284 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of the months by others that he considered more appropriate, but in this 

 he also was unsuccessful. Christian Europe still clings to the names 

 of the months as they were named by the Eomans. It may be said, 

 however, that in some parts of Germany February is known by the title 

 given to it by Charlemagne. The change from old style to new was 

 made by all the governments of western Europe except England and 

 Sweden before the middle of the eighteenth century. In the former 

 country, antipathy to the Pope and the natural conservatism of Parlia- 

 ment resisted a change until dates were eleven days out of the way. 

 It was finally brought about under the Pelham ministry on the motion 

 of Lord Chesterfield, who was, however, merely the " big-wig " put 

 forward to give the measure prestige. He knew very little about the 

 subject, but he knew his audience. Some time afterward he wrote to 

 his son : 



I consulted the ablest lawyers and the most skillful astronomers and we 

 cooked up a bill for the purpose. But then my difficulties began. I was to 

 bring in this bill which was necessarily composed of law- jargon and astronomical 

 calculation, 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 part, I could just as soon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian 

 to them, as astronomy, and they would have understood me fully as well; so I 

 resolved to do better than to speak to the purpose, and to please them instead of 

 informing them. 



The change was, however, not so simple an affair as it might seem. 

 A number of matters had to be regulated by law, especially rent-days, 

 annuities and salaries. The year was henceforth to begin on the first 

 of January instead of March 25, and September 2, 1752, was to be 

 called the fourteenth. The populace was much disturbed by the shift- 

 ing of the saint-days and immovable feasts. Lord Chesterfield's chief 

 advisers were the mathematicians Macclesfield and Bradley. When 

 some time subsequently a son of the former was a candidate for parlia- 

 ment one of the popular cries against him was : " Give us back our 

 eleven days " ; and when a nvimber of years later Mr. Bradley died of a 

 lingering disease, many persons attributed his sufl^erings to the part he 

 had taken in changing the calendar. Verily, " Genius has its limita- 

 tions, but stupidity has not." The ancient Eomans, like the modern 

 English gained the reputation of being an eminently practical people. 

 But just as the latter cling to an awkward system of coinage, so the 

 former adhered for centuries to a method of reckoning time that hardly 

 passed beyond the stage of puerility. There is no evidence that they 

 even divided the day into hours until the third century B.C. In the year 

 263 Valerius Messala is said to have carried away, among other trophies 

 captured at the taking of Catania in Sicily, a sun-dial, which he set up 

 in Eome. It was in use an entire century before even the officials be- 



