Anno Bissextile, 21st H. III. Hence the Roman term yet retained of BISSEXTILE, i. e. Bis twice; and sertus the 6th. Augustan Calendar. Notwithstanding the care of JULIUS CESAR in adjusting the exact period of intercalation, the priests mistaking the proper years, again ran the Calendar into confusion; and in 36 years, 12 days had been intercalated instead of 9. AUGUSTUS therefore ordered that the three following intercalary years should not be intercalated, so that these three days might be absorbed in that interval. The month Sextilis he named Augustus; and resolving that the month which bore his name should contain a number of days equal to that named from JULIUS-he altered the subsequent ones, and deprived February of one day. His calendar then stood thus: The Julian Calendar, thus altered by Augustus Cæsar, was almost universally followed for more than fifteen centuries. But it was notorious, that in the lapse of that period the difference between 365 days and six hours-the assumed' length of the solar year-and 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 57 seconds, (or as some modern * Changed to Augustus. astronomers say 48 seconds)-the true period of the sun's apparent annual revolution - had produced an important error in the Calendar. This subject, which had long excited the attention of the learned, was at length accurately investigated, under the directions of POPE GREGORY the Thirteenth, who was desirous of celebrating Easter according to the original institution. By the concurrent calculations of the most eminent men of that day, it was finally ascertained, that a difference had arisen, of not less than ten entire days between the calendar and true time in consequence of the fractional minutes, and seconds, which the Bissextile year had occasioned the calendar to exceed the actual period of the sun's progress. To rectify this error, and regulate the calendar to true time, GREGORY caused 10 days to be suppressed in the month of March 1582, directing that which was the 11th, to be reckoned as the 21st. And in order to prevent the increase of the retrogradation which had occasioned so mischievous an error, he ordained three intercalary days to be omitted in every 400 years. All those centurial years whose dates consist of entire hundreds-not divisible by four into hundreds without remainder, as 1700, 1800, &c.-are consequently reckoned only as common years, and not as Bissextile years, which they would otherwise have been. The computation, or register of time by the calendar thus corrected-and from that time called the GREGORIAN or NEW STYLE, in opposition to the JULIAN or OLD STYLE was immediately adopted in all Roman Catholic Countries. But the Protestants obstinately ad hered to the JULIAN or OLD STYLE until the year 1700, when the States of Germany professing the reformed religion, rectified their calendar by that of the Gregorian - suppressing, not only the ten days expunged by Gregory, but another day which had occurred since his correction. In our own country, the Gregorian or New Style, was only adopted so recently as the year when 11 days were taken out of the calendar, and the 3d of September reckoned as the 14th. 1752 Russia, to this day, resists the adoption of the NEW STYLE, and from the lapse of time since the regulation by Gregory, her calendar in the year 1800, differed 12 days from true time. French Calendar. By the adoption of the GEGORIAN CALENDAR, the register of time has been brought so close to the true solar year, that in a lapse of 5760* years, their variance will not exceed one entire day! Hence, it was natural to conclude, that, without some rational prospect of material improvement, that venerable structure might have escaped the hand of modern innovation. But the sanguinary despots, by whom the deluded people of France were governed during the early period of their This period of time, by an extraordinary coincidence, accords nearly, and as some calculations bring it, precisely, with the reputed age of the world, when the new style was adopted in this kingdom. It is divisible into four equal portions of 1440 years each, agreeing with the cardinal divisions, or four seasons of the year, which are calculated from the equinoctial and solstitial stations; and, by a further coincidence, 1440 are the number of minutes in a day, or the shortest measure of time, depending upon the sun. revolution - desirous of obliterating all established customs—had the presumption to substitute in place of the antient register of time, what they vainly termed the "Calendar of Reason." This curious compilation formed by FABRE D'EGLANTINE- one of those who taught that Death is only an eternal sleep" was presented to the French National Convention, on the 5th of October 1793, the period when RoBESPIERRE was in the zenith of his power Every important fact, connected with the History of France during the short period of this calendar's existence, was registered according to the new nomenclature. It will therefore be proper to give some account of so remarkable an innovation, which, however, far from having been adopted by other nations—even France herself has been compelled to renounce. French Revolutionary Calendar. English Months. 12 Fructidor,.........Fruit, The period at which the French year commenced viz. on the 22d of September, or autumnal equinox, is notoriously inconsistent with the sun being then retrograde, and its annual course drawing towards a termination. reason - The Convention, though conscious of this absurdity, nevertheless excused it, on the ground of the 22d of September being the first day of the Republic the abolition of royalty having been decreed on the preceding day. By this division of the year into 12 months of 30 days each, it became necessary to add five others to make up the number of the ordinary year and six, to every Bissextile year. These complementary days were holydays, and out of respect to the Septembrizers, facetiously called Sansculotides ! But the most remarkable, and daring innovaion, was the abolition of Sunday-the observance of which was prohibited by a decree of the Convention, who directed every tenth day, or Decade only, to be kept as a holyday!!! The number of non-effective days in the entire year, was thus reduced from 52 to 36 - which, with the 5 Sansculotides, left only 41 days of rest from labour, out of 365. This extraordinary decree, no one had the temerity directly to oppose, by an observance of public worship on the prohibited Sabbath; but there were many, who yet distinguished that day by the usual festivity, and by closing their shops. The Republicans who rigidly observed the Decade only-in derision, nicknamed the observers of Sunday Dominicans. They in their turn, retorting upon their opponents, branded them with the epithet of Decadists. And such was the virulence of these factions, that the tranquillity of public amusements was incessantly disturbed by their acrimonious recriminations. So public a manifestation of strength, on the part of those who rejected the |