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MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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C 149 )
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SLIGHT occurrences frequently lead ua to a knowledge of the temper of the times * The discussion on Easter-day , which ^ is dow pretty general in the higher and middle classes , is carried on with a degree of indifference , that would have astonished
the Christian world fifteen hundred years ago . If the same thing- had then hap . pened , bishops would have heen seen posting- from one end of the empire to the other , and the true fixing of Easter-day would not have been accomplished without fierce contention and violent blows . A
scene would have been exhibited , displaying * in strong * colours , how little of the christiaa principles had been imbibed by the combatants . : The present generation thinks very differently . Little or no anxiety lias shewn itself , whether the services of
the sect established by law , are properly performed or not $ whether , in short , they follow tlieir own rules or neglect them . It is considered of no consequence , whether they eat their cross buns on the 20 th of March , or on the 29 th , or whether the commemoration of the Resurrection is made
before or after the full moon . But if the ecclesiastical question is treated in this slighting manner , it is not so with the legal part of it . For considerable apprehensions are entertained , lest the keeping of Easter-day , as it is now erroneously fixed by the Almanack makers , pro * fcably one and the same person that utters his
astrological nonsense every year in Moore ' s Almanack , may not be attended hereafter with very serious inconvenience . Two of the law terms , Easter Term and Trinity Term , depend on Easter-day : the opening of the first is now fixed for the 8 th of April , of the second for the 13 th of May . But as Easter-day , from which they determined
the openings of these Terms , is erroneously fixed , the days on which they ought to open are , for the first , the 15 th of April , for the second , the 20 th of May . Consequently it is a question , whether proceed - ings in these courts from the 8 th to the 15 th of April , and from the 13 th to the
20 th of May are legal : for , though the judges may choose to act upon these days , it does not follow that their decisions may not hereafter be invalidated by an appeal to that Act of l ^ arliainent , which has determined in precise terms , that , if the full moon * happens on a Sunday , Easter-day is th * Sunday after . Now they have fixed
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Easter-day this year oa the Sunday , oik which the moon happens to be full . Con * sequently it may be urged , that that was not the true Easter-day , fixed by Act of Parliament , and , of course , the courts were opened at a time contrary to the directions of the Acts . However this may be , it will be adviseable for all persons , who are
uflhappily engaged in suits of law in these courts , to take care that their causes shall not be brought on in the first week of either Term ; lest they should be hereafter in * volved in the repetition of law : and , though they should ultimately gain their suits , the expense and vexation attending a second conflict , would by a prudent man be , if possible , avoided .
It is urged , however , by lawyers , who are seldom very acute reasoners out of their own profession , that the Easter-day is legally fixed , since it is fixed by certain tables , also laid down by Parliament . But it does not seem to be by any means clear , that tables know a to be erroneous , are to be acted upon , when they contradict the
positive words of the Act , in reference to which the tables were framed . Thus , if an act of parliament should determine a sum , not exceeding twenty thousand pounds , to be awarded to a certain person for certain services performed by him , and directions also were given for the due estimation of these services , it would not
be sufficient to say , that a calculation hact been made according * to these directions , and by them the sum to he paid to the person , amounted to twenty-five thousand pounds , and therefore they had given that sum . The precise words of the act would be quoted against this determination , and it would be said , that they were authorized
to pay only twenty thousand pounds , and if any thing farther were necessary it was incumbent on them to come to parliament for a new grant . The case of Easter-day seems to be the same . The tables are to be followed , provided they do not violate the positive words of the act $ and , if any
doubt had been entertained on the subject it should have been brought before parliament . But it is probable that the Almanack maker never gave himself any trouble about these positive words . He fixed the day without thought , and it was not till all the Almanacks had been published , that the error was discovered . Happily the whole may be rectified
Monthly Retrospect Of Public Affairs; Or, The Christian's Survey Of The Political World.
MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS ; OR , The Christian ' s Survey of the Political World .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1818, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2473/page/69/
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