In conclusion, we remark that three very common misconceptions run through the hon. Member's argument; and, combined in different proportions, give variety to his patterns. First, he will have it that we design to bring the uneducated into contact with _decimal fractions_. If it be so, it will only be as M. Jourdain was brought into contact with prose. In fact, _Quoi! quand je dis, Nicole, apportez-moi mes pantoufles, c'est de la prose?_[305] may be rendered: "What! do you mean that _ten to the florin is a cent a piece_ must be called decimal reckoning?" If we had to comfort a poor man, horror-struck by the threat of _decimals_, we should tell him what manner of fractions had been inflicted upon him hitherto; nothing less awful than _quarto-duodecimo-vicesimals_, we should assure him. Secondly, he assumes that the penny, such as it now is, will remain, as a coin of estimation, after it has ceased to be a coin of exchange; and that the mass 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.