farthing as the unit, we shall require a new name for 10 farthings (or 24d.), another name and a new coin for 100 farthings (2s. 1d.), while 1000 of the unit would be equivalent to £1 0s. 10d. of our present money. By the first system we should retain the pound as the unit, and all other coins would be measures or aliquot parts of it; by the second we should retain the farthing as the unit, and all other coins would be multiples of it. This latter would have one advantage, for all the sums represented by the new names could be paid by our present money, while the hundredth and thousandth of a pound cannot be represented in value at all without entirely new coinage. Nevertheless, the first system would retain the pound and shilling at their present values, while this would be impossible by the second. Since, therefore, all our most important accounts are kept in pounds, it is thought less inconvenient to adopt a system which will cause the penny, the farthing and the fourpenny piece to disappear, but will leave the pound and the shilling unaffected, than to take one which will supersede the pound as the unit, though retaining the smaller coins. Accordingly it has been proposed by a Committee of the House of Commons, that whereas at present

£1=20 shillings=240 pence=960 farthings,

an arrangement shall be made whereby the pound shall be thus divided :

£1-10 tenths=100 hundredths=1000 thousandths.

3. It is not yet determined what name shall be given to these aliquot parts of the pound. Names indicating the relation of the several values to each other would be the best; and it has been suggested that plain Saxon contractions of the words tenths, hundredths, and thousandths, such as tens, huns, and thous, would serve the purpose. The first coin, however, the tenth of a pound, is already in use, and has been unwisely denominated a florin,* and the public taste seems rather in favour of Latin words, such as the French have adopted (decime, centime, millième). Our system will probably be

£1 10 florins=100 cents=1000 mils.

Such an expression as £17.387 would, on this plan, mean £17, 3 florins, 8 cents, 7 mils, and might be multiplied and divided as readily as the simple number 17387; because ten of any one place would equal one in the place to the left.

4. As the adoption of such a coinage, though very desirable, may yet be delayed for some time, it is important to know the readiest method of applying the decimal system to the keeping of accounts and of computing the money current among us at present by the rules of decimals. Taking £1 as the unit-→→

Of these several values some are much more easily expressed as decimals of £1 than others. All except the two last-named might be retained in a decimal system. The relation between these two coins and £1 cannot be expressed by the help of 10 or any power of 10. Neither a penny nor a farthing can therefore be retained as units of value on the proposed plan. But as the farthing is now of £1, we may repre

*We think this name unfortunate for two reasons: 1. Because it carries with it no allusion to the decimal system; and 2. Because, in so far as it suggests any meaning at all, it is misleading, for none of the coins bearing that name and in use on the Continent of Europe have the same value.

sent it as 001 of £1 without serious error, except in cases where the decimal expression has to be multiplied considerably.

5. When accuracy is only required to the third place of decimals it is sufficient to remember this short table :

For every 2 shillings in the sum we have 1; for every shilling, 05; for half a shilling, 025; and for a farthing, '001. Hence a sum of money, £21 18s. 7 d. may be written as 21+9+025+·007=21.932. We take 9 in the first place to represent 18s., 25 in the second and third places for the 6d., and 7 for the additional farthings.

Suppose, now, it were required to divide this sum by 6, the same would be done very readily thus

6)21.932

3.655 £3, 6 florins, 5 mils, 5 cents = £3 13s. 14d.

=

the decimal expression being transformed into £3, 12s., ls., 5 farthings, or £3 13s. 14d. But if it had been required to multiply this sum of money by 6, it is evident that whatever error is made in calling 7 farthings ⚫007 of £1 is also multiplied by 6. In adopting the following rules it must, therefore, be remembered that the former, which secures accuracy to the third place, will suffice in all ordinary cases in which short Addition sums, or almost any sums in Subtraction and Division, are affected; but that the latter will be needed whenever the sum of money to be dealt with requires to be multiplied.

CASE I. To reduce any sum of money to a decimal form which shall be true to the third place :

RULE.-Take the pounds as whole numbers and fill up the three places of decimals as follows:-100 for every 2 shillings, 50 for a shilling, 25 for 6 pence, and 1 for every additional farthing.

