commercial occupations would be able to devote more ability and greater opportunities to the attainment of a higher order of knowledge that would be useful to them in their pursuits, than under the old regime can be expected from them, until they have acquired it by a long course of actual experience. Having thus described the advantages of a purely decimal system, we would name three great principles by which, it is hoped, the "Commission” has been guided. First, that the old integral bases should be preserved in every case where there are not very strong reasons to the contrary; secondly, that whenever the integral base is altered, it should be mainly with a view of facility in converting values and quantities from the old scales into the new; and thirdly, that the number of scales used should be reduced, as much as possible, without producing a greater degree of inconvenience than their suppression would remove.

The importance of preserving the old integral bases will be obvious to any man of business from the following reasons. Almost every commercial house has a multitude of old accounts to which reference is frequently necessary; and as it would be required to translate the particulars of them into the language of the new system, that language should be assimilated as far as possible to the arithmetical language now in use. By preserving the sovereign or pound sterling of Great Britain, for instance, as the integral base for money in that country, no other labor would be imposed on the accountant than converting the heterogeneous fractional parts now in use to their equivalent decimal expression, an operation with which any one may become familiar in a few hours' practice. Then all the new coins of that country of a denomination less than a sovereign would be required to express the tenth, hundredth, and thousandth parts of the pound sterling; and not only can any value under the pound sterling be set forth in those three parts alone, with greater convenience and to a greater degree of nicety than by the nine coins now in circulation for the purpose; but the silver coins as low as sixpence now current may be expressed determinately in them, and would therefore cause little embarrassment should it be found impracticable to withdraw them wholly at once. The crown,

for example, would be two dimes and five cents or of a pound; the shilling, five cents or of a pound; the sixpence, two cents and five mills or of a pound; the penny, four mills or of a pound; and the farthing, one mill or of a pound.

With regard to the legal coinage of our own country, it probably could not be improved, with the exception of a slight alteration in the weight of our cents; but when we come to the obtrusive, incongruous, and illegiti mate eighth and sixteenth dollar pieces of Spain, a sweeping change seems necessary. The change could readily be effected by reducing the value of the 12 cent pieces to 10 cents, and the 61 cent pieces to 5 cents, which would soon drive them out of the country, after the manner of the old pistareens a few years since. No individual who has long resided among us, can be ignorant of the inconvenience and perplexity he has met with by the use of these coins, and can be so prejudiced as not to be willing to have them abolished. With these alterations, only a slight change would be required in our laws, such as the reduction of postage from 183 cents to 15 cents; 12 cents to 10 cents, 61 cents to 5 cents, &c., which has long been called for, and a few others.

Presuming that the foregoing advantages are sufficiently obvious to create a change in moneys, we shall next endeavor to show wherein the

system of weights and measures can be improved, which will be equally applicable to both countries.

1. MEASURES OF LENGTH.-The unit of the measures of length, we conceive should be the present yard of Great Britain and the United States, from which all other measures of extension, whether they be lineal, superficial, or solid, should be derived, computed, or ascertained. For scientific, mechanical, mercantile, and retail purposes, it should be divided into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths, which can be made to express any other fractional part of a yard that would be likely to occur in business. For instance, 21 yards would be written 2.125; 21 yards, 2.25; 23 yards, 2.375; 24 yards, 2.5; 2 yards, 2.625; 2 yards, 2.75; 27 yards, 2.875, &c. For itinerary, marine, and agrarian purposes, 2 yards would constitute one fathom; 5 yards, one rod; 22 yards, one chain of 100 links; and 1760 yards, one statute mile; the latter terms and quantities having long been used in both countries to define distances on maps, charts, deeds, grants, and other important documents, to which reference is often required, and consequently should be preserved. The terms feet, inches, and lines, should be abolished, their places being supplied by the tenths, hundredths, and thousandths of a yard. All old measures of feet and inches can readily be reduced to yards and the decimals of a yard, by divid ing the feet by 3, and the inches by 36.

By the new system, the chief implements to be used in measuring would consist of a rule or line one yard in length, graduated on one side into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths; and on the other, into eighths, quarters, halves, &c.; or of shorter or longer rods or lines graduated into the subdivisions or multiples of a yard; and the Gunter's chain 22 yards or 100 links in length, which has long been used in both countries for agrarian

measures.

2. MEASURES OF SURFACE.-The unit of the measures of surface, might consist of the square yard, which could also be divided into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths, and be made to express any other fractional parts of a yard. 4840 square yards would, as at present, constitute an acre, which could likewise be divided into tenths, hundredths, thousandths, &c., and be made to express any other fractional part of an acre. The terms rood and rod, would very properly be discontinued, which could easily be reduced from the old system to the new, the former being just 0.25 and the latter 0.00625 of an acre.

