of her institutions, and he had longed to secure for his own country some of the rights which had made England so glorious and so happy a country. He spoke warmly in praise of the industry of Birming ham, and passed to a consideration of the character, condition, and hopes of Hungary. Henceforth, he said, monarchical institutions were impossible there. The treacheries of the House of Hapsburgh, had alienated the hearts of Hungarians from royalty, and henceforth republicanism must form the basis of their political institutions. The contest in Europe was not now for any single nation, or for any isolated interest;it was a contest between despotism and freedom, for the dominion of the world. He called upon the people of England to prevent Russia from interfering against the struggling people of Hungary. tion received from the State authorities. Nothing definite was accomplished at the Convention.The Indians have again proved to be troublesome on the southern frontier. Great fears were entertained for the safety of a company of twenty-three U. S. troops on the Gila River. An expedition of about 125 men sailed from San Francisco for the Sandwich Islands, on the last of October: its object is not stated, though significant hints are thrown out that it is political. It was to be followed by another soon. From Santa Fé we have news of fresh excitements growing out of alleged discoveries of gold on the Gila. Numerous parties had been formed, and were going thither for the purpose of digging. The Indians in the neighborhood were comparatively quiet. Several battles, between the different tribes had occurred in the southern part of the territory. In UTAH, among the Mormons, a spirit of resistance to the Government of the United States has been developed, and the Governor of the Territory, Brigham Young-one of the leading Mormons-hasing alike Radicalism, Socialism, and despotism, asgiven indications of hostility, which will probably lead to his removal. We have not as yet received any definite details of the proceedings there. GREAT BRITAIN. In London, M. KOSSUTH received addresses from numerous deputations, to all which he replied with great felicity-aiming steadily at his great object of receiving sympathy and aid for Hungary-denounc serting the political rights and advocating the civil freedom of the people, and impressing upon the public mind the fact that the struggle is at hand, which must decide which of the two great principles, desPublic attention in England has been mainly oc- potism or freedom, shall dominate in Europe for cupied with the movements and speeches of M. many years to come. He attended the Polish and KOSSUTH. On the 10th of November he visited Hungarian ball in London on the 13th, and on the Birmingham, where he was received by an immense 15th went to Southampton to embark for the United crowd of people, who evinced the utmost enthusiasm States. He was met by the Mayor and Corporation on his behalf. Without making any address at that and entertained at a farewell banquet. He there time, he left for Manchester on the 11th, where he made a speech of an hour's length, in which he exwas also received with the greatest conceivable eclat. pressed his belief that England was the country He made an address to the people in the Town Hall which would have after all to decide the destinies mainly upon the commercial and political aspects of of Europe. France was republican, and Russia the cause to which he was devoted. He felt that must know, let it please her or not, that she must the great contest of the age is between absolutism, accept the necessity of fighting France on the field the power of the few, and the rights and well-being of Republicanism against Absolutism; but Russia of the many. The decisive struggle is close at hand, must also learn that she would have to meet England as the signs of the times, visible on every side, suf- and the force of her public opinion in opposition to ficiently indicate. It was folly to say that the na- despotism. He would not say that England would tions of Europe are contented, and that it is only a do so by going to war; but that she would exercise few ambitious and unprincipled individuals who are an influence of this kind by declaring her opinion disturbing the existing tranquillity. The people of against any interference in the domestic affairs of Europe would embrace the first opportunity to strike nations from foreign powers. Freedom and inde another blow for their rights. And the cause of pendence were but local self-government as opposed to Hungary, in this connection, was the cause of Eu- centralization. He wished them to remember this, rope, because Hungary from her local position must then they would see that the cause of Hungary was always form the only effectual bulwark against the their cause too. His last request was, do not forget despotism of Russia. England and the United poor Hungary. On whatever question they met, let States, he urged, were both deeply interested as free Englishmen, in their addresses to the House of nations, and as guardians of the law of nations, to Commons, in their petitions, and in their public res prevent Russia from again interfering to crush Hun-olutions, remember the cause of Hungary as involv gary. He appealed to the people of Manchester uponing their own interests. In the course of his speech this subject, mainly upon the ground, in addition to he begged of them not to forget to agitate against political considerations, that their trade would be greatly extended and all their interests benefited by the establishment of freedom in Europe. He closed by urging the aid of the people, in urging their government to act in the matter, and in contributions of money. secret diplomacy. It had been said that diplomacy should be kept secret, just as a merchant would keep his negotiations secret, till they were finished; but