BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Mtntu ^- Sage 1891 /{.iOAHl /^/M/..^.s:. Cornell University Library HB103.P15 F55 The life of Sir William Petty, 1623-1687 olin 3 1924 030 394 757 DATE DUE IIIKI '7-_4f|ir^ njill JUIt „.--r"T3D/ lis OFQ-^ 4-«?5^ f^ \jt'i>-i - ,. ■ i ■ ' ■ ^ GAYLORD PRINTEDIN U.S.A. ' Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924030394757 SIE WILLIAM PETTY PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., HBW-BTIUfflT SQUAKB LONDON THE LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY 1623 — 1687 ONE 01" THE FIRST FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SOMETIME SECRETARY TO HENRY CROMWELL ' , ! MAKER OP THE 'DOWN SURVEY' OF IRELAND, AUTHOR OP ' ! 'POLITICAL ARITHMETIC &c. CHIEFLY DERIVED FROM PRIVATE DOCUMENTS HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED By LOED EDMOND FITZMAUEICE AUTHOn OF 'THE LIFE OP WILTAfil, EABL OF SHELHUKKE' WITH MAP AND POBTBAITS LONDON JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET 1895 /OS Ts/ 1^ s s ^.^o5M-\ n^B. ^iry^^Ur-Jfly.J^i lVaI^r^Ti(Tut^/f:P^ A PEEFACE The peesbnt work is mainly founded on the collection of MSS. now at Bowood, consisting of the papers originally belonging to Sir William Petty, which afterwards passed to his grandson, John Fitzmaurice, son of Anne Petty, Countess of Kerry, and afterwards Earl of Shelburne ; and of the letters written by Sir William Petty to Sir Kobert Southwell, which appear to have been added to the collection at Bowood by the third Marquis of Lansdowne, through a purchase made at the time of the sale of the MSS. of Lord de CJifford, the then representative of the Southwell family. The economic works of Sir William Petty have also been freely referred to, as they frequently throw light on the events of his life, as well as on his opinions relating to politico-economic subjects. I have also used a number of scattered MSS., mostly in the Sloane and Egerton collections at the British Museum, and in the Eawljnson cpUection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Of the transactions connected with the Survey of Ireland, Sir William Petty has left more than one account : (1) ' The History of the Down Survey,' of which three MSS. exist : the first, originally the property of Sir Robert Southwell, to whom it was entrusted by Sir William Petty towards the close of his life, is now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin ; [6] LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY the second is in the Library at Bowood ; the third is in the Library of King's Inn, Dublin. It is from these MSS. that ' The History of the Down Survey,' edited with notes by Sir Thomas Larcom for the Irish Archaeological Society, was printed (Dublin, 1851), and the references are to that volume, the notes and appendices to which are of great value, from their combination of historical knowledge with a perfect acquaintance with the details of the practice of the art of surveying. (2) ' Eeflections on some Persons and Things in Ireland,' which purports to be a correspondence between Dr. Petty and a 'candid friend,' but the whole of which is the work of Dr. Petty himself. It is a more popular account of the events with which ' The History of the Down Survey ' deals in detail. (3) ' A Brief Account of the most Material Passages relating to the Survey managed by Dr. Petty in Ireland, anno 1655-1656.' This tract is reprinted in Sir Thomas Larcom's work, pp. xiii.-xvii., as an introduc- tion to the ' History of the Survey.' (4) ' The Eeport to the Council of the Survey of the Soldiers' Lands,' of which only a small and imperfect fragment exists among the Petty MSS. at Bowood. The MSS. of Sir Eobert Southwell passed into the hands of the De Clifford famUy, and were sold in 1834. The copy of the ' Down Survey ' in that collection was bought by Mr. James Weale, of the Office of Woods, and at his death by the Government. It was subsequently presented to Trinity College, Dublin. The copy at Bowood was removed to England from Shelburne House, Dublin, where it was seen in 1777. In the British Museum is a valuable MS. volume from the Library in Dublin, which belonged to the late Dr. Nelligan. Besides a copy of the ' Political Anatomy ' it contains the four papers described in the notes to Chapter IX. of this PREFACE [7] work, and also some memoranda by a contemporary writer on Dr. Petty's method of work while engaged on the Survey. I have referred to this volume under the title of the ' Nelligan MS.' ' My work has been greatly lightened by the use of a syllabus of the most important of the Petty MSS. at Bowood, made by my late uncle, the Earl of Kerry, who a short time before his death, as stated in ' Moore's Diary and Correspon- dence,' commenced collecting materials for a ' Life of Sir William Petty.' The Earl of Kerry had also collected some information from extraneous sources. In a few cases, when I have not been able to identify the origin of it, I have referred in the notes to the MS. he left. I desire to acknowledge the obligations I owe to the notes of Sir Thomas Larcom in his edition of 'The History of the Down Survey,' and to the studies on the ' Irish Survey? ' by Mr. W. H. Harding, published in the ' Transactions of the Eoyal Irish Academy,' vol. xxiv., parte i. and iii. (Antiquities) ; ^ and to Mr. Prendergast's work ' On the Cromwellian Settle- ment of Ireland ' (Longmans, 1865). The references to Eoscher are to a study by that author on ' The EngUsh Political Economists of the 17th and 18th Centuries,' published in the ' Abhandlungen der philologisch,- historischen Classe der Koniglich Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften,' vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1857), which is probably the most complete account of Petty's work as an economist which has yet been published. I am indebted to Mr. Madden, Sub- Librarian of the Bodleian Library, for the opportunity I have had of reading a very careful dissertation on Sir William British Mueeuza, Miscellaneous Series, 21128, Plut. cUiii. t>. The references are throughout to Part I. except where otherwise stated. [8] LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY Petty, presented to the Faculty of Political Scieiice of the University of Munich by Mr. W. L. Bevan, which as yet is only privately printed, but deserves a wider circulation. The references to Evelyn's ' Memoirs ' are to the edition of 1854, published by Colburn ; and those to Pepys's ' Diary ' refer to the edition of 1893. The references to the 'Bodleian Letters ' are to the work generally known as ' Aubrey's Lives,' published in the second volume of the ' Bodleian Letters ' (London, 1813). I have received valuable assistance in the course of my work, which I deske to acknowledge, from Mr. G. Bickley and Mr. Jeayes, of the MS. Department in the British Mu- seum ; from Mr. Hubert Hall, Deputy-Keeper of the Eecord Office ; from Mr. Wrix, of the Eoyal Society ; from Mr. E. Nicolson, Librarian of the Bodleian Library; from Mr. George Scharf ; from Mr. Charles Heberden, M.A., Principal of Brasenose ; from Mr. A. C. Peskett of Magdalene College, Cambridge; and from Mr. C. H. Firth and Mr. Archibald Bence-Jones. Through the kind permission of the Marquis of Bath I have been allowed to consult a MS. at Longleat containing some interesting details as to Sir William Petty's death and copies of some of his papers. I desire to express my obligation to Mr. W. S. Taylor, the editor of ' England under Charles II.' in the ' Series of English History by Contemporary Writers,' published by Messrs. Nutt, for the references in that book to ' Eugge's MS. Diary ' and the ' Secret History of Whitehall.' In the Appendix is printed a complete list of Sir William Petty's Works, found in his own handwriting at Wycombe Abbey, and transcribed by Lord Shelburne in the last century PREFACE [9] on the fly-leaf of a copy of the ' Petty Tracts ' published by Boulter Grierson (1769) at Dublin, which contains the prin- cipal works of Sir William Petty, and is the edition referred to throughout the notes in the present book, in the quotations from his writings. By the kind permission of Mr. Charles Monck, I have been allowed to reproduce the picture of Sir William Petty, by Sir Peter Lely, now at Coley Park; and by the kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge, I have been able to present the readers of this book with an authentic likeness of the celebrated ' double bottom ' vessel, from the Pepysian Library at that College. I desire to acknowledge specially the valuable help I have received in regard to several points in the seventh chapter from Professor Henry Sidgwick. The map illustrating the settlement of Ireland was ori- ginally prepared for Mr. Charles Walpole's ' History of Ireland,' and is reproduced by the kind permission of Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co. E. F. 1894. CONTENTS CHAPTEE I. 1623-1652. TAGB Birth at Eumsey — Early taste for mechanics and seamanship — Apprentice- ship at sea — Stranded on the coast of France — Studies at Caen— Enters the Eoyal Navy— Outbreak of the Civil War — Retires abroad — Studies in Paris — Friendship with Hobbes— Correspondence with Dr. Pell — Eeturns to England — Death of his father — Invents a manifold letter- writer, and writes a treatise on Education — Idea of a society to advance arts and science — Partnership with Holland of Deptford — Death of Antony Petty — Agreement with John Petty — Friendship with Boyle — Bemoval to Oxford — Degree of Doctor of Physic — Becomes Fellow of Brasenose and Deputy-Professor of Anatomy — Case of Ann Green — The dead raised to life — Appointed Professor of Anatomy and Gresham Professor — Oxford Philosophical Society — Appointed Physician General to the army in Ireland — His reform of the medical service of the army — Death of Ireton 1 CHAPTEE II. 1652-1658. Arrival in Ireland — Condition of that country in 1652 — General Fleetwood Lord Deputy — The forfeited estates — Proposal to transplant the former proprietors and replant with English settlers — The adventurers and the atmy — Plan to pay the debt with the forfeited estates — A survey necessary — Benjamin Worsley, Surveyor- General — The Grosse Survey — Early distributions of land — Struggle between Worsley and Petty — Eapaoity of the officers and commissioners — Hem:y Cromwell's mission — The transplantation into Connaught of the native Irish proprietors — Attacked by Vincent Gookin — Petty supports him — A new scheme set on foot — The massacre of the Waldenses — Outburst of popular fury — The transplantation ordered to proceed — The Civil Survey instituted to ascertain the forfeitures — Dr. Petty prepares a plan for the mapping and admeasurement of the army lands — A general map of Ireland — The ' Down Survey ' — Letter to Eobert Boyle — Conclusion of the [12] LIFE OF SIR WIIXIAM PETTY Civil Survey — The Down Survey commenced — Henry Cromwell succeeds General Fleetwood in Dublin — Dr. Petty's methods of work and assistants — Employment of soldiers as surveyors on the spot and of skilled artists at head-quarters — Quarrels amongst the officers — Firmness of Henry Cromwell — He is appointed Lord Deputy — The survey completed and approved by the Council — The adven- turers entrust the survey of their lands to Dr. Petty — Dr. Petty carries out this survey also — The distribution of the army lands— Violence of the officers — Dr. Petty resists the rapacity of the army— He is sup- ported by Henry Cromwell — The struggle embittered by the political situation — Payment of Dr. Petty in land — Embarrassed condition of the finances of the Commonwealth —The distribution of the adven- turers' lands — Journey to England to meet the committee of ad- venturers — Death of Oliver Cromwell — Dr. Petty returns to Ireland — Carries out the distribution of the adventurers' lands — Opinion of Lord Clarendon and of Sir Thomas Laroom — Effects of the rapidity with which the survey was completed 23 CHAPTBE III. 1658-1660. Discontent of the army — Quarrels among the claimants — Sir Hierome Sankey — Struggle between the party of the Protector and the Ana- baptists —The struggle extends to Ireland — Sir Hierome Sankey attacks Dr. Petty — Various attempts to ruin Dr. Petty— Offer of a military command — Henry Cromwell appoints Dr. Petty private secretary and additional clerk to the Council — Effect of the death of the Protector — Controversy in regard to the distribution of the lands before the Council in Dublin — A committee appointed— They approve Dr. Petty's conduct — Dr. Petty elected Member of Parliament — Account of an Irish election in 1659 — Sir Hierome Sankey attacks him in Parliament— Dr.' Petty's speech in Parliament — Support given by Henry Cromwell to Dr. Petty -^Dissolution of Parliament — Fall of the Cromwelhan party — Dr. Petty dismissed from all his employments — Retires to Ireland — Eenewed attacks of Sir Hierome Sankey — Disappearance of Sir Hierome Sankey — Dr. Petty publishes a defence of his conduct— His impru- dent use of ridicule and satire — He commences a History of the Survey— He returns to England — The Eota Club — Dr. Petty's conduct at the Restoration .69 CHAPTEE IV. 1660-1667. The Oxford Philosophical Society removes to London— Meetings at Gres- ham College— Extracts from the Journal — The King affects the society of scientific men— Shows special interest in the researches of Dr. Petty — The Duke of York— Attempts to undermine the confidence of the King in Dr. Petty— He is denounced for acting as trustee for the family CONTENTS [13] PAQR of the Protector— Failure of these attempts— Dr. Petty is knighted on the occasion of the incorporation of the Eoyal Society — Marked favour shown by the King and the Duke of Ormonde to Dr. Petty — Sir Eobert Southwell, Clerk to the Privy Council, and Sir William Petty — A grant of land in Ireland made to the Eoyal Society —Anecdote of Sir William Petty by John Aubrey— Sir William Petty's scientific experi- ments — The ' double-bottoih ' ship — Success and subsequent failure of the ' experiment ' — A party at the Durdans — Sir William Petty and Mr. Pepys - Latitudlnarian views of Sir William Petty — Designs a treatise entitled the ' Scale of Creatures ' — His hostility to the Church of Eome — The Oporto Auto-da-fi—The death of George Penn — Sir William Petty's hostility to the Calvinists and Anabaptists . . . 102 CHAPTER V. 1660-1667. Sir William Petty invests a portion of his fortune in Irish land — Kerry in the latter half of the seventeenth century — Parties at the Eestoration — The Acts of Settlement and Explanation — Sir William Petty's estates confirmed to him — Completes a map of Ireland — His rela- tions with the widow of Henry Cromwell — ' The Political Anatomy of Ireland ' — His estimate of the results of the successive changes in the tenure of land in Ireland —The farmers of the Irish Eevenue —Their extortionate conduct— They claim arrears from Sir William Petty — Hostility of Sir James Shaen — Difference with the Duke of Ormonde — Letter to Lord Aungier— The commercial policy of England— Hostility of the English landed classes to Ireland— Sir William Petty opposes the Irish Cattle Acts — The Acts passed— Effect of the Acts on the rate of exchange — Eise of the class of absentee pro- prietors-Sir William Petty proposes a union between England and Ireland— His high opinion of the capacity of the Irish character— His plans for improving the country— Settlement at Kenmare— Condition of the South of Ireland— Continuation of the struggle with the farmers — Fall of the Duke of Ormonde - Attacks on Sir William Petty— Sir Alan Brodrick challenges Sir William Petty to a duel 125 CHAPTER VI. 1667-1678. Marriage of Sir William Petty— Sir Hardress Waller — Lady Fenton — Troubles of furnishing — Offer of a peerage— Sir William Petty's reply — His London house destroyed in the Great Fire — Domestic corre- spondence — Versatility of Sir William Petty's character — His manifold accomplishments — Anecdote of Sir William Petty and the Duke of Ormonde — Sir William Petty's children: Charles, Henry, and Anne — Correspondence with Lady Petty— The Quakers of Balliboy — Letters from William Penn and John Aubrey— Character of Sir William Petty He is committed for contempt of court — His spiritual consolations — The Duke of Ormonde again Lord-Lieutenant— Sir William appointed [14] LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY FAQS Judge of the Irish Admiralty Court — He spends three years continuously in Ireland — Vicissitudes of Sir William's struggle with the farmers of the revenue — Eemonstrances of Sir Eobert Southwell— Sir WiUiam Petty goes to England — He is assaulted by Colonel Vernon . . . 153 CHAPTER VII. POLITICAL ARITHMETIC. Account of Sir William Petty by John Aubrey — His inventive head and practical parts — Special devotion to economic studies — ' Observations on the Bills of Mortality of the City of London ' — Eelations of Petty and Graunt — ' Observations on the Dublin Bills of Mortality ' — Birth of statistical science — Condition of political economy in the seventeenth century — Eelations of political philosophy with economics — The science or art of political arithmetic — Sir William Davenant on the works of Petty — Petty 's methods of inquiry and calculation — His principal works — Influence of Hobbes — Petty's desire to strengthen and organise the powers of the State — His hostility to privilege and separate jurisdictions — The finances of the Eestoration — The Act of Navigation — The examples of France and Holland — Colbert — The ' Treatise on Taxes ' — Petty's account of the natural charges of a State— His views on taxation — His attitude towards the prohibitory and the mercantile systems — His opinion that labour is the true origin of wealth — His theory of trade — His ' measures of customs ' — Concessions to adver- saries — Explanation of these concessions — Comparison of Petty vrith Quesnay — Opinions of Sir William Davenant — Petty's silence on the General Navigation Act — Considers an excise the best tax — An excise on beer— His views as to 'a par of value,' currency, laws against usury. State lotteries, rent and population — The ' multiplication of mankind '^Southwell and Petty on the Deluge — The growth west- wards of London — High wages and low living — The division of labour — Supply and demand — Economic effects of penalties— Eesults of religious toleration — Example of Holland — Multiplicity of parishes and of sermons — The ' Political Arithmetiok ' — Summary of the views of the author — A protest against political pessimism — Petty's con- fidence in the greatness and future of England 179 CHAPTEE VIII. 1678-1685. The ' Popish Plot ' — Conversion of Captain Graunt — He is accused of helping to cause the Great Fire— Discussion of the Popish Plot— Sir William Petty and the Church of Eome — Outburst of popular fury against Eoman Catholicism — It extends to Ireland — Condition of that country — The secret and clandestine Government — Sir William Petty declines to join in the outcry— Effects of the struggle on the powers of the House, the Privy Council, and the Cabinet — Plans of Sir William Temple — Sir William Petty and the Privy Council- He is again offered CONTENTS [15] PAGE a peerage — Hia prospects in Ireland improve — Southwell appointed Envoy to Brandenburg — Eeaotion after the Oxford Parliament — Benewed troubles— Attacks of the farmers on Sir William Petty— His troublesome position as Judge of Admiralty — Eesigns it — Summoned to England to aid in the reorganisation of the Eevenue— The Privy Council rejects his proposals, but abolishes the system of farming — Made a Commissioner of the Navy— Illness of his children — Founds the Eoyal Society of Ireland— Eeorganises the Dublin College of Physicians— Extracts from the minutes of the Dublin Society — Yarious designs and inventions — The ' double bottom ' again — Correspondence with Southwell, Aubrey, and Lady Petty — Death of Charles II. . . 232 CHAPTER IX. 1685-1687. Accession of James II.— Effect on Ireland — Sir William Petty takes a favourable view of the intentions of the King — The ' Sale and Settle- ment of Ireland ' — Sir William Petty writes a reply — Correspondence with Southwell — Southwell's warning — Plans of .Sir William Petty for meeting the situation — He again suggests a union between England and Ireland, and proposes a plan for freedom of conscience — His views on Imperial queatiofas arid on the reform of Parliament— Interviews with the King — Draws up a plan for the reform of the Irish Adminis- tration — ^A squib against Sir WU-liam ■ Petty — Southwell's opinion of his plans — The King avows his real intentions — Petty recognises the danger of the situation— His correspondence with Southwell — Tyr- connel, Lord Deputy — The Declaration of Indulgence- Eepeal of the Edict of Nantes 269 CHAPTER X. 1687. Attack on Kenmare — The survivors escape to England — Sir William Petty's failing health — He commences to put his affairs in order — His papers relating to the survey— His coat-of-arms — His views on the education of his children — Anne Petty— Instructions to Lady Petty — Letters to Southwell on his early life— Discussion of a paper by Pascal on the relations of the mathematical faculty to general ability — Instructions to his sons, Charles and Henry — Views on the education of Edward Southwell — The ' Principia ' of Newton — Sir William Petty at once recognises the greatness of the work — Serious illness— Last dinner at the Eoyal Society - Account of his death — A political prophecy — Lady Petty made a peeress — Anne Petty marries John Fitzmaurice — Sir William's views on mourning for the dead and charitable be- quests — His will— Monument in Eomsey Church 289 APPENDIX . 317 INDEX , . . . . . 331 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PioinRB OF SiK William Petty, by Sir Peter Lely, at Colby Park Frontispiece Map op Ireland illustrating the Survey. . . . to face page 68 The Double-Bottom Ship . „ „ 112 Picture of Sir William Petty, by Closterman, at Lansdowne House „ ,,234 White House Euin, Kenmare 290 LIFE OP SIE WILLIAM PETTY CHAPTEE I EAELY LIFE 1623-1652 Early days— Friendship with Hobbes — Correspondence with Dr. Pell — Pamphlet on education — John Petty — Life at Oxford — Case of Ann Green — Univer- sity Professor of Anatomy. William Petty was born at his father's house at Eumsey, a little town in Hampshire on the banks of the Test, famous as a seat of the woollen industry, on the 26th of May, 1623, 'eleven hours, 42' 56" afternoon, Trinity Sunday,' according to Aubrey, who puts down the event with his usual love of minute detail. He was the third child of Antony Petty and Franeesca, his wife. Aubrey says that Antony Petty, the father of William, ' was born on the Ash Wednesday before Mr. Hobbes, 1587 ; and that by profession he was a clothier, and also did dye his own cloths.' ' The home of the Pettys seems to have been near the ancient conventual church of the Benedictine nuns, which the parishioners at the Eeformation are said to have bought ' Bodleian Letters, ii. 481. The details as to the Petty family will name of Petty is still common in be found in ch. x., p. 315. the neighbourhood of Eumsey. Some ^ 2 LIFE OP SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i for 1001. as a place of worsliip. The chief amusement of William Petty, when a boy, was ' looking on the artificers : e.g. Smyths, the watchmaters, carpenters, joiners, &c. ; and, at twelve years old, he could have worked at any of these trades,' according to Aubrey's account. But he is also said to have developed a satirical and jocular humour, and a power of caricature in drawing, which made the neighbour- hood esteem him a peculiar person, and, to use his own words, ' a perfect cheiromantes.' ^ At Eamsey he went to school, and 'learned by twelve years a competent smatter- ing of Latin, and was entered into the Greek before 15;' and there also, Aubrey relates, ' happened to him the most re- markable incident of his life, which was the formation of all the rest of his greatness and acquiring riches. He informed me,' says Aubrey, ' that about 15, in March, he went over to Caen, in Normandy, in a vessel that went hence with a little stock, and began to play the merchant, and had so good success that he maintained himself and also educated himself: this I guess was the most remarkable accident that he meant.' Besides ' playing the merchant ' he found time to learn ' the French tongue, and perfected himself in Latin; and had Greek enough to serve his turn.' He also ' studied the arts.' It appears that, anxious above all things to see the great world outside his native town, after some unsuccessful attempts to exchange home and employment with a lad from the Channel Islands, he ultimately bound himself apprentice to the master of a vessel, in which he sailed for Prance, and ■ on this journey discovered for the first time that he was short- sighted. ' He knew not that he was purblind,' says Aubrey, 'till his master (the master of a ship) bade him climb up the rope ladder ; and give notice when he espied a steeple, somewhere upon the coast, which was a landmark for the avoiding of a shelf. At last the master saw it from the deck ; and they fathomed, and found they were but in foot water; whereupon as I remember his master drubbed him with a cord.' ^ « Petty MSS. ^ Bodleian Letters, ii. 482. 