LORD CHESTERFIELD'S ACT FOR THE REFORM OF THE CALENDAR (1751).
I.
Historical Account of the Bill.
Source.—Anderson's Origin of Commerce, 1751. Vol. ii., pp. 283, 284-286.
On Wednesday the twenty-second of May 1751, the ever-famous Act of the British legislature, of the twenty-fourth year of King George the Second, received the royal assent, For regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for correcting the Calendar now in Use,—i.e. For abolishing the old stile, and establishing the new stile, already in use in most parts of Christendom.
Its preamble sets forth, "That the legal supputation of the year in England, which begins on the twenty-fifth of March, hath been attended with divers inconveniences," (strange that this was not rectified long ago!) "as it differs from other nations, and the legal method of computation in Scotland, and the common usage throughout the whole kingdom; and that thereby frequent mistakes in the dates of deeds and other writings are occasioned, and disputes arise therefrom and that the Julian Calendar, now in use throughout the British dominions, hath been discovered to be erroneous, by means whereof, the vernal equinox, which at the time of the Council of Nice, in the year 325, happened on or about the twenty-first of March, now happens on the ninth or tenth of the same month: and the error still increasing, and, if not remedied, would, in time, occasion the several equinoxes and solstices to fall at very different times in the civil year from what they formerly did, which might tend to mislead persons ignorant of such alteration. And as a method of correcting the calendar, so as that the equinoxes and solstices may for the future fall on the same nominal days on which they happened at the time of the said General Council, hath been established, and is now generally practised by almost all other nations of Europe: and, as it will be of general convenience to merchants, and other persons corresponding with other nations and countries and will tend to prevent mistakes and disputes concerning the dates of letters and accounts, if the like correction be received and established in his Majesty's dominions."
"That, throughout all his Majesty's dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, the said old supputation shall not be used after the last day of December 1751, and that the first of January following shall be accounted the first day of the year 1752, and so on, in every year after: and after the said first of January 1752, the days of the month shall go on and be reckoned in the same order, and the feast of Easter, and other moveable feasts depending thereon, shall be ascertained according to the same method they now are, until the second of September in 1752, inclusive, and the next day shall be accounted the fourteenth of September, omitting, for that time only, the eleven intermediate nominal days: and the following days shall be numbered forward in numerical order from the said fourteenth of September, as now used in the present calendar: and all acts and writings which shall be made or executed upon or after the said first of January 1752, shall bear date according to the new method of supputation; and the two fixed terms of St. Hilary and St. Michael in England, and the courts of the great sessions in the counties palatine and in Wales, and the courts of general quarter sessions, and general sessions of the peace, and all other courts and meetings and assemblies of any bodies politic or corporate, for the election of officers or members, or for officers entering upon the execution of their respective offices, or for any other purpose, which by law or usage, &c., are to be held on any fixed day of any month, or on any day depending on the beginning, or any certain day of any month, (excepting courts usually holden with fairs or marts) shall, after the said second of September, be held on the same nominal days and times whereon they are now to be holden, but computed according to the new method of numbering, that is, eleven days sooner than the respective days whereon the same are now kept.
"The years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, or any other hundredth year, except every fourth hundredth, whereof the year 2000 shall be the first, shall be deemed common years, consisting of three hundred and sixty-five days; and the years 2000, 2400, 2800 and every other fourth hundredth years from the year 2000, inclusive, and all other years which by the present supputation are esteemed to be Bissextile, or leap-years, shall for the future be esteemed to be Bissextile, or leap-years, consisting of three hundred and sixty-six days, as is now used with respect to every fourth year.
"The feast of Easter, and the moveable feasts thereon depending, shall be no longer observed according to the method of supputation now used, or the table prefixed to the book of Common Prayer: and the said table, and also the column of golden numbers, as they are now prefixed to the respective days of the month in the calendar, shall be left out in all future editions of the said book: and the new calendar, tables, and rules, annexed to the act, are to be prefixed in the stead thereof: and, from and after the said second of September, the fixed feasts, holy-days, and fasts, of the church of England, and also the several solemn days of thanksgiving and of fasting and humiliation, enjoined to be observed by Parliament, shall be observed on the respective nominal days marked for the celebration of the same in the new calendar; that is to say, on the respective nominal days, and the feast of Easter, and other moveable feasts thereon depending, shall be celebrated according to the said annexed calendar; and the two moveable terms of Easter and Trinity, and all courts, meetings and assemblies, of any bodies, politic or corporate, and all markets, fairs, and marts, and courts thereunto belonging, which, by any law, statute, charter or usage, are to be held and kept at any moveable time depending upon Easter, or other moveable feast, shall, after the said second of September, be held and kept on the same days and times whereon the same shall happen, according to the falling of Easter by the new calendar.
