ass of the people will continue to think of prices in old pence, and
to calculate them in new ones, or else in new mils. No answer is required
to this, beyond the mere statement of the nature of the assumption and
denial.

{180}

Thirdly, he attributes to the uneducated community a want of perception and
of operative power which really does not belong to them. The evidence
offered to the Committee of the House shows that no fear is entertained on
this point by those who come most in contact with farthing purchasers. And
this would seem to be a rule,--that is, fear of the intelligence of the
lower orders in the minds of those who are not in daily communication with
them, no fear at all in the minds of those who are.

A remarkable instance of this distinction happened five-and-twenty years
ago. The Admiralty requested the Astronomical Society to report on the
alterations which should be made in the _Nautical Almanac_, the seaman's
guide-book over the ocean. The greatest alteration proposed was the
description of celestial phenomena in _mean_ (or clock time), instead of
_apparent_ (or sundial) time, till then always employed. This change would
require that in a great many operations the seaman should let alone what he
formerly altered by addition or subtraction, and alter by addition or
subtraction what he formerly let alone; provided always that what he
formerly altered by addition he should, when he altered at all, alter by
subtraction, and _vice versa_. This was a tolerably difficult change for
uneducated skippers, working by rules they had only learned by rote. The
Astronomical Society appointed a Committee of forty, of whom nine were
naval officers or merchant seamen [I was on this Committee]. Some men of
science were much afraid of the change. They could not trust an ignorant
skipper or mate to make those alterations in their routine, on the
correctness of which the ship might depend. Had the Committee consisted of
men of science only, the change might never have been ventured on. But the
naval men laughed, and said there was nothing to fear; and on their
authority the alteration was made. The upshot was, that, after the new
almanacs appeared, not a word of complaint was ever heard on the matter.
Had the House of Commons had to {181} decide this question, with Mr. Lowe
to quote the description given by Basil Hall[306] (who, by the way, was one
of the Committee) of an observation on which the safety of the ship
depe