what merchant would allow business to be transacted in his counting-house the nature of which he did not know? In this case the people were the masters, On the next day, Wednesday, M. KOSSUTH re- and they should not allow any business to be con turned to Birmingham, where he made two addresses, ducted with the details of which they were not fully the first at a dejeuner at the house of Mr. Henry, in acquainted. The entertainment being over, M. Kos which he took occasion to disavow, in the most ex-suth, Madame Kossuth, M. Pulzsky, and Madame plicit terms, all or any participation in the views and purposes of Socialists or Communists. The other was at the Musical Fund Hall, where a banquet had "been prepared. He there commenced with a sketch of the Hungarian struggle, and especially of the circumstances attending her declaration of independence. He said he had from his earliest youth been familiar with British history, and filled with the free spirit Pulzsky, and suite, proceeded on board the American steamer Humboldt, which quickly started forth on her voyage across the Atlantic. Of his arrival and reception there we have already given an account. FRANCE. The political intelligence from France is of de cided interest and importance. The Assembly has met-the President has demanded the restoration of universal suffrage, and the Assembly has refused to | grant it. The appeal, of course, is to the people in the Presidential election of next May. What will be the result is, of course, matter of conjecture; but whatever it may be, it will exert a prodigious influence upon the politics of Europe. versal suffrage has again upraised the social edifice, when it has substituted a right for a revolutionary act, ought its base to be any longer narrowed? When new powers shall come to preside over the destinies of the country, is it not to compromise their stability in advance to leave a pretext for discussing The Assembly met on the 4th of November, six their origin or doubting their legitimacy? No doubt hundred and thirty-three members being present. on the subject can be entertained; and without for On the next day the message of the President was a moment departing from the policy of order which sent in and read. It opens by proclaiming the con- I have always pursued, I have seen myself, to my tinued preservation of peace, but utters warnings deep regret, obliged to separate myself from a Minagainst being deceived by this apparent tranquillity. istry which possessed my full confidence and esteem, A vast demagogical conspiracy, the President says, to choose another, composed also of honorable men, has been organized in France and in Europe; se- known for their conservative opinions, but who are cret societies have been formed extending their ram- willing to admit the necessity of re-establishing uniifications to the smallest communes; and all the versal suffrage on the largest possible base. In conmost insensate and turbulent spirits, without being sequence, there will be presented to you a bill to agreed on men or on things, have given themselves restore that principle in all its plenitude, in preservrendezvous for 1852. He relies on the patriotism of ing such parts of the law of May 31 as free universal the Assembly to save France from these perils. The suffrage from its impure elements, and render its best means of doing this is by satisfying legitimate application more moral and more regular." The law wants, and in putting down, on their first appearance, of May 31, he says, was originally passed as a meas all attacks on religion, morality, and society.-The ure of public safety, and of course now that the ne Message then proceeds, under different heads, to give cessity for it has passed away, the law itself should a statement of the condition of the country. With be repealed. Its operation, moreover, has gone fur the exception of the departments of Ardice, Cher, ther than could have been foreseen. It has disfran Nievre, and Lyons, the ordinary measures have been chised three millions of electors, two-thirds of whom sufficient to preserve order. The receipts of taxes are peaceable inhabitants of the country. This im have been quite satisfactory. The progress of ex- mense exclusion has been made the basis and pretext portations continues unabated. Public roads and of the anarchical party, which covers its detestable public buildings have received the attention of the designs with the appearance of right torn from it, government. Special care has also been given to and requiring to be reconquered. The law also prethe encouragement of agriculture. The superiority sents grave inconveniences, especially in its appliof French manufactures has been abundantly shown cation to the election of a President. The constituat the Great Exhibition in London. The number of tion requires that two millions of votes should be common schools is 34,939; of girls' schools 10,542. given for the candidate before he is declared elected, -The number of the land forces on the 1st of Octo- and if no one receives that number then the Assember was 387,519 men and 84,306 horses. If circum- bly shall elect. The law changes the proportion of stances permit, this will be reduced to 377,130 men votes from that originally established by the Consti and 83,435 horses. Out of 1145 tribes in Algeria, tution. The restoration of universal suffrage is urged, 1100 have recognized the rule of France. Various finally, on the ground that it will give an additional important naval works have been constructed. The chance of securing the revision of the Constitution. relations of France to foreign powers are eminently -The President says he is aware that this proposisatisfactory. Her situation at Rome continues un- tion is inspired by his own personal interests, but he changed, and the Pope still shows constant solicitude says his conduct for the last three years ought to be for the happiness of France and the welfare of her sufficient to put aside such an allegation. The good soldiers. Important measures are in progress at of his country will always be the motive of his conRome, and active exertions are making for the for- duct. He concludes by saying, that, "to restore mation of an army, which will render possible the universal suffrage to deprive civil war of its flag, withdrawal of the troops from the States of the and the opposition of their last argument, it is to Church. A proof has been given of the friendly dis- afford to France an opportunity of giving herself position of France toward Spain, by offering her the institutions which will insure her repose; it will be aid of the French naval forces to oppose the auda. to bestow on the powers to come that moral repose cious attempt against the island of Cuba.