1636 EARLY DAYS 6 At sea he appears to have been ill-treated by the sailors and finally abandoned by them on the French coast near Caen, with a broken leg, in a small inn. The tale of his sufferings was explained by him in Latin, and by the time he had recovered, the whole society of Caen had heard of his adventures, and was wondering at the precocious ability of the English cabin hoj. As soon as he was able to move, he was sent for by an of&cer who, having served with distinction in the Civil Wars of Prance, was desirous of knowing something of naval tactics also. These young Petty contrived to expound in Latin, to the satisfaction of his employer. A gentleman of rank desirous of visiting the English coast, but unacquainted with the language, next employed him as teacher, and paid him well enough to enable him to buy a suit of clean linen. ' Vestibus irradio nitidis ' is the triumphant record of this transaction in some Latin verses containing a sketch of his early life and adventures.'' Determiaing to abandon the sea, he entered himself at a 3)rivate school at Caen, but did not fail to discover that the •education offered by the Jesuits' College was the best to be had. It was the habit of the students from all the Colleges to bathe in the river which runs through the promenades which surround the town. Here William Petty met and made acquaintance with many of the Jesuit students. The result was an offer on the part of the Fathers to take the young Englishman as a pupil, on condition that their attempts on his religion should be confined to prayers for his conversion : an offer which he accepted. The following letter, written long after, contains a sketch of his adventures at this period : ' Piccadilly, 14 July, 1686. ' Deare Cozen, — The next part of my answer to yours of the 10th inst. is, (1) How I gott the shilliag I mentioned to have had at Xmas, 1636 : which was by 6'^ I got of a country Squire for showing him a pretty trick on the cards, which begot the other 6'^ fairly won at cards. (2) How this ' Petty MSS. B 2 4 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, r shilling came to bee 4^ 6*- When I went to sea was 6'^ given (or rather paid) mee by Mother Dowling, who having been a sinner in her youth, was much relieved by my reading' to her in the " Crums of Comfort," Mr. Andrews' " Silver Watchbell," and " Ye plain man's pathway to Heaven." The next 6* I got for an old Horace given (why do I say given) or delivered mee by Len : Green, for often construing to him in Ovid's Metamorphoses till my throat was soare, though to so little purpose that hee, coming to say his lesson, began, Protinus (signifying "soon after") King Protinus, &c. My next Booty was 18'^, given me by my God-father for making 20 verses to congratulate his having been made a Doctor- in Divinity by some good Luck. The other shilling was impressed by my Aunt, whom I repaid by a Bracelet bought in France for 4'* but judged to be worth 16*. This 4^ 6* was layd out in France upon pittiful brass things with cool'd glasse in them, instead of diamonds and rubies. These I sold at home to the young fellowes, whom I understood to have sweethearts, for treble what they cost. I also brought home 2 hair hatts (which within these 11 years might have been seen) by which I gayned little lesse. Having been ten months at sea, I broak my leg, and was turned ashore, strangely visited by many, by ye name of " le Petit Mateht Anglois quiparle Latin et Grec " neer my recovery ; and, when I resolved to quit ye sea, as not being able to bear the envy of our crew against mee for being able to say my Compasse, shift my tides, keep reckoning with my plain scale, and for being better read in the " seaman's Kalender," the " safeguard of saylers," &c., than the seamen of our ship, I made verses to the Jesuits, expressing my desires of returning to the muses, and how I had been drawn from them by reading Legends of our countryman, Capt° Drake, in these words : Eostra ratis Dracis nimis admiratus, abivi Nauta scholam fugiens, et duleia carmina sprevi. ' I must not omit that " La Grande Jane," ye farrier's wife, had an escu for setting my broken leg; the Potticary 10 sols, and 8 sols a payer of crotches, of which I was after- 1643 FRIENDSHIP WITH HOBBES 5 •wards cheated. Upon the remainder (my Eing trade being understood and lost) I set up, with the remainder of 2 cakes of Bees-wax sent mee in reliefe of my calamity, upon the trade of playing cards, white starch, and hayre hatts, which I exchanged for tobacco pipes and the shreds of Letter and parchment, wherewith to size paper. By all which I gott my expences, followed by CoUedge, proceeded in Mathematics, and cleer'd four pounds.' ^ After leaving the college at Caen,* he entered the Eoyal Navy, having obtained at Caen, according to his own account, ' the Latin, Greek, and French tongues ; the whole body of <5ommon arithmetic, the practical geometry and astronomy ; conducing to navigation, dialling, &c. ; with the knowledge of several mathematical trades ; all which and having been at the University of Caen, preferred me to the King's Navy, where at the age of 20 years,' he says, ' I had gotten about three-score pounds, with as much mathematics as any of my age was known to have had.' At the outbreak of the Civil War, feeling no taste for military adventures, and probably sharing the hostility of the West of England clothiers to the Cavaliers, he retired to the Continent. Before his return, there had elapsed three years spent by him almost entirely in Prance and the Netherlands. He frequented the schools at Utrecht, Leyden, and Amsterdam, and the School of Anatomy in Paris. In that capital, with the help of some English letters of introduction from Dr. Pell, the mathematician, he made the acquaintance of Hobbes, like himself a refugee from civil strife. The great philosopher at once recog- nised his ability and admitted him to familiar intercourse. Hobbes wa^ at the moment engaged in the preparation of a treatise on optics. Aubrey says ' that they read = July 14, 1686, to Sir E. South- in Lodge's Peerage, ' Caen ' is printed well. ' Oxford.' The original of the will is ' In several of the published copies in the Registry of the Probate Court, of his will, e.g. in that contained in Dublin. There is a copy at the the Fetty Tracts, published by Boulter British Museum. Grierson, Dublin, 1769, and reprinted 6 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, r Vesalius together/ and that the younger student traced th&- optical schemes for the elder, for he had a very fine hand in those days for drawing, which draughts Mr. Hobbes did much commend.'* Through Hobbes, Petty became acquainted in Paris with several of the most brilliant of the English refugees, such as the Marquis of Newcastle and Sir Charles Cavendish,, and also with Father Marsin Mersen, the mathematician. Mersen's house was the centre of a distinguished scientific and literary circle, which his genial character held together, notwithstanding the bickerings and quarrels which frequently raged among the members. In that circle all the great ideas were rife, which before the century was over, and notwithstand- ing the recrudescence of theological strife, were to transform the world in every department of human knowledge. The atmo- sphere of the time throbbed with scientific discovery, and the mental horizon of man seemed daily to grow wider. In the history of Prance the period was one of special brilliancy. A Cardinal more Statesman than Churchman ruled the country- The rights of the Calvinists were secured by the privileges, as yet unimpaired, which the Edict of Nantes had granted, and a poUtical alliance existed with Sweden, the greatest Protestant military state of the Continent. Free inquiry in philosophy and science, driven out, like Protestantism, from Spain and Italy, had found a refuge north of the Alps, on an implied understanding that no attack was to be made on the unity of the State, and that the established religion was not tO' be too openly criticised. It was the time of Gassendi and Descartes in philosophy ; of Pascal and St. Cyran in theology ; of St. Vincent de Paul in the sphere of practical philanthropy. . The French world of science had been deeply stirred by the discoveries in astronomy, physics, and physiology, of Galileo, ' Andreas Vesalius, a celebrated ' Bodleian Letters, ii. 481. The Dutch anatomist, 1514-1564. HisDe ' Traotatus Opticus ' was included in Humand corporis FabricA was pub- a collection of scientific tracts pub- lished in 1543. A complete edition lished by Marsin Mersen under the of his writings appeared at Leyden, title of Cogitata Physico-Mathematica 1725. in 1644. 1644-1646 CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. PELL 7 Kepler, and Hervey. Hobbes himself was the rival and rather petulant correspondent of Descartes on the origin of know- ledge. The following letters written at this time by William Petty to Dr. Pell, who had fled to Amsterdam owing to the stress of the times, may be read with interest. Pell is now chiefly remembered for his controversy with the Danish mathe- matician, Longomontanus, on the quadrature of the circle, a subject which had also a fatal attraction for Hobbes : ' — ' Sir, — Father Mersen, his desire to convey this inclosed to you, serves me for a happie occasion to express my thank- fulness for ye good of that acquaintance with Mr. Hobbes, which your letters procured mee ; for by his meanes, my Lord of Newcastle, and your good friend. Sir Charles Caven- dish, have been pleased to take notice of mee ; and by his meanes also, I became acquainted with Father Mersen, a man who seems to mee not in any meane degree to esteem you and your works ; and who wishes your studies may ever succeede happily, hoping (as others doe) that ye world shall receyve hope and benefitt by them. Sir, I desire you not to conceive that any neglect or forgetfulness hath caused my long silence, for ye often speech I have of you, either with Sir Charles, Mr. Hobbes, and Father Mersen (besides the courtesy I receyved from you), makes mee sufficiently to remember you. But to speake ye truth, it was want of business worthy to make ye subject of a letter of 16'^ postage, especially since Mr. Hobbes served you in procuring and sending you ye demonstrations of our French mathematicians. I could wish, with Sir Charles, that we could see your way of Analyticks abroad ; or, if a systeme of ye whole Art were too much to hope for, for my owne part I could wish wee had your " Deophantus," which was ready for ye press before my departure from you. Those rules of Algebra (though few) which you gave me, and exercise, have made mee able to doe many pretty questions. I entend to reade no Author of that » Pell's ' Letters and Papers,' Bibl. Birch, British Museum, 4278. Plut. cvii. D. 8 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i subject, untill I may be so happie to reade something of yours. Sir, if there bee anything wherein I might serve you, I desire you to use, ' Your thankful! freind and humble servant 'William Petty. ' Paris, regd. November 1645.' To Dr. Pell. ' B", — On Sunday, noone, I received your letter of Friday, together with 9 copies of your Eefutation of Longomontanus ; ye which, according to your desire, I have distributed as followeth : viz. To Golius, who upon perusall of it, said it was a most solid refutation, thanking you very much, that you remembered him with a copie ; and said withall that hee, at his last beeing at Amsterdam, much endeavoured to have wayted on you there. But he told mee that it is well 30 years since Longomontanus his doctrine, first saw light. Since which tyme he hath by many letters beene advertised of his errour ; but being strangely enamoured with his In- vention, could not bee made to retract it, and so hath growne extreme old in his dotage thereon, "Whereas," said Golius, " it were scarce Eeligion to trouble ye obstinat old man any more, since other thoughts would better become his yeares than ye mathematicks." I then went to Salmasius, Professor Honorarius, who likewise shewd many tokens of his kind acceptance, and told mee among other discourse, whereof I had much with him, that ye Age of ye Author of this false oj)inion would sett an Authority on it, and therefore it had ye more need of refutation. Walcsus thanckes you very much, expressing no faint desires to have ye honour (as hee said it), ye honour of your acquaintance. Mons. de Laet will bee at Amsterdam before my letter. I gave one to Monsr. de Laet, but this morning; for at ye many other tymes that I had formerly beene to wayte on him, I was not so happy as to find him. Van Schooren also thancks you, but hee beeing very old and indisposed, I had not much talke with him as I had with ye others. To Dr. Ryper beeing a man reasonably 1644-1646 CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. PELL y versed in those studies, and not of low esteeme here, I pre- sented one. I have given 2 to Jonoker Horghland, a Chymist and Physician, Des Cartes his most intimate freind and corre- spondent, who has promised at his next writing to send one to Des Cartes. And so having retayned only one to shew my freinds up and downe where I goe, I hope they are all dis- posed of to your mind. If you please to send 12 more, I can dispose them to some other professors, 3 or 4 I would send for England to Mr. Oughtred, Mr. Barlow, and others ; if you doe not yourself e. I judge by the leaves that these copies are part of some booke which you will shortly blesse ye world with, and hope that my Expectation shall not bee in vaiae. Now, Sir, I must thanke you for ye honour you have done mee by using mee as an Instrument in this your busiaess. Truly I doe so well like ye employment and so ressent ' this your favour. That I confesse my selfe obliged to bee ' Your most affectionate freind and humble servant 'W. Petty. ' Leyden, || Aug'', 1644.' ' There are some in whom (as in him qui ex pede Her- culem, &c.) this your Magnum Opusculum hath begotten such an opinion of your meritt, that they resolve to go and Uve at Amsterdam to receyve your instructions. ' Endorsed Monsieur Pell. 'In den oulde convoy tot on de Zee dyck. Amsterdam.' ' S'', — According to your desire, I have presented your re- futations to Drs. Spanheim and Herbordus, as also Dr. Wybord, an Englishman and mathematician, with divers others, who doe all accept them very gratefully. As for sending Coppies into England, I shall bee able to doe it to no more than Mr. Oughtred and Mr. Barlow : I thought I could have sent to some others, by the helpe of some Gentle- men my friends, who, having now come from y^ Leagher, ' In the sense of the French ressentir, to be conscious of. 10 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i tell me y* they know no certayne conveyances these trouble- some tymes. The waytyng their comming home to know what they could doe, hath occasioned my so long silence ; which I pray you to excuse, and believe that I will attempt an amends of it by all ye offices of an affectionate friend and servant, which I am, Wm. Petty. ' Leyden, 8° Septemb', 1644. 'Eeceived /9 September \ V30 Aug. / ■ ' Endorsed, Mons. Jean Pell. ' In den ouden eonvoye a on de Zee dyck. Amsterdam.' Friendship with Hobbes, Dr. Pell, and the other learned refugees was, however, no remunerative investirient, and William Petty was at times reduced to great poverty. On one occasion, according to Aubrey, he had to live for a week on ' three pennyworth of walnuts ; ' on another he seems to have been arrested for debt. In spite, however, of his sufferings he ultimately returned in 1646 to England with improved means, having increased his 601. to 70Z., and paid the costs of his younger brother Antony's education. His father was just dead, and, according to Aubrey, ' left him little or no estate.' ^ His elder brother had also died when quite young. On his return he seems for a time to have followed his father's business, and to have been occupied with mechanical inventions to improve it. But he had other and larger ideas. In 1647 he obtained a patent from the Commonwealth for seventeen years for an instrument of his own invention, the prototype of the manifold letter-writer of modern times. ^ The use of it, Eushworth says, ' might be learnt in an hour's practice ; and it was of great advantage to lawyers, scriveners, merchants, scholars, registrars, clerks, &c. ; it saving the labour of examination, discovering or preventing falsification, and performing the whole business of writing, as with ease and speed, so with privacy also.'* Petty announced his patent ' Bodleian Letters, ii. 481. Souse of Lords' Papers, February 25, » Seventh Report of the Hist. MSS. 1648 ; Boyle's Works, v. 280. Commissioners, p. 11 ; Calendwr of the * Bushworth's Collections, ii. 1118. 1647 PAMPHLET ON EDUCATION 11 to the world in a pamphlet on education. 'There is invented,' he said, ' an instrument of small bulk and price, easily made and very durable, whereby any man, even at the first hand- ling, may write two resembling copies of the same thing at once, as serviceably and as fast as by the ordinary way.' ^ It was at HartUb's request in 1644 that Milton had published his ' Tractate on Education,' and to Hartlib in the present pamphlet Petty now dedicated his own views. He begins by suggesting the estabUshment of 'Ergastula Literaria,' or ' Literary Workhouses,' in which children may be taught as well to do something towards their living as to read and write. To these institutions all children of seven years old might be sent, none being excluded by reason of the poverty or inability of their parents. Anticipating later reformers, he proposed that 'the business of education be not, as now, committed to the worst and unworthiest of men ; but that it be seriously studied and practised by the best and ablest persons ; and,' he goes on to suggest, ' that since few children have need of reading before they know or can be acquainted with the things they read of; or of writing, before their thoughts are worth the recording, or they are able to put them into any form . . . those things, being somewhat above their capacity — as being to be obtained by judgment, which is weakest in children — be deferred awhile, and others more needful for them, such as are in the order of nature before those above mentioned, and are attainable by the help of memory — which is either most strong or unpreoccupied in children — be studied before them.' ' We wish, therefore,' he says, ' that the edMcandi be taught to observe and remember all sensible objects and actions, whether they be natural or artificial, which the educators must on all occasions expound unto them ... as it would be more profitable to boys to spend ten or twelve years in the study of things than in a rabble of words. . . There would not then be so many un- worthy fustian preachers in divinity; in the law so many = 'The advice of W. P. to Mr. HartUb's name is well known to the. Samuel Hartlib for the advancement readers of Milton's prose works. of some particular parts of learning.' 12 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i pettyfoggers ; in physics so many quacksalvers, and in country schools so many grammaticasters.' ^ Some such plan he seems in subsequent years to have proposed to carry out under the name of a Glottical College, but the cir- cumstances of the time were adverse and the scheme was abandoned.' He also wished for the establishment of a ' Gymnasium Mechanicum,' or ' College of Tradesmen,' to be such that one at least of every trade (the prime most inge- nious workman) might be elected a Fellow, and allowed therein a handsome dwelling rent free. From such an institution the projector conceived that all trades not only ' would miracu- lously progress and new inventions be more frequent, but that there would also be the best and most effectual opportu- nities and means for writing a history of Trades in perfection and exactnesse.' 'What experiments and stuffe,' he says, ' would all those shops and operations afford for active and philosophical heads, out of which to extract whereof there is so little and so bad, as yet extant in the world ! ' There was also to be a ' Nosocomium Academicum,' or model hospital for the benefit of the scientific practitioner, as well as of the patient. The design concludes with the expression of a regret that no ' Society of Men ' as yet exists ' as careful to advance arts as the Jesuits are to propagate their religion,' and with a suggestion of a work on the lines of Bacon's ' Advancement of Learning,' which should be a treatise on ' Nature free,' or on arts and manufactures relieved of restraint, in contrast with a ' History of Nature vexed and disturbed,' or of trade under the restraints of the then existing commercial system. ' I have put into your hands the design of the history of trade,' Hartlib wrote to Eobert Boyle ; ' the author is one Petty, twenty-four years of age, a perfect Frenchman, and a good linguist in other vulgar languages, besides Latin and Greek ; a most rare and exact anatomist and excelling in all mathematical and mechanical learning ; of a sweet natural disposition and moral comportment. As for solid judgment and industry, altogether masculine.' * Boyle gave him a " The pamphlet is reprinted in the ' Evelyn's Memoirs, iii. 131, 132. Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi. ' Boyle's Works, v. 256-296. 1648-1649 JOHN PETTY IS cordial reception, and Petty dedicated the copying machine, or ' Instrumentum Pettii,' as it was termed, to him. In 1648 he entered into an agreement with John Holland of Deptford, as a partner for three years. Holland was to find the money and Petty the brains. The partnership was to be confined, at least in the first instance, to the development of 'such adventures as Petty had perfected and knew the correct- ness of, for public good and private advantage,' more particu- larly the double writing instrument, a machine for printing several columns at once, a scheme for making a great bridge without any support on the river over which it stands, and other undertakings of the same kind. But there is no record of what the partnership effected. In October 1649, Antony Petty, who shared the me- chanical genius of his brother and was evidently a congenial spirit, died.^ The following letter from William Petty to his cousin John, written at the time, shows the difficulties he had to contend with and his desire to assist his family : — To John Petty. ' It hath been alwayes my desire and endeavour to help my friends, but it pleased God so to order my fortunes and successes, that as yet I have beene never able to doe much for any of them, how neer so ever they were unto mee, and how great so ever their need was. That "little helpe " which I have done to some of them, I did but by little and little, and with as little hindrance as I possibly could to myselfe, because, God knows, a little hindrance would have made me unable to helpe either myselfe or them any more. ' My poor brother being departed this life and consequently needing no more of my helpe, I have thought good to pro- pound unto you those considerations, which I have had long in my mind, and wishes of bettering, for a little at leastwise, that uncomfortable condition wherein you live. Now, as I said before, and as I protest before God, the truth is, beeing " Antony Petty was buried in Loth- The letter given below is among the bury Church on October 18, 1649. Petty MSS. 14 LIFE OP SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i not able to doe it, either by giving or lending you much money, the way whereby I must doe it is this. ' I intend, God willing, so soone as possibly I can, to take the degree of D''. of Physicke, which being done, it will bee a discredit for mee and consequently a great hindrance to mee, to goe and buy small matters, and to doe other triviall busi- nesses, which I have many times to doe, and being not able to keepe a servant, and withall not having one fifth part of employment enough for a servant, and lastly much of that little business I have being such as I would not acquaint every one with. And now Anthony, who assisted mee in these things, beeing dead, and lastly because I may now againe undertake some of these things, as chymistry and anatomy, whereby I lett him gett somewhat for himselfe, and moreover hearing you much desire to bee about London, I have thought fitt to know whether your desires continue the same. If they doe, these are the helpes which I am in hopes of doing you. ' You shall find such clothes of mine and Anthonye's as I can spare. I will hire you a convenient place to sett up a Tape loome, with a place to sett a still or two in, to do such things as I shall direct you, which you may looke to, while you worke in your loome. ' I wiU doe my endeavours to bring you acquainted with such as may perfect you in the trade of Tape-weaving. ' I will lend you 40L towards your loome and other materials for that worke. ' If you make good wages and have employment enough about Tape-weaving, I will not take you off from it to doe any thing for mee, unlesse it bee for some greater benefitt. ' If you want worke sometimes, you shall make a Sceleton for mee, and worke upon some experiments relating to my in- ventions, for which you shall have 12*- per day, whether I gett anything by them or no. ' If I undertake anything in Chymistry or Anatomy, where- upon I shall need your assistance, if your assisting mee there- in will bee more profit or pleasure to you than your other worke, you shall have the employment ; otherwise not. 1649 JOHN PETTY 15 ' If any invencion which I set you aboute, take effect, you shall have a share in the benefitt arising from it. ' If you come to my lodging at mornings, evenings, or any other times of your best leisure, and doe for me such small "things as I have to doe either every day or but once in 2 or 3 dayes, as your, my affaires, doe fall out, you shall not loose your labour. ' In briefe, all the end that I have in you for myselfe, is to have a friend whom I may trust and who is handy, neere about mee. If by God's providence you can find out any way whereby you may advance yourselfe better than by having any dealing with mee, I shall promote you therein, and bee heartily glad of the occasion. ' If you please to come upon these tearmes (which in good faith are best, and the best hopes I am able to give you) let mee know it. If I prosper in my wayes, you shall feel it. I onely desire that you would bee cordiall and true to mee, without labouring to circumvent mee, and I shall be as willing to doe for you as you are for yourselfe. ' You were best to bring you a bed and such things else with you as may bee of use to you here.' Although the copying-machine had only secured a doubt- ful success, it made Hartlib and his friends look to the inventor to show himself to the world ' by some rare piece or other ; ' ' and, together with the publication of his ' Thoughts on Education,' it greatly extended Petty's ac- quaintance among the leading scientific and literary men of the time in England. In 1646, with Hartlib and Boyle, he became a member of the 'London Philosophical Society.' This club had been inaugurated in the previous year by Theo- dore Haak, a German from the Palatinate, and comprised amongst the members the already well-known names of Dr. Walhs and Dr. Wilkins. In 1649 Petty resolved to follow their example, and remove to Oxford,^ where Wilkins had just been appointed Warden of Wadham. The city had surrendered to the Parliamentary army on June 24, 1646, and the University was soon after reorganised ' Boyle's Works, v. 264. ^ Birch, Life of Boyle, p. 83. 16 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i under the auspices of the Parliamentary visitors. On March 7, 1649, William Petty became a Doctor in Physic. On June 25 he also entered himself at the College of Physicians in London, after the charge whereof he says : ' I had left about 60^'^ The situation at Oxford was a strained one. Fortunately for himself. Dr. Petty could not be claimed as an adherent by any of the rival schools of politics and religion which were then disputing the country. In religion his views were of a broad and liberal character. In politics he had been greatly influenced by Hobbes, who at the time was engaged on the preparation of ' The Leviathan ' and the smaller work on the theory of government known as the ' De Give.' One of the principal doctrines of these works, which Hobbes had doubt- less instilled into the mind of his pupil, was that in order to preserve social order and civil freedom, which are the main objects of government and the first duty of the citizen, and to prevent the rise of an im-perium in imperio, the State must not be afraid to assume the right, if necessary, of controlling religion, and must be prepared to resist the pretensions of the clergy — whether Catholic, Anglican, or Presbyterian — to in- terfere in matters of State and lay hands on the Government. It was in this sense that Hobbes accepted the doctrine of the Divine Eight of Kings, or rather of Civil Governments, as the only effectual safeguard against the pretensions of the Eoman Church and of authors such as Bellarmine and Suarez. Hobbes, in consequence of the promulgation of these views, had to fly ■ from Paris in 1651 ; for, however welcome in the abstract his schemes might be to the statesmen of the school of Kichelieu and Mazarin, in practice the attack in ' The Leviathan ' on the Papal system and on clerical pretensions generally went beyond what the French Government, tolerant as it then was in such matters, could safely allow. But the proposals of the ' De Cive ' were also offensive to the small ring of English courtiers and churchmen surrounding the exiled King, with which, up to that time, the author had had very intimate relations, having him- self been mathematical teacher to Charles.' Hobbes therefore ' Beflectims, p. 17. 