him of that which, under proper limits, is not deleterious to his health. We have no sympathy whatever with intemperance, in any form, but that is no reason why the "Alliance" should seek entirely to deprive us of alcoholic and malt beverages. To stem the tide of intemperance, let them place public houses and saloons under stringent regulations; let them punish the drunkard by forfeiture of political and civil rights:— but let them, under no circumstances, take upon themselves to dictate what "we shall eat, and what we shall drink, or wherewithal we shall be clothed," for as surely as they usurp that province will they be repulsed by every man who prides himself on being a rational being. They have gone too far already; and have, consequently, awakened a determined opposition, which, it is hoped, will be perseveringly maintained. Manchester. J. G. R. The Essayist. DECIMAL COINAGE:-THE NECESSITY FOR ITS ADOPTION-ITS ADVANTAGES OVER THE PRESENT SYSTEM-AND THE VARIOUS PLANS FOR CARRYING IT OUT WHICH HAVE BEEN PROPOSED. No. III. SINCE the report of the Committee, with which we dealt in our last paper, only stands in its present form as a proposal for the introduction of the decimal system; and since the reports of parliamentary committees are proverbially not infallible, it may be desirable to notice the suggestions which have emanated from other quarters, bearing upon the decimal system, with a desire to judge if any of these should be substituted for, or grafted on to the Committee's plan. First, with respect to the unit, no less than eight variations have been proposed viz., the £1; the half sovereign, or ducat; the dollar, 4s. 2d.; the floria; the shilling; the franc; the penny; and the farthing. We propose separately to notice these suggestions, and state their respective merits as they appear to us, and to others from whom we shall quote. The £1 unit. The adoption of this sum for the unit was recommended by the "Decimal Coinage Committee; "-the great majority of the witnesses they examined having either expressly, or by inference, spoken in its favour; and it seems generally to give great satisfaction. In addition to the other reasons given by the Committee, and quoted in our previous paper, they add,-"Its tenth part already exists in the shape of the florin, or two-shilling piece, while an alteration of four per cent., in the present farthing will serve to convert that coin into the lowest step of the decimal scale which it is necessary to represent by actual coin, viz., the thousandth part of a £; and the addition of a coin to be called a cent, of the value of ten mils, and equal to the hundredth part of the pound, or the tenth part of the florin, will serve to complete the list of coins necessary to represent monies of account." The 10s. unit-The proposal for a unit of this amount was introduced to the Committee by one or two of the witnesses examined, but so far from finding any favour, it was stated by Professor Airy and Mr. De Morgan to have objections fatal to its adoption. However, it has found a great champion in Mr. E. Ryley, of London, an actuary of no mean standing.* The details of his proposal are these: 1st. His unit of account to be 10s., and to be called an angel, a mark, a Victoria, a Queen, an eagle, or a piece. 2nd. The shilling one-tenth of an angel. 2rd. The penny-one-tenth of a shilling one-hundredth of an angel. *Since this paper was written, the 10s. unit has found an additional champion in the person of Mr. W. T. Thomson, the eminent Scottish actuary. The details of his plan are precisely the same as those given above, and he adduces some very strong arguments in support of his plan. 4th. The Cross, or new farthing onetenth of a penny-one-hundredth of a shilling one-thousandth of an angel Here, then, are four denominations, as in the proposal of the Committee, the essential difference being that each denomination of coin here given represents but half the value of the corresponding coin in the Committee's plan. Thus, the new pound, so to call it, would be 10s., and the new farthing half the present farthing. This arrangement would, no doubt, be very useful in minute calculations, but whether for ordinary transactions it has special advantages, is a point for consideration. As bearing upon this proposal it may be stated, upon the evidence of Professor Airy, that half-farthings are at present in existence, but very seldom used, and that they would not confer any advantages on the poorer classes in their dealings with tradesmen.-Report, sec. 309-343. The Dollar as unit.-We do not know the origin of this proposal, nor have we seen in detail the advantages likely to proceed from its adoption. It is well known that in the United States of America, in Canada and British America, and in some parts of Europe, the dollar (4s. 2d. English money) has been adopted both as a coin and money of account. It also has the further advantage of assimilating with the French franc, 10d., five francs (or the French fivefranc piece) being one dollar. Looking at the evidence of Mr. De Morgan that "in a complete decimal system everything must have its 10ths, 100ths, and 1,000ths" (Report, answer 732), we .see great difficulty in adopting the dollar, or several other of the units which have been proposed, without entirely re-modelling our coinage-a task fearful to contemplate. The Florin as unit.