-In spite which exists only when resting on a consecrated of all these satisfactory results, the President says principle and an incontestable authority." Immedi a general feeling of uneasiness is daily increasing. ately after the reading of the Message, the Minister Every where employment is falling off, wretched-read the project of a law proposing the abrogation of ness is increasing, and anti-social hopes gain cour- the law of May 31, 1850, and re-establishing the age in proportion as the public powers, now weak- electoral law of March 15, 1849, by which all citiened, are approaching their termination." The Gov-zens 21 years old, and having resided six months in err.ment, in such a state of things, ought to seek the commune, are declared electors. The Minister, out proper means of conjuring away the peril, and on presenting this law, demanded urgency for its of assuring the best chances of safety. Resolutions consideration. A warm debate followed, and the must be adopted, which emanate from a decisive act urgency was rejected by a large majority. The bil of sovereign authority. "Well, then," proceeds the was then referred to a committee, which reported or President, "I have asked myself whether, in pres- Tuesday of the succeeding week. The report was ence of the madness of passions, the confusion of very explicit against universal suffrage, and closed by doctrines, the division of parties, when every thing advising that the bill be rejected at once, without is leaguing together to deprive justice, morality, and passing even to second reading. The matter was authority of their last prestige-whether, I say, we then postponed until the following Thursday. Or ought to allow the only principle to be shaken which, that day, after an animated debate, in which, by in the midst of the general chaos, Providence has agreement, the Republicans were represented by M. eft upstanding as our rallying point? When uni-Michel de Bourges, the motion was carried by a vote 66 come what may. A Government which relies for support on the entire mass of the nation, which has no other motive of action than the public good, and which is animated by that ardent faith which is a sure guide even through a space in which there is no path traced, that Government, I say, will know how to fulfill its mission, for it has in it that right which comes from the people, and that force which comes from God." This speech created a profound sensation, and elicited general discussion.-The Constitu tionnel created a universal excitement by an article proclaiming the existence of a Monarchical conspiracy, and menacing that section of the Assembly with instant seizure and imprisonment upon the first move ment toward the accomplishment of their plans. The editor, A. Granier de Cassagnac, was denounced in very violent terms by M. Creton, an Orleanist deputy, who was challenged therefor. He refused, however, to take any notice of it, when he was posted as a coward by Cassagnac. of 355 to 348-a majority of seven against the gov ernment. During the debate M. de Bourges asked, "is it not probable that the disfranchised electors will present themselves at the hustings in May, 1852, and with the Message of the President in their hands, declare their determination to vote?" This has been regarded as a hint to the electors to go forward and claim their right to vote.-Another question of very great interest and importance, grew out of a demand of the Quæstors that the troops of the city should be put under their orders for the protection of the Assembly; the question whether the project should be brought under consideration or not, came up on the 10th of November. The project as presented by the Quæstors, M. Baze, Gen. Leflo, and one other, defined the right in such a manner as to make the power of the Assembly over the troops direct-without the intervention of the War Office or of the Executive. The question was discussed with great warmth, and for part of the time amidst the greatest confusion and clamor. The vote was finally taken, and the proposition of the Quæstors was rejected, 408 to 300.-A large number of officers of the army recently presented themselves at the Elyssée and were received by the President in a speech that created great excitement. He said he was sure he could depend upon their support, because he should demand nothing that did not accord with his right, recognized by the Constitution, with military honor, and with the interest of the country; because he had placed at their head officers who had his confidence, and who merited theirs; and because he should not do as other governments had done, ask them to march on and he would follow; but he would say, "I march, follow me." The speech created great commotion throughout all political parties.General uneasiness is felt as to the result of the In SWITZERLAND, the recent election has resulted political struggle in France. The votes upon the in the return of nearly all the members of the present propositions mentioned above were not party