NEW CALENDAR PROPOSED. J. E. HILLGARD, Esq. WASHINGTON, April 17, 1875. DEAR SIR: Allow me to recur to the subject of a natural and a scientific year. This year ought to correspond with the natural Solar year. In the northern hemisphere the natural commencement of the year is at the time of the sun's station in the winter solstice. Then he commences his return to warm and vivify the world and reclothe it with vegetation. Every rustic, by noting the sun mark in his doorway, can tell when the old year ends and the new begins. The average time of the winter solstice is December 22d, at 1 A. M. From the winter solstice to the vernal equinox is about eighty-nine days, one hour; from thence to the summer solstice is about ninetythree days, less three and one-half hours; thence to the autumnal equiuox, about ninety-three days, fourteen and three-quarter hours; thence to the winter solstice again, about ninety days, less six and one-half hours. By commencing the year on December 21st and giving to the winter ninety days, spring ninety-three, summer ninety-three, and fall eighty-nine in common years, and ninety in leap years, we shall have for January, February and March thirty days; April, May and June each thirty-one days; July, August and September each thirty-one days; October, November and December each thirty days, in leap year-December one less other years; and the seasons will commence very nearly at the equinoxes and solstices. The first days of January, April, July and October would then fall, according to the present calendar, on the 21st of December, the 21st of March, 22d of June and 23d of September. The cardinal points would occur on these days in the majority of cases. No change would be required except that of advancing the year eleven days and placing the intercalary day of leap year at the end of the year. Supposing the change to be made in December of this year, 1876, the year 1877 would commence December 21 and end December 20, and contains 365 days; 1878 ditto, 1879 ditto; 1880 would commence December 21, 1879, and end December 20, 1880, and contain 366 days, the 29th February making the additional day. The calendar would continue to follow the Gregorian style. The same years would be leap year as now. This arrangement would correspond with nature and would be attended with many advantages. The placing the intercalary day at the end of the year would be worth the trouble. The following bill would effect the change and obviate all civil inconveniences: BILL. A BILL TO REFORM THE CIVIL YEAR. 1. BE IT ENACTED, that, after proclamation shall be made as hereinafter provided, the civil year shall commence with the 21st day of December, according to the present reckoning, and the month of January shall be advanced so as to begin with that day; and the months shall follow each other in the same order as heretofore, and shall have the following number of days, respectively, to wit: January, February and March, each thirty; April, May and June, each thirtyone; July, August and September, each thirty-one; October and November, each thirty, and December thirty in leap years and twenty-nine in common years. 2. AND BE IT ENACTED, that the President of the United States be, and he is hereby requested to instruct the Ministers and other representatives of the Government of the United States in foreign countries where the Christian year is used, to lay before the respective governments to which they may be accredited the plan for rearranging the civil year, as presented in the first section of this act, and to endeavor to procure their co-operation therein; and as soon as, in the judgment of the President, a sufficient number of said governments shall consent to join in such new arrangement, the President is hereby authorized and directed by public proclamation to declare when the said arrangement shall commence; and the year which shall precede the commencement of said arrangement, shall terminate at the end of the 20th day of December instead of the 31st day of said month, and the next civil year shall commence on the next following day. 3. AND BE IT ENACTED, that the change of the civil year, herein provided for, when the same shall take place, shall not have the effect of shortening or anticipating any period of time provided for in any contract, or the period of arriving at any year of age, or the period provided for the running of any statute of limitations, or for the publication of any notice or order, or for the doing of any act, matter or thing, except, however, and it is provided, that in all cases where nominal days of any months or year are, or shall be fixed, prescribed or allotted by law, custom, usage, by-law or regulation for the meetings of any public or private bodies whatever, or for the commencement of the terms of any courts, or for the commencement or termination of any term of office, or for the acts of any officers or persons whatever, the said meetings, terms and acts respectively, shall be held, commenced, terminated, and performed respectively on the same nominal days in the civil month or year as newly arranged. A LETTER FROM JUDGE BRADLEY, OF THE TREASURY. WASHINGTON, April 15, 1872. HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, Secretary of the Treasury. SIR: For the purpose of promoting the object of a large number of engineers and others interested in steam transportation, who desire that Congress should authorize experiments to be made to ascertain, with greater certainty, the cause of explosions and the best means of preventing them, and at the instance of persons speaking in their behalf, I have taken the liberty of addressing you the following letter. I hope that the intrinsic importance of the subject will be my excuse for troubling you with its perusal. After the lapse of more than fifty years, the subject of explosions of steam boilers has lost none of its interest or importance. They recur as frequently as ever, and are attended with frightful results to persons and property. Legislation has hitherto wholly failed to correct the evil. The cause of this failure has been the ignorance which has existed (and which still exists) with regard to the precise causes by which explosions are produced. The want of proper experiments on real boilers has left the matter open to speculation; and the result is a wide diversity of opinion amongst even skillful engineers as to the true causes of these disasters. With such a diversity of opinion, it is impossible to procure verdicts against those who are really guilty of negligence. In nearly all cases that have occurred since the passage of the first law in 1838, the guilty party has been shielded by the uncertainty and doubt that has prevailed as to the causes of the explosion. The notion has become prevalent that these accidents (as they are called) are the result of some mysterious cause-the production of an unknown gas, the combination of electrical and chemical forces, against which no foresight can guard. Such notions have a tendency to stop inquiry, as well as to relax the attention and watchfulness of engineers in charge. A series of experiments, conducted on a proper scale, and in a proper method, would undoubtedly tend to dispel such illusions and to reveal the exact causes of explosion, against which it is necessary to guard. And whatever diversity of opinion exists among engineers as to these causes, it is believed that they are quite unanimous as to the necessity of direct proof, by experiments on actual boilers, on the following points: first, the comparative strength of old and new boilers, of boilers differently constructed, and of |