-This proposal emanated from Mr. James Laurie, the author of "Universal Exchange Tables," and a witness examined by the Committee. He puts his proposal thus: 100 cents=1 florin; 10 florins=1 pound. He would make the "florin the unit of mercantile accounts," and remarks,, "the florin being thus divided into 100 cents would afford a gradual rise from 1 to 100 cents, and so meet wholesale and retail prices, small wares, groceries, &c., in a series of figures of the same denomination and value, and then by florins and cents up to any amount. Asum of 379 florins 25 cents would be paid by £37 9 florins and 25 cents," and accounts would be kept in two columns. Sir John Herschel, speaking of the florin system, says, "this makes the pound a natural decimal multiple, and so far good. But it assumes a silver monetary standard; whereas for good or for evil, for better for worse, we are married to a gold one. I do not mean to say a silver one would not be better. I believe it would, and I believe a binary standard, half silver, and half gold, at the option of either party to insist on, would be better than either; but gold is our standard of value, and we are lashed on to it, and must be carried along the "tyrant gold" does admit of being deciwith, toss as it may." Happily for us, then, malised. called "the poor man's unit," we suppose from its being silver instead of gold. It is be retained, but that there should be only a part of this proposal that the penny should ten instead of twelve to the shilling, in order to make the relation of the one to the other a decimal one, and this could be done withthe systems proposed, says: "Then comes out difficulty. Sir J. Herschel, in reviewing the shilling system. It has no one point to recommend it but its copper dime. The Sovereign must be called a twenty-shilling piece, the penny must be demonetised, and we are landed in a system having no relation to any, either in Europe or elsewhere." The Shilling as unit. This has been tion emanated from a gentleman styling him6th. The Franc as unit.-This suggesself, in a pamphlet published on the subject, Theodore W. Rathbone, Esq. If he had soning in support of his own plan, his proemployed less bombast and more sound reaposals might have met with greater support. However, we will review his proposals on their sterling should be allowed to "retain its timeown merits. While admitting that the £1 honoured useful place in all such large amounts as the National Debt and the public accounts," this writer proposes francs (tenpences) and pence as the "monies of account." "Half-a-guinea, for instance, would be twelve francs (or tenpences) and sixpence; that is, either a 12fr. 6d. or 12.6 decimal; The cent the tenth of a penny, the hun-| (after speaking of the shilling plan):-" The dredth of a franc. The penny the tenth of a franc. The franc the twenty-fourth of a pound. Under this system all the silver coins, except the shilling and florin, would be retained; the 3d. piece as threepence; the 4d. piece as fourpence; the 6d. as sixpence (a new shilling, value 10d.); the half-crown as three francs; the crown as six francs; the half-sovereign would be twelve francs; and the present sovereign 24 francs. A new sovereign to be coined, value 25 francs, forms a part, and we think a fatal part, of the plan now under notice. However, we think the proposal worthy of careful consideration; for in addition to what we have said, it has the advantage of assimilating with the French franc-10d.; American dollar-five francs, 4s. 2d.; and with the Dutch florin1s. 8d., two francs.* penny system is a little better. It would give us a franc not very far from the French, and a pound of 200 pence, which was the old Saxon pound of Ethelbert." He says he took occasion to suggest this not long ago for a Canadian pound, but it is quite visionary as applied to England. tion emanated from Mr. T. E. Headlam, 1. The "mil," being the present farthing. 4. The Victoria, being 1000 mils (far- After The present £1 sterling would thus be The penny as unit.-We have not seen any direct proposal to make the present altogether discarded both in name and value, penny the unit, although it is said to have but the "old English penny” would be rebeen made, and that Mr. Gray, a gentleman tained. The Committee made a special note connected with the British Museum, was its of this proposal in their report. champion. During the progress of the Com- stating that various proposals had been mittee's enquiry, frequent allusion was made brought before them, they say :—“ Of these to this coin, and the relation it could be the one recommending the retention of the made to bear to a decimal system. When it present farthing as the basis of a new system is remembered how many of our obligations of coinage, leaving its relation to the existas Englishmen are expressed in the "olding penny untouched, presents the greatest English penny," ranging from the penny-amile railway train up to the penny postage and receipt stamps, it will at once be seen to present considerations of great importance. Some strong opinions were expressed before the Committee on this point. Professor Airy said, in a statement put in by him, "Any adjustment whatever will be better than permanently retaining the present 1d., or a coin equivalent to it. This retention would cause infinite confusion." Sir J. Herschel, in his paper previously quoted, says amount of advantage. The large number of payments which are now expressed in pence would remain unaltered, and a great portion of those daily transactions, in which the mass of the population are engaged, would be unaffected by the change; but when it is considered that the adoption of that alternative would, by adding 10d. to the value of the present £1, and a half-penny to that of the shilling, necessitate