On the subject of the Greek Kalendar the reader may consult Ideler, Handbuch der Mathernatischen and Tcchnischen Chrenologie: (Adams's Roman Antiquities ; Niebuhr, On the Secular Cycle, Hist. of Rome ; Brady's Claris Calendaria ; Sir Harris Nicolars'a Chronology of History ; Hutton's Philosophical and Mathematical Dictiontiry, v. Calendar, Linde's Jewish Calendar, Svc). Lond. 1838.) The last we shall mention is the French Revolutionary Kalendar. In September, 1793, the French nation resolved that the republic should form a new era, and that a kalendar should be adopted on what were termed philosophical principles. The Convention therefore decreed, on the 24th of November, 1793, that the common era should be abolished in all civil affairs : that the new French era should commence from the foundation of the republic, namely, on the 22nd of September, 1792, on the day of the true autumnal equinox, when the sun entered Libra at 9h in the morning, according to the meridian of Paris; that each year should begin at the midnight of the day on which the true autumnal equinox falls; and that the first year of the French republic had begun on the midnight of the 22nd of September, and terminated on the midnight between the 21st and 22nd of September, 1793. To produce a correspondence between the seasons and the civil year, it was decreed, that the fourth year of the republic should be the first sextile, or leap-year ; that a sixth complementary day should be added to it, and that it should terminate the Franciade ; that the waffle or leap-year, which they called an olympie year, should take place every four years, and should mark the close of each Franciade; that the first, second, and third ccnturial years, namely, 100, 200, and 300 of the republic, should be common, and that the fourth centurial year, namely, should be sextile; and that this should be the case every fourth century until the 40th, which should terminate with a common year. The year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with five additional days at the end, which were celebrated as festivals, and which obtained the absurd name of " Sanseulottides." Instead of the months being divided into weeks, they consisted of three parts, called Decades, of ten days each. It is- however to be observed that the French republicans rarely adopted the decades in dating their letters, or in conversation, but used the number of the day of each month of their kalendar. .
The republican kalendar was first used on the 26th of November, 1793`, and was discontinued on the 31st of December, 1805, when the Gregorian was resumed.
On examination we find that many works give an account of this kalcndar which is more or less incorrect. The decrees of the National Convention, which fixed the new mode of reckoning, were both vague and insufficient, so that it is no wonder that many detailed accounts neither agree with each other nor with the truth. To learn what the truth was, we have recourse to a French work, in its sixth edition : Concordance des Calendriers Republicain et Gregoricu; par L. Ron donneau, Paris (6ieme edition), 1812, 8vo. This work puts every day of every year, from An II. to in XXII. both inclusive, opposite to its day of the Gregorian calendar; it also gives the decrees of the National Convention. The account we have already given is stated in the common way : we leave it for the reader to compare with the more accurate version.
By these decrees it appears that the year is to begin at the midnight of Paris Observatory which precedes the true autumnal equinox. It is to consist of 365 days, with 12 months of 30 days each (the 30 days being 3 decades of 10 days each), and 5 complementary days, which were tastefully called sansculotides (a name afterwards repealed). A sixth complementary day was to be added, not according to any rule, but salon que la .position de requinoxe it comporte ; and although it was stated that it would be ordinairement necessaire to add this 366th day once in four years, yet it is not even stated in what particular coming years the necessity would arise. The first decree, dated October 5, 1793 (the new month not having been introduced), declares the year then current to be the second year of the French republic, and enacts that An I. began with September 22, 1792, and An II. with Septem ber 22, 1793. The second decree, fixing the months, is dated the 4th of Frimaire, An II. (November 24th,1793). The Gregorian reckoning was restored from and after January 1,1806, by an imperial ordonnanee, dated 22 Fructidor, An XIII. (September 9, 1805).
It ieto actual usage, then, that we must appeal to know what the decrees do not prescribe—namely, the position of the leap-years. For though every period of four years was a Franciad, and the last year of the Franciad was called Sextile (having six complementary days), yet, in fact, An IV., An VIII., &e., are not leap-years. The following list, actually made from the work above mentioned, must be used as a correction of the usual accounts. For various matters connected with the public debt, &e., it was necessary to construct the table up to An XXII. •