the florin, should be withdrawn ; as also the
crown, an inconveniently heavy silver coin,
which might be replaced by a new gold coin,
of the value of five or four shillings, as small
change in gold, for home circulation. The
half-sovereign is supposed to be altogether
relinquished, for reasons which there is not
room to state. More regular proportions of
the decimal scale would certainly be observed,
if the proposed new coin were made of the
value of four, instead of five shillings, that is
to say, equal to a double florin. As to its
title, the name of prince appears to be the
most appropriate for a coin that stands nearest
to the sovereign. A double florin, in
silver, although perfectly right in a decimal
system, would be too heavy a piece for
general use.

To fill other vacancies, the committee
proposes that a double cent, and a cent, should
be made of silver, and a half-cent of copper.
It should be remembered that the cent forms
an essential link in the decimal change of
moneys. To omit it in the coinage would
deprive the masses of the most material help
to comprehend the new proportions, for which
purpose no fair means should be omitted, by
which the cent may become the poor man's
unit, in the sense in which the penny is at
present.

The present copper coins — the
time-honoured penny, half-penny, farthing, and
half-farthing — being all of them incompatible with
the decimal division of the sovereign, which
is an essential part of the proposed reform,
they will have to be withdrawn before the
issue of the new copper coin. In their case,
old recollections must certainly be given up,
and reckoned with the things of the class of
pig-tails. A compromise would be a
hinderance to the nation's readily adopting decimal
proportions, and convincing themselves
of the advantages of a purely decimal system.
But even if that hinderance did not exist, a
compromise would be uncalled for; as three
out of the four former copper coins will have
their representatives in the new series. Of
these, the half-cent has already been
under notice; those of the half-penny and
the farthing will be presently described.
The half-farthing alone will be entirely
dropped, simply because it will not be
wanted.

The word mil has turned up as the most
fit and proper for its signification, of a
thousandth of a sovereign. In virtue of its
brevity, the language will not be a loser by
exchanging it for the farthing, A punster
might be tempted to call the introduction of
the mil, the millenium of coinage reform;
while a counter-punster might endeavour to
confound mil with nil. Although a necessary
part of the moneys of account, the mil, in
coin, will like the farthing at present,
probably be rarely used. Still, it is the last and
not the least link in the chain of decimal
coins, and part of a system pregnant with
advantages and improvements, the importance
of which, for all classes, it would be
difficult to overrate. It will, however, be
expedient to coin a two-mil piece, which will
take the place of the half-penny, than which
it will be less by one twenty-fifth, the
proportions being the same as between the mil
and the farthing. The name of a double-mil
would probably best be a cash. Farthing
belongs to the old series, and implies a fourth,
which is inapplicable to the mil. New-
farthing would therefore be equally
objectionable.

Upon the plan above suggested, our new
moneys of coin would therefore stand thus, in
the order of precedence: sovereign, prince,
florin, double-cent, cent, half-cent, cash or two-
mil, and mil. And the pence! What is to
become of the dear old brown penny-pieces?
Are they to vanish like unclean ghosts? There
are people who will resist a decimal coinage
as obstinately as their forefathers did the
change from old style to new, when they
absolutely believed that their lives were to
be shortened, by Act of Parliament, eleven
whole days. Take care of the pence, and the
pounds will take care of themselves. But
the pence will be gone; argal, there will be
no possible pounds to take care of, and a
national bankruptcy must inevitably follow.
Do what you please with the rest of the
coinage, but leave — O! leave us — our
beloved pennies. Very well; let them be left
to you. And then, as far as a decimal
system goes, you will be penny wise and
pound foolish.

                      LODGINGS.

I HAVE lived all my life, both when I was
my own master and since I have been
married, in furnished lodgings; and I think I
ought to know something about them and
the people who let them. Lodging-house
keepers, however different in degree and
phase, are but of two kinds; — the shiny
unctuous party that has a husband just
enough to swear by, and who never appears
save at the last extremity; and the
stormy, arm-a-kimbo individual, who is a
lone and desolate widow, but is by no
means to be trodden upon on that account,
neither.

There is a story told of a learned Cambridge
professor, which has always filled me with
the highest respect for his courage and
conduct. Finding that his college bedmaker—
which is, however, a very mitigated species
of landlady — was continually abstracting his
teas, and being, sagacious philosopher, aware
of what weight of evidence some females can
resist, he determined to let her know he had
found her peccadilloes out, without the chance
of contradiction; he bought two pounds of tea,
one of which he placed as usual in his caddy,
and secreted the other in a drawer; he drew