The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-25 00:00:00

BOURBON PROPERTY.

The Civil Tribunal of Florence has rejected the demand
of the Bourbons for the restitution of certain property
confiscated during the dictatorship of Garibaldi. Thl;
judgment is in conformity with the decision of the Italia'
Government. It is maintained that the two dictatoriA
decrees of Garibaldi hold good.

INTERNATIONAL COINAGE.*

(From the Anglo-American 1 imes.)

Although England is now the great stumbling-
block in the way of an international system of coin-
age, it is in no small degree owing to her exertions
that so much has been accomplished towards the
introduction of universal weights, measures, and a
unit for coins. In 1862 the British Branch of the
National Associatior for the adoption of a univer-
sal system of weights, measures, and coi'is through-
out the world, got the House of Commons to appoint
a committee to inquire into weights and measures,
which led to the adoption of the metric system. The
M unetary Convention between France, Belgium,
and Italy was signed in 1865, which united a larger
population using the franc than any other unit.
In December, 1866, Britain was asked to take part
in an International Conference to extend the system,
and about the same time the International Decimal
Association brought the same subject before her
Majesty's Government, while the Metric Commit-
tee of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science suggested to the Commission for the Uni-
versal Exhibition of 1867 a special exhibition there
of the weights, measures, and coins of all countries.
The British Government cautiously approached the
subject, attracted towards it, and acknowledging
its value, yet dreading disturbance in the enor-
mous commercial interests they represented. Tine
was taken to consider, and they agreed to send the
Master of the Mint and other Cemmissioners to
such a Conference, on the clear understanding that
they admitted nothing, and their Commissioners
were unauthorised in any degree to commit them.
So two Commissions sat in Paris during the time of
the Great Exhibition hi 1867, the oec official exclu-
sively on coinage, the other unoflicisl on weights,
measures and coins, at the Palais d'lndustrie, both be-
ing presided over by Prince Napoleon, and attended
by the same representatives, from all civilized coun-
tries. The first question they had to decide was whe-
ther a new universal coinageshould be brought iato
use or existing coins brought into conformity. The
reviewer regrets that the opportunity was not seized
to establish a distinct relation between the unit of
weight and the unit of money, and he considers that
a grand opportunity was therein lost. Abraham thus
used the shekel, the Romans the as., the Greeks
the drachma and the talent, and the English the
pound. Touching this last unit, as a coin, it is not
old, though as a weight it has been used for centu-
ries as a measure of pure gold, varying from time to
time. In 1717 Sir Isaac Newton, then Mester of
the Miut, settled the pounl weighs, but it was not
till a century after, in 1817, that the sovereign or 20
twenty shillings was put into circulation by Procla-
mation. The question as to the introduction of a new
coinage the Convention was settled adversely, when
the subject came up as to the metal, and gold received
the preference. A double standard was proposed
and strenuously advocated by M. Wolowski, of the
palais d'lndustrie. His main argument was that
if any country, say France, changed from silver to
gold an injustice would be done to the debtor class.
The production of silver was increasins, that of
gold decreasing ; and the value of the latter would
be still further enhanced when the United States,
Russia, and Austria changed their paper circulation
into specie. Hence it would be unfair to alter their
contracts into a metal yearly rising in value. These
arguments, however, had no effect on the Commis-
sion, and gold was selected. Then arose the difficult
question of the unit. Five or ten grammes of gold,
nine-tenths fine, was discussed and rejected. The
subject of fineness was raised, and it was found that
France, Germany, and the United States adopted
nine-tenths pure gold and one-tenth alloy ; while
England, Portugal, and Prussia adopted eleven-
twelfths pure gold and one-twelfth alloy ; the nine-
tenths, being most generally in use, was adopted. But
the real stumbling-block was that the Conference then
reached—to select the unit of value. The French sys-
tem had been decided on as that of the largest popula-
tion, embracing; as it did, several other countries.
It is true that the exports and imports of the United
Kingdom in 1865 did exceed those of the nations that
had then entered the Convention, the former being
£490,000,000, the latter £472,000,000, exclusive of
Switzerland, but tile: coin of the former was esti-
mated at £100,000,000, wn. L'e that of the latter was
.E300;000,000 ; hence, in choosing the system of the
most numerous population, less expense an-el labour
would be incurred iu recoinage. In considering the
other great nations, it was found that they were
but little affected—the United States, Russia, and
Austria having a paper currency. The most feas-
able coin, as a unit, appeared to be the five-franc
piece. The English pound represented 25 francs
2u cents ; the United States dollar nearly equals four
shillings; 25 francs nearly equal the pound, four
dollars equalling the Napoleon, or 16 shillings, and
five d
five dollars equalling the pound, or 25 francs. The
United States coinage varies three-and-a-half per
cent. from the franc ; but although this was made
ing
differed from them when consider the subjec'.
light of by the American representatives, the Senate
Several schemes were, however, introduced into
onizine the United
Congress with the object of harm
States currency
with the system adopted at the
being Mr. D. Ay.
Kelley's Bill of Julyl 2 ,
1868. He suggests that
Conference, the tnost feasible
each gold dollar shall containone-and-a- half French
grammes of pure gold, and weigh one and two-thirds;
by which 1,003 new dollars would equal 1,000 old
dollars. This would be reducing
a step towards the
difference between the money of the United Statcs

