A calendar (named from the Latin calendarium, from calendce, the first day of the month), is a record or marking out of time as systematically divided into years, months, weeks, and days.
The periodical occurrence of certain natural phenomena gave rise to the first division of time, the division into weeks being the only purely arbitrary partition. The year of the ancient Egyptians was based on the changes of the seasons alone, without reference to the lunar month, and contained 365 days divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with five supplementary days at the end of the year.
The Jewish year consisted of lunar months of which they reckoned twelve in the year, intercalating a thirteenth when necessary to maintain the correspondence of the particular months with the regular recurrence of the seasons.
The Greeks in the earliest period also reckoned by lunar and intercalary months, but after one or two changes adopted the plan of Meton and Euctemon, who took account of the fact that in a period of nineteen years, the new moons return upon the same days of the year as before. This period of nineteen years was found, however, to be about six hours too long, and subsequent calculators still failed to make the beginning of the seasons return on the same fixed day of the year. Each month was divided into three decads.
The Romans at first divided the year into ten months, but they early adopted the Greek method of lunar and intercalary months, making the lunar year consist of 354, and afterwards of 355 days, leaving ten or eleven days and a fraction to be supplied by the intercalary division. This arrangement continued until the time of Julius Caesar. The first day of the month was called the calends. In March, May, July, and October the 15th, in other months the 13th, was called the ides. The ninth day before the ides (reckoning inclusive) was called the nones, being therefore either the 7th or the 5th of the month. From the inaccuracy of the Roman method of reckoning the calendar came to represent the vernalequinox nearly two months after the event, and at the request of Julius Caesar, the Greek astronomer Sosigenes with the assistance of Marcus Fabius, contrived the so-called Julian calendar. The chief improvement consisted in restoring the equinox to its proper place by inserting two months between November and December, so that the year 707 (46 BC), called the year of confusion, contained fourteen months.
In the number of days the Greek computation was adopted, which made it 365.25. To dispose of the quarter of a day it was determined to intercalate a day every fourth year between the 23rd and 24th of February. This calendar continued in use among the Romans until the fall of the empire, and throughout Christendom until 1582.
By this time, owing to the cumulative error of eleven minutes, the vernalequinox really took place ten days earlier than its date in the calendar, and accordingly PopeGregory XIII issued a brief abolishing the Julian calendar in all Catholic countries, and introducing in its stead the one now in use, the Gregorian or reformed calendar. In this way began the new style, as opposed to the other or old style. Ten days were to be dropped; every hundredth year, which by the old style was to have been a leap year, was now to be a common year, the fourth excepted; and the length of the solar year was taken to be 365 days, five hours, forty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds, the difference between which and subsequent observations is immaterial. The new calendar was adopted in Spain, Portugal, and France in 1582; in Catholic Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in 1583; in Poland in 1586; in Hungary in 1587; in ProtestantGermany, Holland, and Denmark in 1700; in Switzerland in 1701; in England in 1752; and in Sweden, 1753.
In the English calendar of 1752, also, the 1st of January was now adopted as the beginning of the legal year, and it was customary for some time to give two dates for the period intervening between 1st January and 25th March, that of the old and that of the new year, as January 1752/3. Russia alone retained the old style, which by 1906 differed twelve days from the new.
In France, during the revolution, a new calendar was introduced by a decree of the rational Convention, on November the 24th, 1793. The time from which the new reckoning was to commence was the autumnal equinox of 1792, which fell upon the 22nd of September, when the first decree of the new republic had been promulgated. The year was made to consist of twelve months of three decades each, and, to complete the full number, five fete days, or sansculotides (in leap years six) were added to the end of the year. The seasons and months were as follows: Autumn; 22nd September to 22nd December Vendimiaire, vintage month; Brumaire, foggy month; Frimaire, sleet month. Winter; 22nd December to 22nd March: Nivose, snowy month; Plumose, rainy month; Ventose, windy month. Spring; 22nd March to 22nd June: Germinal, budmonth; Floreal, flowermonth; Prairial, meadowmonth. Summer; 22nd June to 22nd Sept.: Messidor, harvest month; Thermidor, hot month; Fructidor, fruit month. The common Christian or Gregorian calendar was re-established in France on the 1st of January, 1806, by Napoleon. Research Calendar
China Wax is a sort of wax deposited by insects on a deciduous tree with light-green ovate, serrated leaves, cultivated in the province of Sichuen in South-western China. The insects, a species of Coccus, are bred in galls which are formed on a different tree, an evergreen (a species of Ligustrum or privet), and these galls are transported in great quantities to the districts where the wax trees are grown, to the branches of which they are suspended. Having emerged from the galls the insects spread themselves over the branches, which gradually become coated with a white waxy substance, reaching in 90 or 100 days the thickness of a quarter of an inch. The branches are then lopped off and the wax removed. It is white in colour and is chiefly made into candles; it melts at 160 degrees whereas tallow melts at about 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Research China Wax
Cohens v Virginia was an important American legal case, heard before the US Supreme Court, and decided in 1821. In 1820, P J and M J Cohen were presented before the Quarter Sessions Court at Norfolk for selling lottery tickets in defiance of the statute of the State prohibiting such sales. The Cohens appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States against the fine imposed by the Virginiacourt, pleading the legality of their sale under the 'Act to amend the charter of the city of Washington', passed by Congress in 1812, which permitted the drawing of lotteries. The attorney for Virginia denied the jurisdiction of the court, because a State was defendant and because in cases in which States were parties its jurisdiction was original and not appellate. But the court decided that the EleventhAmendment did not apply, and that in constitutional cases it had always appellate jurisdiction. Research Cohens V Virginia
Corn Laws are various enactments designed to ensure an adequate supply of cereal foods to a country, usually by protection allotted to its own farmers.