votes, Federal Assembly, especially in the German Canout seemed to be the result of ever changing alliances tons. The radicals have a decided majority-contraand combinations. The hostility which burst outry to the expectations that had been very generally against the President upon the first publication of entertained. The new Assembly was to meet on his Message, had in some degree subsided, or rather the 1st of December in order to elect the federal it had been directed against M. Thiers. It is uni- government. versally felt that, whether peacefully solved or not, the election in May can not fail to have a most important influence upon European politics. ERNEST, King of Hanover, died at his palace in Herrenhausen,, on the 18th of November, at the age of 80, and after a reign of thirteen years. He was the fifth and last surviving son of George III., and was born at Kew, England, on the 5th of June, 1771. In 1790 he entered the army, and served in the European wars which followed. In 1799 he was created Duke of Cumberland, Earl of Armagh, and Duke of Teviotdale, with a Parliamentary grant of £12,000 per annum. He continued to live in England until the death of William IV., when he became King of Hanover. His reign has not been marked by any great events. He was always an ultra champion of privileged classes, and made himself very prominent in England as the enemy of Catholic emancipation, and reform measures of all sorts. The character of the justice administered in Austria is strongly illustrated by a notification in a Venice gazette. Count Agostino Guerrieri, of Verona, lately of the Austrian Hussars, was convicted of having received an anonymous letter from revolutionary parties, and of not giving it up to the authorities; the verdict against him was that he was guilty of high treason, and for this he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in a fortress. Baron Lutti was convicted of having advised him to burn the letter, and for that offense he was sentenced to imprisonment for two years. On the 25th of November, the President made a brief but significant speech, on distributing to the manufacturers the prizes they had won by the articles exhibited at the World's Exhibition. After expressing his satisfaction at the proofs of French genius and skill which had been afforded at the Exhibition, he proceeded to speak of the check upon industry which the continued machinations of evil men in France could not fail to create. On the one hand France was disturbed by demagogical ideas, and on From SOUTHERN and EASTERN EUROPE there is the other by monarchist hallucinations. The former no news of special interest. In Austria financial disseminate every where error and falsehood. Dis- necessities are creating general anxiety. The credit quietude goes before them, and deception follows of the country does not prove sufficient to effect hem, while the resources employed in repressing needed loans. General dissatisfaction, moreover, still em are so much loss to the most pressing amelior- prevails in Hungary, and many of the Hungarian jons and to the relief of misery. The schemes of regiments evince a disposition to take sides with monarchists impede all progress, all serious labor, their country rather than their employers.-IN ITALY for in place of an advance the country is forced to the country is apparently quiet, but a very thorough have recourse to a struggie The efforts of both, and effective organization has been effected for a however, will be in vain." And the President ex- new revolutionary movement, whenever a proper borted the manufacturers to continue their labors. opportunity shall be presented.-The peace of Eu. 'Undertake them without fear, fo. they will prevent rope is generally supposed to depend upon the French the want of occupation during the winter. Do not election in May next; but it is not easy to see by kread the future; tranquillity will be maintained, what result general peace can be preserved. Editor's Cable. HE YEAR comes round with such perfect uni- | repeating phenomena for a divisor, and the whole THE formity that we find it hard to realize how there could ever have been any great difficulty in settling either its true boundaries or its internal divisions. Any body, it seems to us, could make an almanac, as far as the calendar is concerned. Such might be the first thought, even of persons who could not justly be charged with a lack of general intelligence. But let them think again, and they will rather find cause to wonder at the immense amount of observation involved in the process of gathering, age after age, the elements of a computation apparently so simple. number of carefully ascertained days for a dividend, the error in each case would be diminished in an inverse ratio; so that we should not wonder that the number of three hundred and sixty-five days was fixed upon at quite an early period.. Such estimates, too, were aided by collateral observations of the stars. Let any one look out upon the heavens some clear night at the commencement of the year, and he can not help being struck with the position as well as the brilliancy of certain constellations. Over head are the Pleiades, the lone Aldebaran, Perseus, and Capella. Coming up the eastern sky are Orion, Gemini, Sirius, the Lesser Dog. Descending in the western are Andromeda, Pegasus, Capricornus, the Southern Fish. While low down toward the setting horizon are the Harp, the Eagle, and the Swan. Two weeks later, at the same time in the evening, he will find them all farther westward. In a month the change will be still more Had the seasons been so strikingly marked that the transition from one to the other had been instantaneous, or had the lesser sections of time been so contrived, in the Divine wisdom, as to be exact divisors of the greater, there would have been no difficulty whatever in the problem. But the Author