1642, and published in 1647 at the * The De Give was first printed in Elzevir Press at Amsterdam. The 1650 LIFE AT OXFOKD 17 thought fit to make his submission to the Government of the Commonwealth, recognising in the rising authority of Cromwell the hand of a real ruler who could prevent the country being torn to pieces by fanatics, whether Eoman Catholic, Anglican, or Presbyterian, and it can hardly be doubted that his conduct had a powerful influence in determining the course of Dr. Petty. ' Sir,' Cromwell had said in 1644, in a letter to Major- General Crawfurd, one of the Presbyterian commanders of the Scotch army under the Lesleys in the North, ' the State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies.' ' As time went on this conclusion seems to have become more and more impressed upon his mind. England, indeed, was still to be the kingdom of God ; but the boundaries of God's king- dom were to be extended, and as many citizens as possible were to be allowed to live in peace within the precincts, so long as they did not engage in overt hostility to the Common- wealth and to the established civil and political order— condi- tions which in any case for the time being effectually excluded Eoman Catholics and most of the Anglican churchmen from place and power. Cromwell, though his own University connection was with Cambridge, had in 1651 been elected Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Oxford. He steadily protected the two great seats of learning from the attacks of the fanatical party, especially during the brief existence of the assembly known as Barebone's Parliament, from July to December 1653, when the prospect for the Universities was serious. He had appointed two of his chaplains, John Owen and Thomas Goodwin, both men of learning and ability, to positions of importance, and it is probable that through them the name of Dr. Petty may have Englisli translation appeared in 1651 note. On the juridical origin of the at the same time as the larger work, doctrine of the so-caUed Divine Eight The Leviathan. On the views gene- of Eugs, see Maine, Ancient La/w, rally of Hobbes, and that he was in no p. 346. sense the mere apologist of tyranny or ' Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 201-220, ed. absolute monarchy, see the remarks of 1846. John Austin, Jv/rispnidence, i. 249, 18 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTF chap, i become known to him, especially as Dr. Petty, being a person of detached political opinions, belonged precisely to the class of men able to serve, for whom the Protector was looking in the peculiar circumstances of the hour. Petty had powerful friends in two leading adherents of the Protector in London : Captain John Graunt, who had served with distinction in the war, and was the reputed author of some ' Observations on the Bills of Mortality,' and Mr. Edmund Wylde, a member of Parliament, 'a great fautor of ingenious men for merit's sake,'^ and also ia Colonel Kelsey, the commander of the Oxford garrison. Thus it came about that he was created a fellow of Brasenose by virtue of a dispensation from the delegates of the University : according to Wood's account, ' because they had received sufficient testimony of his rare qualities and gifts from Colonel Kelsey ; ' according to Thomas Hearne, because ' he had cut upp Dogges and taught anatomy in the war,' and because the visitors, whom Hearne detested, liked ' to put out loyal persons in order to put him and such others in.'^ He was also appointed Deputy to the University Professor of Anatomy, Dr. Clayton. The Professor himself, oddly enough, had such an insurmountable aversion to the sight of a mangled corpse, that he eagerly availed himself of his substitute's ability as an operator. * Anatomy,' says Aubrey, ' was then little understood by the University, and I recollect that Dr. Petty kept a body that he brought by water from Beading, a good while to read on, some way preserved or pickled.' * In 1650 an event occurred which made his name known in the whole country and opened up the way to a larger career. One Ann Green had been tried, convicted, and exe- cuted at Oxford on December 14, 165X for the murder of her illegitimate child. Her execution seems to have been carried out with a combination of clumsiness and brutality charac- " Bodleian Letters, ii. 483. moted to several places of trust by ' Wood'sJ'as Goddard, and Mr. Christopher Wren — -men of varied tastes and still more various opinions, whom the love of science and original research brought together.'* In these stormy times they used, for the convenience of inspecting drugs, to meet at Dr. Petty's lodgings at an apothecary's house, as he was acknowledged to bear away the palm from all competitors in the experimental side of natural philosophy; and also in those of Dr. Wilkins of Wadham,* which was ' then the place of resort of virtuous and learned men.' ' The University,' says the earliest historian of the Eoyal Society, ' had at that time many members of its own, who had begun a free way of reasoning; and was also frequented by some gentlemen of philosophical minds, whom ' Notes of the Lecture, Petty MSS. ; pp. 53. In his will Sir William Wood, iv. 215. Petty, alluding to this period of his ^ Beflections, p. 17. life, speaks of his connection with ' See Ward, Lives of the Professors clubs of the ' Virtuosi.' This, in the of Gresham College, 1740, p. 218, printed copies, has been transformed article ' Petty.' into ' virtuous,' and W. L. Bevan * Sprat, History of the Royal observes that the author of the article Society, p. 55. ' Petty,' in Ersch and Grueber's En- = Birch, History of the Eoyal cyclopcedia, founds on it a statement Society, i. 2 ; Life of Boyle, p. 84 ; that Petty took an active part in the Sprat, History of the Boyal Society, religious movements of the time. 1661 UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF AJST ATOMY 21 the misfortunes of the kingdom and the security and ease of a retirement amongst gownsmen had drawn thither. Their first purpose was no more than only the satisfaction of breathing a freer air, and of conversing in quiet with one another ; without being engaged in the passions and madness of that dismal age. . . . For such a candid and unimpas- Bionate company as that was, and for such a glorious season, what could have been a fitter subject to pitch upon than natural philosophy? To have been always tossing about some theological question would have been to have made that their private diversion, the excess of which they them- selves disliked in the public. To have been eternally musing on civil business and the distresses of the country was too melancholy a reflection : it was nature alone which could pleasantly entertain them in that estate.' ^ In the spring of 1651, Dr. Petty obtained leave of ab- sence from the college for two years, with an annual stipend of SOI. continued to him. His exact occupation in the months that succeeded is doubtful. . He was probably engaged in travel, but whatever his ultimate intentions may have been, they were suddenly diverted into an unexpected channel, for, at the end of the year, he received the appointment of Physician-General to the army in Ireland, and to General Ireton, the Commander-in-Chief. He landed at Waterford on September 10, 1652, but found Ireton dead from the effect of fever and sickness, contracted at the siege of Lime- rick. He, however, received the same appointment from Ireton' s successors. General Lambert and General Fleetwood, at a salary of 365Z., and 35Z. out of 'the State's apotheca,' and without being debarred from private practice. ' Boyle had preceded him across the Channel. He was the owner of an estate which required attention. Ireland he found ' to be a barbarous country, where chemical spirits were so misunderstood and chemical instruments so unpro- curable, that it was hard to have any Hermetic thoughts in it.' The arrival of Dr. Petty was consequently very welcome ' Sprat, Bistonj of the Boyal ' Will of Sir William Petty. See Society, pp. 55-66. Appendix. 22 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i to him, and he describes how in the course of experiments in anatomy, which they at this time carried out together, ' he had satisfied himself of the circulation of the blood, and the freshly discovered receptaculum chyli, made by the influence of the vense lactase ; and had seen, especially in the dissection of fishes, more of the variety of the contrivances of Nature and the majesty and wisdom of her author, than all the books he ever read in his life could give him convincing notions of.' ** Dr. Petty had not been long at his official post before, to quote his own words, he observed ' the vast and needless expense of medicaments, and how the Apothecary- General of the army, with his three assistants, did not spend their time to the best advantage ; and forthwith to the content of all persons concerned, with the State's bare disbursement of 120L, he did save them 500L per annum of their former charge ; and furnished the army, hospitals, garrisons and headquarters, with medicaments, without the least noise or trouble, reducing that affair,' as he claimed, ' to a state of easiness and plainness which before was held a mystery, and the vexation of such as laboured to administer it well.' A more important task, however, than the reorganisa- tion of the medical service of the army was before him, and one which determined the future course of his life. The Civil War was over, and Ireland lay prostrate under the heel of the conquerors. ' It was hoped that it would be possible to regulate, replant, and reduce the country to its former flourishing condition ; ' ^ and the Lord Deputy Fleetwood resolved to call on Dr. Petty to bring his scientific attainments and organising powers to aid in the vast under- taking. ' Boyle's Works, v. 242. ° Down Survey, ch. i. pp. 1-3. 23 CHAPTEE II THE DOWH SURVEY OF lEBLAND 1652-1658 Condition of Ireland in 1652 — The forfeited estates — The Grosse Survey — Vincent Gookin — The transplantation into Connaught — Massacre of the Waldenses— The Civil Survey — Dr. Petty's proposals — The Down Survey — The Map of Ireland — Letter to Boyle -Dr. Petty's method of work — The Army Survey commenced — Disputes with the army — The Army Survey finished — Distribution of the army lands — The ' Adventurers' ' Survey — Opinion of Clarendon — The Survey maps. The actual fighting in Ireland had terminated with the fall of Limerick and Galway; and when Dr. Petty arrived in 1662, the population which had escaped the sword, or had not fled the country, was anxiously awaiting the decree of the con- querors. Acting, it has been said, on the suggestions of Harring- ton, the author of ' Oceana,' and probably influenced by the example of the extirpation of the princes and kings of Canaan by the chosen people of God, and by the success of the plantation of Ulster in the reign of James I., the Government of the Commonwealth had resolved on a vast scheme for colonising the country with new settlers, in order thereby to secure the English connection, as it was thought for ever. Before the actual commencement of hostilities between the King and the Parliament, 2,500,000 acres of Irish land had been pledged, in 1642, to those who should ' adventure ' the money necessary in order to raise an army to put down the rebellion of the native Eoman Catholic population. One of the last acts in which Charles concurred with his Parliament was in giving the Eoyal assent, however unwillingly, to this 24 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii measure, which in the clauses relating to finance and those limiting the exercise of the royal prerogative of pardon, bore the impress of the suspicions of the Parliamentary leaders, that the sympathies of the King were as much with the Irish rebels, in whom he saw possible allies, as with his own army, in whom he recognised probable foes. The force so raised, however, never crossed St. George's Channel at all, for the funds, having found their way into the Parliamentary treasury, were used for equipping the armies of Essex and Manchester, which fought at Edgehill and Newbury. Sub- sequently fresh advances were made ; and owing to the ever- increasing necessities of the Commonwealth, the adventurers, under the ' doubling ordinance,' became entitled to receive double the original allotment for an increase of one-fourth in the amount advanced.^ When Ireland was finally conquered, it was by a portion of the New Model Army of Cromwell and Fairfax, aided by some Eoyalist regiments which, after the second flight of- the Marquis of Ormonde, took service with the Commonwealth against the native rebellion. The arrears of pay to all these regiments formed a second category of the obligations of the Government, and it was proposed to satisfy them out of Irish lands at ' adventurers' rates.' The debt due to the latter was 360,000L ; that due to the army was put at l,550,OOOi. A third category of creditors consisted of a number of persons who had advanced money on various occasions to help the necessities of the Commonwealth, or to whom money was owing for salaries and otherwise. The whole matter had been dealt with by an Act passed on August 12, 1652, and by two Orders of Council of June 1 and June 22, and a set of further instructions of July 2, 1653 ; all ultimately recited and incorporated in an Act of Parha- ment, passed on September 26, in the so-called ' Little Parliament.' ^ The Church and Crown lands were thereby ' See Soobell'B Ordinances, pp. 21, ^ The Acts of Parliament referred 26-37. See also Commons' Joiumals, to are to be found in Soobell's Ordi- ii. 420-425 ; Lords' Journals, iv. 593- nances, 1650-1653, pp. 196, 240. 607. 1652 OOJ^DITION OF IRELAND IN 1652 25 appropriated to the use of the Commonwealth, and also the estates of all proprietors who, having lived in Ireland during the recent troubles, could not prove that they had shown ' constant good affection.' This meant in practice the confis- cation of the estates of all the heads of the ancient Eoman Catholic native population, and of most of the old Anglo-Irish nobility, some Eoman Catholics, some Anglican Churchmen, but all more or less involved in resistance to the Common- wealth, with but few exceptions. They were bidden to migrate across the Shannon into Connaught, unless they preferred to go abroad, which by a liberal system of subsidies they were encouraged to do. Dr. Petty calculated that 34,000 of the best fighting population — the chiefs and the ' swordsmen ' — had accepted the alternative and had fled the country : ' Amazement in the van with flight eombiaed. And Sorrow's faded form and Solitude behind.' The Presbyterians in Ulster and the English merchants in the walled towns, who mostly belonged to that religious connec- tion, fared little better than the Eoman Catholic landowners. They were indeed the ancient enemies of prelacy, but their sympathies were known to have been with the Scotch army, which the Independents had recently defeated at Dunbar and destroyed at Worcester. They were, therefore, ordered to make way in favour of the victors. Thus the whole of the upper and middle classes of Ireland were crushed in a com- mon ruin. So entirely had the original inhabitants, except the poorest, been driven out of Dublin, that it was next to impossible to find a Eoman Catholic physician or even a Eoman Catholic midwife, and Dr. Petty with other medical men was ordered ' to consider of the evil and propose a remedy.' ' With a view to the distribution of the forfeited lands to the creditors of the State, a survey and measurement was con- templated by the Act. The debt due to the ' adventurers ' was primarily charged on the forfeited lands in the moieties ' Prendergast, p. 139 ; Thurloe, v. 508. 26 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii of ten counties, which were to be divided equally by them with the soldiers, as it was considered that peaceable posses- sion would be thereby secured to the civilian owners, viz. : Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, Meath, West Meath, King's County, Queen's County, Antrim, Down, Armagh, and on the whole county of Louth as an additional security. The arrears of the soldiers were charged on the forfeited lands in the remaining halves of the above counties, and in the counties of Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Monaghan, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Kerry. The Government reserved to themselves all the walled towns, all the Crown and Church lands, the tithes, and the forfeited lands in the four counties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, and Cork for distribution among distinguished supporters of the Parliamentary cause, and to satisfy public debts. The adventurers were to be satisfied next, and then the army. Of the adventurers' debt, 11,000L was charged on Munster, 205,000L on Leinster, and 45,000L on Ulster ; and it was settled that on July 20, 1653, a lottery was to be held in Grocers' Hall, London, the lots to decide first in which province each adventurer was to have his allotment, and then in which of the ten counties it was to fall. The lots were not to exceed, in Westmeath, 70,000L ; in Tipperary, 60,000Z. ; in Meath, 55,000Z. ; in King's and Queen's Counties, 40,000L each ; in Limerick, 30,000L ; in Waterford, 20,000L ; in Antrim, Down, and Armagh, 15,000Z. each. Connaught had originally been reserved in its entirety for the Irish owners, but subsequently Sligo and part of Mayo and Leitrim were taken away from the Irish and allotted to a part of the army which had fought in England in the recent campaign, and was still unpaid. When these transactions were concluded, the proportion of land forfeited in Connaught was found to exceed that in the remaining provinces of Ireland.* Donegal, Leitrim, Longford, and Wicklow were given to the garrisons of the Munster cities, which, before 1649, had served the King, and, after the defeat and the departure of the Marquis, of Ormonde, had passed from the Eoyal to the Parliamentary * Hardinge, p. 34. 1652 THE FORFEITED ESTATES 27 cause. Certain special reservations were also made in Dublin and Cork for maimed soldiers and the widows of those who had perished in the war ; and well-affected Protestants and English owners, who might wish to leave Connaught in con- sequence of the Irish transplantation, were offered the oppor- tunity of receiving lands of equal value on the left bank of the Shannon. Such was the general scheme in outline, but large powers of adjusting details were left to the Irish Council of State, which was entrusted with the execution of the Act. The formation of an Army Commission, to distribute the lands to the soldiers when the survey was finished, was provided for by the Act. It was one thing, however, to make a general arrangement of this kind, it was another and far more difficult task to carry it out. A survey and map was the first thing needed, but surveying was an infant art, and nothing of the kind existed, except in Tipperary and in some parts of Connaught, where, during the reign of Charles I., Strafford had instituted and partly carried out a survey. There were said to be 35,000 claimants of land in all, and the Act settled nothing, except that 1,000 Irish acres, equal to 1,600 English measure, in the counties situate in Leinster were to represent 600L, in the counties situate in Munster 450L, and in those situate in Ulster 300Z. of debt; the Act rates being 12s. per Irish acre in Leinster, 8s. in Munster, and 4s. in Ulster, the latter being considered the poorest of the three provinces. In the period between the end of the war and the year 1653, rough lists of the proscribed had been drawn up, and courts had been held to determine who could clear themselves of the charge of conspiracy in the late rebellion, and prove constant good affection. But a large category of ' dubious lands,' as they were called, still remained, which awaited a further and final inquiry, and these both the army and the adventurers were now clamorously demanding should at once be assigned to them. The army also confidently expected that if the adventurers were satisfied first, a large surplus 28 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii would remain, which they could in that case claim for themselves, and their eyes specially turned to the rich lands of the County Louth, part of which they hoped would ultimately fall to their share. Meanwhile, like the adventurers, the army proceeded to draw a first 'lot,' in order to decide in which province each regiment was to receive their share of the ' satisfaction.' The amount of army arrears being ascertained and the amount of acres they represented, partial attempts had been made in 1653 to distribute lands amongst some of the regi- ments,^ but an accurate method for identifying each lot drawn with any particular parcel of land on the spot was wanting. Quartermaster-General Goulding, for example, might have a debt of 232L 14s. 9d., which, calculated at the army rates in Connaught, was worth in the County of SHgo 465 a. 1 r. 24 p. ; but how was Quartermaster-General Goulding to know where his particular 465 a. 1 r. 24 p. exactly lay, and prove his title against all comers to enter on those lands and no others, and keep them on a secure title ; and how was he, on the other hand, to prove that he had not obtained a great deal more than he was entitled to by force and impudence, or by fraudu- lent or incompetent measurements ? Owing largely to the weakness of Fleetwood, the violence of the officers of the army in Ireland, stimulated by personal greed and cloaked by religious pretensions, had reached such a point by the end of 1653, that the Protector determined on a complete change of administration, and seiit over Henry Cromwell on a mission of inquiry, intending that he should ultimately replace Fleetwood, who was under the influence of the milita,ry and fanatical party. It was also determined to institute a general scheme of survey and apportionment as the Act directed. The first plan set on foot was to make what was termed a ' Grosse Survey,' or list of forfeited lands in each barony, with brief descriptive notes. Maps were directed to accompany this survey, and some undoubtedly were made.* But the work, which was commenced in August 1653, proceeded very slowly, and when the results ' See Prendergast, p. 86. ' Hardinge, p. 11. 1653 THE GROSSE SURVEY 29 began to be seen, was at once attacked, by some for want of accuracy, by others for the interminable time which it seemed likely to occupy before completion ; and it was also generally criticised for the manner in which it appeared to be carried out for the benefit of powerful individuals. The Surveyor-General, Benjamin Worsley, had arrived in Ireland at the same time as Dr. Petty. He also was a member of the medical profession, but what were his qualifications as a surveyor does not precisely appear. Dr. Petty described him as one who 'having been frustrated as to his many severall great designs in England hoped to improve and repaire himselfe upon a less knowing and more credulous people. To this purpose he exchanged some dangerous opinions in religion for others more merchantable in Ire- land, and carried also some magnifying glasses,' by means of which Dr. Petty, who seems to have underrated his abilities,^ says he impressed an ignorant pubHc with a vast idea of his scientific attainments. He was a dealer in schemes for a universal medicine, for making gold, sowing saltpetre, esta- blishing a universal trade, taking great farms, and other visionary plans, all of which excited the wrath of the practical and scientific mind of Dr. Petty, who described them as • mountain-beUied conceptions.'* The scheme of survey attempted by him, so far as it was carried out, was to make a survey of forfeited lands only, without any reference to the civil territorial limits ; and barren land was to be excepted from it, unless included by situation within the area of profitable land. The payment was to be in proportion to the area surveyed, at the rate of 40s. per 1,000 acres of land, whether profitable or unprofitable. Dr. Petty at once perceived the defects which lay on the face of Worsley's plan. The rate of payment, in Dr. Petty's opinion, was excessive. There was also no cheek on the returns of the surveyors, and it was open to question whether the instructions to them complied in several respects with the ' See Sir Thomas Larcom's opinion, mentioned by Boyle in a letter printed Down Survey, p. 320, note. in his works, vol. v. p. 232, where the ' BeflecUons, p. 107. Worsley is saltpetre experiment is alluded to. 30 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii Act of Parliament on which they were founded. The men employed, Dr. Petty said, were not ' skilled artists ' at all, but mostly, as he thought, ' conceited and sciolous persons,' at whose proceedings Worsley, whether from pride or ignorance, or actuated by worse motives, winked, with the approbation, as Dr. Petty believed, of his influential and highly-placed patrons. Dr. Petty, in fact, suspected the Surveyor General of being as inefficient in his profession as the recently discomfited Apothecary-General had been proved to be in his purchase of drugs, and he expressed his opinion, as to these ' mis- carriages,' to Worsley himself, and proceeded to ' admonish him,' recommending him ' skilled artists ' for his work. Worsley did not relish his advice, and preferred that of his own nominees — persons whom Dr. Petty termed ' mere bulks and outsides.' The quarrel deepened, and Dr. Petty came to the conclusion that Worsley was dishonest as well as ignorant. The first great disbandment of the army took place in 1663, and some distributions were actually made in 1654 to those who were most clamorous. These Dr. Petty impugned at once, believing that the public was being robbed ; and he proceeded, as he says, to attempt to per- suade ' several sober and judicious persons in the businesse, that the way of Survey the State was upon was a mistake.' ^ He found a willing listener in Henry Cromwell, who, from the time of his first arrival in Dublin on his mission of inquiry, had become the object of the attacks and misrepre- ' ' The first survey or old measure- the barrony of 8,000 acres. Besides ment was performed by measuring whereas 40 sh. were given for mea- whole baronyes in one surround, or suring 1,000 acres, in that way, 5 sh. perimeter, and paying for the same was too much — that is to say, at 5 sh. after the rate of 40 sh. for every thou- per 1,000, a surveyor might have sand acres contained within such sur- earned above 20 sh. per diem eleare, round ; whereby it followed that the whereas 10 sh. is esteemed, specially surveyors were most unequally re- in long employments, a competent warded for the same work, viz. he allowance.' — ' Brief Account,' p. xiii. that measured the barrony of 160,000 Dmon Survey, ch. ii. p. 3. Henry acres did gaine neare five times as Cromwell to Ohver Cromwell, October much per diem as he that measured 9,1655,Thurloe, vi.74. Ludlow, i. 360. 