The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-02 00:00:00

Successions. No—not one of these separately,
nor all of them collectively, can be said with truth
to compensate in any way for the ills otherwise
flowing to the country at large from this unfortunate
ABERDEEN Administration. It is not that the
extension of the Income Tax over seven years
constitutes a considerable counterpoise to the
above enumerated advantages. It is that in the
mismanagement of the Russo-Turkish difficulty
from April to December Ministers have dragged
the banner of England through the mire to no
purpose—allowing her Turkish allies to remain
unavenged, and -permitting the designs of Russia to
advance unmolested and unimpeded in the course
of their lawless and sinister development—until a
squabble in the Danubian Principalities has be-
come complicated and magnified into war for entire
Christendom. Remembering these things in
regard to 1853, we look, nevertheless, with hope
to 1854—reposing our hope at this perilous junc-
ture entirely upon the people of England, and not
at all upon the English Government.

A great meeting has been held in Liverpool for
the purpose of taking into consideration the im-
portant question of a decimal coinage. With the
objects of that assembly we fully and entirely
concur. The present clumsy and elaborate system
is not merely injurious to all classes in the com-
munity ; it is still worse, being positively dis-
graceful. We arrogate to ourselves the designa-
tion of a commercial nation ; and yet we obsti-

nately persist in a barbarous and exclusive system,
which creates daily impediments to our transac-
tions with other nations. We perversely ignore

the improvements that have taken place in the
coinage of every country, and cling with a despe-
rate fidelity to our X. s. d. The Russians were
not more bigoted in their adherence to the old
style than we have been to our currency. As they
rejected the Gregorian calendar, notwithstanding
its decided ameliorations, so we rejected a decimal
coinage. We had a complicated system of weights
and measures, too, which afforded ample occupation

to the youths of many successive generations.
We must all remember with disgust the hours de-
voted to the acquisition of—we cannot call it a
" knossiedge," but rather a slight " smattering,"
of our " tables." How frequently have even the
most diligent and intelligent pupils excited the
objurgations of the indignant pedagogue for an
imperfect acquaintance with " dry and liquid
measures," and all the arcana of COCKER or

VOSTER. If we could ascertain the numbers that
have been driven from honest occupations, whose

prospects in life have been ruined, and who be-
came " vagabonds by profession," in consequence

of the difficulties attendant, we might almost re-

gard it as the heavy toll required on the passage
of these "pontes asinorum" of English—we should
stand aghast at the appalling consequences of our
national, stupidity and adherence to ancient forms
which had nothing to recommend them but an-

:iquity.

It was not froth want of having public attention
directed to the subject of having the enormous
evils arising from the system clearly and dis-
tinctly pointed out, .and impressed upon every
person of ordinary intelligence, that the
nuisance was suffered to remain without abate
ment.

Every man perceived and under.

stood the full extent of the grievance, but it was

not his business to endeavour to obtain re dress,
He might say—
" Meliora video proboque, detviora sequor."

Knowing the better course, he deliberately pur-
sued the inferior one. It was not so much from
bad inclination as from bad habit, from a wish to
do wrong as from sloth and indifference, from that
vis inertice, the insouseance that made almost any-
thing, no matter how objectionable, tolerated,
because it had been handed down from our fore-
fathers—because it was "an aged vice, a grey
iniquity." It was the same spirit that induced
us so long to submit to intramural interments, to
the poisoning of the atmosphere with dense
masses of smoke, that might have been consumed
not merely without loss, but with very considera-
ble gain to the parties more immediately con-
cerned (as witness Messrs. TRUEMAN, HANBURY,
and BUXTON, who for several years not merely
got rid of the smoke nuisance, but saved
more than 2,0001. per annum for a comparatively
trivial outlay), to the adulteration of what
was once " the silver-winding Thames," with an
abundance of feculent matter—the rinsing out of
our sewers—the manure which, properly applied,
will have rendered our land fertile in place of
our water impure—to the various abuses, in fact,
which still continue exciting numerous complaints,
but no really energetic or efficient efforts for their
removal.

This may be ascribed to the system of leaving
everything in this country to " private enterprise"
—of not only not assisting, but decidedly dis-
couraging, every improvement. How heavily were
the introducers of the railway system mulcted
before they received the legislative sanction to
these useful undertakings. What Parliamentary
opposition had the promoters to encounter before
their bills were passed. If considerable profits
were not anticipated by the parties, we might
still have had advertisements informing us that
the journey from Exeter to London would be
performed (D.V.) by heavy waggon in six days,
in place of by express train in as many hours.
The accuracy of the old proverb, that " What
was everybody's business was nobody's," would
have received an additional and powerful illus-
tration.

Now, there could be no individual profit rea
lised by the introduction of a better and more
rational system of currency—the ordinary stimu-
lus to energetic agitation was wanting. We all
perceived and deplored the evil, but we took no
effective steps to provide an adequate remedy.
At length there is a prospect of a movement.
The inhabitants of Liverpool are up and doing,
and we have no doubt that the beneficial step
will be very generally followed, now that the
initiative has been taken. As we have already
stated, we do not altogether agree in the details
of the contemplated alteration. We have ex-
plained our views that " the florin," and not the
" pound," should be the unit of the new decimal
coinage ; and, moreover, that " theflorin" adopted
should be one of 20 pence, in place of 25., by
which considerable losses to the working classes
would be averted, and there would be no excuse
for adding 400,0001. per annum to the Post-office
revenue, and a large but unascertained sum to
the receipt stamp revenue. Any discussion must,
however, serve to elicit truth, and we, therefore,
hope that eventually the system most beneficial
to the community at large may be adopted.--a
system that will look to the interests of the
of rokXot, as well as to the commerce of the great
merchants and bankers that will leave the value
of the penny unaltered, and will make the
changes in the gold and silver rather than in the
copper coinage. We have shown that this m
easily be effected without confusion or difficulty ;
but if our own views should not be recognised
and carried into practical execution, we should
hail the adoption of a decimal system, even with
the pound unit, as a vast amelioration, which
would be very advantageous to persons of all
classes throughout the length and breadth of the
land.

It may be easy to ridicule Lord PALMERSTON'S
lecture on political economy to the Preston ope-
ratives, and to represent him as giving them a
stone when they asked for brea•l. The plain truth
is, however, that Preston operatives need nothing
else from Lord PALMERSTON but the very
advice he gave them ; all they need be-
sides the good temper, namely to yield to it,
must be their own contribution. A valuable con-
tribution it would be. It would immediately put
earnings into their pockets to double the amount
of the charity on which they are now idling and
starving ; and they would sacrifice in reality no-
thing by it. They would yield to truth, not to their
masters ; truth discovered, sadly late it may be,
but that is the lot of most of us short-sighted
mortals. Sir ROBERT PEEL and the vast phalanx
of legislators, who changed their opinions on the