of nature has not made it so easy for us. Twelve moons fall short of the year; thirteen exceed it. Any month-marked. After three months, those that before were ly division, therefore, founded on the revolutions of the satellite, must require, after the lapse of a few years, an addition, or a subtraction, of a certain period, to make the seasons come round again in harmony. seasons. just rising are on the meridian, and those that were then on the meridian are now setting. In six months, an entirely new host of stars will adorn the firmament, and at the end of a year, all the same phenomena will be found to have come round again. Our minuteness The first men, unquestionably, soon learned to of detail may seem like trifling in an age so scientific note the general revolution by the return of the same as this; but it is astonishing how much our science The earliest agricultural operations would is the science of books, and how little, after all, esnecessitate similar estimates, and thus a general no-pecially in astronomy, there is of personal acquainttion of the year would be arrived at without an exact knowledge of the precise number of days contained. Hence, in all languages, some such idea has entered into the name. The year is that which comes, and comes again. In Greek (if our readers will pardon a little display of learning which we have picked up for the occasion) it is (ri "ETO】 érɛpoç) another and YET another. In the Hebrew it is repetition. In our own, and the northern tongues generally, the word in all its forms (year, gear, jahr, jaar, &c.) ever denotes a course (currus) or circle. Another mode was by rude astronomical observations, which must have been resorted to in the very earliest periods. For a good portion of the year, the sun was seen to come regularly north. Then he remained apparently stationary; and then, slowly turning, made his retreat again to the southern limit, there to perform the same movement-and so on without interruption or variation. Hence the word tropic, signifying the turning, and of which St. James makes so sublime and beautiful a use when he tells us (James i. 17) that the Unchangeable Spiritual Sun, or "Father of Lights," has no parallax, and no "shadow of turning," or tropical shadow, as it should be rendered, referring to the mode of determining the period of turning by the shortest shadow cast by a perpendicular object. Still all this was merely an approximation to the length of the year, but with errors which only repeated observations could correct. By taking, however, a large number of these self ance with the objects whose laws we know so well in theory. How many understand thoroughly the doctrine of transits and parallaxes, and even the more difficult laws of celestial influences, as laid down in scientific treatises, and yet, to save their lives, could not tell us what stars are now overhead, or what planets are now visible in our nightly heav ens. They have read of Jupiter, they know the dimensions of Jupiter, and have even calculated the movements of Jupiter, it may be, but Jupiter himself they never saw. They would be surprised, perhaps, to discover, by actual sight, how much, in respect to position and appearance, our wintry constellations differ from those that are visible in summer; although night after night, for years and years, the brilliant phenomena have been passing over their heads, and silently, yet most eloquently, inviting their observation. This should not be so. The names and locations of the stars should ever be a part of astronomical instruction. We should learn them, if only for their classical reminiscences-for the sublime pleasure of having such a theme for contemplation in our evening walks. How easy, in this way, to fill the heavens with life, when we are led to regard them no longer as an unmeaning collection of glittering points, or what is scarcely better, a mere diagram for the illustration of scientific abstractions, but stored with remembrances of the older days of our worldthe old religion, the old mythology, the old philosophy pictured on the sky-the old heroes, and heroines, and heroic events, transferred to the stars, and still shining in immortal splendor above us. The word parallax, or "parallage," here must refer to the sun's declination north and south of the equator. But to return from our digression-any one may We have no reason for supposing that the ideas connected with the term in modern astronomical science were at all second mode of ascertaining the length of the year. see how such an observation of the stars furnished a known to the Apostle. It may, however, be taken generally, for any deviation from one unchangeable position, The men of the olden time were driven to this earnand, in such a sense, preserve all the beauty and subli-est watching of the heavens by an interest, of which, ity of the metaphor in these days of almanacs, and clocks, and compasses we can form but an inadequate conception. The The gentle Pleiads, shunning his fierce pursuit, arrangement (which was probably the same with, or derived from, that of the Patriarchical times) as being much more easy and correct than the division of the Greeks. "The Egyptians," he says, "divide the year into twelve months of thirty days each; and then, by adding five days to each year, they have a uniform revolution of time; whereas the Greeks, for the sake of adjusting the seasons accurately, add every third year an intercalary month” (Herod. ii. 4). By this, however, they seem only to have made "con fusion worse confounded." The great difficulty of the Greeks arose from the attempt to do what the wiser Egyptians and Hebrews seem to have aban then was the ship to be drawn up into the well-secured harbor, and the sailor for a season to shun the dan-doned-namely, to divide the year solely by lunar gerous deep. In the same way the periods of different agricultural