The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-03 00:00:00

(glancing at Mr. Webb), and he would promise them that
they should have a like good dinner when it turned out
to be the case. This much he would promise on his ac-
cont. (Great laughter and cheering.)
Mr. EIENRY MINTON begged to drink Mr. Webb's good
health, to which the latter responded, and said that he
would hold Mr. G. H. Horsfall bound, by contract, to
supply them with a dinner, when the event to which they
alluded should take place.—[Mr. G. H. HORSFALL —I shall
be most happy.] (Loud cheers.)
Mr. Clay's health having been proposed by Mr. Barlow,
that gentleman said it gave him great pleasure to know
from Mr. Barlow, that in his capacity of manager of the
works he had given satisfaction. It would appear that he
had exceeded the expectations formed of him ; this he as-
sured them was far more satisfactory to him than that
great things should have been anticipated of him, and
afterwards to have been found wanting. He hoped that
he had been enabled to manage the works as profitably to
the esteemed proprietors as it appeared satisfactory to the
men ; and if this should prove to be the case, as he doubted
not but that it would, he should feel himself most happy.
It had been his aim to give a direction to every good ob-
ject that was proposed to him, and it would continue to be
his study to further their interests, and to be of some per-
manent good to them. (Cheers.) He thanked them for
their good will towards him.

Mr. SIMPSON, in proposing "The Vice-chair," said he
had a light task imposed on him, and it required no enco-
miums from him to insure its hearty reception. Mr. B.
EASTWOOD briefly returned thanks ; and proposed " The
Young Gentlemen of the Office," which was responded to
by Mr. T. CATON, the junior clerk.
, Our Friends ;" to which the leading man of Messrs.
Fawcett, Preston, and Co.'s foundry responded, was next
proposed, and received with cheers.

- Among" the remaining to;;t;;;ere drunk, " Prosperity
to the Mersey Steel and Iron Works' Benefit Society," by
T. WEss, Esq. ; " Success to the Mersey Steel and Iron
Works and the Iron Trade," by Mr. GRIFFITIIB ; " The
Treasurer and Secretary of the Society," by Mr. KING.
The musical arrangements reflected the highest credit
on their conductor, Mr. Roberts.
The hilarity of the evening was kept up to a late hour,
when all retired highly delighted with the proceedings,
and charmed with the kind condescension of their esteemed
employers, the Messrs. Horsfall.

DECIMAL COINAGE.

TOWN'S MEETING.

