The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

NEW COPPER AND DECIMAL COINAGE.

The notification that the Government have resolved
upon the issue of 500 tons of a new copper coinage has
caused misgivings among the advocates of a decimal
currency, lest by adding this large amount to the exist-
ing circulation the desired reform may be indefinitely
retarded. In the most simple and approved plans for
the introduction of a decimal system, the penny, half-
penny, and farthing are the only coins that would have
to undergo alteration, and the prospect ofa change being
proposed just after they had received an addition to the
extent now said to be contemplated would seem hopeless.
It is. desirable, therefore, that attention should be aroused
to the case at once, and that if the new issue be perse-
vered in, its consequences should be fully recognized.
There is nothing that would create greater vexation on
the part of every intelligent member of the trading com-
munity than to find that at the very period when
expectations had been held out that the Govern-
ment would have the vigour to accomplish
this task, which is demanded nearly on all
sides and opposed on none, a step is to be adopted that
will not only interpose a difficulty, but operate as a vir-
tual announcement that there is no intention of consi-
dering the subject. Fifteen years have already passed
since the Commission on the Standard of Weight and
Measure, consisting of the Astronomer-Royal and eight
other members of scientific bodies, urged the advantage
and facility of establishing the decimal plan. "In our
opinion," they said, "no single change which it is in
the (power of a Government to effect in our monetary
system would be felt by all classes as equally beneficial
with this ;" and they pointed out that all that was re-
quisite was "to create a new coin equivalent to two
shillings, to be called by a distinctive name, and to con-
sider the farthing as the thousandth part of a pound, in-
stead of the nine-hundred-and-sixtieth part as at present."
The florin has supplied the first of these wants, and the
only point that now remains is to alter the copper coins.
This might be done with a degree of ease which, when
the vast national and general interests involved in the
measure are considered, seems to render indifference
actually culpable ; and the current coinage of the coun-
try would then stand as follows, taking the sovereign as
divisible into a thousand parts :
Gold ... Sovereign ... 1.000 money of account
Half ditto
... .500
Silver ... Five Shillings .250
Two and sixpence .125
Florin
... .100 money of acoount
Shilling ... .50
Sixpence ... .25
Copper ... Dime •.• .10 money of account
Half ditto ... .5
Farthing ... .1

NEW BILL ON MERCHANT SHIPPING.—A bill, brought
forward by the Government, has just been printed, to
amend various laws relating to merchant shipping.
There are 63 clauses in the measure and a schedule.
The bill, which stands for the second reading on Monday
in the House of Commons, it is proposed shall come into
operation on the Ist of August next, and is to be cited
as " The Merchant Shipping Law Amendment Act,
1853." The bill has reference to light and other dues on
shipping, and placing the accounts under the Board of
-Trade. After a number of provisions with respect to
manning, volunteering, and desertion, there is a clause
respecting Lascars for Australia. It is declared to be expe-
dient to give facilities for obtaining seamen in the Aus-
tralian colonies, for which purpose it is proposed to enact
that contracts may be made with natives in India under
certain conditions, binding them to go to Australia and
thence to serf in other ships in the United Kingdom.
Certain con asioners mentioned are to form the Mer-
cantile Marine Fund. The Queen in council is to fix
the tolls to be taken, for new lighthouses. To the present
—as in recent: Government bills—there is an analysis of
the contents.

We understand that his Majesty the Emperor of Aus-
tria has granted the golden medal, for literary and artis-
tic merits, to Mr. Leone Levi,i for hie work on " The
Commercial Law of the