Decimal time abandoned

Why was decimal time abandoned during the Revolution? C.A. Prieur (of the Côte-d'Or), read at the National Convention on Ventôse 11, year III (March 1, 1795):

“1) As it does not offer almost all of the nation any marked advantage, it would only throw a disadvantage on the new system of measures and the decimal method, which is however very useful; 

2) Since the hourly compilation is not a commercial object or susceptible to a police regulation, the old uses> would be maintained by the immense force of habit;

3) This habit would be further consolidated by the fear of confusion. It would be necessary, to prevent it, to take new names that have not yet been indicated, and that it would be very difficult to introduce into common language, especially for so many people who do not write, who do not calculate, and who appreciate time only by a routine based on common opinion; 

4) The expense of changing the clocks would be enormous; 

5) Finally, citizens and watchmakers would be infinitely dismayed, some to change their watches, others to lose the ability to sell those that are already made. This truth is acquired by the result of the contest which took place  recently, under the decree on watchmaking movements.

“But by asking that the decimal division of the day is not a condition of rigor, there is no disagreement that there are several circumstances where it has advantages. We know that in several objects of the Navy service, in astronomical or trigonometric calculations, and for delicate experiments, the decimal division of time is more convenient. It will therefore be good to reserve it for these cases, until the use can spread more generally, which will happen by itself imperceptibly.”

Decimal time did, indeed, become used by astronomers, beginning with Laplace, who used decimal day fractions. Others added fractions to Julian day numbers to date star observations, which later inspired stardates. 

So stardates came from decimal time in the French Revolution!