and he goes to the Chaussée d'Antin (where
the rich and fashionable of the new school
reside), in search after some marketable
banker's sister. While the wife-hunt is
still going on, a wealthy uncle dies, and
then, and not till then, the mercenary
Lothario exclaims, "Je suis millionnaire!"
—I am a millionnaire! and shifts his
ground to the quarter of the old nobility
—Faubourg Saint Germain—to catch a
countess.

Millionnaire does not mean the very
wealthiest of the land. Of persons with a
million francs a-year, there are not fifty,
perhaps not five and twenty, in all France. To
denote such men as Rothschild, for instance,
something much more speculative than
millionnaire is required. He is styled the
Banker King, the Monsieur Gros Sou,
Prince Le Sac or Prince Purse, and so on.
The Jupiters of the money-market are
aimed at with more or less precision, in
such words as Toussenel's, "the Jews, the
Kings of the Epoch;" and in such newspaper
paragraphs as the following: "Monsieur A.
Dumas, Junior, is giving the finishing-touch
to a five-act comedy, intended for the Théâtre
Française. It will be entitled, His Highness,
Money. We are informed, on the other hand,
that the Vaudeville has accepted from M.
Louis Lurine, a piece which will be called
His Majesty Million. Authors have often
devoted their talents to the Golden Calf, but
it will be found that the subject has never
presented itself with greater actuality.
Again, it is positively asserted that Dr.
Véron is preparing for publication a novel
in two volumes, the title of which is
suggestive of Mr. Warren's Ten Thousand a
Year; for it is to be called A Hundred
Thousand Francs a-Year.  However, it is
merely the continuation of the Memoirs
of a Bourgeois of Paris. These satirical
shafts are shot principally in a backward
and retrospective direction:—on the reign
of Louis Philippe. On the contriver of
Spanish marriages, future history will
probably fix the most sordid phase of French
morality."

To be quite sure about the millionnaire, on
consulting my French banker, he informed
me, in the first place, that I myself am not a
millionnaire, either in one sense or the other of
the word; although he acknowledged I had
made the first step towards it by the small
balance left untouched in his hands, for
which he pays me four per cent. interest.
"But, Monsieur," he added, smiling, as
though the idea amused him as something
funny; " if you had a million francs of
capital you would certainly be a millionnaire
in France."  I therefore am inclined to
adhere to my previous estimate, in spite
of the doubts of a learned and valued
correspondent.

The same authority has a word or two
to say also on our paper on Decimal
Measures. While supposing the decimalisation
of weights and measures to take
precedence of that of coins, I was merely
summing up the opinions of the
Commercial Traveller. But, as I scorn all half-
measures, were I Her Majesty's Government,
I should be inclined to make the
change in moneys, weights, and measures
all at once,—if the moneys were not
decimalised first by the prime minister, my
predecessor,—on the ground that, whenever the
alteration is made, there must be a grand
hubbub, and mess, and outcry, throughout
the land. There is no helping it.  One
disturbance is better than two.  A great
washing-day once a-month, is better than
a little washing-day once a-week.  Therefore
—on the principle of Over shoes, over
boots, You may as well be hung for a sheep
as for a lamb, and other make-up-your-mind-
to-it maxims—I should say: "Do it once for
all; make a general clearance, and get a
complete new set of servants into your
house."  When everybody is equally strange,
and all are in a muddle alike, no one can
laugh at his neighbour's troubles.  But
reforms being effected simultaneously, admit of
no positive 'necessity that they shall be made
unexpectedly, and without due notice.
While there are national, parish, union, and
infant schools, not to speak of seminaries, and
genteel establishments for young ladies and
gentlemen, a Decimal system need not fall,
like a thunderbolt, on the heads of the rising
generation. Preparation may be made
beforehand, by the publication of simple
treatises, explanations, tables, and rules (as was
done in France) of the new weights and coins,
as soon as they shall have been determined
by Act of Parliament. Standard specimens
of the moneys and measures may be publicly
exhibited a month or two previously. And
the able amateur lecturers who take a
pleasure in holding forth to the community,
will find in the innovation proposed a
subject replete with instruction, utility,
and amusement. Why not form classes to
play the game of buying and selling in
Decimals?

After thinking till every hair of my head,
which has not fallen off with the effort, is
turned silver-grey, I hold to the persuasion,
that we had best retain a national decimal
coinage founded on the sovereign; and that
we should adopt the French metrical system
of weights and measures, as deserving to be
made cosmopolite.

In the article on Decimal Measures, at page
367, first column, sixth line from the bottom,
erase "divisions," and substitute "multiples,"
in correction of a blunder. The passage
should have stood thus; "Note well, that
the divisions of the mètre are expressed
in words derived from the Latin language;
thus centimètre and millimètre are the
hundredth and thousandth parts respectively.
The multiples of the mètre (as of all weights,