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
employer must not say that 15 pence are 60 farthings--that is, 6 cents;
but 1s. 3d. is five-eighths of a florin, which amount to about 6 cents 2
millets.

Such is the plan which has been officially laid down for a decimal
coinage, and such the steps needful to carry it out. The only scheme we
have seen which materially differs from it is that of Mr H. Norton. He
selects for the highest denomination the half-sovereign, and proposes to
call it a ducat. The shilling, as now in use, would then be the second
denomination; the third, he proposes, should be a cent, equal to about
1-1/5th of a penny, and which, he says, would be fairly represented by
our large unmilled pennies, if newly christened; the fourth denomination
to be a 'rap,' the tenth of the cent, and somewhat less than half a
farthing. The great advantage adduced in favour of this scale is, that
it would be much more likely than the other to secure general adoption.
The removal of the pound, he says, affects chiefly the higher and
educated classes; it leaves the shilling, which is the staple and
standard for the masses, and also the penny, with slight alteration,
accompanied by the utter removal of th