Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/415

SLAVERY IN N. H.— WHEN AND HOW ABOLISHED. 377 occurred prior to 1752, between January 1 and March 25, so as to indicate the year by both the old style and the new — as, January 20th, 1740-1. This date by the old style would be in the latter part of 1740; but by the new, the same date would be early in the year 1741. This would only show the difference in the year, but not in the day of the month.

Russia is said to be the only Christian nation that has not adopted the Gregorian calendar. A person in Russia writing to a person in France or England, or other country having adopted the new style, would date their letter April [1, 13] or [June 27, July 9,] 1883, which shows the difference in the day of the month between the old style and the new.

From 1792 to 1806 France tried the experiment of adopting a new calendar. Their era was the autumnal equinox of 1792, from which years were to be numbered — as, the year one, the year two, &c. — with twelve months of thirty days each, to which new names were given, five intercalary days being added at the close of the year, and six for leap year, and each month divided into periods of ten days each, and the days having no names except the first, second, &c, of each period. This attempt was made in their mad revolution, which was marked with scenes of violence and blood. The object was to blot out the Christian Sabbath and all traces of the Christian religion — to obliterate all precedent, whether of royalty, morality, or law — with no God but "Reason," and no government but the will of the people as expressed in mobs and riots and tumultuous assemblies. It was a reign of terror — black as night, hideous as death — so monstrous, so deformed, so ghastly, that it will probably never be repeated. While the birth of Christ is the era that Christian nations have adopted in the computation of time, still the Jews go back to the creation as their era, beginning their civil year with the autumnal equinox; but since their release from Egyptian bondage, commencing their ecclesiastical or sacred year with the vernal equinox. The Mohammedan era is the hegira or flight of Mahomet. The Chinese have an era of their own, and so do the Egyptians, and the Indians, and various other nations. It would be a great convenience if some general, some universal, era could be adopted which should be satisfactory to all nations and in which all should agree. But as that is scarcely to be expected, we must wait and let each system be canvassed upon its true merits, not doubting that in the end we shall see illustrated the great principle of the "survival of the fittest."

This question has sometimes been asked, but never very conclusively answered. In 1795, on the petition of Walter Cooper, of Dover, to have the town "accountable for the future maintenance of a poor negro woman now in his family," the town voted, as appears by the record, that it would not be accountable.

This vote, on the petition of Mr. Cooper, would seem to imply that as late as 1795, which was more than ten years after the adoption of the constitution of the state, which it has been supposed abolished slavery, the former masters were still regarded as chargeable with the maintenance of their former slaves. Dr. Belknap, writing