3. CUBIC OR SOLID MEASURE.-The unit of this measure might very conveniently be made a cubic yard, which could be divided into tenths, hundredths, thousandths, &c., for merchants and engineers, and into tenthyard, hundredth-yard, and thousandth-yard cubes for other purposes.

Wood and timber could be bought or sold by the cubic yard, which might likewise be divided into tenths, hundredths, thousandths, &c. Then the most convenient lengths to cut market fuel would be 1, 14, and 2 yards. The term ton, as applied to rough and hewn timber, and to ship, ping in a cubic sense, might be discontinued, and cubic yards substituted in their stead.

4. LIQUID AND DRY MEASURES.-The unit of liquid and dry measures might very properly consist of the old wine gallon, which contains, at present, 231 cubic inches. It could be divided into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths, &c., which can readily be made to express any other fractional part of a gallon that would occur in practice. The bushel might

contain 10 gallons, "strict measure," and should not be used for any other purposes than measuring such materials as cannot be consistently bought or sold by weight. It might also be divided into tenths, hundredths, thousandths, &c., which could be made to express eighths, quarters, halves, &c., as exemplified in the measures of length. The old denominations, quarters, weys, lasts, cooms, pecks, pottles, &c., might be discontinued.

100

1000

10

The measures necessary to be used would be the bushel; 5% or bushel; 25 or bushel; 125 or bushel; bushel or gallon; 5% or gallon; 25 or gallon; gallon; gallon; gallon; gallon; gallon; and gallon. of a gallon is equal to of a gill nearly; and in purchasing a half-pint of oil it would be as easy to ask for 6 cents of a gallon, as it is to ask for half a pint.

5. MEASURES OF FORCE OF GRAVITY OR WEIGHT.-Properly speaking, there should be no other scale of weight than avoirdupois; and there seems to be no reason for more, except ancient usage, which originated when particular branches of commerce were in their infancy. But when we consider that both the old and new coinage of Great Britain and this country, have been uniformly estimated by Troy weight, as well as all medical prescriptions or formulæ, under a peculiar subdivision, and that thesc weights are required to be used only by a very limited number of persons, we shall be very strongly disposed to preserve them.

The unity or integral base of commercial or avoirdupois weight, might be denominated a POUND, and be equal in weight to two pounds of our present weight. It could then be divided into tenths, hundredths, thousandths, &c., which might also be expressive of any other fractional parts of a pound that might occur. Then one hundred weight would be equal to 100 lbs., and one ton would be equal to 1000 lbs., or 2000 lbs. of our present weight. The terms quarters, stone, ounces, drams, &c., could then be very conveniently dispensed with. The old system could, at once, be converted into the new, as the pound of the former would be just half that of the latter; and the other divisions could readily be reduced to the decimal notation.

0

Under this improved system, the weights that would be requisite for the common purposes of weighing, would consist of 25 lbs.; 20 lbs.; 10 lbs.; 5 lbs.; 4 lbs.; 3 lbs.; 2 lbs.; 1 lb.; or lb.; 4 lb.; 30 lb.; 255 or lb.; 20 lb.; 70 lbs.; T8 lb.; T8 lb.; To lb.; T8 lb.; 15 lb.; T lb.; lb.; lb.; and T lb. The ten latter weights could very conveniently be substituted by our cents, if they were coined of the weight of T of a pound each.* T of a pound would be equal to of an ounce of our present weight nearly; and, in making small purchases, it would be as casy to call for 3 cents of a pound of indigo, as it would be to call for an

ounce.

We now make some remarks upon a subject which grows out of the preceding, though not intimately connected with it, namely, determining the strength of distilled spirits. It is a matter of surprise that the governments of Great Britain and the United States, have never devised a more equitable and intelligible mode of testing the degrees of strength of spirituous liquors, than the modes in present use. It would be the means of

* In the monetary system of France, the coins, if they are accurately minted, serve also for weights. Thus, 5 francs in copper, 50f. in billon, 200f. in standard silver, or 3100f. in standard gold, should weigh one kilogramme or 1000 grammes.

adding immense sums to their revenues, and would enable those engaged in this branch of commerce, to regulate their prices in proportion to the values of the articles in which they traffic. There is no reason, either practical or philosophical, why alcohol, when employed as the base for the standard of spirituous liquors, should not be absolute, or totally deprived of water. A definite mixture of alcohol and water is as invariable in its nature, and as invariable in its value, as absolute alcohol, and can be more readily, and with equal accuracy, identified by its specific gravity, the only quality or condition to which recourse can be had for the practical purposes of determining the proportion of standard spirit present. Hence, the intrinsic value of a spirituous liquor, is in proportion to the quantity of absolute alcohol it contains; and the more imperfect the instrument for determining this quality, the greater or less will be the benefit or detriment to the dealers in this commodity.

