OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : JANUARY 31, 1872. 351 



Annual as a guide for the whole Republic. In one of the volumes * 

 I read as follows : " Chaque annee commence a. minuit avec le jour 

 dans lequel arrive l'equinoxe vrai d'automne, a Paris. D'apres cette 

 regie, les anntSes III., VII., XL, etc., doivent etre sextiles, c'est-a-dire 

 avoir six jours complementaires. On trouvera la table dans le Manuel 

 republicaiu." 



Mr. Bond was probably led into his mistake by assuming that the 

 first Franciade began with the first year of the French Republic. It 

 appears, however, from the instructions drawn up by Romme, in behalf 

 of the Committee of Public Instruction, to assist in the introduction of 

 the new system with the people, that the first year of the first Fran- 

 ciade was the year preceding the first year of the Republic ; and for 

 the following reason, given in his own words : " La premiere annee de 

 l'ere nouvelle commencerait une nouvelle periode de quatre ans si 

 Jules Cesar et Gregoire XIIL, en placant la bissextile, avaient moins 

 consulte leur orgueil que la rigueur de la concordance astronomique, et 

 si jusqu'a present nous n'avions ete les serviles imitateurs des Romains. 

 La raison veut que nous suivions la nature, plutot que de nous trainer 

 servilement sur les traces erronees de nos predecesseurs : nous devons 

 done fixer invariablement notre jour intercalaire dans l'annee que la 

 position de l'equinoxe d'automne comportera. Apres une premiere 

 dispositidh que la concordance avec les observations astronomiques rend 

 necessaire, la periode sera de quatre ans," etc. And again : " La 

 seconde table fait connaitre l'ordre des Franciades ; on y voit que nous 

 sommes a la troisieme annee de la premiere Franciade." f This docu- 

 ment bears the date of Frimaire 4, de l'an II. (November 24, 1793). 



Therefore, the first Franciade ended with the third year of the 

 Republic, and the extra day was introduced at the end of this year. 

 Inasmuch, therefore, as there is great liability to mistakes, not only in 

 reducing scattered dates from the French Republican calendar into the 

 Gregorian calendar, and back again from the latter into the former, but 

 also in the construction of a partial concordance, I have thought the 

 calculation and publication of a full concordance to be not a superflu- 

 ous task, especially since the early and lamentable failure of the new 

 system allows it to be brought within the compass of a dozen pages. 



It was voted that these tables be published in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Academy. 



* Annuaire de la Re'publique Francaise pour l'annee VII. de l'ere Franoaise, p. 34. 

 t Choix de Rapports, Opinions, et Discours, etc., XIII., 104, 105. 



