COMMON THINGS TIME. 





tised by other nations of Europe, and great inconvenience and 

 some confusion prevailed in the adjustment of dates in all inter- 

 national transactions. It was therefore resolved to include in the 

 reformation of the calendar the change of the commencement of 

 the year, from the 25th March to the 1st January, which was 

 accomplished by declaring that the days, from the 1st January, 

 1751 (as formerly counted) should be taken as belonging to 1752, 

 and that 1752 should end on the 31st December, and 1753 begin 

 on the day formerly called the 1st January, 1752. Thus, in fact, 

 the months of January, February, and twenty-four days of March, 

 were transferred from each year to that which succeeded it. 



This will explain the peculiar way of expressing dates which is 

 found in all documents and printed works which appeared at, and 

 for some time after the reform was adopted. Both dates, the 

 new and the old, according to the reformed and unreformed style, 

 were usually expressed, the old above and the new below a line, 

 like the numerator and denominator of a fraction. Thus, for 

 example, the day which was the 19th June, 1753, in the old style, 

 being the 30th June, 1753, in the new style, the date was written 



19 



thus, -_ June, 1753. In other cases the month was changed as 

 oil 



well as the day ; thus the day which was the 30th June, 1753, old 

 style, became the llth July, new style, and the date was written 



30th June, 7 

 l 



In other cases again, the day, month, and year were all 

 changed, as, for example, the day which, in the old style, was 

 the 23rd February, 1753, in the old style, became the 6th March, 

 1754, in the new style, and was thus written : 



23rd February, 1753. 

 6th March,! 7 -34. 



117. The difficulties which such a change at first produced 

 among the great mass of the population of the country, who, from 

 their limited education and information, must have been unaware 

 of the many important grounds on which the reform was based, 

 can be easily conceived. 



Happily, however the reform was realised, and the incon- 

 veniences which first attended it disappeared after a few years, so 

 that the English dates were not only brought into accordance with 

 the course of the seasons, but with those adopted by other civilised 

 nations. 