CASE II. When it is required to make the expression accurate to any given place of decimals:

RULE.-Express the sum of money as far as sixpence by the rule just given; but for every penny above an even sixpence place 416 in the third and following places, and for every odd farthing place 10416 in the third and following places as far as required,

The table given in (4) shows that the former rule gives perfectly accurate results as far as 6d., but that the value of odd pence and farthings cannot be expressed without descending lower in the decimal scale. As in both cases repeating decimals occur it is impossible to be entirely accurate even then, but it is easy to carry the calculation so low that the error shall be as slight as we please.

Examples. Reduce £17 13s. 84d. to decimals true to the 5th place, and £270 3s. 2 d. true to the 7th place,

* This process, though apparently long, is much simpler when performed mentally than when laid out at length on paper. A very little practice will enable a student to use both rules with great facility.

REPORTS OF HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS FOR 1853-4.

We fulfil here the promise made in our last, in reference to this important volume. There is scarcely a detail of school construction, or school work, which does not receive some interesting illustration from the varied experience of the Inspectors; and, although there is necessarily a diversity of opinion among them on many points, yet they concur in describing the present state of the schools under inspection as on the whole a healthful and promising one. Mr. Morell offers the following testimony to the general efficiency of the pupil-teachers in his district:

"With the conduct and efficiency of the pupil-teachers there is also good reason, on the whole, to be well satisfied. Amongst a mass of young people, amounting to nearly 500, who pass under my inspection during the year, it would be strange not to find some, here and there, apathetic, idle, intractable, or dull. But such cases, I must in justice say, are altogether the exception. The large majority work cheerfully and industriously, both in the school and out of it, and give us a hopeful prospect in relation to our future supply, both of male and female teachers. The number who have finished their term of apprenticeship, in the various British, Wesleyan, and other denominational schools through the country, presented themselves at the training schools to compete for Queen's scholarships, at the last Christmas examination, and amounted on the whole to above 120, about one-third of whom went up from the northern district. Many more would undoubtedly have presented themselves, but for the long distance which they would have had to travel, the expensiveness of the journey, and still more but for the disappointment which so many experienced last year in not finding vacancies after they had passed an honourable and successful examination."

Mr. Brookfield also speaks in strong terms of the general character of the teachers of the schools which he visits. He says:

"In the whole range of the social community, there is no body of persons in whose integrity I should be more strongly predisposed to place unshrinking reliance than in our school teachers, male and female. Their antecedent history and training, the natural absorption into their own nature of the principles which they are constantly inculcating and enforcing, the whole tenor and analogy of their apparent

lives and character-combine, as a general rule, to inspire me with this unhesitating confidence; and it is very rarely-almost never-that I have found it my duty to make any inquisitorial investigation about any matter, to the truth of which the word of persons, such as these, was given."

Mr. Bowstead makes some observations showing the necessity of watchful and intelligent supervision on the part of the local committee. They well deserve attentive consideration. In many quarters, it seems to be supposed that the inspection of the Committee of Council renders the services of a local committee less necessary than before. We are sure that this is a very serious mistake, and that, in fact, the need for such services has greatly increased of late. That the officers of Government have no wish to supersede the active exertions of school committees, but earnestly desire their co-operation, will be evident from the following extract :—