1663 VINCENT GOOKIN 31 sentations of the powerful Anabaptist faction with which the Protector was at this moment wrestling in England. Henry Cromwell, unable to conceal his disgust at high pretences of religion combined with an almost unlimited rapacity in the affairs of this world, resolved, after trying to stave off a quarrel as long as possible, to risk a formal rupture.' ' Men,' he wrote to Secretary Thurloe, 'have taken that from the State for which they paid 201. p. a. rent, and have im- mediately let it out again for 150Z. per a. ; and. Sir, this is to be made good in above 40 particular instances ; and 'tis feared that all your lande in Ireland is let at this rate. I know three men that took 18,000 acres of the Common- wealth's land in the County Meath for 600L p. a., and let it out again for 1,800Z. Sir, and these were Commissioners instructed with letting your landes. Another let to himself being a Commissioner, for 400Z. p.a., and the State to bear the contribution, that which wa,s at the same time let by the State for 800Z., the country being at the same time as well stocked and planted as it is now.' ^ Other difficulties involving a different set of considerations were also arising. The transplantation of the native Irish into Connaught had not been adopted without considerable doubts in many quarters, both in England and in Ireland, as to the soundness of the policy. Vincent Gookin, member for Kinsale and a Privy Councillor, was the mouthpiece of the opposition. He was the son of Sir Vincent Gookin, in former years a constant opponent and unsparing critic of Strafford in the government ; and from his father — reputed in his time the most independent man in the country — he had inherited a bold heart and a ready pen. He was the special adversary of the rule of petty military despots, whether Irish or English. Dr. Petty, himself sprung from the middle rank in life, was willing enough, like Gookin, to see the power of the old military chiefs broken and their strongholds wasted ; but to decree the practical ruin of the whole population and to replace them by a body of English officers, was, he agreed with Gookin, a different affair, and they jointly prepared a > Thurloe, ii. 149 ; iv. 373. ^ Ibid. iv. 509. 32 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, n 'Discourse against the transplanting into Connaught,'' declar- ing it on public grounds a wasteful transaction and contrary to sound policy. ' Mercy and pardon ' as to life and estate had indeed been decreed in favour of ' all husbandmen, ploughmen, labourers, and artificers,'* and others of the inferior sort ; for the chosen people, it was recollected, had found the Gibeonites useful in Palestine as hewers of wood and drawers of water. But all the landowners v/ho had not fled over sea, and their retainers, were to cross the Shannon. Many had already fled the country. The land was already free from the old Irish mili- tary party. Nobody at least could deny that. ' The chiefest and eminentest of the nobility, and many of the gentry, have taken conditions from the King of Spain, and have transported 40,000 of the most active spirited men, most acquainted with the dangers and discipline of war.' Such is the grim epitaph of the ancient chiefs and nobles, which the authors of ' The Discourse ' recorded in their book. Some went to France and enlisted in the royal armies, others took service with the King of Spain and the King of Poland. Europe was full of Irish Eoman Catholic exiles eager for revenge. The widows and orphans, the deserted wives and families of the ' swordsmen,' experienced a worse fate. They were kidnapped and shipped wholesale into the West Indies, the slave-dealing merchants of Bristol achieving a pre-eminence in the nefarious traffic, which their previous experience enabled them to organise with ' LansdowneMSS.,BritishMuseuin, into Commught, 1654. The pub- 822, 1. 26-27, October 21, 1656 ; Pren- lished book bears the marks of joint dergast, pp. 54-64 ; also the articles authorship, the opening sentences — ' Gookin ' in Dictionary of National an elaborate medical comparison be- Biography. The pamphlet referred to tween the State and the human body above is entitled A Discourse against — being altogether in Petty's style, as the Transplantation into Connazight. well as the later portions, where the Two editions were published, both arguments are of exactly the same anonymously, in London, in January general character as those in the and March 1655. Dr. Petty acknow- Political Anatomy of Ireland, ch. iv. ledges his share in the authorship * Preamble of the Act of 1650 ; in a list of his works found amongst Scobell, ii. 197 ; Proclamation of his papers (see Appendix), where it October 11, 1652, Prendergast, pp. is mentioned under the title of A 27-28. Discourse against the Transplanting 1653 THE TRANSPLANTATION INTO OONN AUGHT 33 advantage and profit to themselves. Unmerciful passion blinded every religious party, with a few trifling exceptions and with only differences in degree, to the teachings of the gospel of justice and mercy, of which each professed to be on earth the special representative. But even in the seventeenth century, and amid the tumult of conflicting reUgious animosi- ties, the voice of human nature could occasionally make itself heard ; and the views of Gookin and Petty, neither of whose characters were exactly cast in a sentimental moiild, found an echo in England. ' The cause of the war,' Petty said, ' was a desire of the Eomists to recover the Church revenue, worth about 1,100,000L per annum, and of the common Irish to get all the Englishmen's estates, and of the ten or twelve grandees of Ireland to get the Empire of the whole. '^ These grandees had led the Irish people into the troubles out of which they themselves emerged defeated and ruined. But admitting this, and admitting also, as Vincent Gookin and Petty both did, that in consequence ' it was for the security of the EngHsh and the English interest to divide the Irish one from the other, especially the commonalty from the chiefs,' they argued that it was not, therefore, necessary to drive out also aU the proprietors who could not prove 'constant good affection.' Further, the peculiar constitution of Irish society and of the land system must, they saw, cause an enormous mass of their^ dependents, their tenants, their retainers and labourers, to be driven out with them, notwithstanding the exemptions of the Act ; and it was therefore not true to say that only proprietors and men in arms were being ordered to go. The authors of the rebellion and massacres, those who had led the people to commit the atrocities which had so deeply stirred the pubhc conscience, ' the bloody persons,' were, Gookin and Petty argued, ' all dead by sword, famine, pestilence, and the hand of civil justice ; or remain still liable to it ; or are fled beyond sea from it ; the priests and soldiers (the kindlers of the war in the beginning and fom enters of it since) are, for the first, universally departed the land, and for ' Political Anatomy, oh. iv. p. 317. D 34 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, n the second, to a vast number and the most dangerous ; and the remaining are weary of war, having long since submitted ; and those that are out sue for nothing but mercy. For the poor commons the sun never shined, or rather not shined upon a nation so completely miserable. There are not 100 of them in 10,000 who are not by the first and fourth articles of the Act of Settlement under the penalty of losing life and estate. The tax sweeps away their whole existence. Neces- sity makes them turn thieves and Tories, and then they are prosecuted with iire and sword for being so. If they discover not Tories, the English hang them ; if they do, the Irish kill them.' It was possible, no doubt, to reply with Colonel Lawrence, who published an answer, that technically no pro- miscuous transplantation was intended ; but a promiscuous transplantation was none the less going on, and that it would not even have the merit of success, was the opinion of the two critics.** ' The unsettling of a nation,' they pointed out, ' is an easy work ; the settling is not,' and the transplantation could have but one result — the permanent mutual alienation of the English and the Irish, and the division of the latter between a large discontented garrison beyond the Shannon and scattered bands of pillaging Tories on this side of the river. Such bands were already sufficiently numerous, owing to the heavy taxes and to ' the violence and oppres- (,sion of the soldiery,' which had driven even loyal men into rebellion and despair. A settlement of the country, they fully admitted, was obviously needed ; but it should have for object to detach the people of th§ country from lawless courses, instead of driving them into madness by injustice. The anomalous result of the rates of distribution under the Act was another matter which had struck Henry Cromwell. At the existing rates he saw that ' one might have a thou- sand acres worth more than 1,000Z., and another in the same barony a thousand acres not worth 2001.' The great desideratum of Ireland, he reported home, was to secure ' The Interest of England in the wealth's, (Col.) Richard Laurence, Irish Transplantation stated by a London, March 9, 1655 (Britisli Mu- Faithful Servant of the Common- seum). 1654 MASSACRE OF THE WALDENSES 35 honest commissioners and incorrupt judges ; but it was next to impossible to find either. Meanwhile, the Exchequer of the Commonwealth, both in England and Ireland, was empty, and the financial situation critical in the extreme. Some decisive step evidently had to be taken, and on September 6, 1654 — while Fleetwood was still at Dublin — an order appeared from the Commissioners of the Common- wealth of England for the affairs of Ireland, stopping the further progress of the Survey, and prohibiting the distribu- tion of lands under it.'' A crisis had arrived. A new set of instructions was drawn out for the Lord Deputy and his Council. They were ordered to devote their whole care to improving the interest of the Commonwealth ; they were to provide for the advancement of learning, to try to establish the finances of the country on a sound basis, and while maintaining true religion and suppres- sing idolatry, popery, superstitions, and profaneness, they were given full power to dispense with the orders of the late Parliament and Council of State for transporting the Irish into Connaught, if, on full consideration, it should prove for the public service to do so. The prospect was fair. But now occurred one of those fatal and unforeseen coincidences which dash the cup from the lips of expectation and destroy the plans of statesmen. In the midst of the events just described, the news arrived, with all the harrowing details, of the enactment in the South of Europe of even worse horrors than those which were being perpetrated in Ireland; with this difference only, that the part of persecutor and persecuted was reversed. In 1650 the congregation ' de Propaganda Fide ' had established a local council at Turin. Duke Charles Em- manuel II. of Savoy yielded to the Jesuits, and an order was issued that the Protestants, known as Waldenses in the Alpine valleys which converge near Susa, should be exter- minated. Measures were concerted with France, and an attack from both sides of the mountains was arranged for 1653 ; as in a matter of this kind it was desirable, in the opinion of ' Thurloe, ii. 413, 506 ; vi. 810, 811, 819. d2 36 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii France, to make concessions to the Pope. A large body of the Irish refugees, who had just entered the Spanish service, were at the moment discontented with the terms of their enlistment, and resolved to pass over the Pyrenees. Attracted by the promise of pay and plunder, they made thence for Italy. On their march they were said to have vaunted ' that they had massacred the English Protestants in Ireland,' and that they would 'now tear in pieces and crucify quick any of the religion ' they might find else- where." Early in January 1654 they were near Nimes, one of the principal Protestant cities of France, and owing to these boasts they were not allowed to come within the walls. Thence they passed on into Piedmont, and took service with the Duke. Soon the barbarities which, with other soldiers of fortune, they exercised against the unoffending inhabitants of the Alpine valleys, were a household word in every Protestant home in Europe. The adversaries of the Irish confiscations were now swept away in a fierce torrent of national indig- nation, and the nascent feeling of pity, which was beginning to make itself felt in England, was rudely crushed. ' The distressed and afflicted people of God,' the officers in Ireland wrote in a memorial to the Protector, ' have so bitter a por- tion, even a cup of astonishment, put into their hands to drink by that scarlet strumpet who makes herself drunk with the blood of the saints, because they refuse to drink of the wine of the fornication. What peace can we rejoice in when the whoredoms, murders, and witchcrafts of Jezebel are so mighty?' ^ An Irish plot, fomented by the Jesuits, to murder the Protector was also suspected. Two of the ambassadors of the Commonwealth, Dr. Dorislaus and Antony Ayscam, had actually fallen under the knives of assassins abroad. The atmosphere was heavy with anxiety. Dr. Petty relates how, at Dublin, in the midst of the controversies about the settlement of the country, 'his Excellency, the Lord Deputy, meeting in the Castle with several officers of the army, they together did resolve freely to contribute and 8 Thurloe, i. 587 ; ii. 27. » Ibid. iii. 466. 1654 THE CIVIL SUEArEY 3/ subscribe towards the relief of tbe distressed Waldenses ; ' ' and that the officers TolimtarUy agreed to give a fortnight's pay and the private soldiers one week's pay, and many still larger sums. The Cavaliers and the Irish were regarded as engaged in one evU business. ' The latter,' said Fleetwood, ' are an abominable, false, cunning, and perfidious people.' - ... 'As to what you write concerning our transplantation here,' he told Thurloe, ' I am glad to understand you have a good sense of it ; though it hath been strangely obstructed and discouraged by the discountenance it hath received from England. There is no doubt as bad, if not a worse, spirit in these people than is in those of Savoy. We are on the gradual transplantation, though the hopes the people have from England of a dis- pensation makes them keep off, and not transplant so readily as otherwise they would, if their thoughts were free from expectations out of England.'^ The transplantation, it was now resolved, was to be pro- ceeded with. In vain did Gookin go over to London and publish his book there. ' A scandalous book,' Fleetwood wrote to Thurloe. In vain did he make a particular protest to the Protector on behalf at least of the ' ancient Protestants,' whose case was peculiarly hard, and might have been expected to excite commiseration in the minds of their co-religionists. Exasperation and personal greed were together too strong, and the fatal order was issued. But it was at least possible, though the policy of trans- plantation was not to be altered, to prevent a carnival of jobbery and confusion in connection with it. The Council accordingly announced the adoption of a new plan, which was entirely to supersede the former survey. It was decided to make a preliminary inquisition over the whole country and to prepare accurate lists of the forfeited lands ; and the work of surveying was to be entirely separated, at least for the time, from that of mapping. Thus was set on foot the ' Civil Survey,' so called because it was carried out by the civil authorities and not by soldiers. ' History of the Down Survey, ch. ix. p. 66. 2 Thurloe, ii. 343. = Ibid. iii. 468. 38 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, n Like its predecessor, it was in substance a gross or estimate sur- vey. Commissions were issued to bodies of commissioners for each county, except where the survey made in Strafford's time already supplied a sufficiently accurate account of the lands in the district, their area, value, and ownership. It was to comprehend not only the forfeited lands, but all other estates and interests belonging to the State as successor to the Crown, and was in fact an attempt to make a land register.^ ' This improved and most important descriptive survey,' says Mr. Hardinge, ' was not intended for the sole purpose of supplying lists of lands to be measured and mapped and then cast aside as useless, as would be the result had it related to forfeited lands only ; but it comprehended all other estates and interests — the Crown's hereditary estates, ecclesiastical and unforfeited, corporate and lay estates and possessions. Many persons are under the impression that the civil survey was designed as the basis of the satisfactions afterwards made to the soldiers for arrears of pay due to them, and that it was rejected by the Government in consequence of the complaints of its inaccuracy. Such an impression is altogether erroneous. This survey was not designed for the purpose assumed. It was a preliminary work, essential to the discovery and de- scription in a legitimate and solemn manner of the forfeited lands, and from which lists, technically called "terriers," were afterwards supplied to the several surveyors, for their ad- measurement and mapping.' ^ While the work of the Commission was proceeding. Dr. Petty was summoned to place before the Council his own plan for the mapping of the lands. The forfeited estates corre- sponded, as a rule, with former territorial jurisdictions— some very ancient — which had become the basis of the more modern division into baronies, themselves divided into parishes and townlands ; just as in the early history of England the boundaries of what were originally the lands of villages became those of manors, and, later in the history of the ■' Hardinge, p. 15. Civil Survey are printed in the Ap- 5 Ibid. pp. 15, 20. The commis- pendix to Sir Thomas Lareom's His- sions and instructions under the tory of the Down Survey, p. 382. 1654 DE. PETTY'S PROPOSALS 39 country, again became those of civil divisions, such as parishes and other units of administration. Ireland, Dr. Petty pointed out, was divided iuto 'provinces, countries, baronies, parishes, and farm lands,' but formerly, he said, ' no doubt it was not so, for the country was called after the names of the lords who governed the people ; for as a territory bounded by bogs is greater or lesser, as the bog is more dry and passable or otherwise, so the country of a grandee or tierne became greater or lesser as his forces waxed or waned; for where was a large castle and garrison, there the jurisdiction was also large.' As a rule the boundary between the lands of these grandees was the line of the division of the waters ' as the rain fell,' and these divisions were the basis of the larger civil territorial divisions of the country, the provinces, counties, and baronies ; while as to the smaller divisions, the ' townlands, ploughlands, colps, gneeres, bulhbos, ballibelaghs, two's, horsmen's, beds, &c.,' they corresponded with the lands cultivated by certain societies of men, from an early period, or with the lands of particular men, or with land allotted to a planter, or to a servitor as a reward for service, or as the endowment of a religious cell. The baronies varied in size from 8,000 to 160,000 acres.'' Starting from the basis of these various civil divisions. Dr. Petty now proposed to survey the country and then map out the whole of the forfeited lands ; first surveying all known territorial boundaries and the natural divisions, whether rivers, woods, bogs or other, and then to set out such auxiliary lines and limits in addition to the county, barony, and townland boundaries, as were necessary for constructing a map of the forfeitures, and for the ultimate subdivision amongst the claimants according to the average of their commuted arrears. The whole task he undertook to perform in thirteen months from an appointed day,' ' if,' he said, ' the Lord give seasonable weather and due provision bee made against Tories, and that my instruments be not found to stand still " Political Anatomy, ch. xiii. pp. 371, 372; Brief Account, p. xiii. ' Down Survey, p. 9. 40 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, n for want of bounders.' ^ He offered to accept payment either at the rate of 61. per 1,000 acres, or a gross sum of 30,000L, out of which he was to pay expenses. ' Upon the iielde work, it being a matter of great drudgery to wade through bogs and water, climb rocks, fare and lodge hard,' he said he would instruct foot soldiers, to whom such hardships were familiar.^ The committee reported that the plan was far superior to Worsley's, who confessed himself ' gravelled ' at the Doctor offering to complete a task in thirteen months which he had calculated would last as many years. Worsley, however, was not easily beaten, and, having influential supporters, obtained a further reference to the Committee of the Council, to which some fresh names were added at his suggestion. But, notwithstanding this attempt to pack the tribunal, the committee decided against him. Their report was as follows : ' In obedience to your Honour's reference, dated the 10th instant, wee have taken into consideration the businesse con- cerning the management of the surveys, and after a full debate thereupon, doe humbly offer, upon the reasons men- tioned in our first report, that the lands to be sett out for the payment of the army's arrears and other public debts, be surveyed down as is proposed by Dr. Petty. ' Dated the 16th of October, 1654. Signed in the name and by the appointment of the rest of the referees. ' Charles Cootb.' * The idea of a survey in the present day is indissolubly connected with the notion of a map ; so much so that as a rule the name has come to be applied to the map itself which is the result of the survey, as much as to the preced- ing inquiries on which the map is founded. But the Civil Survey was simply a specification of lands, recorded in lists, with brief descriptive notes as to acreage and value, and par- took of the character of what in modern days is called a " Down Survey, p. 18. ' Ibid. p. 12. " Ibid. pp. 18-19. 1664 THE DOWN SURVEY 41 valuation list or register. There were no maps attached to it, and the scheme of a general map, though present to the minds of the authors of the ' Grosse Survey,' had hitherto never been effectually carried out, though commenced here and there. Dr. Petty now undertook both to survey, to admeasure, and to map ; and from the wording of his report just quoted, the work carried out by him came to be known as the Down Survey, because it was to be surveyed down on a map, unlike the Civil Survey, which, as already stated, consisted of hsts of lands only with their extent and value. Worsley, however, was not yet beaten, and he claimed a detailed examination of the report by the full Council, which in consequence had again to go into the matter. Then arose obstruction upon obstruction. The former surveyors, it was said, had not been properly considered, and it was wrong to employ soldiers. Worsley also, cleverly using the weapon given him by his rival's opposition to the transplantation, intimated that Dr. Petty ' intended to employ Irish Papists,' to which Dr. Petty relates 'that it was answered (1) by denyall, (2) by acquainting the Council that there was noe more danger to have the measurer a Papist than the meres- man, which for the most part must be such,' ^ because they were the only persons who knew the boundaries. Eventually these and other difficulties were got over ; and on December 11, 1654, ' after a solemn seekinge of God performed by Col. Tomlinson, for a blessing on the conclusion of so great a business,' the preliminary articles of agreement, which had been signed on October 27, were finally adopted in a more detailed shape.' Dr. Petty thereupon completed his securities, obtaining valuable assistance from Sir Hardress Waller, one of the Cromwellian officers in high command in Ireland ; and he then entered into a contract with the Surveyor-General to perform the work in the specified manner. Orders and warrants were issued by the Council for the necessary supply of meresmen, for the delivery by Worsley within thirty days of the lists of the forfeited lands, and for access to the records of the previous surveys; and a 2 Down Survey, p. 20. ^ Ibid. p. 22. 42 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii Committee of officers was appointed to meet at Dublin, on February 1, 1655, to consider the best mode of allotting the lands amongst the regiments.^ Under his contract. Dr. Petty undertook to survey, ad- measure, and map all the forfeited lands, profitable or unpro- fitable, barony by barony and parish by parish, down to the smallest known civil denominations,' together with all Crown and ecclesiastical lands. Where any civil denomination was in excess of the lot or number of acres due to any officer or soldier according to the amount of his commuted arrears, it was to be subdivided and mapped out into smaller parcels by the help of auxiliary limits, but except for this express purpose, no ' surround ' smaller than forty acres was to be separately surveyed and admeasured. All the particulars requisite for the proper distribution of the forfeited lands amongst the claimants were to be entered from the records of the Civil Survey upon the face of each map, such as the names of the owners and the area, with the quality and estimated value. Plotts, or maps, were to be laid down on a scale of forty perches to an inch, and, with the corresponding information and references marked out upon them, were to be delivered to the officers and soldiers on demand, provided that no separate map was to be required of any proportions less than 1,000 acres."* The work, it was agreed, was to be completed in thirteen months dating from December 11, 1654, allowing one year more for complaints or appeals against it ; but in consideration of the unavoidable delays which took place in the early stages of the work, the date was ultimately postponed to thirteenth months, from February 1, 1655. The rate of payment agreed upon was 11. 3s. 4i. per 1,000 acres of forfeited profitable land, of which one penny per acre was to be paid by the army, and the rest by the State. The Church and Crown lands were to be mapped at the rate of 3Z. an acre. Under his agreement Dr. Petty was to deliver maps of the forfeited lands * Down Survey, oh. v. pp. 40, 41. an officer and several soldiers. The '' Ploughlands, townlands, colps, &a. distribution, it must be remembered, " This means a separate map. One was to be by regiments, companies, map would often cover the claim of &c. 1654 THE 31 AP OF IRELAND 43 with perfect plots of each townland thereon, with the neces- sary sub-divisions and books of reference, corresponding to the reports of the Civil Survey, when complete, into the ofBce of the Surveyor-General.' By separate articles he engaged to map and project, in addition to the maps of the forfeited estates, the bounds of all baronies and townlands within the before-mentioned coun- ties, whether forfeited or not, so that in each province perfect and exact maps might be had, for pubhc use, of each province, county, and barony,^ and for this work he was to receive a payment, the amount of which at the moment does not seem to have been specifically stated. As to the survey and admeasurement of the adventurers' lands, nothing for the moment was determined. It will thus be seen that he undertook two things which had no necessary connection with each other, viz. a survey and admeasurement with maps on a large scale of the for- feited lands ; and also the preparation of a general county and barony map of the whole of Ireland, for public use and con- venience. The Act expressly provided that no surveyor or other ofiicer employed in the execution of this survey, during the time of his employment, should be allowed to become a purchaser of land, unless with the consent of the Parlia- mentary Commissioners appointed under the Act. It was further expressly provided that it should be open to Parlia- ment to pay the surveyors with land, if it were found more convenient than to pay in money : a possibiUty more than likely to be realised in the embarrassed condition of the finances of the Commonwealth. The war was over. The division of the spoils was about to commence. ' As for the blood shed in those contests,' Dr. Petty afterwards wrote, ' God best knows who did occasion it ; but upon the playing of the game or match the English won, and had amongst other pretences a gamester's right at least to their estates.'