The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-07-19

A very learned, and at the same time witty,
port OF committee ofthe Pilgrim society, OF which
James Savage, esq, wac chairman, has determined
that society decree that in future, the 2lst OF
December shall be regarded as the day to be cee-
brated in commcmoration of the Foreiather's land
ing at Plymouth, on Monday, December llth, old
style.
We acknowledge the regret with which we sub
NIT to decision which approves itself as thorough
ly founded in fact We can only hope that in the
course of years. the associations which now cling
round the very words twenty second of December"
will cluster round the new date. Ii is satstac-
tion own, that the day OF celebration should be
in fact what it always is IN fancy, the beginning
of the astronomical winter. The very moment
when the light which the world receives from the
is the least, and when in the physical world OF
North America the increase oi hight Is Just place
to begin, is appropriate FOR this celebration that
many centuries will not pass before 1t Is regarded as
selected for its fitness us an emblein-as one OF the
mythical or allegorcal arrangements OF our times.
We have, from time to time, IN communications
from the chairman. of this committee, published
statements of the argument on which the change
of Observance is to be founded. The following IL
lustration from the pamphlet makes the whole ar
gumcnt clear:
ga simple illustration may be agreeable to those
who have not either leisure to follow brief demon
stration, memory TO preserve naked numbers.
Captain Allerton, when he went home to England
in the autumn of 1920, we may suppose, crossed
the channel in December TO meet the Huguenot
brethren in France. This was the first year since
his landing at Plymouth, in which the days OF the
of 1920; and on Saturday, 9th by his English reck
oning, he must have remembered the anchorage
under Clark's Isand-the sacred rest OF Sunday,
the 10th, and the glad bounding upon land OF Mon
day, the ilth. Did he not require his brethren in
the faith TO rejoice with ,him on the anniversary
of reli gious freedom, established at Plymouth, for
the first time beneath the sun, six years before
Did he ask them TO mark the day in their alma
macs for observation in years TO come; Did
they not forthwith agree that this day, the 2lst
in theirs, but lth in Capt. Aerton's count, must
forever be honored? Their Calendar being already
reformed, the third Monday Of December, 1920, or
1926, being the 2lst day of the month, that mum
Der in the line of this month would indicate the
exact day in succeeding years of the same or any
following century, 1920, 1920 or 1920; while the un
reformed style, counting, as the Huguenots did
not, 100 for leap year, and 50 twenty-nine days
In February, the just equivalent of llth December,
1899, by which il should be shown that year was
gone, must of course be the 10th instead of lth.
The very years day is the one we would revcr-
cncc. IL is not the gathering crowds OF 22d OF
December, 1863, the earliest public observance,
that we would exempify; bat only show our ad-
mirahon for the landing upon Plymouth rock OF
the blessed few, at the Winter sosticc of 1920,
the day which in the reformed Almanac at that
time, and since September, 1862, in those of Eng
land and us, who claim all the rights and more
than the benefits of Englishmen, has been, and iOr
many thousand years 10 come will be, truly noted
as the twenty first day of December.
Boston Daily AdUUtiso.