"The management of a school is not so easy a task as it may at first sight appear, especially when it devolves upon persons who have had but little opportunity of becoming acquainted with its difficulties; and hence it is, that many schools fail to do justice to the pains and expenditure bestowed upon them, and many well-meant efforts end in disappointment. In a great majority of the schools under my inspection, no want has struck me as being more urgent than that of an active and enlightened managing body, composed of individuals having leisure to ensure the constant visitation of the school, as well as experience to appreciate what they see there, and on whom the teacher could rely for encouragement, support, or direction in difficult circumstances, and for advice and sympathy at all times. The value of such superintendence can hardly be over-estimated, especially in a girl's school; but in my district it is not common, either in boys' or girls' schools, though somewhat more usual in the latter than in the former. Thus, the teachers are too often left to work alone unaided, and to bear an exclusive responsibility, which does not properly belong to their office. I could point to not a few schools managed as well as taught by the master or mistress with singular probity and success; and nothing has given me a higher idea of the character of the teachers with whom I come in contact, than to observe how much real independence they possess, and how conscientiously they generally use it. But the examples of success have not been sufficient to reconcile me to the system, and I dread its application to those young men and women who are now annually sent forth from the training institutions, to take charge often of important elementary schools at a very early age, with perhaps an abundant stock of professional information and skill, but certainly with little knowledge of mankind, and small experience in uncontrolled action. If I might venture, there fore, to urge upon the attention of school committees one duty as being more imperative than almost any other, especially where the teachers are young and inexperienced, it would be the duty of providing for the exercise of a constant, kind, intelligent and watchful superintendence over their schools."

In relation to one important subject-the increase of school fees, with a view to make a school self-supporting-the testimony of the Inspectors is very explicit. It will suffice to quote the opinions of two of those gentlemen, of whom one visits the British and Wesleyan Schools in the south of England, while the experience of the other has been drawn from Lancashire, and in connexion with National Schools.

Mr. Arnold remarks

"I remain in the opinion which I last year expressed, that in the schools which I visit, the children of the actually lowest, poorest classes in the country, of what are called the masses, are not, to speak generally, educated; that the children who are educated in them belong to a different class from these; and that, consequently, of the education of the masses, I, in the course of my official duty, see, strictly speaking, little or nothing.

"I have no intention of blaming any one for the result mentioned; still, as it is often said that this result has little or no connexion with the rate of school fees established in a school, I am anxious to say a few words on this point. It is urged, and by persons for whose authority, on matters of education, I entertain a sincere respect, that it is not the high rate of payments which deters parents from sending their children to a school, but their suspicion that the education they get there is not much worth having; that they would be willing, did they think more highly of that education, to make great sacrifices to secure it for their children; and that these sacrifices need not generally be greater in proportion than those which are made by many a family of small means, in the middle classes, in order to send a son to school and college.

"And they add, that so far from poor parents objecting to a high school fee, the very suspicion they feel arises generally from the school fee being too low a one; they cannot believe that anything can be worth much for which they are required to pay little or nothing. What is cheap, it is said, is always supposed by these poor people to be bad.

"I feel quite convinced, from all which I have seen and heard, that it does not operate as an attraction; that, on the contrary, there are numberless cases in which the poor are deterred by a high school fee from sending their children to school. It is not the high school fee which is the attraction, but it is the high reputation of the school which makes the poor willing to pay a high school fee; in ordinary cases, where this high reputation cannot be expected, it is vain to imagine that a high school fee will have any effect but a deterring one; the parents will feel clearly the inconvenience of having to make a high payment, while they will not perceive any corresponding advantage to compensate it."

The Rev. W. J. Kennedy speaks yet more strongly to the same effect:

"With regard to the second expedient referred to for improving the income of schools, viz., a general raising of school fees, I should esteem this more mischievous than the other. In rural districts, where a labourer's wages do not exceed nine shillings a week on an average throughout the country, the only wonder is, how a man contrives to feed and clothe his family at all in addition to paying his rent. And in the manufacturing districts, where wages are higher, living is dearer, and employment uncertain and fluctuating, thus reducing the means of the artisan almost to the level of the agricultural labourer.

"A perfectly independent person, the chief-constable of Salford, asserts, in a pamphlet, that on a personal visitation of his district, he found 1,111 children staying away from school from positive inability to pay the school fees. And yet some persons wish to raise the fees as the panacea for the present inefficient condition of our schools for the poor. In a few schools in my district the fee is as high as sixpence a week, I believe; and in several it is fourpence a week; but in almost every such case which has come under my cognizance the scholars are the children not of manual labourers, but of tradespeople; the middle grade has practically filled the schools to the exclusion of the labouring class. Such schools are valuable in