, let us have no
hypercriticism obstructing what, so far as it goes, is a
really good bill.
No doubt, however, the bill might very advanta-
geously proceed much further than it does. There
are several very noble foundations, possessed of
large revenues, against which it is probable no im-
putation of legal abuse can be successfully brought ;
which may in the main be administered within the
terms of the Founders' Statutes, so fur at least as
they are known ; and yet which, in consequence of
tho growth of property, the change in religion and
the altered state of society, arc notwithstanding
peat moral abuses, and aro very far from being con-
ducted in the spirit of their foundation.
In stating the case of St. Cross, Sir ALEXANDER
COCKBURN referred to a very scandalous instance of
legal abuse; but at a very short distance from that
foundation of HENRY DE BLOIS and Cardinal BEAU-
FoRT, is another, to which Sir ALEXANDER might also
have called attention, as an example of that sort of
moral abuse for which we greatly fear this bill pro-
vides no efficient remedy, but which is really the
pest and crying grievance to be rectified. la o re-
, bete Winchester College—shortly, it seems, to be
honoured by a visit from royalty.
Hitherto Winchester College, as Eton, es Rugby,
the Charter-house, and some other foundations hav-
ing special visitor, has escaped all investigation.
Not a petty charity in England but has been routed
out and explored by parliamentary curiosity and in-
quiry. Yet of these great institutions with vast in-
comes, the legislature knows literally nothing. It is
very true that they have produced many eminent
scholars, and sonic really great men ; that they edu-
cate in an admirable (if an expensive) manner the
best blood of England ; and that as the leading pub-
lic schools of the realm, they give a tone to general
education and the national character. We aro far
from decrying or depreciating their merits
as educational establishments. Their excellency
as such is quite beside the questions of
the present system of administering their funds and
of maintaining for ever the forms of their monastic
and ecclesiastical modes of supervision long after the
tfrit is gone ; and when they continue to exist to
serious detriment of society.
Winchester College was founded by WILLIAM of
Wvermaat, after that great prelate had rebuilt its
Cathedral and reformed the Hospital of St. Cross ;
sad before he proceeded to found New College,
Oxford, which intended by him to receive
mad perfect the education of those who by his
beauty had received the rudiments of learning
at Winchester. Now, if there was anything
that WILLIAM of WTKEHAM had an utter &b-
-luenose and bitter dislike of, it certainly was
11111aMitak How he in his day pursued the inctim-
' hob el St. Cross, who, like the Lord Ortuoansof
Ale present time, had abused the funds of that
hospital, is well known to all students of ecclesiastical
history. From court to court he hunted and chased
them. Nor could Rome, to which they appealed,
save them from his righteous inlignation and
correction. At last he brought them fairly to
bay, and cleansed St. Cross, for a couple of
centuries at hot, of their corruptions. Another of
the more remarkable features in IVTKEHAM'S charac-
ter was the owner in which he husbanded his
reecamemonmeared out his means, devised and
elainsakd schemes for the protection of his inten-
tins, and tried, above all things, to provide for the
blare learning of the English clergy, in his time
ignorant, greedy, and debauched.
Winchester College was the centre of all his edu-
'Rhona' plans; he built it, he endowed it, he placed
it under the care of a warden and ten poor fellows ;
he connected it with New College, Oxford ; that in-
Whalen he also nobly endowed ; Winchester had to
supply New College with students, New College
ban) control Winchester; and to secure the integ-
rity and the right administration of his foundations,
be esusigned both to the visitation of his successors,
the Bishops of WINCHESTER.
One thing only WIKEHAM'S wisdom did not fore-
see, and that was the growth of wealth in England;
he thought he had exhausted for ever the rental of
his endowment by providing for the education at
Winchester of 70 poor boys—pa uperes el indigentes
seholares : accordingly his statutes stop there. But
in our days, such is the worth of the possessions of
Winchester College, it has funds to educate at least
200. Yet to WYKEHAM'S statutable limitation
the number of foundation scholars is still strictly
limited. And this, we say, is an instance of that
moral abuse of an old foundation for which the legis-
lature ought to provide a remedy.
Winchester College is an ecclesiastical foundation,
and over it the Court of Chancery cannot, therefore,
exercise any jurisdiction. In the main probably its
statutes are fulfilled, its visitors cannot, therefore,
correct such moral abuses. But no man can
doubt, who reflects, that education was WYKEHAM'S
aANA in this foundation ; that substantially its
an diverted from his objects and designs;
awl ale armirmod by those to whom he had hoped
hie and pure spirit would have descended.
pima income of Winchester College, from
WTKEHAM'S foundation, cannot be less than
110,0001. a year. For this all that is done in
earrying out his real intentions is the partial
education thereout of 70 boys, who are not, what
he intended, poor. The partial education we say ;
for, though on the foundation, these 70 boys are
not wholly educated at its cast. It only provides them
with the ordinary grammatical masters and main-
Mins them, at an expense to the college of probably
501. a year each, or of 3,5001. a year altogether; thus
leaving some 15,000/. or 16,000/. a year to be spent
in some other manner; for the remaining cost of their
education their parents or friends have to pay ; say
some 701. or 801. a year.
And how is this large surplus spent ? Partly, no
doubt, in maintaining the college buildings, in pay-
ing the masters their stipends; but principally it is
divided amongst the Warden and ten Fellows, who
have merely nominal duties to perform, and who,
with three exceptions, hold besides substantial col-
lege livings. First of all. the Warden is supposed to
take for his share between 2,000!. and 3,0001. a year;
and then the average share of the Fellows is reported
to be not less than 1,0001. a year each. These ten
Fellows, it was WYKEITAM'II intention, should always
be poor priests, holding no other preferment, in order
that they might perform in the college chapel the
daily ministrations of divine service. Of the ten,
seven are now pluralists ; and the services they ren-
der to the college in return for their incomes and
their benefices, are perfectly unsubstantial.
No doubt, however, Winchester is a great public
school. But it is nothing_ in comparison with what
it might be made were Wexeume's income mainly
devoted to educational purposes; instead of being
chiefly divided amongst sineenrists. And if advantav
were now taken of the opportunity of this Charitable
Trusts Bill, a beginning might be made in reviving
at Winchester the spirit of WTKEHAM, which has
so long been dormant in that city of ecclesiastical
scandal and priestly abuse. Perhaps the Prince
Consort will turn his attention to all this, ere he
accompanies the Quern to Winchester.

