The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-16 00:00:00

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

A very full meeting of this society was held on Mon-
day evening ; Rear-Admiral Beechey, F.R.S., &c., in
the chair.

The papers read were :
1. On the Sources of the Purus, a great Tributary of
the Amazon. lity Mr. Clement R. Markham, F.R.G.S.
2. "yßeport on the Arrival of the Chadda Expedition,
under Dr. Baikie, R.N. ;" communicated by the Earl
of Clarendon. The general results of the expedition
are :-1. 250 miles of new river examined, and the
identity of the Chadda and Binue established. 2. The
navigability of the river during the rainy season ascer-
tained. 3. Several new tribes discovered, the friendly
disposition of the natives proved, and the resources of
the countries inquired into. 4. Positions of former
charts corrected, and new places laid down from nu-
merous astronomical observations. 5. Materials for a
complete chart of the rivers have been collected, and
also for a map of the surrounding regions. 6. Much in-
formation has been gathered concerning the various
countries visited, and the periods of rise and fall of
the rivers accurately noted. 7. The general_ desire of
the natives to open trade and to receive instruction has
been ascertained. 8. The existence and extent of
slavery have been examined. 9. A. favourable report
can be made of the climate, as little sickness showed
k itself, and not a single life was lost. The Plelad en-
tered from the sea en the 12th of July, and visiting
among other places, Abo and Idda reached the con-
fluence on the 4th of August, and on the 18th the town
of Dagbo, the furthest point of Allen and Oldfield in
1833. After thi,, the principal countries reached were
Mitshi, Kororofa, and some Filata pro►inces, and also
a very barbarous race named Baibai. The expedition
commenced the descent on the 30th of September, with
a falling river, and arrived again at Fernando Po on
the 7th of November, after an absence of four months,
of which 118 days were spent in the Kwora and
Chadda.

3. Accounts from the Central African Mission, by
Dr. Vogel : communicated by the Earl of Clarendon.
From Dr. Vogel's paper it was understood that while
Dr. Barth was to have started from Timbuctoo to pro-
ceed via Sokoto, to meet Dr. Baikie and the Chadda ex-
pedition, Dr. Vogel, with the Sappers and Miners, was
to have proceeded from Kuka in the month of Juno for
the same purpose, but nothing bad been heard of them
by Dr. Baikie.
After some observations from Sir George Seymour,
Mr. M'Gregor Laird, Mr. Galton, Captain Oswell,
and Mr. Anderson, the meeting adjourned to the 26th
instant.

SOCIETY OP ARTS.-DECIMAL COINAGE.

At the usual weekly meeting of the Society of Arte, held
on Wednesday night, at their rooms, John-street, Adelpki,
and presided over by the Astronomer Royal, the expedi-
ency of decimalising the currency of this country, and the
relative merits of the poind sterling, of the florin, and of
the penny, as units of account, were taken into considera-
tion.

Mr. J. A. FRANKLIN, assuming that the irregular ani
capricious modes in which Engflsh moneys, weights, and
measures were reckoned were needless and painfully per-
plexing, glanced at the history of the efforts which had
been made to remedy there, and proceeded to observe that
all schemes heretofore propounded for decimalising English
money belonged to one or other of two categories, one which
retained the pound, and the other which retained the penny.
The two coins were, from their relation to each other, irre-
concilable under any decimal system, and it was necessary
that one should give way to the other. Those who advo-
cated the retention of the penny proposed either to decima-
lise it upwards to 10 pence, 100 pence, &c., or to adopt the
tenpenny snit decimalised downward to the penny and the
10th of a penny; or, again, to take the farthing as the unit,
decimalising npwardb to 10 farthings, 2id. ' • 100 farthing,
2s. Id. ; 1,000 farthings 11. Os. 10d. The objections to
these propositions were that, whether the tenpenny or the
penny were the unit, there at present existed no coin that
could be represented by units in the next rank below the
penny ; and that, when the farthing was need, every ex-
isting coin retained its value undisturbed, but nothing but
the farthing retained its value in accountancy, while this
adoption would be attended by the necessity of calling in
all the gold coinage of the realm. Those who advocated
the retention of the penny did so on account of its anti-
quity, and of its being the coin most in use among the
poor ; but the first penny had been coined in Birmingham
in 1797, and the copper tokens which had been previously
in circulation varied in their relation to the pound of sil-
ver; and, as regarded its being the standard of petty traf-
fic, it only was because it was the one material point round
which, as a neclens, such things as the penny roll and the
pennyworth of apples, &c., ranged themselves ; and any
other small coin would easily serve the same purpose. In
Ireland the tenpenny had for some time existed, but the
people never made it a unit of account, simply because
there had been no coin in circulation there which held the
value of 10 tenpennies. Mr. Franklin Went on to &tow the
folly of expecting a universal standard of coins, weights,
and measures ; took a review of the state of the coinage in
the United States of America, and in the several countries
of Europe, aid of the present condition of the bullion
market ; and concluded his able paper by strongly recom-
mending the pound sterling as the unit of account.
Mr. MENANI next read his paper on the propriety of re-
taining the penny, as the adoption of the pound sterling
would require the creation of coins which he considered
incommensurable with the copper eurrency now in use;
and showed by ordinary arithmetical sums, that in the
cost of commodities calculated in rails, on the table of
equivalents of Professor Do Morgan, there would be an ex-
cess of price above value, while by calculations on the
equivalents of Sir John Bewring's tables there would be
a deficiency of price below value.
Mr. RiAD /text road a paper, in which he pointed out
the advantages, not of decimal coinage, but of decimal ac-
counts, conducted in florins and pence oily.
Several gentlemen, including Mr. Miller, of the Bank of
England ; Mr. Riley; Mr. 'Tellico°, the actuary; Mr.
Wm. Browne, M.P., and Mr. R. R. Moore, gave the meet-
ing the advantage of their opinions on the subject, all of
which were in favour of the adoption of the pound sterling
as the unit of account.
The thanks of the society were then voted to the three
gentlemen who had read the papers, and the proceedings
mated in the usual manner.

act as president, at
prat week einar MEETING.—For three days in the
celebrity and betwe ,at which Lord Lyttelton is to
players
at Leamington
act there will be a grand meeting of chess
come of, and the whloafaf:atches between players of
will no donbt excite much
provincial cluos will
eiaenrnntiitaili7ostdte:rynceirn:nranittee offer handsome
pinrtizeersestto.
winnersL
contests. It is likely
observe that and one of the
antagonist
Count de
that a match will bo arranged to
Tiliaastonist of the
this resi-
sion between the Worcester eboe,c°cTir on this occa-
Birmingham Clubs. We
Bruhl, once famous as the principal
celebrated Phillidor, died on the Gth
deuce, Chingford, Essex, in the 87th year of
PiDVERSISSMENT.]—Diseases of the Kidneys, Agaedd
and Prostrate Gland, and their connection with ther
Ganglionic or Great Central System of Nerves ; being a
reprint (considerably enlarged) of a series of papers bear-
ing upon the more important and prominent symptoms,
and the most successful mode of practice in the treat-
ment of di,eases of those organs— in the press, and will
be speedily published, by Dr, Denis Cronin, 35, &uteri-
stroet, letkeleporttgam