D. 1582, it was found that the real astronomical equinox, which
was supposed to occur on March 25th, when Julius Caesar introduced his
calendar (not on March 21st, as was later discovered to be the fact),
had retrograded towards the beginning of the civil year, so that it
coincided with March 11th of the calendar. In order to restore the
equinox to its proper place (March 21st), Pope Gregory XIII directed
ten days to be suppressed in the calendar--of that year--and to
prevent things going wrong again it was enacted that leap-year day
shall not be reckoned in those centenary years which are not multiples
of 400. Thus Pope Gregory got rid of three days out of the Julian
calendar, or civil year, in every 400 years, since 1600 was retained
as a leap-year, but 1700, 1800 and 1900, though according to the
former law leap-years, were made common years, whilst 2000 will be a
leap-year. In order to correct a further minute error, namely, the
fact that the calendar year as now amended is 26 sec. longer than the
true solar year, it is proposed that the year 4000 and all its
multiples shall be common years, and not leap years. This is a matter
which, though practical, is of distinctly remote importance. Some
people like to look well ahead.

The alteration in the calendar made by Pope Gregory was successfully
opposed for a long time in Great Britain by popular prejudice. It was
called "new style," and was at last accepted, as in other European
countries, but has never been adopted in Russia, which retains the
"old style." An Act of Parliament was passed in 1751 ordering that the
day following September 2nd, 1752, should be accounted the fourteenth
of that month. Many people thought that they had been cheated out of
eleven days of life, and there were serious riots! The change had been
already made in Scotland in the year 1600 without much outcry. The
Scotch were either too "canny" or too dull to "fash" themselves about
it.

Let us now revert for a moment to the proceedings of Oriental
potentates in regard to astronomers, a class of scientific
functionaries whom they have from remote ages been in the habit of
employing. It appears that in China there is no attempt to make the
civil year or year of the calendar coincide with the astronomical
year. The astronomical year is reckoned as beginning when the sun
enters Capricorn, our winter solstice, and is thus more reasonably
defined than is the commencement of our New Year, which is ni