^ He had not himself been concerned in the ' Hardinge, pp. 24, 25, 26. Anatomy, oh. ix. p. 341. Down Survey, p. 25 ; Political " Political Anatomy, ch. iv. p. 317. 44 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii original quarrel, and he now simply regarded himself as a servant of the State called upon to perform a definite duty. While he disapproved much of what had been done, his work, he thought, would at least prove of permanent advan- tage to the nation, and the nature of it appealed to his imagination and his scientific tastes. He entered on his gigantic task, thinking that besides his pay ' he should receive monumentall thanks, and not sufficiently considering,' as ex- perience taught him, ' that too great merit is more often paid with envy than with condign reward.' When it had been completed he looked forward to returning to the study of natural philosophy, thinking his present task ' might prove rather an unbending than a breaking of that bow.' ' I also hoped,' he wrote, ' to enlarge my trade of experiments from bodies to minds, from the emotions of the one to the manners of the other ; thereby to have understood passions as well as fermentations, and consequently to have been as pleasant a companion to my ingenious friends as if such an intermis- sion from physic had never been.' In this last respect, at least, he was fully gratified, and in after years, still harping on his favourite analogies from the field of medicine, he said he had in this business ' gotten the occasion of practising on his own moralls ; that is, to learn how, with smiles and silence, to elude the sharpest provocation, and without troublesome menstrmims, to digest the roughest injuries that ever a poor man was crammed with.' ' A watchful rival was watching his footsteps, to whom perhaps in some respects he had been unfair, and whose powers of mischief, like his abilities, he rated too meanly. This rival had infiuential friends amongst the extreme religious fanatics of the Anabaptist connection, who hated the Doctor as an un- sound theologian, and also among the eager gang of military claimants who were ready to plunder the State which they professed to serve, expecting the officers of the survey to connive at their misdeeds, and ready to be revenged on them if met with resistance. Such was the position. For better or for worse, Dr. Petty was now about to leave the calm life of ' Reflections, pp. 15, 16. 1654 LETTER TO BOYLE 45 a scientific student, and the peaceful practice of the art of medicine, for the stormy sea of pohtical strife in a pecuHarly troublous time. The following letter to Eobert Boyle may, therefore, be deemed no unfitting termination to the narrative of this period of his career : ' A letter from Mr. William Petty to the Honourable Eobert Boyle, Esq., dated from Dublin, April 15, 1653. ' Sir, — Being not able to write you any such complements as may delight you, nor to enforme you of any such more real matter as might profit you, I desire that those my de- ficiencies, together with my usual rudeness, may be taken for the cause of this long silence. Now indeed I am forced to communicate with you, even to keep up the face of the visible church of philosophers ; for by Mr. Worsely his going for England and Major Morgan's absence in the North, there is no such thing now left at the headqters. If there be any other reason of these lines besides this, and to beg my con- tinuance in the number of your affectionate servants, it is to dissuade you from some things, which my lord of Corke, my lord of Broghill, and some other of your friends think pre- judicial unto you : one whereof is your continual reading. Here, like a Quacksalver, I might tell you how it weakens the brain, how that weakness causeth defluxions and how those defluxions hurt the lungs and the like. But I had rather teU / you that although you read 12 hours joer diem or more, that] you shall really profit by no more of what you read, than by 1 what you remember ; nor by what you remember, but by so much as you understand and digest ; nor by that, but by so much as is new unto you, and pertinently set down. But in 12 hours how little (according to these rules) can you (who know so much already) advantage yourself by this laborious way ? How little of true history doe our books contain ? How shy is every man to publish anything either rare or useful ? How few opinions doe they dehver rationally deduced but from their own principles ? and lastly how few doe begin their tedious systems from principles possible, intelligible and easy to be admitted ? 46 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii ' On the other side, what a stock of experience have you already in most things ? What a faculty have you of making every thing you see an argument of some usefuU conclusion or other ? How much are you practised in the method of cleere and scientiiieal reasoning ? How well doe you understand the true use and signification of words, whereby to register and compute your own conceptions. So well are you accomplisht in all these particulars, that I safely persuade myself, but that your modesty thinks every scribler wiser than yourself, that you can draw more knowledge and satisfaction from two hours of your own meditation, than from 12 hours endurance of other men's loquacity. For when you meditate, it is always upon some thing that you are not yet cleere in (and a little armor will serve, being put upon the right place); but when you reade, you must take your chance and perhaps be corrupted with lies, disgusted with absurdities, and tired with impertinencies ; or made ready to vomitt at the bis (imo centies) recocta cramhe offered unto you. Besides what a difference is there between walking with our naturall legs, and crutches ? or betweene a cloth, whose subtegmen is the same from end to end, and another peeced up out of a 1000 gaudy rags ? But the proverb {verbum sainenti) forbids me to be more tedious. The next disease you labour under, is your apprehension of many diseases, and a continual fear that you are always inclining, or falling into one or other. Here I might tell you of the vanity of life ; or that to fear any evil long, is more intoUerable, than the evil itselfe suffered ; &c. ' But I had rather put you in mind that this distemper is incident to all that begin the study of diseases. Now it is possible that it hangs yet upon you, according to the opinion you may have of yourself, rather than according to the know- ledge that others have of your greater maturity in the faculty. But ad rem. Few terrible diseases have their pathogno- monical signes. Few know those signes without experiences of them, and that in others rather than themselves. More- over ; the same inward causes produce different outward signes ; and, vice versa, the same outward signes may proceed from different inward causes, and therefore those little rules 1654 LETTER TO BOYLE il of prognostication found in our books, need not always be so religiously believed. Again 1000 accidents may prevent a growing disease itselfe, and as many can blow away any suspicious signe thereof, for the vicissitude whereunto all things are subject suffers nothing to rest long in the same condition; and it being no further from Dublin to Corke, then from Corke to Dublin, why may not a man as easily recover of a disease, without much care, as fall into it ? My Cousen Highmore's curious hand hath shewn you so much of the fabrick of man's body, that you cannot thinck, but that so complicate a piece as yourself will be always at some little fault or other. But you ought no more to take every such little struggling of nature for a signe of a formidable disease, then to fear that every little cloud portends a cataract or hurricane. To conclude, this kind of vexation hath been much my own portion, but experience and these considera- tions have well eased me of it. ' The last enditement that I bring against you, is prac- tising upon yourselfe with medicaments (though specifics) not sufficiently tryed by those that administer or advise them. ' It is true, that there is a conceipt currant in the world, that a medicament may be physick and physician both, and may cure diseases a qudcunque causa. But for my part I find the best medicament to be but a toole or instrument : now what are Vandijcks Pencills and Pallet in the hands of a bungling painter, to the imitation of his pieces ? Eecom- mendations of medicaments doe not make them useful to me, but doe only excite me to make them so, by endeavouring experimentally to find out the vertues and apphcation of them. There be few medicaments that can be more and more really praised than diafalma and Basilian ; for they have been carryed up and down m all chirurgeons' salvatoryes for these many hundred years. Yet how few can perform any excellent cures by them or such others ? How hard it is to find out the true vertues of medicaments. As I weep to consider, so I dread to use them, without my utmost endea- vours first employed to that purpose. 48 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, n ' Though none of these arguments prevaile with you, yet I shall pray that nothing of evil consequent to the things, from which I have dissuaded you, prevail upon you. The desire of your encrease in knowledge, and (in order there- unto) of your health, hath made me thus troublesome ; for if what I have said, came from any other principle, I should be ashamed to write myselfe thus confidently ' Your obliged servant, ' Wm. Petty.^ ' Dublin, 15 April, 1653.' While the preliminaries of the survey were being arranged, the struggle between the supporters of Henry Cromwell and of Fleetwood had continued. Although the latter treated Dr. Petty with great confidence, he was personally too much under the influence of the Anabaptist officers to throw over Worsley. The fortunes of Dr. Petty and his rival accordingly varied in regard to the survey, according to the advantage gained by one side or the other in the general political contest. The final result depended to a great extent on events in England ; and when, after the dissolution of Cromwell's First Parlia- ment in January 1655, the breach between the Protector and the fanatical party had greatly widened, the issue in Ireland was no longer doubtful. It was known to be a mere question of time how soon Fleetwood would leave. After several journeys to and fro, Henry Cromwell finally took up his official residence at Dublin in July 1655, and, owing to the emptiness of the Exchequer, it was decided to proceed with the second great disbandment of the army at once. Fleetwood retired to England in the September following, still retaining, however, the title and precedence of Lord Deputy. Dr. Petty could now feel secure, and he entered on his task with confidence.^ He found his ablest assistants in his cousin John, who shared his own talents in mapping and surveying, and in Mr. 2 British Museum Add. MSS. 6198, ceived the title of Major-General of part i. oxvii. B ; Boyle's Works, v. 296. the Forces. In 1657 he was appointed ' Henry Cromwell at first only re- Lord Deputy. 1655 DK. PETTY'S METHOD OF WORK 49 Thomas Taylor. No less valuable were the services of Mr. James Shaen, who had already been employed as one of the Commissioners for the Civil Survey : a man of great parts and energy, but prone to believe, in whatever was being done, that his own and none other could be the organising head and hand. He was inclined to become the enemy and rival of whoever was placed above him, and was probably equally hostUe both to Worsley and Dr. Petty. On April 12, Dr. Petty received from Worsley the in- structions to be observed in making up the books of refer- ence, which, when completed, were, with the maps, to be returned into the office at Dublin. He then proceeded to organise a staff of one thousand persons, consisting of forty clerks at head-quarters, and a little army of surveyors and under-measurers, who worked on the spot in each dis- trict. ' In all these arrangements,' says a contemporary account, ' he had vast opposition, whUe he in a manner stood alone. But he was wont to meditate and fill a quire with all that could in nature be objected, and to write down his answers to each. So that when any new thing started he was prepared, and as it were extempore, to shoot them dead. And as the distribution required exactness in accounts and method, and was a dangerous work, for that the great officers expected to get the parts they had coveted, which going by rate would disappoint, he was forced to show wonders of his own suffi- ciency by being ready at all points. This in like moment he composed by early meditation of all that could happen, so that he retailed everything to their disadvantage. When, upon some loud representations, the rest of the Commission would refer to him, stating all that had passed (which seemed to require a week's work), he would bring all clearly stated the next morning to their admiration. His way was to retire early to his lodgings, where his supper was only a handful of raisins and a piece of bread. He would bid one of his clerks who wrote a fair hand go to sleep, and while he ate his raisins and walked about, he would dictate to the other clerk, who was a ready man at shorthand. When this was fitted to his mind 50 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ir the other was roused and set to work, and he went to bed sa that all was ready.' ^ He applied the principle of division of labour to the making of his instruments, 'considering the vastness of his work.' ' One man made measuring chains — a wire-maker ; another magnetical needles with their pins, viz. a watch-maker ; an- other turned the boxes out of wood and the heads of the stand on which the instrument plays, viz. a turner ; another the stands or legs — a pipe-maker ; another all the brass-work, viz. a founder ; another workman, of more sensitive head and hand, touched the needles, adjusted the sights and cards, and adapted every piece to each other.' Time-scales, pro- tractors, and compasse-cards were obtained from London, ' whither also was sent for " a magazine of royale paper, mouth glue, colours, pencilles, &c." ' A uniform size of field book was determined upon, and, where necessary, the sur- veyors were furnished with small French tents and portable furniture, as it was to be expected that in the wasted counties they would often find neither house nor harbour. Great trouble was taken to secure the most trustworthy meresmen in each barony, and to organise the department of accounts as perfectly as possible. ' But the principal division of the whole work,' Dr. Petty relates, was ' to make certayne -persons such as were able to endure travail, ill lodging and dyett, as alsoe heatts and colds, being men of activity that could leap hedge and ditch, and could alsoe rulHe with the several rude persons in the country ; from whom they might so often expect to be crossed and opposed. The which quali- ' fications happened to be found among several of the ordinary soldiers, many of whom having been bred to trade, could read and write sufficiently for the purposes intended. Such there- fore, if they were but heedful and steady minded, though not of the nimblest witts, were taught.' ' The same principle of dividing the labour as much as possible was carried out in the actual work of the survey, one set of men being em- ployed to value the land and to fix what was profitable and what was unprofitable ; another to do the actual measure- * Nelligan MS., British Museum. « Brief Account, p. xv. 1665 THE ARMY SURVEY COMMENCED 51 ment ; another to make up the books of reference ; and another to draw and paint the maps ; and a few of the ' most nasute and sagacious persons were employed to super- vise, and prevent scamping and frauds.' Finally, and in order, as he says, ' to take away all byass from the under measurers to returne unprofitable for profitable, or vice versa, he him- self having engaged in an ensnaring contract begettinge sus- picioun of those evils against him, in as much he was paid more for profitable than unprofitable,' the supervisors were directed 'to cast up all and every measurer's work into linary contents, according to which they were paid. . . . The quantity of line which was measured by the chain and needle being reduced into English miles, was enough to have encompassed the worlde ne'ere five times about.' ° He also drew up a set of instructions for the office work, to prevent fraud and dishonesty. These the highest authorities have pronounced clever and judicious, and have themselves incor- porated into modern practice.' The amount of lands forfeited in each province was in Leinster about one-half ; in Ulster about one-fifth; in Mun- ster about two-thirds ; in Connaught about three-quarters ; in the whole kingdom about eleven-twentieths of the total amount forfeited.' The head rental of the lands of Ireland was reserved as a source of revenue by the new Government as the legitimate successor of the Crown, but it was remitted for five years. Subject to the head rental it was now deter- mined to proceed to redistribute the whole of the confiscated estates among the adventurers, the army, and the creditors of the Commonwealth. The Civil Survey of most of the baronies had been com- pleted before the end of March 1655. On February 1 of that year the measurement and mapping of the army lands by Dr. Petty actually commenced, and proceeded as the lists and information came in from the Civil Survey Commis- sioners. Dr. Petty's staff had to contend not only with the natural " Brief Account, p. xvii. vii. of the Down Survey, p. 324. ' See Sir T. Larcom's note to oh. " Hardinge, p. 34. E 2 52 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii difficulties of the country, but also with the opposition of the native Irish, who identified the progress of the work with the loss of their own possessions. Notwithstanding the protec- tion afforded by the garrisons, several of the soldiers and sur- veyors were captured and killed by the ' Tories.' Eight, for example, were taken by Donagh O'Derrick, commonly called ' Blind Donagh,' near Timolin, in Kildare, carried off into the mountains, and, after a mock trial, executed.^ But these difficulties were not sufficient even to retard the work in any material degree. The places of the missing soldiers were rapidly filled, and owing to the skilful division of the labour employed, the survey advanced continuously. The original plan had been to carry out the survey of the lands and the distribution to the allottees together, the latter being intended to commence immediately on Dr. Petty reporting the completion of his survey over any district sufficiently large to be distributed regimentally. Owing, however, to various delays occasioned by the disputes amongst the committee of officers, to differences of opinion on several points of detail which arose at the commencement of the work near Dublin, to the constant appearance of fresh grantees from England, and the complications caused by the partial distributions which had taken place in some districts under the Grosse Survey to favoured individuals before Dr. Petty's appointment, the original intention had to be aban- doned, and the distribution definitely severed from the survey.' The partial distributions referred to had been mainly for the benefit of some of the higher officers, who had not only managed to get a start in point of time, but also to get ' the trust of the distribution mainly committed to the persons concerned themselves.' It was very difficult to ascer- tain what had been done, and a general suspicion of unfair- ness and corruption hung over the whole of these transactions. When he began his work Dr. Petty says, ' No amount of what was then done ever did appear as a light unto what was further to be done,' and ' the affair was in an altogether » Webb, Irish Biography, article ' Down Survey, ch. ix. pp. 66, 80 ; ' Petty.' Thurloe, vi. 683. 1655 DISPUTES WITH THE ARMY 5o ragged condition by reason of the precedent irregular and somewhat obscure actings, anno 1553 and 1555, and other uncertainties of debt and credit, as also of clashing in- terests.' ^ Nor did the confusion grow less as the inquiries of the Civil Survey Commissioners proceeded. When their esti- mates first began to come in, it had been believed that the moiety of the ten counties allotted to the army would only satisfy the debt up to a maximum of 12s. 6d. in the pound. As, however, the work of Dr. Petty advanced, his accurate methods began to reveal the fact that in all pro- bability the extent of the forfeited lands had been under- estimated. The committee of officers thereupon demanded that they should be at once paid two-thirds of the claim and receive the remaining third afterwards. Owing, however, to the crippled condition of the finances of the Commonwealth, the Council declined the proposal in regard to the remaining third, and the committee reluctantly agreed to accept in lieu a promise that if, at some future time, it were found possible, they would be paid the balance in lands contiguous to the original allotment ; a promise which the officers felt it would in all probability be impossible to carry out in practice, and was therefore regarded as little better than a mockery. This decision laid the seeds of future bitterness which rapidly grew; for soon it was more loudly declared than ever that a sufficiency of land evidently existed for the satisfaction of the whole army debt in full. The army committee accord- ingly petitioned that the regiments now about to be disbanded might be put into speedy possession of their full and entire satisfaction, according to the Act of Parliament, offering, if it was found on a final account being taken of the whole busi- ness, that any parties entitled had been shut out, to compen- sate the losers in money .^ They also pointed to the four counties reserved by the Government as in their opinion equitably within their own claims should any lands in them remain ungranted, especially if the adventurers, who techni- " Down Surisey, pp. 185, 337. ^ Ch. is. of the Down Survey contains the account of these transactions. 54 LIFE OF SIR "WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii cally ranked first, had previously been satisfied in full, and anything still remained unallotted. The Council, however, which by this time had passed entirely under the influence of Henry Cromwell, finding the financial situation to be even more serious than it had been believed to be, decided against the demand of the officers to be satisfied in full.* A furious controversy at once sprang up, and many of the officers threatened to refuse to take up their allotments, irritated, no doubt, by the sight of their more fortunate colleagues who had got satisfied first in the hap- hazard and questionable manner already described.^ Mean- while, the officers who in the early distributions had gained this unfair advantage were representing themselves as ag- grieved, and were asking for more; probably hoping that this was the best means of at least retaining possession of what they had got. The Council, however, refused to be intimidated by any of the contending factions. ' Liberty and countenance,' Henry Cromwell said, 'they may expect from me, but to rule me or rule with me I should not approve of.' They were therefore informed that it was intended that the overplus of the lands, if any, which might remain after the satisfaction by the two-thirds payment was, owing to the financial necessities of the situation, ' to lye entirely together for the better convenience of the Commonwealth and remain- ing part of the army,' and that whether the exact proportion paid would ultimately be two-thirds, or some other proportion, must depend on circumstances. This decision in no way satisfied the claimants ; and to Dr. Petty, as he himself points out, it became the cause of ' great and unexpected hardshipps,' as most unjustly, he was made responsible for it by the officers, who quite understood that under the terms, however courteous in appearance, there lay a hardly concealed intention of using whatever surplus lands might ultimately be found to exist, for the payment of expenses of the survey and of the other grow- * See Thurloe, v. 309, 709. iii. 710, 715, 728, 744 ; yi. 683 ; ' Prendergast, p. 86 ; Down Survey, vii. 291 ; Ludlow's Memoirs, ed. 1771, pp. 63-66, 211, 185, 186, and note p. 196. to ch. xiv. p. 337 ; Thui?loe, ii. 314 ; 1656 THE ARMY SURVEY FINISHED 55 ing debts of the Commonwealth, civil and military, which the statutory reservations already made were insufficient to <;over.^ By April 1656 the greater part of the undertaking was finished ; in the autumn of that year the work was complete. Dr. Petty then proposed that proper arrangements should be made for the official examination, and it was accordingly referred by the CouncU to a committee, who reported favour- ably on the execution of the task. It was next submitted to Worsley as Surveyor-General, but he alleged various defects and omissions, and urged them with great pertinacity. To these criticisms Dr. Petty replied, pointing out the difficulties, especially the absence of ready money and the confusion of the country, under which the work had had to be performed, and that the omissions in question were all in way of being <;ompleted and were to be traced to the above-mentioned cir- cumstances. He therefore formally applied to the Council to give back the contract, and release his securities. This appli- cation was referred to the Attorney-General, who recom- mended that the Doctor's application should be granted. The Council, however, at Worsley's instigation, still for a time delayed giving their assent, but ultimately decided that the work had been properly performed. The bond was then cancelled and the contract given back, to the great vexation of the persons who had constituted themselves the critics of the work, and had prophesied a failure.^ ' Mr. Worsley,' says Dr. Petty, ' rackt himself and his brains to invent racks for the examination of my work : not unlike the policy of the Church of Kome, as it was deciphered to me by Monsieur Cantarine, that priest whom we were wont to admire for his wit, notwithstanding his feeding and age. This priest and self were eating together at the image of St. Ambrose, our ordinary, and together with us a mad and swearing debauchee. After dinner I asked M. Cantarine what penance they used to impose upon such lewd fellows; he .answered me: "Very little, for," said he, "they would do ' Down Swrvey, p. 66 ; Thurloe, ii. 314, iv. 433. ' Down Survey, oh. xiii. 56 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii little, if we should, and rather neglect the very Church than put themselves to any pains that way ; which when they do, they come no more to us, but become incorrigible heretickst But," said he, " they be the Bigotts and Devout Persons whom wee load with penance, and on whom wee impose all the scrutinies imaginable in their confession ; because such care, and will submit to us therein." In like manner, because I was- willing to give content in all things reasonable had I unrea- sonable things put upon mee, always enduring a more than Inquisition-like severity.' ' While these events were taking place, the committee of the adventurers, sitting at Grocers' Hall, London, had be- come involved in interminable discussions, but at last, in September 1656, they decided to entrust the survey and admeasurement of their lands to Dr. Petty and Worsley jointly. An order and instructions were accordingly issued by the Council, in regard to the forfeited lands in the counties on which the adventurers had a joint claim with the army, to those in Louth and Leitrim, and to those escheated, but as yet not admeasured, in the remaining counties of Ireland. The lands in the liberties of Galway and Athenry were specially excepted from this order, because they were appointed for the satisfaction of the regicide. Colonel Whalley, and they were confided to the superintendence of Dr. Petty by orders of April 3 and December 29, 1657. Thus was begun 'the second great survey,' which was carried out on the same lines and by the same persons as the first, and proceeded with equal regularity and speed.