Queer questions and ready replies

by Samuel Grant Oliphant

256. What is the Golden Number of a year, and how determined?

The Golden Number for any year is the number of that year in the Metonic cycle, and as this cycle embraces nineteen years, the golden number ranges from one to nineteen. The cycle of Meton came into general use soon after its discovery, and the number of each year in the Metonic cycle was ordered to be engraved in letters of gold on pillars of marble—hence the origin of the name. Since the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the point from which the golden numbers are numbered is 1 B. C., as in that year the new moon fell on the 1st of January; and as by Meton’s law, it falls on the same day (Jan. 1) every nineteenth year from that time, we obtain the following rule for obtaining the golden number of any particular year: “Add one to the number of years and divide by nineteen; the quotient gives the number of cycles, and the remainder gives the golden number for that year; and if there be no remainder, then nineteen is the golden number, and that year is the last of the cycle.” The golden number is used for determining the Epact and the time of holding Easter.

257. What were the causes of the American Revolution?

The most general cause of the American Revolution was the right of arbitrary government, claimed by Great Britain and denied by the Colonies. There were subordinate causes. First of these was the influence of France, which was constantly exerted so as to incite a spirit of resistance in the Colonies. Another cause was found in the natural disposition and inherited character of the colonists. The growth of public opinion in the Colonies tended to independence. Another cause was found in the personal character of the king. The more immediate cause was the passage by Parliament of a number of acts destructive of colonial liberty.

258. How was the first colonial Congress constituted?

At Boston, James Otis successfully agitated the question of an American Congress. It was proposed that each Colony, acting without leave of the king, should appoint delegates, who should meet in the following autumn and discuss the affairs of the nation. The proposition was favorably received, nine of the Colonies appointed delegates, and on the 7th of October, 1765, the first Colonial Congress assembled at New York. There were twenty-eight representatives. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, was chosen president. After much discussion, a Declaration of Rights was adopted, setting forth in unmistakable terms that the American colonists, as Englishmen, could not and would not consent to be taxed but by their own representatives. Memorials were also prepared and addressed to the two Houses of Parliament. A manly petition, professing loyalty and praying for a more just and humane policy toward his American subjects, was directed to the king.

259. What were the terms of the Treaty of 1783?

The terms of the Treaty of 1783 were briefly these: A full and complete recognition of the independence of the United States; the recession by Great Britain of Florida to Spain; the surrender of all the remaining territory east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes to the United States; the free navigation of the Mississippi and the Lakes by American vessels; the concession of mutual rights in the Newfoundland fisheries; and the retention by Great Britain of Canada and Nova Scotia, with the exclusive control of the St. Lawrence River.

260. What were the leading defects of the Confederation?

1. There was an utter want of all coercive authority in the Continental Congress to carry into effect any of their constitutional measures. 2. There was no power in the Continental Congress to punish individuals for any breach of their enactments. Their laws must be wholly without penal sanction. 3. They had no power to lay taxes, or to collect revenue for the public service. The power over taxes was expressly and exclusively reserved to the States. 4. They had no power to regulate commerce, either with foreign nations or among the several States. It was left, with respect to both, exclusively to the management of each particular State, thus being at the mercy of private interests or local prejudices. 5. As might be expected, “the most opposite regulations existed in different States, and there was a constant resort to retaliatory legislation from their jealousies and rivalries in commerce, in agriculture, or in manufactures. Foreign nations did not fail to avail themselves of all the advantages accruing from this suicidal policy tending to the common ruin.” 6. For want of some singleness of power,—a power to act with uniformity and one to which all interests could be reconciled,—foreign commerce was sadly crippled, and nearly destroyed. The country was deeply in debt, without a dollar to pay, or the means even to draw a dollar into the public treasury, and what money there was in the country was rapidly making its way abroad. 7. Great as these embarrassments were, the States, full of jealousy, were tenaciously opposed to making the necessary concessions to remedy the great and growing evil. All became impressed with the fear, that, unless a much stronger national government could be instituted, all that had been gained by the Revolutionary struggle would soon be lost.