"The meetings of the Court of Sessions, and terms fixed for the Court of Exchequer in Scotland; the April meeting of the conservators of the great Level of the Fens, and the holding and keeping of markets, fairs, and marts, for the sale of goods or cattle, or for hiring of servants, or for other purposes, which are fixed to certain nominal days of the month, or depending on the beginning, or any certain day of any month, and all courts kept with such fairs or marts; shall, after the said second of September, be kept upon the same natural days upon which the same would have been held if this act had not been made; i.e. eleven days later than the same would happen according to the nominal days of the new supputation of time, by which the commencement of each month, and the nominal days thereof, are brought forward eleven days.
"But this act shall not accelerate or anticipate the days for the opening, inclosing or shutting up of grounds, common or pasture, or the days and times on which a temporary and distinct property and right in any such lands or grounds is to commence: but they shall be respectively opened, and inclosed, or shut up, and shall commence on the same natural days and times, after the said second of September, as before the making of this Act: that is, eleven days later than the same would happen according to the new supputation of time.
"Neither shall this act accelerate or anticipate the times of payment of rents, annuities, or other monies, which shall become payable in consequence of any custom, usage, lease, deed, writing, or other contract or agreement, now subsisting, or which shall be entered into before the said fourteenth of September, or which shall become payable by virtue of any act of Parliament. Not to accelerate the payment, or increase the interest of any money which shall become payable as aforesaid, or at the time of the delivery of any goods or other things whatsoever, or the commencement, or determination of any leases or demises of lands, &c., or other contracts or agreements, annuity, or rent, or of any grant for a term of years, &c., or the time of attaining the age of twenty-one years, or any other age requisite by law, usage, or writing, for the doing any act, or for any other purpose, by any persons now born, or who shall be born before the said fourteenth of September; or the time of the determination of any apprenticeship or other service by indenture, or by articles under seal, or by reason of any simple contract or hiring; but all these shall commence, cease, and determine, at and upon the said natural days and times on which they would have happened if this act had not been made."
II.
Lord Chesterfield's own Account.
Source.—Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield. Edited by Lord Mahon, 1845-53. Vol. ii., pp. 115, 116.
London,
March 18, O.S. 1751.
My dear Friend,
I acquainted you in a former letter that I had brought in a bill into the House of Lords, for correcting and reforming our present calendar, which is the Julian, and for adopting the Gregorian. I will now give you a more particular account of that affair, from which reflections will naturally occur to you that I hope may be useful, and which I fear you have not made. It was notorious, that the Julian calendar was erroneous, and had overcharged the solar year with eleven days. Pope Gregory XIII. corrected this error [in 1582]; his reformed calendar was immediately received by all the Catholic Powers of Europe, and afterwards adopted by all the Protestant ones, except Russia [which still (1912) adheres to the old style.—Ed.], Sweden and England. It was not, in my opinion, very honourable for England to remain in a gross and avowed error, especially in such company; the inconvenience of it was likewise felt by all those who had foreign correspondences whether political or mercantile. I determined, therefore, to attempt the reformation; I consulted the best lawyers, and the most skilful astronomers, and we cooked up a bill for that purpose. But then my difficulty began; I was to bring in this bill, which was necessarily composed of law jargon and astronomical calculations, to both of which I am an utter stranger. However, it was absolutely necessary to make the House of Lords think that I knew something of the matter, and also to make them believe that they knew something of it themselves, which they do not. For my own part, I could just as soon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them as astronomy, and they would have understood me full as well; so I resolved to do better than speak to the purpose, and to please instead of informing them. I gave them, therefore, only an historical account of calendars, from the Egyptian down to the Gregorian, amusing them now and then with little episodes; but I was particularly attentive to the choice of my words, to the harmony and roundness of my periods, to my eloquence, to my action. This succeeded, and ever will succeed; they thought I informed, because I pleased them; and many of them said, that I had made the whole very clear to them, when, God knows, I had not even attempted it. Lord Macclesfield, who had the greatest share in forming the bill and who is one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe, spoke afterwards with infinite knowledge, and all the clearness that so intricate a matter would admit of; but as his words, his periods and his utterance were not near so good as mine, the preference was most unanimously, though most unjustly, given to me....
