Let the decimal system be
completed, and calculation
shall be made in florins; that
is, florins shall take their
proper place. If florins were
introduced _now_, there must
be a column for the odd
shilling.
"He was glad that some hon. If the hon. gentleman make
gentleman had derived benefit this assertion of himself, it
from the issue of florins. His is not for us to gainsay it.
only experience of their It only proves that he is one
convenience was, that when he of that class of {171} men who
ought to have received are described in the old song,
half-a-crown, he had generally of which one couplet runs
received a florin, and when he thus:
ought to have paid a florin,
he had generally paid I sold my cow to buy me a
half-a-crown." (Hear, hear, calf;
and laughter.) I never make a bargain but I
lose half,
With a etc. etc. etc.

But he cannot mean that Englishmen in general are so easily managed. And as
to Jonathan, who is but John lengthened out a little, he would see creation
whittled into chips before he would even split what may henceforth be
called the Kidderminster difference. The House, not unmoved--for it
laughed--with sly humor decided that the introduction of the florin had
been "eminently successful and satisfactory."

The truth is that Mr. Lowe here attacks nothing except the coexistence of
the florin and half-crown. We are endeavoring to abolish the half-crown.
Let Mr. Lowe join us; and he will, if we succeed, be relieved from the
pressure on his pocket which must arise from having the turn of the market
always against him.

"From a florin they get to 2 Note the sophism of expressing
2-5ths of a penny, but who our coin in terms of the
ever bought anything, who ever penny, which we abandon,
reckoned or wished to reckon instead of the florin, which
in such a coin as that?" we retain. Remember that this
(Hear, hear.) 2 2-5ths is the hundredth part
of the pound, which is called,
as yet, a _cent_. Nobody buys
anything at a cent, because