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 250, 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means necessary that the present coins should be withdrawn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 would not 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