MR. RICHARDSON (Durham, S.E.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General 930 whether he is aware that under Section 3 and relative schedule of 24 George II., c. 23,* Easter Day is the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st day of March, and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after; and that the first full moon which happens next after the 21st day of March this year is on Sunday the 15th April at 1.2 a.m., and that Easter Day should therefore apparently fall on the 22nd April, and not on the 15th April as given in the calendar; and whether having regard to the possibility of doubt arising as to when bills falling due on a day dependent on the date of Easter are legally payable, he will introduce a short Bill to make the 15th April Easter Day this year in Law as well as in the calendar.
§ SIR RICHARD WEBSTERThe third section of the statute referred to by the hon. Member enacts that Easter shall be observed according to these tables and rules annexed to the statute. One of the tables provides that the paschal full moon in the year 1900 falls on April 14, and that the feast of Easter falls on the 15th. The fact is that the full moon referred to in the statute is not the actual full moon nor the mean full moon, but a fictitious or statutory full moon, sometimes called the ecclesiastical full moon. As there is no possibility of doubt upon the question it is not proposed to introduce any legislation respecting it. It may interest the House to know that attention was called to a similar occurrence in the years 1818 and 1845, and some learned papers were written upon the subject, to which I shall be glad to refer the hon. Member. Perhaps I may be allowed to point out that some arrangement of the kind was necessary, as otherwise Easter might fall on different days
*Reference may be made to The Parliamentary History, Vol. xiv., p. 979, for an account of "Proceedings in the Lords on the Bill for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for Correcting the Calendar now in use" (1751). The speech of the Earl of Chesterfield in introducing this measure is, unfortunately, not preserved, but an account of it will be found in No. 215 of the Chesterfield "Letters." The speech of the Earl of Macclesfield (reproduced in the History), in seconding the motion for Second Reading, abounds in astronomical lore and historical detail, and gives a complete account of the methods adopted for the finding of the date of Easter, commencing—naturally—with the rule laid down by the Council of Nice in 325.931 in different parts of the United Kingdom, which would not promote unity; and, as a learned writer, speaking of the subject, said, "The Church cares more for peace and concord than for the equinox or the moon."