STYLE, OLD AND NEW. By the Old Style is meant the mode of reckoning time anterior to the Gregorian reformation of the calendar; and by the New Style, that adopted since. The adoption of the reformation at different times by different countries renders it necessary to remember the difl'erence of their reckonings, as follows : The reformation took place in 1582: from thence to the end of February, 1700, new style is ten days in advance of old style. Thus January 1 (0. S.) is January 11 (N.S.), and so on.
From and after March 1, 1700, to the end of February, 1800, new style is eleven days in advance of old style : thus January 1 (0. S.) is January 12 (N. S.).
The new style was adopted in England by 24 Geo. II. (1751), which enacted—I, that the year 1752 should begin on the 1st of January instead of the 25th of March, which was then the legal commencement; 2, that the 3rd day of September, 1752, should be called the 14th, or that the days from the 3rd to the 13th inclusive should have no nominal existence. Accordingly, the year 1751 had no January,
February, nor March up to the 24th inclusive ; and September wanted eleven complete days.
According to Sir Harris Nicolas, the new style was adopted as follows :—By Denmark, France, Holland, and most of the Low Countries (some towns excepted), most of Italy, Lorrain, Portugal, and Spain, in 1582; by German and Swiss Cathulics in 1584; by Poland in 1586; by Hungary in 1587; by German and Swiss Pro testants, and the remaining parts of Rolland, &e., in 1700; by Tuscany in 1749 or 1751 ; and by Sweden in 1753. It is not yet adopted in Russia.
It was at one time sometimes the mode to express the date in both styles. We have an old letter written from France to Holland in 1619, as we should now call it, the date of which is Rivrier 160 28 9' EPEIII0Di OF REvofurios.)