our present system, having four distinct classes,
pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings, with their
multiples and subdivisions. The great object now
will be to extend this advantage to the decimal
system which we have just established.
Now, until this is done, the introduction of the
florin will be comparatively useless. Nevertheless,
there is the greatest disinclination in the proper
quarter to make this extension, and, unless the public
become sensible to their own interest and take up
the question, we shall be for twenty years longer, at
least, subject to the inconveniences of a mixed
system, and at the same time tortured with the re-
flection that the removal of the inconvenience needs
but the smallest expenditure of energy.
What, then, is wanting to make our coinage per-
fect ? Simply, we reply, the introduction of two
more coins—one silver, which we will call at present,
for convenience sake, a tenth, being the tenth of a
eerie, something less than twopence-halfpenny—and
one copper, celled, we will my, a cent, in value
nearly equal to a farthing. Before answering any
of the objections against this introduction, it will be
as well to show the great advantages of such a mo-
netary scale. Such • sum as five pounds,
three florins, four tenths, and three cents
would be represented by the figures 5.343;
placing the dot one figure to the right, 53.43 would
tell the calculator that the money was now in-
dicated in florins—namely, fifty-three florins, four
tenths, three cents. A second removal of the dot
would show that the sum represented 534 tenths 3
cents ' • while the removal of the dot altogether
would give us the number of cents in the whole.
We fancy the intense delight of all the little boys in
the kingdom who are now breaking their
hearts over the mystery of reduction when
they hear that this rule is swept for
ever out of the books of arithmetic, which a
perfect decimal system would certainly accomplish.
As we cannot write a treatise of arithmetic in a
single article we shall say no more as to the advan-
tages of the plan we have been advocating, which,
however, any intelligent reader will be able to make
out fee himself.
In the meantime, what are the objections raised
against the system we are yeepselag ? The first is,
laur tenth of a Sevin, twereass awl two-fifths, is too
rge for a copper coin, and too kw giver. Nowt
the size of the "tenth" would be ea au* We el
a threepenny piece, that we Es not me mimh
in the objection. However, grand., for lb@ MININIM
that it is valid, we answer that we do ail sequin
the coinage of a " tenth" in order to obtain all the
benefits that will result from the adoption of that
coin as a denomination. Let there be a odonAps ot
" two-tenth" and " three-tenth" pieces, ea an-tint
we want will be obtained. An article costing a
tenth will be purchased by giving • three-tenth
piece and receiving a two-tenth piece in e;=ci
and all even and odd numbers may be re
by comknations of these two. In the next phase
we are asked what is to be done with tho old
coinage! We reply that much of it can be sadly
adapted to the new system, and the rest wig be
useful as long as it remains (and wo must get
rid of it as soon as possible) in giving accurate
ideas of the value of the new coins. there will be no

