These objections in the cause of the Mexican dollar; are that, it is of irregular weight and fineness easy of imitation by counterfeiters; but mainly that the common people do not know, and are reluctant to learn its inscriptions.
It is possible that the latter of these obstacles might be overcome, as has happened at Canton. But the effect would entail an amount of laborious perseverance, patient endurance and positive sacrifice, which it seems tasteful to expend upon a coin having so great merit in itself, and the supply and quality of which are so liable to suffer from the instability of the Government issuing it.
Third. The adoption of the Rupee. This has not been fairly tried here. But the imperfect success of the Rupee in the Straits, where prejudice against it is naturally less than in China, is suggestive of its fate in this country. Its chief defect, however, is that its subdivisions are not decimal; and the Chinese, bred for ages to the use of the decimal.