the withdrawal of the whole of the present gold coinage, and the alteration of the terms of all contracts nearly the whole of the silver, and involve and obligations expressed in coin of either of the latter metals, your Committee would not feel themselves warranted in recommend * In an appendix to Dr. Bowring's recent work on the decimal system is a paper contributed by some other person, and which Dr. Bowring says -"so completely demolishes Mr. Rathbone's scheme," that he gives it entire. Still more re-ing the adoption of such a proposal." cently, however, a pamphlet has been written by the celebrated Mr. James Laurie (who advocated the florin before the Committee, and who completed the pamphlet now under review on his death-bed), strongly advocating the adoption of the "cent of 10d.," or the franc as the unit of account, more especially on the ground of its facilitating our foreign exchanges. We have now reviewed the whole of the proposals for a decimal system so far as they have come before us, and perhaps we cannot close this paper better than by stating that at two meetings of the Institute of Actuaries (men whose profession it is to investigate these questions) held not very long since, ten-shilling units, the great preponderance the decimal system came under discussion, of opinion was in favour of the retention of and the whole of the proposals we have the pound sterling as the unit, thus backing noticed in this paper passed under review; the proposal of the Committee. and although advocates were found for the C. W., Jun. farthing, the penny, the shilling, and the (To be continued.) The Inquirer. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. 201. Oxford University.-Surely the question of H. C. must have been overlooked, or some of your readers would have answered it before now. As it is probable that he has obtained the information he desired from other sources, I will not occupy your space with a lengthened reply, but would recommend him and any other reader interested in the subject to obtain the "Oxford University Calendar" for the present year, which may be had, on order, of any bookseller, price about 5s.-R. M. 224. Educational Advice.-"Saturn's" question is somewhat obscurely expressed. He says that he neglected his studies during his school days, but now feels his ignorance, having arrived at "a more advanced period of life;" but what this advanced period is, whether youth, manhood, or old age, he does not tell us. Again, he asks to be informed how to proceed with his studies; but he does not tell us what the studies are which he has commenced, nor how far he has already proceeded with them. Under these circumstances, any hints that we may give will necessarily be of a very general character. If" Saturn" be deficient in the elementary parts of education, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, he may obtain valuable instruction from Cassell's" Popular Educator," the articles under the head of Self-Culture in the Controversialist, and the various classes connected therewith. If he be deficient in general information, he may read a selection from the list of books mentioned in the "Course of Reading for a Young Man," in the first volume of this work; but whatever book he may read, let him be careful to master its contents, and make its leading facts or principles his own. There is one work that I cannot help specially recommending, viz., Todd's "Student's Manual." In it he will find much that will interest and instruct him.-C. A. 227. Acalephæ.-That sparkling appearance of the ocean which may frequently be observed in crossing it, is to be attributed to the presence of phosphorus in the minute bodies of the acalephæ, or sea nettles, "Those living jellies which the flesh iuflame, Fierce as a nettle, aud from that the name." The light emitted by these animalculæ is much more brilliant in the warmer latitudes. The naturalist Humboldt says, "Between the tropics the ocean simultaneously develops light over a space of many thousands of square miles, and every scintillation is the vital manifestation of an invisible animal world." Their internal structure is as yet scarcely understood, but it has been ascertained that they are almost entirely composed of a fluid, which, when analyzed, is found in no respect to differ from ordinary sea water. It seems to be an undisputed fact that the acalephæ are capable of producing sparks of light at pleasure, and it is probable that the action of a ship, in passing through their tangled masses, causes them to exercise this power. They are frequently called sea anemones, or jellyfish, and "Figured by hand divine, there's not a gem Wrought by man's art to be compared to them; Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow, And make the moonbeams brighter where they flow."-FANNY, Worcester. 229. Intellect and Dark Hair.