reason to abolish the shilling. As the half-florin or
five " tenths' it will soon be brought within the
.domains of the new calculation. A farthing will be
no near the true value of the cent that there will be
_little inconvenience in retaining it until the moment
las arrived for a complete adjustment of the coinage.
Die only coins that need be called in immediately
see the sixpence, fourpenny, and threepenny
picot*, the penny, and halfpenny. That there will
be some temporary difficulty in the adjustment of
prisms to the sew medium there is no doubt, but this
is always tie ones in tie transition from a bad to a
good system. And the good to be obtained so im-
measurably overbahumee the evils to be incurred in
obtaining it, that no wise man would hesitate be-
tween the two. ne &big mast be dolle sole day ;
let es be wise and do it gaudily.
We need scarcely remark, Mit the names we have
given to the proposed new coins are arbitrarily given,
for the greater facility at enplaned" and are not
even recommended for adoption.

DRATU OP LORD RaNDLIGHAIL—This soblersan
died ea the 6th instant, at BealMeant Hall, Nasty of
Baia. ill the 65th year of Ida age. The dooessod peer,
Fredonia Mellows Huaa Resdieebara, is the peerage of
Ireland, was hones the 7th of Jemmy, 171111. Me sae.
aided Io IM title is 11811tibsomi: um, is hoe, OK
Mies Chseisele. Meet et the late Sha Marge
Bunks hem" Daft, widow of Jamas Dag leg.
' By the her. win died is 1840, No doseesed had hose a
dasibisr, bin is 1848, sad a les sad We, readlefelt WO-
' dos lime. boss r 11740. The dassired peer was a Wasp
eesswisdes r *idle Ia 1 be woo desist X.?. ex
aid sesdased le de kr disi sureitamey ap to the
vane miss. Him lardelip /tsar* own& is the army.
The wee seeseed is 1806. The lid peer wee us
of paw BR., who unlaced a Imp fortune as
a iniedist is

So far as it goer, the Charitable Tempts BM deeurvon
all the praise it received in the Hans of Clemasse ;
and though the noble lord, the member
at the close of the dision exhibited syultmemlisi:e
yielding • little to the claim of the City Horpitals
for exemption from the jurisdiction of the Court ed
Supervision and Advice intended to be eatabliahld,
it is much to be hoped that the Arrowczy-Gmtrau.
!fill listen to no such pretend" but resolutely

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 10, 1852.