_think decimally_. 'If it is worth while to alter at all,' says Mr
Taylor, 'ought we not to go the whole required length, and aim without
timidity at the possession of a scale complete at once within itself,
and so escape an indefinite prolongation of the purgatory of transition?
In a change like the one under consideration, the work of pulling down
an old system is far more difficult than that of building up another,
and every prop must be removed before it will fall.'

With respect to the copper coins, there seems to be no hurry about
disturbing them. It appears that the Dutch stiver and the French sou
have maintained their place in spite of legislation. So, probably, would
the English penny, and properly enough as a 4-millet piece. We fear our
poor people would feel it to be an attempt to mystify them, were the
government to withdraw this familiar coin and substitute a 5-millet
piece, as some have recommended, for the sake of establishing a binary
division of the cent. It would, doubtless, be considered desirable, as
an ulterior measure, to have a more exact copper coinage, marked as one
millet, two millets, and four millets; but when we have, without
scruple, passed as the twelfth part of a shilling the Irish penny, which
is really only the thirteenth part, we may, in the meantime, use our
present copper money, which will differ only a twenty-fifth from the new
value attached to it--a discrepancy of no consequence, except to the
holders of large quantities, from whom the Mint would be bound to
receive it back at the value it bore when issued. These coppers,
however, ought not to be used beyond the value of the cent, for then
would arise the confusion of dealing with the 100 millets in the florin,
or what would popularly be termed an odd half-penny in every shilling.
For the same reason, the adjustment of prices, in order to be equitable,
should be calculated downwards from the pound and florin, not upwards
from the penny. Thus, if a labourer's wages have been 1s. 3d. a day, his