* St. Paul's Magazine Jue,1869.

,

and of Britain and Germany, while adjusting it
more closely to the French system. One hundred
francs contain a Mile over twenty-nine grammes
of gold, while twenty of the United States pro-
posed dollars would contain 30 grammes, and
one thousand British pence 301 grammes, and
these might, Mr. Kelley thinks, easily be made equi-
valent to four British pounds. By slightly chang-
ing the weight, a hundred francs would equal a
thousand pence and two thousand cents, and each
of these would equal thirty French grammes, now
the equivalent of three German crowns, which would
make the dollar, the five-franc piece, four shillings,
and three-twentieths of a German crown alike in
value. How far Mr. Kelley's bill militates against
the system laid down at the Conference we cannot
tell, but one of its cla it-3es provides that silver shall
be a legal tender for sums under ten dollars, and 25
grammes of silver shall make a dollar. We imagine
the Conference in rejecting the double standard
had no idea of throwing out silver as a legal ten-
der for small sums. Mr. Kelley's gold coins would
be pieces of $-20, $lO, $5, $3, and $l. As re-
gards the English potted its exact measure is
113.001 grains fine gold, while the 25-franc piece
would be 112.008 or -993 of a grain less or in value
2.126, equal to .88, or nearly nine-tenths per cent-
Mr. Feer Herzog, the Swiss representative, thought
so small a difference only the limit of tolerance, but
from this the British representatives dissented, as
they considered that their Government would in
honour, and to avoid having sovereigns not exactly
alike in circulation, have to recoin, and perhaps ulti-
mately to abandon, the sovereign. It is, however,
the case that the British Mint alone charges nothing
. for coining ; hence if one per cent. be deducted for
seignorage, the value would be equalized, while the
contracts in existence with countries which did not
join the Convention could be settled, not in coin,
but in gold bars. An objection was raised to the
five-franc gold piece ; for if coins were struck Of
that value, and of 10, 20, and 25 francs, mistakes
would be constantly occurring, owing to the slight
difference in size. Already mistakes are made even
in the present more marked gold pieces of France,
which would repeatedly occur in verysmall pieces, be-
sides their being more liable to be lost. It was then
proposed to raise the common denominator to ten,
which was in harmony with the decimal system,
and the franc, with neither of which does the five'
franc piece agree. Such a coin was once largely
circulated as a ducat, and was the smallest geld
coin before the five-franc piece was issued. M.
Wallenberg and Professor Leoni Levi favoured it,
while M. de Parien did not object. The represen-
tatives of Austria gave it the preference as in
readily agreeing with their coinage, 13 representa-
tives voting for it ; those of England and Sweden
were against it while Prussia, Baden, Wurtemberg,
and Belgium abstained from voting. The Confer'
ence, by way of conciliating England, added a COh
of 25 francs, from which the mistaken idea tires°
that they had adopted that coin as the unit, which
was not the case, the five-franc gold piece being
taken as the basis of the monetary system, the coins
of all nations to be made an exact multiple or con'
formable to it. The reviewer objects to the action
of the Convention in contemplating only a change
of coins without touching on the system of currency
The Master of the Mint assured the Convention
that England would not come into their proposal, as
it would entail too great an inconvenience for the
advantage it would confer, and this was in effect
the conclusion arrived at by the Royal Coina,ission
appointed immediately after to consider the subject,
and with the concurrence of the mercantile cum'
munity.. At the same time the Commission fulif
acknowledged that a uniform system alike in the
higher and lower coins as well as in weights and inea-
sures would be productive of great general advantage:
Both the Master of the Mint and ProfessorLeoni Levi
advocated the 10-franc gold piece as the unit: 1115
would necessitate a new coinage, and reduce our
shilling to a ten-penny piece. Ten new shillings
would equal the new gold piece ; four pounds, the
large coin, would be ten of these new gold coins,
or one hundred francs ; two pounds would ecilla!
five of the new coins, or fifty francs ; one poursn
would be two and a half of the new coins, equal to
twenty-five francs ; sixteen :killings would eql-1:11
two new gold coins, or twenty francs ; eight Oil'
lings would equal one, the unit, or ten francs.
There would be no difficulty, we imagine, in get'
tin; a bill passed through Congress, either to hat-
monise the coinage to such a system, or to adopt it'
"File silver would consist of pieces equal to five
hence, to two francs, to one franc, to half a francl
and a quarter franc; and the copper coinage would
be a ten cent piece, equal to a penny, one of five cents'
and one cent. We are glad to see that the Hon. ,•
Ruggles has been commissioned by the President t°
attend the approaching Statistical Conference at
the Hague, which will bring the most active inehl:
bar of the United States Delegation to the Fells
Conference again to Europe to re-open this sub"
ject, as it surely will be unofficially, if not officially
Indeed, Austria intends to coin pieces equal to 01
10-franc and 20 franc pieces; and Greece, the PaP3,
States, Roumania, as well as the United States sn'
Canada, have taken action on the subject. 1)35t
Tuesday at Pesth the bill introducing a gold. ceity
age, with the franc as unit, was agreed to. 1"
North German Confederation have passed reselg-
tiops, while Sweden proposes to strike gold colliS
(Anal to 10 francs and 25 franc;, and France lisg
resolved to alter her standard to gold ; thus En&
laud has been left almost alone, while even CllO
talks of coming into the system.

