The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-01-23
T,c Grcsorian Calendar.

Yn, Hon. Elil> II. Roberts introduced
So ~ IN, House Yesterday TO reform the
,-..,nrior calendar. OF its exact import we
,n, informed. but we can think of
a. ti,,. ,,, aimed at unless it IS to legislate
4 ~, nr existence twenty-five years in advance
90. oah of February. 1900. Otherwise we
,1,r,t see that the Grcgorian year needs
49,, r,r,jc,liar attention a. the hands OIL legis-
I,1D. Cesar. ty.tiye years before Christ,
=, ,rr aid Of SOSiScncS, an AleXandrlan PHI
i..nler o,iained a toerahly clear under.
...,-,;iu. pI the length OF the year, which Is
=. t,y.. ; hours. IS minutes, 40 G2.l0o Sc
...I., 10 reconcile the solar with the civil
r.r hi, Majesty decrced that every fourth
;....- should be held 10 conSist'of 3GG days,
i.r,., ,alrpo,c Of absorbing the odd hours.
~. 5r,.n.rurnt he made was, however,
,.,.ewal. clumsy. 4 uav in February. the
syn T.. fore he calend> Of March (sexths),
NJ. 10 ae repeated IN the fourth year; aud
,..l. fourth wear was thus jiS$es!Ile. 1t was
q. + wr acrc TO reckon the 23i Of February
,w.,y. oyer. In til, form the Julian year
r...lufnr,d il, being, and lasted, through
,l,. ,-a,, until near the close of the sixteenth
century.
In the wear 1882 it occurred to that dis
tin uisn-u poniin Gregory NH. that the
v.yl1 had been gaining tilne-that the civil
v,, in advance of the solar year. And so
!, Nl-. II wii readily be seen. The inter-
,ftiou ut one day every four years more
aaa al,>oIh- the FIVE hours. fortt-ninc min-
,..,. and The fraction over. The error Of
,a.tr WAS in c>tiuatin" the ycarat precisely
o.. DAYS. Pope Gregory found that, from
;a. i'm" OF the council Of the Nice, in 323,
w4rn he ycrnal equinox fell correctly on
,A, 2i>t Of March. until 1882. there had
J.. y ai uVcr-rcckouing 10 the extent of ten
G!,-. aud now the vCrnal equinox fell on the
i'm o. March. To correct the past error
h. G-.r,."d that the 9th Of Oct oE,cr that year
should y" rcCHon,d as the 10Th, and to keep
IT., year right in the future, the oveIpus
81, being IS hours, 81 minutes, and 10 Sec
u,u.S ina century, he ordered that every CEN
t,.uGa year that could not be divided by
i..~ 100. $500. 1900, 1000, etc. should not
be- .s..aai.. a> it UihcIw;e would be; thus,
i. -aru. dropping the extra day three times
,,rry !,ui huu.ircd years
Pope Gregory, in the role Of a reformer,
lDt To difficulty in convincing the Catholic
world Of his wisdom. The miracles Of the
t9Urch conioEmrd themselves to his behcSts ::
t., tor example, the melting of the blood OF
:. G.unlr6 which annually occurred at
Ntjr> on the 18Th of September.) observed
iur 1t" style with he utmost lropriety, and
iar common people hence concluded it was
al right.
In Great Britain the change did not
iah" place until l1j2, when by an act
il was provided that the legal year
should commence not on the 18th of March,
bat on The l>t0f January-another change;
and that after the Sd of September in that
var the next ensuing day should be held TO
'e lhe 1ilh, thus dropping out eleven
days. The reformation was attended by
tumul,s OF the MASSES, who, with quite
= much OF ignorance as their cOut.
mental brethren, had less Of religious
iutu in their composition. The mea-
>Hr! was extremely unpopular, and for
some time afterwards the statesmen who
Gln'ricd lis passage were met in the streets
&I!a on The htiSlngs with the cry "Who stole
iiv eleven days: Give us back the eleven
d.y-." Th" people thought they had been
deprived OF eleven days OF their natural eX.
!,'ruco, ana grieved over it somewhat after
Tho fashion of the piOus "Euse5ius y in the
Nv York OJScrCcr, who sorrowcd 50
greatly when he found that sailing westward
oa Tie Pacific the profane skipper took 4
Sunday night out Of the calendar, and brought
h'm >'raj.Lt from saturday TO Monday with.
cut giving him chance to say his Sabbath
prayers.
Many anecdotes are told of the supersli
tons which titled the hearts Of good English
fix in the times when the days were so
:"UIiy dealt with by the Parliament; but
a. the generations went and came, and men
!AcI and died, pretty much as they did
under the Julian diSpensation, the new
order came to be accepted, and we presume
that there as here many toleraby we'll edu-
Gated people ,hnk that the 10Th of Feb
luary was never 4 dies non. Perhaps we
Should not have thought OF it ourselves,
and dclNed our textbooks for all this mathe.
hA'IcaI lore, if the scholarly congressman
lad nrt come forward in the ,6!e of leform.
tr. and, cnulating at once the Roman Empe-
i"r 90d the Roman Pontifl, begun some
!o"n"c'aslic proceeding, whose ultimate pur-
i",r We confess we can but dimly compre-
A"nd from the curt message which is brought
- Us hy the telegraph. (N. "
t~1atc'c, 18Th.