^ Owing to the disputes already described between the different categories of officers and soldiers, the provision in the contract by which Dr. Petty had engaged to mark out at once the subdivision by name amongst the allottees on his maps had, as already seen, been unavoidably dispensed with, and the actual allotment for the time adjourned. Meanwhile, ' Reflections, pp. 23, 24. Compare " Down Survey, p. 53 ; Hardinge, D'Alembert, Sur la Destruction des p. 24. Jisuites en France, ed. 1765, p. 67. 1656 DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARMY LANDS 57 the lists of forfeited lands prepared by the Civil Survey Com- mission and the maps, had been returned into the Court of Chancery. But when, owing to the firmness of Henry Crom- well, the disputes had at last been brought to some kind of at least superficial settlement, the work of distribution had to be entered upon. This was really a far more difficult matter than even the survey which preceded it. In the first, Dr. Petty had had mainly to contend with the natural difficulties of the country ; in the second, whoever was entrusted with it would have to wrestle with the fiercest passions of the human heart, excited by greed and ambition. Henry Cromwell, weary at last of the opposition of a few interested critics, had insisted that there should be no further delay, and on May 20, 1656, the Council decided that the lands allotted to the army should be distributed according to Dr. Petty's maps and admeasurement by a committee of agents or trustees chosen by the army, as contemplated by the Act, and without necessarily waiting for the previous distribution of their lands to the adventurers, who, as aheady seen, techni- cally ranked first. But a large committee was evidently use- less, and after long and acrimonious disputes, the distribution was ultimately delegated, through the determination of Henry Cromwell, on May 20, 1656, to a committee of six, and eventually on July 10 following to an executive of three — Dr. Petty, Vincent Gookin, and Colonel Miles Symner — the last an officer who appears to have been persona grata to the party of the Protector, and is described by Dr. Petty as ' a person of known integrity and judgment.' Subsequently Mr. King was added to their number. The choice was remark- able. It indicated the triumph of the ideas of the civilian party over the rapacity of the officers, and the defeat of the fanatical section amongst the latter. The larger committee of six would, it was hoped, have com- posed the differences among the officers before the distribution began, for it had been discovered at an early period that the Act rates produced the gravest injustice, as lands varied as much in value between particular counties as they did between the pro- vinces. To obviate this injustice, a system of equalising the 58 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii rates as between the different counties in each province had been agreed upon by the Committee of Officers before casting the lot, which decided to which county each regiment was to be assigned. But it soon was noticed that lands varied just as much in value in the baronies and in the smaller denomina- liions as in the counties, and fresh complaints arose. After much discussion the system of equalisation was extended to the baronies, and the plan on which the lands of the army were distributed was ultimately arranged as follows. The regiments in each province having settled in which county and barony each was to be located, the forfeited lands were then arranged on a string or list, barony by barony ; and finally, a lot or ticket was made for every troop or company, with the arrears marked on it which were due in each case, and the total number of acres they represented subject to the equalisation, with the names of the several officers and soldiers. A species of ballot, or ' boxing,' as it was called then, determined in what barony the lot fell for each troop or company; and finally, the lot of each officer and soldier in the smaller civil denominations and the order in which they ranked.^ The equalisations made by the officers, notwithstanding their attempt at redressing the most glaring inequalities, were at best of a very rough and ready description. ' They were made,' Dr. Petty afterwards wrote, ■' as parties interested could prevail upon and against one another by their attendance, friends, eloquence, and vehemence : for what other foundation of truth it had in nature I know not.' The army had indeed signed a paper in which they all declared 'that they had rather take a lott upon a barren mountaine as a portion from the Lord, than a portion in the most fruitful valley, upon their own choice ; ' but when Providence gave ' a lott upon a barren mountaine,' then too often the contrast with the more for- tunate possessor who had obtained ' a portion in a most fruitful valley ' became more than the minds of even the elect could endure. ' The principal care,' says Dr. Petty, ' was to avoid the County of Kerry because of its reputed poverty ; ' and resort was had to every kind of device to obstruct the ways of ' Down Survey, pp. 86, 102, 208, and p. 337 note. 1666-1657 DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARMY LANDS 59 Providence in fixing a portion from the Lord in that particular district.^ ' This party of men,' says Dr. Petty, ' although they all seemed to be fanatically and democratically disposed, yet in truth were animals of all sorts, as in Noah's Ark.'^ ' The great officers expected to get the parts they had coveted,' and were ready to make everybody who stood in their way suffer for their opposition. Owing to these furious ambitions and jealousies, the hope that the committee of officers would be able to settle all the differences amongst the allottees before the distribution began, was disappointed, and the commis- sioners, of whom Dr. Petty by the force of circumstances became the directing hand, owing to his technical know- ledge, had now to settle for themselves the burning question of what proportion of each claim was actually to be paid, and also to decide how to deal with the earlier allottees, as well as to settle many minor points. In order to arrive at a just decision they determined to pass over all previous discussions, declarations and conces- sions, and reduced the whole army by calculation to the state it was in in 1654, when they had cast the regimental lot so as to allow derivative claims.-* This was the debtor side of the account. They then ascertained what lands were at their disposal, according to the Act of Parliament and the Orders in Council issued under it. This was the creditor side of the account. ' The whole forfeited land set aside for the army was destined to pay the whole army debt at certain values specified by the Act ; and it was necessary that the whole should be cast or recast in one crucible, that all might share alike. Accordingly, setting aside the enhanced rates at which the former settled parties had been redeemed, the prayer for additional compensation, and the remonstrance of the army against it. Dr. Petty appears to have computed the claims of the whole army as if one uniform distribution had been made, and then considered each as having received, or being about to receive, such or such a quota pars, in order to make up the 2 Political Anatomy of Ireland, oh. ■■ Down Survey, oh. xiv. p. 207 ; X. p. 342 ; Down Sv/rvey, pp. 91, 210. Reflections, p. 116. ' Nelligan MS., British Museum. 60 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, ir deficient, and pare down the redundant, to the same rate in the pound on their respective claims.' ' The amount actually to be received by each claimant appears to have been fixed at five-eighths on the arrears of pay, as commuted into land at the adventurers' rates, subject to the equalisations agreed upon. The odd roods and perches on the regimental allotments, called 'the refuse ends and tayle lots,' were withdrawn with the consent of the army from the distribution. It was hoped that these surplus lands and the advantage to the public gained by equalising the rates, which diminished the total amount allotted, would materially increase the fund remaining over to meet the other unsatisfied liabilities of the Commonwealth.^ The officers grew very unruly and clamorous while the work went on, so much so that Major Symner lost his head, and for a time had to retire; nevertheless by February 1657 the distribution was complete, so far as the task of the executive committee was concerned. Dr. Petty and his staff had surveyed for the army 3,521,181 acres, and the sum passed as due to him was 18,532Z. 8s. i^d., including 1,000L for the cotmty and barony maps. Out of this sum had to be deducted the whole of the expenses of the survey, and a sum of 1,538L 8s. 6d. for the surveyors under the jprevious abortive survey whom he had agreed to pay. The money owed him by the army, after considerable delay, was paid, with the exception of a sum of 6141. In order to get in a large portion of the sum due, he says he was forced ' to collect and wrangle out of the soldiers in an ungrateful way and by driblets, what the State was bound to pay him in a lump, and to receive in bad Spanish money what he was to have in good sterling.' '' Not being able to get the whole amount due to him paid, he was obliged to accept in lieu of it as much of a debt of 3,181L 14s. 3d. owed to the State by the army as » Sir T. Laroom's note, Down Sur- to the intricate teolinioal points oon- vey, p. 336, and see also Down Survey, nected witll the survey and distribu- eh. xiv. pp. 191, 195. I desire here once tion. more to record the obligation expressed " Down Survey, ^^.1%^, and Sir T. in the Preface, which I owe to the Laroom's note to ch. xv. pp. 389, 340. notes by Sir Thomas Larcom in regard ' Reflections, p. 47. 1656-1657 DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARMY LANDS 61 he might be able to collect. Eventually, when the whole of the arrangements for the satisfaction of the army had been completed, he commuted this debt into land debentures repre- senting 1,000Z. in surplus undistributed ' refuse ends and tayle lots,' which were assigned to him at Act rates by the Council in exchange for his debt, according to the provisions of the Act, which, as already stated, enabled the Council to pay for the work in land in lieu of money. He was also allowed in connection with this arrangement to invest a portion of the debt in mortgages on lands encumbered to the Common- wealth, which under the Act had been kept out of the general distribution, and to redeem these lands. But he undertook in the event of the ' refuse ends and tayle lots ' being found to exceed the amount due to him, or if the soldiers brought in their remaining pennies, to cancel debentures to that amount ; and he entered into securities of SflOOl. to guarantee these conditions. In this manner he received for the army debt, and the sum of 1,000Z. owing to him, 9,665 a. 1 r. 6 p. of profitable land, with a proportion of unprofitable ; and from mortgages of encumbered land he bought 300 acres in Leinster and Munster, and 1,000 in Ulster. By the adventurers Dr. Petty was promised 600L* For his services as Commissioner of Distribution, Dr. Petty, ' observing the Treasury to be low, appUed to be paid in debentures, and received lands under Orders from the Council as follows : In the liberties of Limerick In the county of Kerry, in the parish of Tuosist In Meath, near Duleek ' As to the adventurers' survey, see turers' survey in the History are few the references in the History of and meagre, as compared with the ao- the Down Swrvey, pp. 53, 127, 136, count of the survey of the army lands ; 236, 246, 247. The order for the the reason being that the adven- survey is to be found in the appen- turers' survey was not the object of dix to Sir Thomas Larcom's edition, much subsequent attack. The men p. 390. The references to the adven- of business with whom Petty had to A. E. p. 1,653 1 8,559 31 655 18 250 62 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii these lands being the equivalent of a sum of 2,000L due to him.' The result of all these payments was a net sum of 9,000L' The maps of the forfeited lands comprised in the army allotments had been completed very close upon the period of thirteen months from February 1, 1655, to which, under his agreement. Dr. Petty was limited ; but as he had asked time to make the record complete, the ofiBcial deposit did not take place till June 24, 1657, when ' all the books with the respec- tive mapps, well drawne and adorned, being fairly engrossed, bound up, indexed and distinguished, were placed in a noble repository of carved worke and so delivered into the Exchequer.' ^ Fresh difficulties, however, now arose. Many of the officers refused to take up their allotments, hoping that if the adventurers' claims were settled first, the army would obtain a better result by claiming the residue in what were known as the ' dubious lands,' than if their own claims were satisfied first, as was now proposed, and the earlier allottees refused to give up anything. Their eyes were also still fixed on the rich lands in County Louth, which many hoped to obtain instead of allotments in the desolate regions of Kerry. At length it was agreed, on the suggestion of the Lord Deputy, that in order to get the matter forward. Dr. Petty should go to England and meet the committee of the adven- turers.' He was also entrusted with the care of handing over deal appear to have behaved far more pp. 339, 340 ; and the Reflections, reasonably than the grasping body of p. 25. military men whom he had had to ■ Sir William Petty's Will, meet in the first survey. The sum ^ Down Survey, p. 188, and Brief of 600Z. is given as 60Z. in the copy Account, p. xvii. ' This cabinet of most of Sir William Petty's will, printed in exquisite joiners' work,' also mentioned the Petty Tracts ; but the correct as the repository of the maps in the figure in the text of the will is that Brie/ 4ccOMwi, is probably the antique printed above. The survey of the press discovered by Mr. Hardinge in lands allotted to the other creditors the Treasury Buildings, Lower Castle are not specially mentioned in any of Yard. See note at the end of the these accounts. chapter. ' Down Survey, chs. xii., xv. See, ^ Thurloe, vi. p. 760 ; Down Survey, too. Sir Thomas Laroom's Notes, p. 211. 1668 THE ' ADVENTUREES" SURVEY 63 to Secretary Thurloe the addresses of the Irish army accept- ing the order of things estabhshed by ' The Humble Petition and Advice,' and ' The Instrument of Government ' — addresses not obtained without great difficulty from the Independent and Anabaptist officers — and he was also the bearer of letters to General Fleetwood, and to Lord Broghill, then in England and unwell. ' Dr. Petty,' Henry Cromwell wrote to Fleetwood, ' is coming over with the addresses, and to see whether any con- clusion can be made with the adventurers, with whom we are daily troubled. I shall only say this for him, that he has in all the late transactions shown himself an honest man.' Dr. Petty, he told Lord BroghUl, ' is one to whom your lordship may safely communicate such things as your hearers and indisposition will not permit you to write yourself.'^ There is a glimpse of Dr. Petty during his visit to London in a letter from Hartlib to Boyle, from which it appears that his surveying operations had not quenched his interest in scientific subjects. Dr. Petty, Hartlib teUs Boyle, ' has been with me two hours. He talked of an educational plan on which he proposed to spend 2,000Z., not doubting but that he would be a • good gainer in the conclusion of it. The design aims at the founding of a college or colony of twenty able learned men, very good Latinists of several nations, that should teach the Latin tongue (as other vulgar languages are learnt) merely by use and custom. This, with the history of trades, he looks upon as the great pillars of the reformation of the world.'^ Most of his time was, however, occupied by his negotia- tions. He found the committee of adventurers again in- volved in disputes. It required several months to adjust the points at issue, but so favourable was the impression he created, that notwithstanding anonymous attacks which pursued him from Ireland, instigated by the officers who were dissatisfied at not obtaining full measure, he was made a • H. Cromwell to Fleetwood, May 5, " Hartlib to Boyle, August 10, 1658, 1658 ; H. Cromwell to Lord Broghill, in Boyle's Works, v. p. 280. May 1658 ; Thurloe, vii. pp. 144-5. 64 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii member of the executive appointed by the adventurers' committee for the distribution of their lands. This execu- tive accomplished its task about the autumn of 1658. The work was far easier than in the case of the army lands, for the claims as a rule were larger in amount and smaller in number. As in the case of the army lands, a ballot or boxing was adopted to settle the order of the claim- ants, and the lands were distributed by the string thus created. The maps of the counties which were the joint property of the adventurers and the army, and of Louth, had been completed in about thirteen months, but they were not returned into the Surveyor-General's Office till the latter end of 1659, for reasons similar to those which had caused a delay in the final deposit of the maps of the army survey. The allotment of the adventurers' lands was the last step in the great work Dr. Petty had undertaken, and before it was entirely completed an event had occurred which hastened it on and rendered all the claimants anxious to settle. On September 4, 1658, the Protector died, while Dr. Petty was still in England. By the end of the year, except in the ' dubious lands,' the allottees were everywhere entering into possession. Owing, however, to the determination of the earlier military allottees not to allow "their allotments to be pared down to a common level, and the impossibility of giving possession in the case of the ' dubious, encumbered and withdrawn lands,' great inequalities still existed, ' some of the adventurers being left defi- cient and some of the soldiers being wholly deficient also, and some but in part satisfied ; some according to a quota of 4s. 3d. in the pound, and some 2s. Bd. only.' The maximum actually received seems to have varied from 12s. M. to 13s. M.^ The allotment was not indeed perfect ; the circumstances did not permit of it ; but to the rapidity with which the survey and the distribution were carried out, the army and the adventurers owed it that they were in possession of their lands at the Eestoration, when a very different distribution would probably " ' Another more calm and true Nelligau MS., Brit. Mus. ; see also narrative of the sale and aettlement,' Down Survey, p. 208. 1658 OPINION OF CLARENDON 6o have taken place, if the advocates of change had not been met by the logic of accompUshed facts, which they were compelled, however unwillingly, to respect. From first to last the settlement of Ireland by the Com- monwealth had occupied a space of four years, of which the actual distribution of the lands had occupied half. All this, ' which is the more wonderful,' says Clarendon, ' was done and settled within httle more than two years, to that degree of perfection that there were many buildings raised for beauty as well as for use, orderly plantation of trees, and fences and enclosures raised throughout the kingdom, pur- chases made by one from the other at very valuable rates, and jointures made upon marriages, and all other conveyances and settlements executed as in a kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt would be made of the validity of the titles.'^ Such is the contemporary testimony of the great historian of the rebellion. Equally decisive is the verdict of one of the most skilled of modern Irish administrators, and one of the highest authorities on the art of surveying — at an interval of nearly two centuries — on the labours of his pre- decessor. ' It is difficult,' Sir Thomas Larcom wrote in 1851, 'to imagine a work more full of perplexity and uncertainty than to locate 32,000 officers, soldiers, and followers, with adven- turers, settlers, and creditors of every kind and class, having different and uncertain claims, on lands of different and un- certain value in detached parcels sprinkled over two-thirds of the surface of Ireland ; nor, as Dr. Petty subsequently ex- perienced, a task more thankless in the eyes of the contem- porary million. It was for his comfort that he obtained and kept the good opinion of those who were unprejudiced and impartial. The true appeal is to the quiet force of public opinion, as time moves on and anger gradually subsides ; and from that tribunal the award has long been favourable to the work of Dr. Petty. It stands to this day, with the accom- panying books of distribution, the legal record of the title on which half the land of Ireland is held ; and for the purpose to which it was and is applied, it remains sufficient.' ' ' Clarendon's Life, p. 116. » Down Survey, notes, pp. 338, 347. F 66 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii NOTES TO CHAPTEB II I On the Maps of the Survey It may be surmised that the chest mentioned in Chapter XIII. of the ' Down Survey ' is the same as that described by Mr. Hardinge, which, on being opened by him in a room where it was discovered at Dublin m 1837, was found to contain townlands maps of some of the surveys on two scales : a reduced scale as described in the ' Brief Account,' and a larger scale, from which apparently the official maps had been reduced, thereby affording important evidence for Mr. Hardinge's contention that there were two sets of townland maps — the first set on a large scale, and the second set or official maps on a reduced scale. The latter were undoubtedly those officially deposited. The maps so deposited were, however, not uniform in scale, but were made on a variety of scales in order to accommodate the baronies and parishes, which naturally varied in size, to a sheet of 'royal' paper of uniform dimensions; the effect of which was to reduce the original barony maps to scales varying from 80 to 640 perches to the square inch, and the original parish maps to scales varying from 60 to 140 perches to the square inch. These official maps were greatly injured in the fire of 1711, which destroyed a large portion of the Government offices in Dublin. What became of the original maps is doubtful.' A few of them were found by Mr. Hardinge in 1837 in the old press in the ancient Treasury buildings in Dublin, with a few of the reduced official and parish maps, but the remainder have been lost. Their discovery, as pointed out by Mr. Hardinge, would be of special interest, owing to the partial destruction of the official maps.' ' A set of barony maps,' says Mr. Hardinge, 'preserved in La Bibliotheque ImpMale at Paris, have by many been supposed to be the originals. The Irish Parlia- ment and the Government were led into this mistake when Colonel Vallancey, E.E., was engaged, at a heavy cost, in 1791, to make " Down Survey, p. 323, note to the chests of Distribution books, with ch. vii. ; Hardinge, pp. 26-9. two chests of loose papers relating to ' In the estimate of his estate made the Survey, the two great Barony in his will. Sir W. Petty says : ' I books, and the books of the History of value my three chests of original the Survey, altogether, at two thou- mapps, Field books, the copy of the sand pounds.' Down Survey with barony mapps, and 1668 THE SURVEY MAPS 67 copies of them for the office of Surveyor-General of Crown Lands in Ireland. The Irish Eecord Commissioners fell into the same error, and it has been recently reiterated in the Preface to a " Calendar of the Patent and Close EoUs of Chancery in the Eeign of Queen Elizabeth," compiled by Mr. James Morrin, and published under the directions of the Master of the EoUs in Ireland, with the further additional statement, " that the Down Survey records were carried to France by King James II., and that they still remain there." I personally examined the Parisian set of barony maps many years ago, and after a very careful comparison of them with an original volume, belonging to the Surveyor-General's set, brought with me for the purpose, can authoritatively pronounce the Parisian maps to be but copies of the Down Survey barony maps, enlarged in their text by introducing into their parochial subdivisions the outlines and names of the townlands ; and this enlargement was made by Petty from the Surveyor-General's set of Down Survey parish maps. The difference between the Down Survey and Parisian set of barony maps is so striking, that I am surprised that any official examiner should have concluded the Parisian set to be originals. The history of the Parisian maps is this. A French privateer, cruising in the Channel in the year 1710, captured a ship having on board these maps in transit from Dublin to the son and heir of Sir William Petty, at Lothbury, London, when they were immediately carried to Paris and deposited in La BibHothSque du Eoi, where they have remained ever since. Were this set of barony maps restored by the French Government, they would be of no more value than the copies made of them by VaUancey. They were compiled, as described, from the Down Survey barony and parish maps, between the years 1660 and 1678, while VaUancey's copies of these were made in 1790 and 1791, but neither set would be received as evidence, except by consent, in any court of justice in these kingdoms.' ^ The error as to these maps noticed by Mr. Hardinge is repeated in Edward's ' History of Libraries,' ii. 259. During the Lord Lieutenancy of the Earl of Essex, who succeeded the Duke of Ormonde, copies of the barony maps were by his direc- tion made by Mr. Thomas Taylor, in sixteen volumes, imperial folio. These found their way into the Ashburnham collection of manuscripts, and without their aid no complete idea can be formed of the distribution of the forfeited lands.