THE NEW CENTURY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:] SIR,—There are few now who remember how on New Year's Day, 1850, the Times had a leading article to tell us that we had entered on the second half of the century, &c. Some were amazed; most believed, for it was in tile Times. There was a controversy, but the Times could not be wrong, and stuck to its text. At the time in question; I was told by a man, whose authority you would allow to be unquestionable, were I at liberty to name him, that one evening at Windsor the conversation turned on the con- troversy the Times had started, and that the Prince Consort had very decidedly taken the side of the Times. I hold that both H.R.H. and the Times were wrong: that '50 was the last year of the first half of the century, and not the first year of the second half. However, I saw somewhere the other day that the Emperor William is tainted with the same heresy as his grandfather, the Prince Consort ; and to prevent a similar mistake as to when the twentieth century will begin, will you allow me to put forward these simple considerations ? One, the numeral, and first, the ordinal, are correlative. As the first year of the first century of the world (or of any era, Christian or heathen) began with, not the year 0, but with the year 1; equally each succeeding century began and begins with the year 1. Or take the breeches-pocket argument, an argument which appeals strongly to most men. If a debtor owes one hundred (i.e., a century of) sovereigns, when he has paid you ninety- nine you will not say to him, "Thank you, here is your receipt," but you will insist on having one more to make the full tale of the century, or 100. Therefore a century always ends with the figure 0, the new one begins with the figure 1, the nineteenth century does not end till December 31st, 1900, and the twentieth begins on January let, 1901.-11 am, Sir,
MALACFII.
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