The denominations, first proof, second proof, fourth proof, Holland proof, 80 per cent. above proof, 60 per cent. below proof, &c., are arbitrary terms, used in various countries to express certain degrees of strength of spirituous liquors. Nearly all the instruments invented for this purpose disagree in this respect, and are generally based on absurd and inequitable principles. Hitherto, no instrument has been constructed, which performs its office with more ease and expedition, and with less error, than the alcoometre of M. Gay-Lussac. It has been used as the standard of France, Sweden, and Prussia, for fifteen years; and, by a slight modification of the tables which accompany it, it might readily be adopted into Great Britain and the United States, from which incalculable advantages might be derived. The scale of this instrument is divided into 100 parts called degrees, which denote the per centage or hundredth parts of absolute alcohol of a specific gravity of 0.7947 at 15° centigrades, or 59° of Fahrenheit. When the instrument is plunged into distilled water of the abovenamed temperature, the surface of the liquid is cut by 0° on the scale, and when plunged into alcohol of the specific gravity and temperature as above, it stands at 100°. If it be plunged into a mixture of equal volumes of the same kind of alcohol and distilled water at the said temperature, it will stand at 50°, which is regarded as proof-spirit or Holland proof. After this principle of graduation, the strength of a spirituous liquor may be known by the number of degrees, or hundredths, by measure, of absolute alcohol that the liquor contains at 59° F. If it were desirable to know the true quantity of absolute alcohol that a given quantity of spirits contains, of that temperature, it would only be necessary to plunge the instru ment into the liquor and multiply the number of degrees at which it would stand by the capacity of the cask, and the result would denote the quantity required. Suppose, for example, a cask containing 120 gallons, be filled with a spirituous liquor in which the instrument would stand at 55° at 59° F.; 120 multiplied by 0.55 will produce 66, the number of gallons of absolute alcohol present.

The instrument is sometimes accompanied by a book of rules and tables for proving liquors, at various degrees of temperature, by the centigrade thermometer, and, likewise, for mixing liquors of different degrees of strength, &c. The centigrade thermometer should be employed in preference to that of Fahrenheit, as it is graduated agreeably to our new system. We are happy to learn that the "Regents of the University" have adopted the centigrade at the several colleges and academies in the State of New

York, and it is our ardent wish that its use might become general throughout the world.

The foregoing system could undoubtedly be brought into practice, in a very few years, if a law were passed and rigidly carried into effect, that would nullify all legal suits other than those contracted agreeably to the new system. Persons who are known to keep in their possession weights and measures different from those provided by law, and to buy or sell by the same, should be prohibited from recovering in any legal suit that might be instituted by them.

We will close by stating a few of the more prominent advantages and disadvantages of a perfectly decimal system of weights, measures, &c. The chief advantages are:

1. All computations would be performed by the same rules, as in the arithmetic of whole numbers.

2. The application of logarithms would be materially facilitated, and would become universal, as also that of the sliding rule.

3. The number of good commercial computers would soon become many times greater than at present.

4. All decimal tables, as those of compound interest, &c., would be popular tables, instead of being mathematical mysteries.

5. Uniformity of weights, measures, quantities, &c., would exist between the two countries as well as throughout all the states, which would prevent a great deal of confusion, inconvenience, and error.

As the preceding advantages are sufficiently obvious, we will next give the disadvantages that would ensue in consequence of the change.

1. The period of confusion attending the change.

2. The existence of a class of persons who cannot, by any process, master any difficulty of an arithmetical kind.

There is no question in our own minds as to the side on which the scale predominates; but we will leave the question to be settled by the feeling of the large majority, who would reconcile themselves to the change with more or less difficulty. Those who consent to face this difficulty will deserve the thanks of posterity; and we cannot but think that there are few who, looking at the easy manner in which the new system could be introduced, would count their own share of the inconvenience too much to pay for a real and lasting benefit to society.

ART. V. LIABILITY OF INSURERS TO PAY CONTRIBUTIONS.

WHERE an adjustment has been made in a foreign port, it being the port of destination, agreeably to the usages and laws of such place, it is both reasonable and just that the insured should receive such proportion of the sum he is obliged to pay, as the amount insured bears to the sum upon which the assessment is made, although the general average may have been adjusted differently in the foreign port from what it would have been at the port where the insurance was effected.

The rule of reimbursement is not the same in practice in all the ports in the United States. In New York, it is contended that the insurers are