^ Hardinge, pp. 32, 33. sioners, Part III. p. 40 ; and Har- ' See Appendix to the Eighth Ee- dinge, Part III. p. 284, who says two port of the Historical MSS. Commis- copies were made. p2 68 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ii II Clauses of the Act of 1653 relating to purchase of land by the surveyors and others, and their payment in land debentures : ' Peovidbd always, and be it hereby declared, that no Surveyor- General, Eegistrar, Under- Surveyor, or any other person employed in the execution of this service, his or their ehilde, or children, during the time of their employment, or any in trust for him or them, shall be admitted directly or indirectly, to be a purchaser of any part of the lands to be surveyed, upon pain that the purchase be void unless that they do first acquaint the Commissioners of Parliament with their desires and obtain excuse from them for the same.' ' Peovidbd always that if any of the aforesaid persons to be employed by this Act, their child or children, heir or executors, have arreares or publique debts due unto them from the Parhament, which shall be allowed of as aforesaid, that the Commissioners of Parliament be and are hereby authorized to lay out and make over lands for their satisfaction in such manner and at such rates as are appointed by this present Act for other arrears or debts of the same nature.' ^ " Soobell, Acts and Ordinances for 1653, oh. xii. 69 CHAPTEE III DE. PETTY AND HBNEY CEOMWELL 1658-1660 Sir Hierome Sankey — Dr. Petty and Henry Cromwell — Death of Oliver Crom- well — Attacks on Dr. Petty — Election at Kinsale — M.P. for West Looe — Attack on Dr. Petty in Parliament — Dr. Petty's speech — Fall of the Crom- weUian party — Eenewed attacks on Dr. Petty — ' Eefleotions on Ireland ' — 'History of the Survey' — The Eestoration — Character of Bradshaw — Politics and Keligion — The Situation in 1660. De. Petty's work was now over, with the exception of the distribution of the ' dubious lands.' The survey was com- plete, and, in the statutory acceptation of the term, all were technically ' satisfied.' But considering the nature of the operation, the number of the claimants, and aU the cir- cumstances of the case, it can hardly be a matter of surprise that many were very far from being contented. From the very outset, the soldiers had been anything but unanimous in approving the plan of paying them with Irish land ; and, partly owing to their discontent, and partly through pecuniary distress, they had commenced selling their debentures at cheap rates to the officers, who eagerly welcomed the oppor- tunity of becoming large landed proprietors. Many also of the officers, and some of the most influential, were dis- contented with the results of the allotment in their own particular cases. Some impugned the ways of Providence, others blamed Dr. Petty. Discontent was especially prevalent among the Munster regiments, the lot of which had partly fallen in the inhospitable regions of Kerry. At an early stage in the distribution, a struggle had begun between the Commit- tees respectively representing these regiments and those whose lot had fallen in Leinster and Ulster, as to the assignment of certain properties.' The leader on the Munster side amongst ' Down Survey, oh. a. 70 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, hi the officers was Sir Hierome Sankey. He is described by Wood as having been educated at Cambridge ; ' but being more given to manly exercises than logic and philosophy, he was observed by his contemporaries to be a boisterous fellow at cudgelling and football playing, — though a candidate for holy orders — and more fitt in all respects to be a rude soldier than a scholar or man of polite parts. In the beginning of the rebelHon, he threw off his gown, and took up arms for the Parliament; and soon after became a captaia, a Presbyterian, an Independent, a preacher, and I know not what besides,' says Wood, who goes on to relate that, when the war ceased and the King's cause declined. Sir Hierome obtained a fellowship at All Souls College from the committee of visitors. He was proctor in 1649, and officiated as such when Fairfax was made a Doctor of Civil Law, but ' retained his military employment, and went in the character of a commander to Ireland.' ^ There he served with great distinction, and was amongst the earliest grantees of forfeited lands, as upon a Parliamentary order of October 22, 1652, the Commissioners for the affairs of Ireland ordered a survey to be made of the manor of Kilmainham in Leinster in his favour.^ He next declared himself an Anabaptist, and trusting partly to his own pushing temperament, and partly to the favour which he enjoyed with the extreme fanatics of the army owing to his new profession of faith, he attempted to obtain an order for rejecting three thousand acres which had fallen to him by lot, and for enabling him to elect arbitrarily the same quantity elsewhere, ' a thing,' says Dr. Petty, 'never before heard of.' * This demand the Commissioners refused, and Sir Hierome determined to have his revenge,* especially on Dr. Petty, whom he considered mainly responsible for the refusal. Other circumstances besides these militated to bring Sir Hierome into collision with Dr. Petty and to embitter the quarrel. Not only was Sir Hierome an Anabaptist, but ' Wood, Fasti Oxonienses, Part II. Preface xxiv. and p. 130. pp. 119, 148, 156, Ed. 1817 ; see also 4 » Hardinge, p. 5. Contemporary Sistory of Affairs in ' Beflections, p. 69. Ireland, ed. by Mr. John L. Gilbert ' Doitm Survey, p. 81. for the Irish Arohseological Society. 1658 SIB HIEROME SAXKEY 71 he appears to have belonged to a pecuHar section of that body, which professed itself able to cure illness by the laying on of hands, and was persuaded that the fumes of their own bodily humours were the emanations of God's spirit.^ On these claims Dr. Petty was constantly pouring a boundless ridicule from the point of view of medical science. His ' Eeflections' are full of grotesque anecdotes of the spiritual claims and antics of Sh- Hierome and his coadjutors. Thus he relates how a Mr. Wadman, being in a fit of melancholy, owing to the death of his wife, was visited by Sir Hierome, who, taking notice of some odd expressions let faU by the patient, came to the conclusion that Wadman was possessed : 'that is, to speak in the language of Sir Hierome's order, ■enchanted.' Sir Hierome thereupon undertook to cast out the devil. At the end of every period of his conjurations, he would ask Mr. Wadman ' how he did,' to which the invariable reply was, ' All one.' ' At length, Sir Hierome being weary of his vain exorcisms, was fain to say that Wadman's devil was of that sort which required fasting as well as prayer to expell it. Whereupon the spectators, observing how plentifully Sir Hierome had eaten and tippled that evening, did easily con- ceive the cause why the devil did not stir.' Sir Hierome claimed earlier in life to have successfully exorcised a cele- brated walking spirit named ' Tuggin,' 'between whom and him there were great bickerings ; ' but that struggle, Dr. Petty maliciously reminded his adversary, was when he was aspiring to holy orders in the Established Church,' and he told him that he might consequently be more correctly described as a * curate adventurer ' than a ' knight adventurer.' ^ For these jibes and jeers Dr. Petty had to pay. All through the later stages of the distribution of the army lands. Dr. Petty describes himself, alluding possibly to the early prowess in manly sports of Sir Hierome — as 'having been like a restless football, kiokt up and down by the dirty feet of a discontented multitude,' and as ' having been tyed all day long to the stake, io be baited for the most part by irrational creatures.^ . . . ' jxejiecimns, p. 139. ' Ibid. p./k-7jollo//L I- f^ n 1- |il3Jj A^c*- ■ - pMa/zi ■■':5-,7 ,' . KJ?C^ /:: THE DOUBLE-BOTTOM SHIP \^To/ace page 112 1664-1665 AVEECK OF THE 'EXPERIMENT' 113 have made for this ship ; and excellent company and a good discourse ; but above all, I do value Sir William Petty.' The pleasant prospect was, however, soon to be overclouded, and dire disaster was impending, for in the following year the ship perished in the Irish Channel, in a great storm, which, in the words of Anthony Wood, ' overwhelmed a great fleet the same night ; so that the ancient fabric of ships had no reason to triumph upon that new model, when, of seventy sail that were in the same storm, there was not one escaped to bring the news.'' Notwithstanding this disaster. Sir WilUam still continued to believe in the correctness of the principles on which the vessel was constructed, and only awaited a favourable oppor- tunity to apply them again in practice. ' Honoured friends,' he wrote in a circular to the subscribers for the ship, ' I wish I were able to repair what all of our friends have suffered. . . . 'Tis my unhappiness to believe that this designe will not dye, and therefore I should be glad to receive somewhat for a fourth adventure, which I can with the same confidence as upon the third proceeding. I am not much discouraged, and am less ashamed at anything that has happened. I have willingly deceived nobody, nor have I been much deceived myself. The greatest do not always hitt their marks. This adversitie will try and steady the resolution.' ^ The controversy which raged around the double-bottomed ship kept Sir William in London and the neighbourhood. Evelyn relates how about this time he was at the Durdans, in Surrey, where he found Sir William and Dr. Wilkins and Mr Hooke, ' contriving chariots, new rigging for ships, and a wheele for one to run races in,^ and other mechanical in- ventions,' and perhaps, he says, 'three such persons together were not to be found elsewhere in Europe for facts and learn- ' Pepys's Diary, iv. S56. Wood, Papers, Domestic Series, Ixxx. 274, 437. Atheniz Oximienses, iv. 215, 216. Eve- ^ Apparently an early idea of the lyn makes the ship perish in the Bay velocipede or cycle. In the church of of Biscay. Stoke Poges, near Slough, on an '■^ June 16, 1666, Petty MSS. Also ancient window of the date of 1642, ' H. M. to Henry Muddleman,' Sep- a figure may be seen riding a rude tember 16, 1663 ; 'J. C. to Williamson,' wheel. See the Wayfarer, February January 4, 1664, in the Calendar State 1888, pp. 12-14. 114 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY ohap. it ing.' '' Sir William's name also frequently occurs amongst those present at the gatherings — so faithfully recorded by Pepys — at the coffee-house, where the leaders in science, literature, and politics, used to assemble and discuss the topics of the day. The celebrated Diary depicts him the centre of a brilliant group, kept constantly alive by his discourse, en- riched as it was by a varied experience of life, and seasoned by the flavour of paradox and the satirical gifts which, in the practi- cal affairs of life, had already been the cause of trouble to him, and were to be so again; but in these meetings struck no rankling wound, where they only played round the genial souls of Pepys and his chosen friends, instead of hurtling down in an iron hail on the obnoxious head of Sir Hierome Sankey and his Anabaptist allies. ' January 11, 1664. — To the coffee-house, whither came Sir William Petty and Captain Graunt, and we fell to talke of musique, the universal character, art of memory, prayers, counterfeiting of hands, and other most excellent discourses to my great content, having not been in so good a company a great while.^ ' January 27, 1664. — At the coffee-house, where I sat with Sir S. Ascue and Sir William Petty, who in discourse is methinks one of the most rational men that ever I heard speak with a tongue, having all his notions the most distinct and clear, and among other things saying that in all his life these three books were the most esteemed and generally cried up for within the world : " Eeligio Medici," " Osborne's Advice to a Son," and " Hudibras ; " did say that in these — in the two first principally — the wit lies ; and confirming some pretty sayings — which are generally like paradoxes — by some argument smartly and pleasantly urged, which takes with people who do not trouble them- selves to examine the force of an argument which pleases them in the delivery, upon a subject which they like — whereas by many particular instances of mine, and others out of " Osborne," he did really find fault and weaken the strength * Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. 244. = Pepys's Diary, iv. 11. 1664-1665 SIR WILLIAM PETTY AND ME. PEPYS 115 of many of Osborne's arguments; so as that in downright disputation they would not bear weight ; at least, so far, but that they might be weakened and better found in their rooms to confirm what is there said. He showed finely whence it happens that good writers are not admired by the present age ; because there are but few in every age that do mind anything that is abstruse and curious ; and so longer before anybody, do put the true praise, and set it on foot in the world : the generahty of mankind pleasing themselves in the easy delights of the world : as eating, drinking, dancing, hunting, fencing, which we all see the meanest men do the best ; those that profess it. A gentleman never dances so well as the dancing master, and an ordinary fiddler makes better musique for a shilling than a gentleman will do after spend- ing forty, and so in all the delights of the world almost.' ^ 'April 2nd, 1664. — At noon to the Coffee House, where excellent discourse with Sir William Petty, who proposed it as a thing truly questionable, whether there really be any difference between waking and dreaming ; that it is hard not only to tell how we know when we do a thing really or in a dream ; but also to know what the difference is between one and the other.' '' ' 22nd March, 1665. — With Creed to the Change, and to my house ; but it being washing day, took him, (I being invited) to Mr. Houblons, the merchant, where Sir William Petty and abundance of most ingenious men : owners and freighters of the "Experiment," now going with her two bodies to sea. Most excellent discourse. Among others, Sir William Petty did tell me that, in good earnest, he hath in his Will left such parts of his estate to him that could invent such and such things ; as, among others, that could truly discover the way of milk coming into the breasts of a woman ; and he that could invent proper characters to express to another the mixture of relishes and tastes. And says, that to him that invents gold, he gives nothing for the philosophers' stone ; for, says he, they that find out that, will be able to pay them- selves. But, says he, by this means it is better than to give ^ Pepys's Diary, iv. 23, 24. ' Ibid. iv. 96. I 2 116 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, it a lecture ; for here my executors, that must part with this, will be sure to be well convinced of the invention before they do part with their money.' ' Sir William, devoted as he no doubt mainly was to science, and especially to mechanical science, would, however, have been no true child of the seventeenth century, if he had not also dabbled in theology, and he unfortunately regarded it as one of his strong points. His studies frequently wander gd off into the realm of metaphysical inquiry, and the transition thence to the realm of religious speculation was easy.^ To think, meant with him as a rule to write also, on whatever subject happened to be occupying his mind at the moment ; and theology had a fatal attraction for his pen. He was for a long time engaged on a treatise, entitled ' The Scale of Creatures.' ' The discourse,' he tells Sir Eobert Southwell, ' was not vulgar, nor easy to be answered by the hbertine scepticks ; of whom the proudest cannot be certain but that there are powers above him, which can destroy him, as they do with the viler animals. 'Tis hard to say where this scale ends, either upwards or downwards, but it is certain that the proud coxcomb man is not the top of it : wherefore let us be sober and modest, and conforme to the general practise of good men, and the laws of our age and countrey, and carefully study the laws of nature, which are the laws of God.' ^ . . . The object of his work is alluded to more fully in another letter to Sir Eobert : — ' I am glad,' he says, ' Lord Chief Justice Hayle hath undertaken the work you mention [on the Origination of Man- kind], but Galen, De Usu Partium, will not do it : 1. the point is to prove that the most admired piece in the world, which Galen takes to bee man, was made by designs and pre-con- ceived idea, which his Maker had of him before his production. 2. What shall we say to the flaws and many infirmities in ye said piece, man ; and ye difficulty of helping either your soare ' Pepys's Diary, iv. 378. of the Deity, the end and object of " Amongst the Longleat MSS., the creation, &c. ; also a sort of catechism copy of a letter exists from Sir Wil- (in Latin) on the fundamental truths liam to Lord Anglesea (April 22, 1675) of religion. full of speculations on the nature ' October 30, 1676. 1667 THE 'SCALE OF CEEATUKES ' 117 throat or your father's dropsy ? 3. The question is whether man was designed to performe the things which he performeth, or whether he performeth by the same necessity of his fabrick and constitution, wherewith fire burneth. My medium or organ of the " Scale of Creatures " doth not wholly remove these difficulties ; but it doth sufficiently humble Man, and check the insolent scepticisms, which do now pester the world ; and is a good caution against the slighting religion and the practise of good men ; and as for the other grand point, men take too much pains to prove it ; for it is necessary that there should be a First and Universale Cause of all things, by whose designe and according to whose idea all other things must be made, and we may feele the blessings of the incomprehensible Being, altho' we do not see it ; as blind men may be comforted by the warmth of the fire. Abyssus ahyssum invocat. Where- fore let us returne to wish well unto and do well for one another. I hope when our case of clay is broaken by Naturale Death, wee shall no longer peep thro' its creaks and cranyes, but then looke round about us freely, and see clearly the things which wee now do but grope after. . . . ' ^ But Sir William had not got far in this opus magmtm before he began to realise that his theology might raise up even more enemies against him than his transactions in Irish land, although the Court of High Commission no longer existed and the Inquisition had no jurisdiction in England. ' The "Scale of Creatures" goes on,' he tells Southwell, 'but will produce only more mischief against mee. There will be many things in it the world cannot bear, and for which I shall suffer. But suppose all were transcendently well, what shall I get by it but more envy ? ' ^ So reflection after a time brought discretion, and ' The Scale,' even if completed, was never pubHshed. The only relic of it is a syllabus of what ' The Scale ' was intended to contain. The work itself is not extant. 2 November 14, 1676. Earl of Anglesea ' justifying his ^ To Southwell, August i, Sep- method of explaining the attributes teraber 29, 1677. In the Bodleian of God,' April 3, 1675. (Rawlinsou Library there is a long letter to the MSS.) 118 IJFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, it The mental opposition which existed between Sir WilHam and the extreme Calvinists has ah-eady been noticed. Of him it might have been said, as of Algernon Sidney, that ' he seemed to be a Christian, but in a particular form of his own. He thought it was to be like a divine philo- sophy in the mind.' ■* Such views were as odious to the Church of Eome as to the Church of Geneva, and for the whole ecclesiastical system of Eome, Sir William, as a fol- lower of Hobbes, had a rooted aversion, which recent events had tended to strengthen. He had seen that the true origin of the troubles in Ireland lay in the constant at- tempts of the Church of Eome to use the leaders of the Irish people as the instruments of their own designs ; and he was of opinion that the cause of all the civil strife, not in Ireland only but in Europe, for more than a century, had been the aggressions of that Church on the power of the State, and the religious persecutions on account of opinion with which it had devastated Southern Europe like a pestilence, ' punishing believers heterodox from the authorized way, in public and open places, before great multitudes of ignorant people with loss of life, liberty, and limbs.' ^ Eecent events had tended to accentuate these feelings. At the very time when he was in London negotiating with Thurloe, in 1658, the latter had received a despatch from Maynard, the English Consul at Oporto, with an account of the death by burning as heretics — of which Maynard had been an ocular witness — of a motley band of unsound theologians, Jews, and English sailors, who had been seized on different pretexts by the officers of the Inquisition and sentenced to be executed at a ' Grand assize ' held there.'' George Penn also, brother of his friend Admiral Penn, had died just after the Eestoration under circumstances ' Burnet, History of his Own — the desire of the Church to get pos- Times, vol. ii. p. 351. session of their wealth was the true '■ Treatise on Taxes, ch. ii. -p. 6. cause of their indictment. 'They were '■ It is curious that in this letter all of them people of great estate, Maynard states, with reference to which is supposed was the greatest several other persons who were burnt crime for which they dyed.' Thurloe,. at the same time, that — just as in the vii. 567. case of George Penn mentioned below 1667 DR. PETTY AND THE CHUEOHES 119 which had strongly moved public indignation. Early in life George Penn had married a Koman Catholic lady in Antwerp, and subsequently settled in Spain, as a merchant, at Seville and Malaga. He carefully avoided all cause of religious of- fence, but his property was too tempting a bait. He was suddenly seized in 1643 in his house by the familiars of the Holy Office, and dragged away : his marriage was declared void ; his wife was carried off, and forcibly married to a Eoman Catholic ; he was himself plunged into a dungeon and called upon to recant his religion and confess unheard-of crimes. On his refusal he was almost tortured to death. At length mind and body gave way, and he promised to sign all that was dictated to him. On these conditions his life was spared as a signal instance of the mercy of the Church. But his property was confiscated and handed over to ecclesiastical uses. Then he was dragged to the Cathedral of Seville in order publicly to recant his errors, and be a central figure in one of those ghastly scenes in which the gloomy and cruel character of the Spanish people rejoiced as ' acts of faith ' specially agreeable to God. But on leaving the Cathedral he was again seized, and plunged into a debtors' prison. Fortunately for himself, broken and disfigured as he was, he had been recognised by some English residents who had been attracted to the Cathe- dral. They communicated with the English Government. Still more fortunately. Admiral Penn was at this moment on his station in the Channel (1647), and happened to seize a ship suspected of communicating with the rebel forces in the South of Ireland. On board this ship was a Spanish noble, Juan da Urbino, on his way to Flanders. The rough Admiral stripped him naked, and treated him with every indignity, announcing his intention to keep him in his hold till his brother was released. The slow pulse of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was now probably quickened, and George Penn was released and sent to England. Preparation was demanded, but as war soon after broke out, the claim remained in abeyance. At the Eestoration Charles appointed George Penn Envoy to the Court of Spain, as a striking means of reinstating him in public opinion after the gross indignities of which he had been 120 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, iv the object.'^ But he was physically a ruined man. The rack and the lash, the loss of wife, home, and property, had done their work; and he died in England leaving an uncertain pecuniary claim against the Spanish Government to his family. . In the world of theology a furious bigotry still held an almost undisputed sway. The idea that the choice lay not necessarily between blank negation on the one hand and either Puritanism or the Church on the other, that science and reli- gion had relations, that there was a possible connection be- tween the religions and philosophies of the ancient world and Christianity, and that Christianity itself must have existed before the New Testament had been written, were ideas which it was barely possible to hold anywhere, without danger to the property and person of those who asserted them. Such ideas also had no hold on the popular mind, which delighted in definite dogma. The hope indeed of the scientific men and philosophers of the seventeenth century, especially of the school of Cambridge Platonists, which Sir William's old Oxford ally, Dr. Wilkins, had joined, was that the future of religion lay with a rational and unsectarian form of Christianity ; and many of the founders of the Eoyal Society looked forward to establishing religion on a basis of evidence and reason. But these views, though boasting distinguished adherents in England, amongst the masses made no converts, and were equally distasteful to the Protestant and the Eomanist theo- logians. Those who held them were denounced as Socinians, and it is conceivable that, under less favourable circumstances, the fate of Dr. Petty might have been that of his brother- physician, Michael Servetus, who only escaped from the clutches of the Eoman Catholic authorities of Vienne to fall into those of Calvin and be burnt at Geneva. ' Being a votary,' he acknowledges, 'neither to any one particular sect or superstition (as a member of Christ's universal Church) nor to any one faith or party, as obedient to my present visible governors, (it being alleged against me that I had termed ' See the original documents bear- Penn's Life of Admiral Penn (ap- ing on this case, printed in Granville pendix to vol. i.). 1667 THE PLAGUE 121 such who were otherwise, to be as worms and maggots in the guts of the Commonwealth) I was counted as an enemy even to all the Sects and Pactions.' ' NOTJES TO CHAPTEB IV Coiicerning ye Plagues of London 1. London within ye bills hath 696* people in lOS**" bouses. 2. In pestilentiall yeares, (which are one in 20), there dye ^th of ye people of ye plague and ith of aU diseases. 3. The remedies against spreading of ye plague are shutting up suspected houses and pest-houses within ^ a mile of ye citty. 4. In a circle about ye center of London of 35 miles semi- diameter, or a dayes journey, there live as many people and are as many bouses as in London. 5. Six heads may bee caryd a days journey for 20^''. 6. A family may bee lodged 3 months in ye country for 4*, so as ye charge of carying out and lodging a family at a medium will be 5^^. 7. In ye greatest plague wee feare, scarce 20* families wHL bee infected ; and in this new method but 10*, ye charge whereof will bee 50* pounds. 8. The People which ye next plague of London will sweep away will be probably 120*, which at 7£ per head is a losse of 8,400*% the half whereof is 4,200*^ 9. So as 50 is ventured to save 4,200, or about one for 84. 10. There was never a Plague in ye campagne of England by which ^th of ye people dyed. 11. Poore people who live close dye most of ye plague. 12. The Plague is about 3 monthes rising and as much falhng, which cold weather hastens. 13. Kilhng dogs, making great fires ia ye street, nor the use of medicaments are considered sure, for which everyone by common directions may bee theire owne Physicians. 14. In ye circle of 70 miles diameter, choose 10 large wide roomey disjoyned houses with water and garden to each, the Inhabit- ants to remove at 7 dayes notice. 15. Convenient wagons or coaches to bee prepared to carry away ye suspected. ' Reflections, p. 119. 