t
The Rev. Samuel Nott, .father of Samuel No. ;
jun., superintendent of the Hartford, Providence,R.
Fishkill Railroad, died at the residence of his son in 1131
ford, on Tuesday, Juuo 1. Ho was the last survivor °
the band of five missionaries sent to the East Indies by th°
•
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 31issical
in 1812.
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.1 D
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portant Caution—Beware of the many unsavoury and more
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21 lbs 40s. -Also Dur BARRYS REVALENTA AnAnteL Cnoco4o
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BIRTHS. goo'
SMITH - On the 22d inst., at 69, Queen's-gate, the
Mrs. Woolmore Smith, of a son. 1-14'
UNDEILWOOD—On the 23d inst., at 10, Park-square,
gent's-park, N.V., the wife of Frederick Under
Esq., of twin sons.

MARRIAGES. at,
CLARKE - -BEARE —At St. Andrew's Church, W'all-str-og,
Arthur Doveton. son of J. Clarke, Esq., of 36, rin-ot
shire-place, to Edith Amy, youngest daughter of .10.1
W. G. Beare, of Devonshire-place.
PARKER —KITCHENER. —On the 24th inst., at Weybride,"
liarry Rainy Parker, Esq., eldest son of the late 'Shoo,
Chancellor Sir James Parker, to Frances Fmily
daughter of Lieut.-Col. Kitchener, late 9th Regt.

DEATES.
CIIAMBEIIS—On the 23d inst., et his residence. (3, 131°°°1-
field-place, Pimlico, Mr. S. Chambers, aged 82. lra
JARDINE —On the 23d jest.) at Brighton, Major-Gee°
Jardine, aged 61.
WILSON On the 21st inst., Thos. Wilson, Esq , late °f
the
firm of Thos. Wilson, Sons, and Co., Hull, aged 78.

London: Printed and Published by WILLIAM ANDOCCT,
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at VIP SUN Office, N 0.112, tra-,
in the Precinct of the Savoy, the county of Xicicilel.
Friday, June 25,1868.