OP ARTS AND SCIENCES: JANUARY 31, 1872. 349 



abolished the use of the Gregoriau Calendar and established in its 

 place the Republican Calendar.* A previous decree of the 22d Sep- 

 tember, 1792, had ordered that, after that day, all public acts should 

 be dated from the first year of the Republic, without, however, changing 

 the beginning of the year.f On the 24th of October, J a report was 

 accepted which resulted in the decree of the 24th of November, when 

 the details and nomenclature of the new calendar were adopted, and 

 also the division of the day into 100,000 seconds. These decrees took 

 effect from the 26th of November, 1793, when the new dates began 

 to be used in recording the sessions and public acts of the Convention. 

 So much as relates to the decimal division of the day was not obliga- 

 tory until the first day of the year III., and was suspended in its 

 operation, April 7, 1795. On the 8th of April, 1802, the week of seven 

 days and their names were restored. On the 9th of September, 1805, 

 an edict of Napoleon, upon the recommendation of a committee of 

 which Laplace was chairman, ordered the restoration of the Gregorian 

 Calendar on the 1st of January, 1806. It was asserted by Laplace, 

 that the people of France had always adhered to the Gregorian reck- 

 oning, in common affairs from preference, and in ecclesiastical dates 

 from necessity, and the expectation that any other nation would adopt 

 the French innovation was a chimera. § 



The Republican Calendar divided the year into twelve months of 

 thirty days each. Four of these years make a Franciade, the last 

 being called sextile, because it contained the extra day. The year 

 which introduced the additional day was also called the Olympic. 

 At the end of this year six complementary days were intercalated, 

 and in other years only five. These complementary days were holi- 

 days, and were vulgarly called Sansculottides ; also, Epagomenes. 



The' era of the new Chronology was antedated to the 22d of Sep- 

 tember, 1792, when the Republic was established and when the sun 

 entered Libra, which was hailed as the symbol of equality. Each 



* Dictionnaire General de la Politique, par Block, p. 301. Dictionnaire de 

 l'Administration Francaise, p. 293. National Cyclopedia, VII., p. 690. Arago. 

 Astronomic, IV., pp. 667 - 701. Ideler. Handbuch der Chronologic, II., pp. 468 - 

 470. Companion to the British Almanac for 1828, p. 5, and 1830, pp. 19, 20. 



t Choix de Rapports, Opinions, et Discours, etc., X., p. 24. 



| Le proces-verbal du lendemain, 25 October, porte le date du 4 Frimaire de 

 l'an II. de la Re'publique Francaise. Ibid., XIII. p. 96. 



§ Choix de Rapports, Opinions, et Discours, XIX. 191-199. 