-We certainly think that "Enitor" is quite right in his opinion upon this subject, and that intellectual persons will be more frequently found with hair of a dark shade than any other. It is out of our power to give any reason for what we believe to be a fact, and on that account should not have thought of expressing an opinion, had not our friend" Red Head" been rather ungenerous towards the dark haired portion of mankind. In our estimation, he has misunderstood the original question, which is not-Which will be found the more intellectual race, white or dark? but, What is the predominating shade of hair of intellectual persons, dark or light? He seems to give no credit whatever to the fact of there being even a few men of intellect with dark hair; but after taking to himself a host of men of genius, he gives (though he says with truth "that he has taken them at random") but two poor specimens of dark haired intellect, and as those are the only two that he can call to mind, we will endeavour to refresh his memory. To go back to past ages, we find the Egyptians, when in the height of their power, by far the most advanced in civilization and refinement (and therefore in intellect) of any nation upon the earth, and yet, as "Red Head" must admit, they were a dark haired people. The Grecians, too, were dark haired, and yet they have most considerable claims upon the intellectual world. The conquerors of the "fair haired Saxon, who has outshone all his fellows in the might of his intellect and the glory of his achievements," were the dark haired Normans, who were as far beyond the Saxons in intellectual attainments as they were in refinement. Even in modern days we can find a considerable number of men of intellect with dark hair. We give the names of a few, and our friend will give us great pleasure if he will add them to his very small list:-Richelieu, Lamartine, Danton, Voltaire, Burhitt, Moore, Macaulay, Longf Brougham, O'Connell, Kossuth, Vaughan, Gough; and, to close our list, Wellington and Napoleon, who, though placed last, are far from being least: and we are surprised that "Red Head" could have lost sight of two such men. "Red Head" winds up by saying, "Who that gazes at a Shaksperean forehead can picture him with black hair?" We, in return will ask, Who can, for one instant, picture him with white or even golden locks? We believe ourselves right in saying that he had hair of a dark brown. We should, with all friendliness of feeling, advise our red haired brother to think over the matter once more seriously, and see if he must not change his opinion on at least some points of the subject.-BLACK HAIRED G. N. T. 235. The Dies Ira.-The Dies Iræ may be found in any Catholic missal in the Mass for Nov. 2. It forms the words of Mozart's Requiem. The author is not known, but Bezovius, A. D. 1294, considers Cardinal Ursini as its author; others think Humbert, the fifth general of the Dominican, to have been the author. Mr. Crashaw's translation is highly approved of by Wharton. Lord Roscommon is much indebted to this translation for his poem on the Day of Judgment, which may be found in Chambers' edition of the British poets, &c. 236. George Sand is the" nom de plume" of an eminent modern French lady who has produced some works of startling interest; her real name is Aurora Dupin, and I may call F. S.'s attention to an excellent review of her principal works from the pen of Joseph Mazzini, the great Italian patriot, in the "People's Journal," No. 62, March, 1847.-CASSIO. 238. Style of Verse.-"Fanny" having answered "Augustus's" question as far as regards the metre of "Evangeline." I beg to offer a few remarks explanatory of that in which Martin F. Tupper has written his "Proverbial Philosophy." First I will observe that many of his verses do not appear capable of being scanned at all; for instance, take this line from the chapter on "Marriage:" "Youth longeth for a kindred spirit and yearneth for a heart that can commune with his own." Of the verses that admit of scansion the most common are iambic trimeters, sometimes pure but more frequently varied by the introduction of anapæsts in one or more of the first five feet, and a bacchius in the last. There are several lines containing 7, 8, 9, and 10 iambi varied in the same manner. Then there are several trochaic metres, and occasionally we meet with a line beginning with iambi and ending with trochees, and vice versâ. In "Proverbial Philosophy" there are also a few dactylic hexameters, not formed on the classic models, but similar to those in “ Evangeline." I transcribe some of them: In the chapter on "Friendship:" "Those hours are not lost that are spent in ce- | menting affection." In the chapter on "Marriage: ""Hide not your grief nor your gladness; be | open | one with the other." "Confide, I love, and be happy: be | faithful, i firm, and holy." (spondaic.) "Where are In the chapter on "Authorship; the mighty kings that reigned be- fore Aga- | inemnon? Much more numerous than these are the septameters, of which I will give only one example, taken from the chapter on " Marriage: ""Bride and bridegroom, | pilgrims of life, hence- | forward to travel to- | gether." Few, if any, verses not included under one or other of the above heads can be intended to be considered metrical. It will be seen from the irregularity of the metre that Tupper was unfettered by any rules in its construction.-F. S. 239. A Taste for Poetry.-A. D. confesses he does not possess a taste for poetry. Poor fellow! I neither envy his state nor desire his friendship. If it be true that "The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils-" what shall we say of the man who has no taste for poetry-no love for the sublimity of beauty, truthfulness, or goodness? But I will not surmise evil; for I believe that A.B. means only to say that he has little or no taste for the works of our poets; but this he wishes to acquire or to strengthen. I would therefore recommend him to read the most interesting works of our best poets, with a desire to discern their meaning, aud catch their spirit. He cannot do better, I think, than thus peruse the heart-stirring poetry of Longfellow, and the unobjectionable productions of Byron. Let him at once begin with these, "report progress," and I will advise him further. -L. R. |