In Britain the name was commonly given to certain statutes passed to protect the agricultural interest in Britain. The first form of interference by legislative enactment with the corn-trade in England, beginning soon after the Conquest, was the prohibition of exportation, an expedient in those times to prevent scarcity in a sudden emergency. The exportation of grain was prohibited in the reign of Edward III in 1360-61, Calais and other appointed ports being excepted. This provision was relaxed by a statute of Richard II in 1394, by which exportation was permitted from all ports not excepted by royal proclamation.
In 1436, under Henry VI, the exportation of grain was permitted without license whenever the price of wheat did not exceed 6s. 8d per quarter, and barley 3s. 4d. In 1463 a statute of Edward IV prohibited importation until the price exceeded the limit at which exportation was permitted. This was the beginning of protection, properly so called.
At the restoration of Charles II duties were imposed both on exportation and importation, while the old principle of a standard price, beyond which exportation was prohibited, was retained. At the Revolution a new policy still more favourable to the agricultural interest was adopted. By act 1 William and Mary, cap xii., a bounty was granted on the exportation of corn, and the duties on exportation were abolished. The amount of the bounty was 5s. for every quarter of wheat exported while the price was at or under 48s, with corresponding prices for other grains.
The exportation of grain reached its highest point about 1750. From this period the country, which had always been normally a grain-exporting country, began, on account of the increase of population and expansion of mechanical industries, to fall off in this respect, and in 1778 became permanently a grain-importing country. From this time the main efforts of the agricultural interest, largely represented in the parliament and the ruling classes of the kingdom, were concentrated on obtaining the imposition of prohibitory duties on foreign grain. In 1804, for instance, if the price of corn was below 63s. a prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. was laid on what was imported; if between 63s and 66s, a duty of 2s. 6d; and only when the price at home had risen as high as 66s per quarter was the foreign grain allowed to pass at a nominal duty of 6d. With variations of more or less importance this sliding-scale of prohibitory duties continued in force until 1846, when Sir Robert Peel, influenced by the corn-law repeal agitation, and more especially by the Anti-Corn-law League, headed by Cobden and Bright, carried a measure repealing the duty on imported corn, except a nominal sum of 1s per quarter, which also in 1869 was done away with, but was temporarily re-imposed in 1902-1903. Research Corn Laws
Coyne and livery was food and entertainment for soldiers and forage for their horses exacted by an army from the people whose lands they passed through, or from towns where they rested on their march. Coyne and Livery was an ancient right or custom in Ireland which enabled the lord or chief to quarter his soldiers on his tenants. Coyne and livery was abolished in Ireland in 1603. Research Coyne and Livery
Crescent is a geometrical form resembling the moon in its first quarter, and used as a charge in heraldry. It is perhaps better known as the symbol of the Ottoman Turks and a symbol of Islam. The crescent as an emblem is of very high antiquity, being that of the Greek goddess Artemis or Diana. It is found on medals of many ancient cities, particularly of Byzantium, from whence it is supposed to have been borrowed by the Ottomans. The crescent has given name to a Turkish order of knighthood from the form of the badge, instituted by Selim, sultan of Turkey, in 1801. Research Crescent
On August the 4th 1842 the Congress of the USA passed a donation act for the Territory of East Florida. Persons who could bear arms were allowed one quarter section of land upon which to settle. On September the 27th, 1850, a donation act was passed for Oregon, granting settlers from 160 to 640 acres. Research Donation Lands
The firlot was an old Scottish measure of capacity containing a quarter of a boll, being 2214 cubic inches of wheat and 3232 cubic inches of barley. Research Firlot
Abbreviations
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