SMOLLETT'S CHARACTER OF THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.[22]
Source.—T. Smollett: Humphrey Clinker, 1831. Pp. 110, 124, 126.
His eulogium was interrupted by the arrival of the old duke of N——, who, squeezing into the circle, with a busy face of importance, thrust his head into every countenance, as if he had been in search of somebody, to whom he wanted to impart something of great consequence. My uncle, who had been formerly known to him, bowed as he passed: and the duke, seeing himself saluted so respectfully by a well-dressed person, was not slow in returning the courtesy. He even came up, and, taking him cordially by the hand,—"My dear friend, Mr. A——," said he, "I am rejoiced to see you. How long have you come from abroad? How did you leave our good friends the Dutch? The king of Prussia don't think of another war, ah? He's a great king, a great conqueror—a very great conqueror! Your Alexanders and Hannibals were nothing at all to him, Sir! corporals, drummers! dross! mere trash—damn'd trash, heh?" His grace, being by this time out of breath, my uncle took the opportunity to tell him he had not been out of England, that his name was Bramble, and that he had the honour to sit in the last parliament but one of the late king, as representative for the borough of Dymkymraig. "Odso!" cried the duke, "I remember you perfectly well, my dear Mr. Bramble. You was always a good and loyal subject—a staunch friend to administration. I made your brother an Irish bishop." "Pardon me, my lord," said the squire, "I once had a brother, but he was a captain in the army."—"Ha!" said his grace, "he was so—he was indeed! But who was the bishop then? Bishop Blackberry—sure it was bishop Blackberry. Perhaps some relation of yours?"—"Very likely, my lord!" replied my uncle; "the blackberry is the fruit of the bramble: but I believe the bishop is not a berry of our bush."—"No more he is, no more he is, ha, ha, ha!" exclaimed the duke; "there you give me a scratch, good Mr. Bramble, ha, ha, ha! Well, I shall be glad to see you at Lincoln's Inn Fields. You know the way; times are altered. Though I have lost the power, I retain the inclination; your very humble servant, good Mr. Blackberry." So saying, he shoved to another corner of the room. "What a fine old gentleman!" cried Mr. Barton, "what spirits! what a memory! he never forgets an old friend."—"He does me too much honour to rank me among the number. Whilst I sat in parliament I never voted with the ministry but three times, when my conscience told me they were in the right: however, if he still keeps levee, I will carry my nephew thither, that he may see, and learn to avoid the scene; for I think an English gentleman never appears to such disadvantage as at the levee of a minister. Of his grace I shall say nothing at present, but that for thirty years he was the constant and common butt of ridicule and execration. He was generally laughed at as an ape in politics, whose office and influence served only to render his folly the more notorious; and the opposition cursed him as the indefatigable drudge of a first mover, who was justly styled and stigmatized as the father of corruption: but this ridiculous ape, this venal drudge, no sooner lost the places he was so ill qualified to fill, and unfurled the banners of faction, than he was metamorphosed into a pattern of public virtue; the very people, who reviled him before, now extolled him to the skies, as a wise experienced statesman, chief pillar of the protestant succession, and corner-stone of English liberty...."
[Another day] Captain C—— entered into conversation with us in the most familiar manner, and treated the duke's character without any ceremony. "This wiseacre," said he, "is still a-bed; and, I think, the best thing he can do is to sleep on till Christmas; for when he gets up, he does nothing but expose his own folly. Since Grenville was turned out, there has been no minister in this nation worth the meal that whitened his periwig. They are so ignorant they scarce know a crab from a cauliflower; and then they are such dunces, that there's no making them comprehend the plainest proposition. In the beginning of the war, this poor half-witted creature told me, in a great fright, that thirty thousand French had marched from Acadia to Cape Breton. "Where did they find transports?" said I. "Transports!" cried he, "I tell you they marched by land."—"By land, to the island of Cape Breton?"—"What! is Cape Breton an island?"—"Certainly."—"Hah! are you sure of that?" When I pointed it out on the map, he examined it earnestly with his spectacles; then taking me in his arms, "My dear C——," cried he, "you always bring us good news. Egad, I'll go directly, and tell the king that Cape Breton is an island."
[22] This scene is, of course, fiction, but it was published only three years after Newcastle's death, and that it is absolutely true to life every student of the period admits.