IN compliance with a numerously signed requisition, a
public meeting was convened by his Worship the MAYOR
on Wednesday last, to consider the subject of decimal
coinage. The meeting took place in the Sessions'-house,
the Mayor presiding ; the attendance was large, embracing
gentlemen connected with the shipping, banking, and other
commercial interests of Liverpool, and among these
were—Mr. William Brown, M.P., Mr. T. B. Horsfall, M.P.,
Mr. Thomas Thornely, M.P., Messrs. J. P. Heywood,
W. Earle, W. Rathbone, Josias Booker, G. Grant, John
Campbell, T. Bold, F. A. Clint, R. Bean, W. J. Tomlinson,
James Aikin, John Aikin, F. A. Hamilton, J. B. Barclay,
H. Neill, C. Robertson, T. Moore, E. Heath, J. Baron, K.
Dowie, T. Bouch, J. A. Picton, James Smith, R. Gill, T.
D. Anderson, E. Higgin, J. R Jeffery, &c., &c.
The requisition calling the meeting having been 'read
by the Town Clerk,
The MAYOR, in stating that he considered it his duty
to call the meeting in compliance with the requisition
which had been so numerously and respectably signed,
took occasion to say he believed there was scarcely a dif-
ference of opinion that, if the decimal system were adop-
ted, it would save, by threefold, the labour and expense
at present consumed in figure transactions. No commu-
nity, he considered, could be more competent to give an
opinion on such a subject than that of the important
commercial town of Liverpool.
Mr. W. Bnowsr, M.P., moved the first resolution, which
will be found, with the others, in our advertising columns.
After reading the resolution, he proceeded to read two
letters, one from Lord Stanley the other from Mr. How-
son, Principal of the Collegiate Institution. These letters
expressed a general acquiescence in the propriety of a de-
cimal coinage ; but also expressing a predilection in favour
of retaining some of the piesent names, such as the
farthing. Mr. Brown then proceeded to explain what had
already taken place relative to the subject they were met
to consider. Many years ago, the father of the present
Lord Wrottesley broached the subject in the House of
Commons, but little was done until Dr. Bowring took it
up some time afterwards, and induced the government to
issue a florin—one-tenth of a pound. The doctor was de-
sirous that the piece should be called a dime, but, from
high quarters, this was overruled, and the name of florin
was given to it. The matter rested until the Liverpool
Chamber of Commerce took up the question, and ap-
pointed a sub-committee to examine into the merits of the
case. That committee made a favourable report to the
chamber, and they memorialised the government in favour
of a decimal system, and taking the sovereign as the unit.
Nothing was afterwards done until he (Mr. Brown) went
to London, when he considered that he could not render a
better service to the country than by moving for a com-
mittee of inquiry of the House of Commons. His first
notice of motion embraced weights and measures ; but
some of his judicious friends deemed that the weights and
measures had better be omitted in the first instance, and
that they had better, in the meantime, go for decimalising
the coinage, because the advantage of this being once seen,
the other would follow. Previous, however, to this step
being taken by him, the Board of Trade issued letters, in
order to elicit information, not only as to the effect of the
change upon commerce, but as to how it would be re-
ceived by the working and industrious classes. The
evidence thus elicited was put into the hands of the
committee, and probably there never was a committee
where the opinion was more unanimous in favour of fixing
the pound as the unit of account. During their frequent
sittings there was not a single division. (Hear, hear.) It
had appeared very strange to him that England, the most
commercial country in the world, should be so long in
adopting a system which was found to work well by all other
nations which had adopted it. There were at this moment
probably 400,000,000 people who used the decimal system.
The coins which were recommended as the coins of account
by the parliamentary committee were pounds, florins,
cents, and mils, but no strong opinion was given how
accounts should be kept. That might be left to the con-
venience of the public, as it was quite a matter of taste
how the public chose to keep their accounts. The public
might choose to call them one pound and 999 mils
(£:1.999), by placing the decimal point after the pound;
or one pound 9 florins and 99 mils (ia 9f. 99m.) ; or one
pound 9 florins 9 cents and 9 mils, all of which were per-
fectly simple. Probably it would be better to call them
farthings, and express them thus—£l 9 florins and 99
farthings. The coins which were considered necessary
for the change, in gold and silver, were, taking the
sovereign as the unit and dividing it into 1000 parts, the
half-sovereign 500, the crown 250, the half-crown 125,
the florin 100, the shilling 50, and the sixpence 25 far-
things. It would be perceived that none of these were
coins of account except the sovereign and the florin, but
they were very convenient for change. It was further
recommended that 20 and 30 cent pieces should be coined,
to replace the half-crowns as they were called in, and the
shillings and sixpences called in as the matter progressed.
But it was by no means necessary to withdraw any of our
present coins until a new coin was substituted, provided
the number of farthings. were marked upon the new coin-
age; for the public would at once see that a piece marked
50 mils was precisely our present ls., and one marked 23
our present ed. 'With the copper coins it was recom-
mended that they should have one, two, and five mil
pieces ; but, although he perfectly agreed with the general
views of the committee, he thought they ought not to
overlook the very important evidence of Sir John Hers-
chell (master of the mint), and Mr. Miller, the deputy-
cashier of the Bank of England. Mr. Miller's proposal
was to mark the heavy thick-rimmed pennies made by
Bolton and Watt five mils, and the small pennies might
be marked four mils, the halfpenny two, and the farthing
one. As a whole, the country would be no loser if Mr.
Miller's plan were proclaimed to-morrow, so that, in fact,
the coinage is ready whenever the government may choose
to adopt it. General Pasley and Mr. Taylor gage them
some very striking examples of the saving of labour
which would arise from the adoption of the decimal system
in accounts and calculations, and, as an illustration, a sum
in which only GO figures were required to work decimally
a sum which required 208 under the present process.
There were numbers of astronomical observations which
could not be carried on without a decimal system ; and it
would also be found convenient to those persons who
were concerned in trade. Mr. Kirkham and Mr.
Lindsey gave some valuable evidence as to the small
coins. Those gentlemen, the one in London and
the other in Liverpool, managed 13 or 14 shops:
they stated distinctly, when it was explained to
the poor that they would receive for the 6d. twenty-five
farthings in place of twenty-four, they would be satisfied,
and there would be no difficulty, and that about 1000 far-
things were taken weekly in the respective concerns with
which they were connected. He (Mr. Brown) had always
felt convinced, and the evidence adduced before the com-
mittee had strengthened this conviction, that they had
never sufficiently appreciated the intelligence and aptitude
of the labouring classes. Mr. Mervyn went on to say, that
he totally disagreed with the notion that the industrious
and hardworking men would not readily appreciate the
change. He contended that they understood the value of
farthings and pence better than most people did of pounds.
He anticipated no difficulty with them. With respect to
the exchanges, they all knew that throughout the whole
mercantile operations of the world, the pound sterling was
the basis of operations- To change it would create a
degree of derangement and inconvenience that scarcely
couldr bse,
whoc o nt eqnua
iptl ae
ted.
approved H e
of the
had lettersste pswhich had
from the Society
been
of At
taken; and they were in correspondence with 700 or 800
other societies, and intended publishing his letter, with
such remarks as they thought fit, and circulating it. In
conclusion, remarking upon the importance of bringing
the subject in every way under the consideration of the
government, Mr. Brown said that government did not like
to move unless they found that they were sustained by
public opinion. This was one reason why they had taken
the liberty of requesting his worship to convene the pre-
sent meeting, their object being to disseminate information
upon the subject as fully as possible. (Cheers.)
Mr. TIIOMAS Boren, vice-president of the chamber of
commerce, in the absence of Mr. Shand, the chairman,
seconded the resolution, stating that, although the cham-
ber of commerce had appointed a committee on the pro-
priety of adopting a decimal system, it was done through
their attention having been called to the subject by a
letter from Mr. Brown. Mr. Bouch bore testimony to the
services which _Mr. Brown had rendered to the town, not
only in this matter, but in every public measure with
which it had been his (Mr. Boucles) good fortune to be
connected ; and, as he never failed to carry through to a
final result any measure which he took up, so he hoped he
would be successful in obtaining a settlement of this
question.

- The resolution was then put to the meeting, and, with
those that followed, carried unanimously.
Mr. T. B. HOMPALL, M.P., proposed the second reso-
lution, which, he said, recognised the principle proposed
in the first resolution, and pointed out the benefits which
would accrue from the advantages of the decimal system
to every class in the community. He quite concurred
with the resolution that the decimal system would confer
a very general, he would say a universal, benefit. He was
very much surprised, the other day, to hear a gentleman,
alluding to the object of this meeting, express an opinion,
which his worship also heard, that it was somewhat imp-