operations were assigned to different constellations-some to Arcturus, others to the humid Hyades, and others, again, to the Bull, who "opened the year with his golden horns." From the observed fact of simultaneousness arose, also, the notion of some secret causative influence between the concur months. By arbitrary intercalations, it is true, they could bring the solar and lunar years to a tolerable agreement, but then, their effect was continually to change the places of the months relatively to the seasons. The periods of intercalation were at first every two years, then three, and lastly four, and eight. In the two latter they seem to have been governed by some respect to the quadrennial return of the great Olympic games, and the Olympiads corresponding thereto. The computation of the year was afterward brought to a still greater degree of accuracy by what was called the cycle of Melon, which, by embracing a period of nineteen years brought the times of the new and full moon to fall again, very nearly, on the same days of each month. rent events. Hence those views of astrology, so early and so widely held among mankind, and which assigned to each event its celestial concomitants, and to each individual man his natal star. Exploded it may have been by the modern progress, but there was nevertheless at bottom an idea of more value than any science, however accurate, that does not give it the first and highest place. It was the thought of the absolute unity of nature, and of the unbroken relation With the Romans it was still worse. Nothing of every part of the universe to every other part-in shows how much better they understood fighting other words, the sublime idea which the oldest phi-than astronomy, than the way they managed their losophy strove to express by that grand word, Kosmos. The length of the year, as a whole number, was early known. It was some time, however, before the disturbance created by the fraction began to be distinctly perceived, and still longer before it was reduced to any thing like satisfactory measurement. In the division of the 365 days into monthly periods, lay at first the greatest difficulty. The lunar number was in general employed, not only as the nearest marked divisor, but because the new and full moons were so generally connected with religious festivals whether this arose from convenience of arrangement, or from the idea of some deep religious meaning symbolized by the ever dying and reviving phases of this mysterious planet. We can not, however, help being struck with the superior accuracy of the Jewish, when compared with the confusion and change that prevailed in the Greek and Roman calendar. No reader of the Bible can avoid remarking its extreme particularity of date. The oldest and, on this account, the most striking instance is in the narration of the flood: "In the 600th year of Noah, in the second month, and on the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." And so also in respect to its close. There is the same particularity, too, in the date of the Passover, of the Exodus, of the arrival at Sinai, of various events in the wilderness, of the wars and settlement of Canaan, of the building and dedication of the temple, and of the messages of the later prophets. The first would seem to present the most unanswerable proof that the Jewish computation had been derived from an antediluvian science that must have been of a higher kind than we are generally disposed to acknowledge. With all their mathematics, and with some attainments in astronomy to which the Jew could make no pretension, the calendar of the Greeks presents the appearance of far more confusion. Herodotus, after saying that the Egyptians first found out the year, and divided it into twelve parts by means of the stars, praises their year. Under Romulus it was said to have consisted of only ten months. It is not easy to see how this could be adjusted on any mode of computation, and yet the numerical names, some of which have come down to our own calendar, would seem to present some proof of it. The last month in the year is yet called December, or the Tenth. In the days of Numa it consisted of twelve lunar months, with a system of intercalation something like that of the Greeks. The two added months were January and February, which, in numerical order would have been Undecember, and Duodecember, or the Eleventh and Twelfth. The year, however, by the clumsiness of these methods, and by the whole matter being left in the hands of the Pontifices who seem to have had little science, and still less honesty, became turned so completely topsy-turvy, that instead of being put at the end, these two new months were finally arranged at the beginning. The first was called January from the great (some say the greatest) Latin deity, Janus, whose original name was Djanus or Di-annus, The God of the Year (similar to the Greek Kronos or Time), and who was most expressively represented with two faces, one ever looking back upon the past, and the other forward to the coming period. In the hands of the Pontifices the Roman year had again been getting more and more out of order, until, in the days of Julius Cæsar, the first of January had retrograded nearly to the autumnal equinox. This very useful despot determined to take the matter in his own hands, and make a thorough reform; but, as a preliminary, was obliged to have an extraordinary year of 445 days, which was called the year of confu sion. Before this, there had been, too, a continual neglect of the fraction of a day, although its existence seems to have been known at a much earlier period. Cæsar arranged the months as they now stand, and made provision for the fraction by ordering a day to be added to February every fourth year. This seemed to answer every purpose, until, after the lapse of more than fourteen centuries, it was found that the season |