122 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY ohap. iv 16. A method to furnish ye pesthouses with medicines for theire mony. 17. Bookes of devotion for every house. Proposalls. — When 100 per week dy, the Plague is begun. If there dye fewer than 120'i", out of ye bills, of all diseases within a yeare after, then W. P. is [to] have 20* per head for all lesse and to pay 10* per head for all above it. Every family removed being to provide 10£ for ye charge of going and coming, and of 4 monthes rent. Or a gratuity of with W. P. his insurance.^ II 'All Attempt to demonstrate that an Engine may be fix'd in a good Ship of 5 or 600 Tonn to give her fresh way at Sea in a Calm.' In May 1673, Sir Edward Spragge caus'd the Experiment to be made in a Dogger of about 80 Tonn, and found it effectually to answer his purpose. He intended to have promoted it, so as to have it fix'd in some Frigatts against the next Summer ; bvit his Death put a stop to the undertaking, and tho' great endeavors have been used to set it on foot divers times since, it has not yet met with any encouragement. The Description. — 1. The Engine is to consist of an Axis or Shaft of about 85 foot in length, or more or less in proportion to the bredth of the ship, for it must extend itself without board, about 3 foot on each side. 2. This Axis is to be placed in a Frigat, lofty, betwixt Decks and to ly athwart ship, even with the upper deck, or perhaps riseing an inch or two, that it may not ly lower betwixt Decks then the Beams of the Ship. Upon the middle of the Axis shall be placed a sub- stantiall Trundle head. 8. On each end of the Axis, without-side the ship, is to be fix'd a wheele of about 7 foot diameter, with 12 Stemms issuing out of each wheele, and a Paddle or Oar at the end of each Stem of 3 feet square upon the flat ; the Stemms to be of such a length that those Paddles which hang perpendicular may be quite dipt in the water to the Stem. 4. To make this Axis and the Paddle wheels turn round, so as the Paddles may take hold of the water in the nature of Oars one after another successively. " 0/ Lessening ye Plagues of London, October 7, 1667. 1667 .MECIIAXIOAL EXPERIMEXTS 12S There is to be a eapstern standing upright betwixt Decks, just in that part of the Ship where the jeer eapstern is usually placed. Upon this eapstern shall be fix'd a cog-wheele, with the Coggs standing upwards to take hold of the aforesaid Trundlehead. 5. The wheele in which the Coggs are placed, shall have 15 holes,, to put so many half barrs in upon occasion as the manner is in Drum Capsterns. These barrs may be in length about 13 foot from the center of the eapstern, if the ship have bredth enough, as I think all ships have, that have 6 foot height betwixt Decks ; and then three men may well be placed to every bar. 6. Upon the wast or upper Deck, must be another eapstern and crown wheele, with the Coggs turn'd downwards to take hold of the upper part of the Trundle head. So the men betwixt decks heaving one way, the men on the upper deck must heave the other way, to give the Axis and Paddle wheels motion ; the like number of Barrs shall be upon ye upper Deck ; and ye like number of men : 8 men at each half barr to the 32 half barrs, 96 men in all. And if need should be on any extraordinary occasion, the Barrs may be swifted with a rope running from the end of one Bar to ye end of the other quite round, and one man may heave upon the swifting between ye ends of every Barr ; 16 betwixt decks and 16 upon Deck ; which added to the 96 makes 128 men. 7. The Paddles and Stemms without side the ship, and the cap- stern barrs within shall be so ordered, that they may be put in, or taken out in a quarter of an hours time, as occasion shall require. So nothing will remain standing within but the eapsterns and Crown wheels, which will take up so little room, as to hinder nothing in the ship, and without will onely remain ye 2 ends of the Axis, with the 7 foot wheel upon each, which may always be kept covered by Tarpaulins made for that purpose. While the Engine is working, it will hinder the use of 3 or 4 Gunns on each side the ship ; but when the paddles and eapstern barrs are stow'd, it will neither hinder the use of one Gunn, nor anything else in the ship. But the best way to evince this point is to have a perfect modell of the Engine, fix'd within a good modell of a fourth-rate Frigat. Since the first Invention and the said Experiment was made, another use was found out for the Engine, than that for which it first was design'd. And the same being fix'd on two Boats, covered over with a house about 6 foot high and 20 foot square, has bin employed for the Towing of Ships, first wrought with men, and since with horses, over the Barr at Newcastle, and up and down the 124 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, iv Eiver of Thames, between London and Gravesend, and it was wrought with six horses, worth about 8 or 9^ a horse. With this Engine has bin towed 4 of his Majy*" new thirdrate ships, built at Blackwall, from that place to Woolwich, without any masts, vizt. the Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Exeter. With the same has bin tow'd down the Eiver from Deptford to •severall places divers of his Majestys 5* and 4* rate Frigatts, when the wind obstructed there ; having all their masts and Eigging standing and sails furled. Particularly, the St. David, commanded by Sir Eiehard Munden, quite thro' Gallions reach, against a stiff gale of wind. The Engine has likewise tow'd merchants ships deep laden drawing 16 foot water, from Blackwall, Gravesend, in one Tyde. The said third rate ships were of above 1000 Tonn burthen, and each of them were towed in an houre from Blackwall to Woolwich, which is 3 miles, and 2 of them tow'd against the Wind. All this was perform'd by the strength of 6 horses going round at a capstern in like manner as if it were to heave up an Anchor. The Demonstration. — Now if wee knew how to place the like Engine within side a ship, and how to apply as much strength to work it as was applyed on board the Tow-boat, then the same strength will give motion to the ship by itself, at least as well as it used to give motion to the Tow boat and the Ship too. That the Engine may be so placed in a ship is already set forth ; and that like force may be applyed to it, is to bee proved. Twelve men are allow'd to heave as much at a capstern as an able horse can draw at ye same ; and say the strength of 72 men are equall to that of 6 horses. But wee can place 96 men at 2 capsterns, and 32 upon the swiftings, in all 128 ; which is about -f more strength then the strength of 6 horses. And therefore since ye strength of 6 horses, or 72 men, did give good steerage way to the Towboat and the St. David, against a brisk gale of wind ; the strength of 128 men, applyed in the same manner may give fresh way to the St. David (or other like ship) at Sea in a Calme. This I conceive to be Demonstration, but humbly submit to better judgments. W. P. Endorsed. — An Attempt to demonstrate how an Engine may be placed in Frigatts to give them way in a calm. November 7, '85. 125 CHAPTEE V THE ACTS OF SETTLEMENT AND EXPLANATION 1660-1667 Condition of Kerry — Ireland in 1662— The Acts of Settlement and Explana- tion — Dr. Petty and the Cromwell family— The settlement of Ireland in 1667 — Sir James Shaen— Quarrel with the Duke of Ormonde — The Irish Cattle Acts — Effects of Absenteeism — Estimate of the Irish character - Interests of the Irish people — Settlement at Kenmare— Instructions for Kerry. The Eestoration had necessarily reopened the Irish Land Question, and Sir William had once more to attend to ' his surveys, distributions, and other disobliging trinkets,' as he termed them. He was, however, by this time secure of the royal protection, though a long struggle was yet before him. His stake in Irish property was large, nor was it represented merely by the land he had received in direct payment for his official services on the survey. The long delay which had taken place in the payment of the army had reduced a great number of the soldiers, and even of the officers, to great distress. Land debentures began to pour into the market soon after the passing of the Act of 1653, es- pecially those belonging to the common soldiers ; and the process had gone on ever since. These debentures in 1653 were not commanding more than a price of from four shillings to five shillings in the pound, and they were eagerly bought up by the officers from their own men at reduced prices. A regular land market existed, and brokers established a sort of Exchange in Dublin. When the army was satisfied, and the prohibitions of the Act had therefore ceased to be operative. Dr. Petty, as already seen, himself entered the market as a buyer — chiefly from the debenture brokers — and thereby largely increased his own stake in Irish land. 126 LIFE OF SIK WILLIAM PETT5t chap, v The net sum which, after paying all outgoings, remained to Dr. Petty as the result of his labours was 13,000Z. For the Army Survey he received 9,000L, and 600L for the survey of the adventurers' land. He had saved 5001. before going to Ireland, and laid by 800Z.— viz. two years' salary of his official post as Clerk of the Council — and 2,1001. from his salary as Physician-General and his private practice. For the distribution of the adventurers' land he had not as yet been paid at all. Of the above sums he invested part in debentures at a time when, as he wrote in his will, ' men bought without art, interest, or authority, as much land for 10s. in real money as in this year, 1685, yields 10s. per annum above His Majesty's quit rents.' With the rest he bought the Earl of Arundel's house and grounds in Lothbury, known as Token-House Yard. That he had bought debentures was one of the charges by which Sir Hierome Sankey, though fully aware that his own conduct had been far more open to criticism in this respect than that of Dr. Petty, attempted to inflame the public mind in England when bringing forward his main accusations as to lands having been wrongfully kept back from the distribution to the army. The lands which Sir William had acquired were princi- pally in Kerry : the county which the original allottees of Irish land did all in their power to avoid, because of the apparently rough and unprofitable character of the soil and the wildness of the inhabitants. ' When we first came into that country,' says Mr. Lewin Smith, one of the assistant surveyors, 'wee viewed the place in a generall way, considering the lands to be exceedingly bad ; and was about not to returne any part of the said countrey profitable, but only arable and good pasture, though our instructions did make mention of severall kinds of pasture, which did include and reach the worst pasture, viz. rocky, fursy, heathy, mountaine, and bog, &c. ; but yet it was soe bad, that wee intended to proceed. Butt then comming to the more remote part, viz. Iveragh, Dunkeron, Glanneroughty barronyes, the greatest part of Corkeaguiny barrony, the parishes of Kilcommen, Killagha, &c., and the 1660-1661 CONDITION OF liERRY 127 west fractions in Magunnity, with much of the mountaine called Sleavelogher, in the barony of Trughanackny, Magunnity, Clanmorris, and Iraghticannor, wee were at a loss ; for the like quantity that wee were about to returne unprofitable in the more habitable places, was even as good as many whole denominations consisted of in the said places, except some small spotts of arable that was in some of them, and yet goeing by the names of plowlands and parishes, &c., some men's whole estates consisting of such like ; some of the said denominations wholly without arable. Soe that wee did not know what to doe, but was very inquisitive of those that had been inhabitants on the said places, and of- our bounders; soe that we did clearly see that something had been made of those places, and something might be made of them againe, if stocked with cattle ; and we did not judge it safe to take uppon us to cast away towne lands, parishes, nay, even allmost barronyes, wholly for unprofitable. Wee could, although we did at first soe judge, having never been in the hke places before ; yett having information of the aforesaid, and seeing that the said places were turned in the abstracts, and as plow- lands and as parishes, and were some men's whole estates, and that we were informed that the said coarse plowlands formerly paid contribution or taxes with the rest of the countrey, when the same was levied by plowlands, therefore we could not but judge these places good for something, and resolved to make something of them.' ' Dr. Petty had himself noticed, apart from the possible agricultural value of the land at some future date, the facilities which the geographical situation, the land-locked harbours, the extensive forests, the valuable quarries, and other natural resources of the county might give in the development of other than merely agricultural wealth. He therefore added largely by purchase ta the original allotment which he had received in that desolate district in payment of his services on the survey. Aubrey described him, in 1661, as able ' from Mount Mangerton in that county to behold 50,000 acres of his own land,' most of it, indeed, waste and unprofitable, but ' Down Storvey, p. 94. 128 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, v which he hoped would ultimately be a source of both private profit and national wealth.^ These estates were principally on the north and south shore of the Bay of Kenmare, in the baronies of Iveragh and Dunkerron, and lay in a district famous from the earliest times for the interminable feuds of the heads of the Irish tribes which inhabited it, conspicuous among whom were the O'SuUivans and the McCartys, whose lands were bounded south and west by the sea, and to the north and east by the territories of the descendants of earlier settlers, the so-called ' degenerate English : ' Fitzmaurices, Sarsfields, Barrys, Eoches, and Fitzgeralds, many of whom had fled, but whose head, Patrick, the principal representative of the rebel- lious houses of the great insurrection of the Earl of Desmond in the reign of Elizabeth, had somehow succeeded in proving constant 'good affection,' and in thus retaining his large terri- tories on the Bay of Tralee, near Listowel and Lixnaw.* The peace and material improvement which Clarendon noted as having begun in Ireland immediately after the resettlement has already been mentioned. ' Yet in all this quiet,' he goes on to say, ' there were very few persons pleased or contented,' and so stormy was the outlook at the Eestoration, and so intricate was the whole situation, that when created Chancellor and practically First Minister of the Crown, ' he made it his humble suit,' as he himself records, ' that no part of it might ever be referred to him.' ^ Four parties at the Eestoration were eagerly pressing their claims. The first and largest was the English party, the ' settlers,' as they called themselves, the ' usurpers,' as they werei termed by others.* Owing to the energy with which the survey and distribution had been carried out by Dr. Petty, this party was now in possession of the lands assigned to them. They held the reins of government ; they filled the army ^ Bodleian Letters, ii. p. 484; generally, see Smith's History of Wood's Ath. Oxon., iv. 215. See Kerry, pp. 65, 85, 86, 90. also Sir William Petty's Will, which ^ Smith's History of Kerry, p. 217. says his intention was to ' pro- * Life of Clarendon, pp. 106, 116. mote the trade of lead, iron, marble, " The latter phrase is frequently fish, and timber, whereof his estate used even by Sir William himself , pro- was capable.' And on the subject bably as the current Irish expression. 1662-1663 IRELAND IN 1662 129 and the public offices ; they formed the body of freeholders by whom the restored Irish Parliament, about to meet in Dublin, was elected ; and they urged it as a great merit that they, quite as much as General Monk, had made the Restoration pos- sible. The King, though bound by no tie of affection to men, many of whom had been distinguished by their exertions against his royal father, was obliged, from the peculiar circum- stances which had attended his restoration to the throne, to conciliate their interests with his own, and to defer as largely as was possible to their views. The second party consisted of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, some of whom were loyal Eoman Catholics, others were members of the Church of England. Of this party the Duke of Ormonde was the recog- nised head. Though small in numbers, it included many of the most distinguished Irishmen of the day. They had lost their homes and their possessions in the service of the King and that of his father, and now expected their reward. With them to a certain extent might be classed ' the '49 men,' or those officers who had served the King before 1649, and had subsequently served the Commonwealth against the Irish. Dr. Petty considered that at the time of the survey they had been harshly dealt with,'' and he had tried to protect them ; but the rapacity of their demands now knew no bounds. The third party consisted of the Presbyterians of the North, who had fought against the King in the first civil war, but had sup- ported their Scotch brethren on the royal side in the second. They had seen large portions of their lands in Ulster confiscated in consequence; and had also suffered heavy losses in the walled towns, where many of them resided, being members of the class principally engaged in commerce. Outside the limits of these parties, all in a greater or less degree British in origin and sympathy, were the great mass of the old native Irish Eoman Catholic proprietors, of whom some had been undoubted rebels against the English connection, while others had been innocent altogether, or had only played with sedition. There were some also who had first rebelled against the King, and had then joined Ormonde to fight for the King against the ' Down Survey, p. 210. K 130 LIFE OF SIR WILLIA.M PETTY chap.v Commonwealth. But all were now equally prepared to de- clare, and if necessary upon oath, that they had been loyal subjects of his late Majesty throughout, and had suffered on his behalf in consequence ; and all were eager to join in de- manding that the lands in the hands of the ' usurpers ' should be restored to the original and rightful owners. Such was the tangled skein of affairs ; and under these circumstances, the difficulties of settling the tenure of the land of Ireland without exciting almost endless discontents were well-nigh insuperable. In August 1661, Dr. Petty, who had been elected member of Parliament for Innistioge in Kilkenny, was appointed by the Irish Parliament, which had met early in the summer, a mem- ber of a special deputation sent over to England. A plan had already been laid before the King in November of the previous year by Lord Broghill, Sir A. Mervyn, and Sir J. Clotworthy, persons largely interested on behalf of the Commonwealth officers and the Adventurers. This plan professed to show that, after leaving the soldiers and Adven- turers in possession of the lands they actually occupied, a sufficient acreage would be found in the ' dubious ' and still unallotted lands, to enable the King to compensate or ' reprize ' the innocent Catholics, and to indemnify his own supporters and friends. Charles, despairing of ever seeing any perfect settle- ment of so troublesome a matter, and anxious, above all things, both by disposition and interest, to get rid of the question somehow, caught at the solution thus offered, and on Novem- ber 30, 1660, signed a ' Declaration,' which was the first step taken towards a settlement. This Declaration, and the Act which in 1662 gave effect to it in detail,' being framed upon the representations of persons mainly bound up with the Army and Adventurer interest, naturally provided in the first place for the security of the property they held, in return for an increase of the royal quit rents and a grant of one year's value. The grantees were accordingly confirmed in their possessions as existing on May 7, 1659, subject to certain conditions and exceptions. Loyal ' 14, 15 Charles II. c. 2 (Irish 621, 638. Petty was first returned for Statutes). Eeturn of Members of Ennisoorthy also, but chose to sit for Parliament, March 1, 1878, vol. ii. Innistioge. 1663-1664 ACTS OF SETTLEMENT AND EXPLANATION 131 Protestants whose lands had been given to Adventurers or soldiers, and innocent Papists, were to be at once restored to their estates, and the persons removed were to be compensated elsewhere. Special provisoes were also inserted in favour of the Commission ofiBcers under the King who had served in Ireland against the Irish rebels before 1649, and in favour of the Duke of Ormonde and thirty-six other particular objects of the royal favour termed ' mero motu men.' All Church and capitular lands were to be restored to their ecclesiastical owners, and enormous grants were made to the Duke of York and a few special favourites. The still undistributed lands, the lands of the regicides, and of some other prominent partisans — amongst others Sir Hierome Sankey* — were to form the reprisal fund. A Commission was appointed under the Declaration of November 30 to carry out the Act, and Sir William Petty received a place upon it. It consisted of thirty-six persons, and they proceeded to appoint a Court of Claims to hear eases, with full authority to decide and arbitrate. Satisfactory to the army as the scheme adopted at first appeared, in practice it worked very differently from what was expected. The ' dubious ' lands had been stated to the King as representing one million acres ; and to these the lands of the Eegicides and other prominent ' fanaticks ' were to be added in order to swell the amount. But so favourable to the old Irish proprietors and Eoyalists did the majority of the Executive Court of Claims, instituted by the Commission, prove itself in judging ' innocency,' that a loud outcry began to arise, as the com- pensation fund was seen to be totally inadequate to meet the claims upon it. The Protestant interest became seriously alarmed, and the mutterings of an intended insurrection began to be heard. Soon an actual outbreak took place. The Irish Parliament once more intervened and the so-called ' Act of Explanation ' was passed.^ The Army and Ad- ' Carte's Ormonde, iv. 53. He Gont. Writers, Beign of Charles II., -p. appears, however, subseijuently to have 40. recovered some of his estate. He was " 17, 18 Charles II. c. 2. (Irish arrested in 1660. See Eugge's MS. Statutes). Diary, 228, 229, quoted by Taylor, If 2 132 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, v venturers now had to agree to give up one-third of their lands, on condition of receiving an absolute title to the re- mainder ; and in order yet further to increase the fund for the reprisal of the Protestants who were called upon to make way for innocent Catholics, deductions were made from the estates of the King's grantees and other great landed proprietors. Thus at length was some kind of settlement arrived at, at least in theory ; for the task of carrying out these arrange- ments was long and complicated, giving rise to interminable questions both of law and fact, and leaving behind a legacy of passion and hatred amongst those whose lot it had been in many cases to see, as Sir William Petty described it, 'the shrinking of their hopes into a Welshman's button.' ' The Act of Settlement by the 43rd section formally acknow- ledged the debt due to Sir William, and the 101st clause con- firmed him in the property actually held by him on May 7, 1659.^ The survey was also recognised by the Act as the authentic record for reference in cases of disputed claims : discontented claimants not being permitted to call for other surveys, unless they could show an error of more than one-tenth in the measurements. By the 55th clause of the Act of Ex- planation his property was again confirmed to him, and a charge on certain of the Adventurers' lands was made by the 100th section ' for his better encouragement to finish the maps and description of the kingdom.' ^ On October 14 he again memorialized the Privy Council for the payment of the debt due to him on this account. The memorial concludes by saying, ' Your petitioner hath been at many hundred pounds charge and several years la.bour, in composing a most exact mapp of that kingdom, which is yet imperfect for want of reasonable help and encouragement,' * and he expressed the wish to be able to finish it ; but nothing appears to have been paid him. In 1665 he again petitioned, but whatever assistance he received was either small or in illusory secu- ' The Elements of Ireland, Nelli- See too Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. p. 96. gan MS., British Museum. * Down Survey, Appendiz XV. p. 2 14, 15 Charles II. o. 2, s. 101. 399. » 17, 18 Charles II. 1663, s. 55. 1665 DR. PETTY AND THE CROMWELL FAMILY 133 rities. Fortunately the work had become a labour of love, and in the ' Political Anatomy of Ireland ' he was at length able to record in 1673 that ' at his own charge, besides those maps of every parish which by his agreement he delivered unto the Surveyor General's office, he had caused maps to be made of every barony or hundred, as also of every county, engraved on copper ; and the like of every province and of the whole kingdom.' The map so published, which was engraved at Amsterdam at a cost of 1,000Z., was declared by Evelyn to be ' the most exact map that ever yet was made of any country.' ^ Throughout these transactions Sir William continued to act for the Cromwell family, and was no doubt able to contri- bute to the protection of his former chief, to whom the King seems to have been personally well disposed, from the attacks of the old Cavalier party, who were constantly attempting to persuade the Court that the former Lord Deputy was engaged in a plot. By means of a trust the property of Henry Cromwell escaped, at least in part, the general confiscation which befell the property of the regicides and those imme- diately connected with the Protector,^ though at a later date the Clanriekarde family succeeded in ejecting the representatives of the Lord Deputy's family, on some question of title.'' The following letter to the Lady Cromwell was written several years after, in connection with these affairs, when she was living at Spinney, the country place in Cambridgeshire to which Henry Cromwell retired after the Eestoration : — ' Madam, —I hope your Ladyshipp will not take it ill that I have not often troubled you with letters. And I hope you * Political Anatomy, ch. ix. ; Recollections of Mr. Lespinasse con- Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. p. 96. tain an account of an interesting oon- « See 14, 15 Charles II. c. 2, 5, versation on the character of Henry coxxiv. The persons there named are Cromwell between Lord Maoaulay, connections by marriage of the Crom- Thomas Carlyle, and Sir G. C. Lewis, well family. Henry Cromwell died Pages 84 and 85, note. In the Bodleian March 23, 1674. The Lady Cromwell Library the conveyance of Henry died April 7, 1687, only a few mouths Cromwell's Irish estate to trustees, before Sir WiUiam Petty. Sir W. Eussell and Mr. E. Waldron, ' See article ' Henry Cromwell ' in exists, dated April 3 and 4, 1661. the Dictionary of National Biogra- Bawlinson MSS. (A. 253, 188). iphy. The recently published Literary 134 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, v beleeve that if writeing or any other labour of mine would availe you, that your Ladyshipp should not want it. I must now desire your Ladyship to renew a letter of Attorney which I formerly had from my dear friend (who is now with God), whereby to enable mee to gett some right from Capt" Stop- ford, who hath abused mee and his best benefactors exceedingly in the matter of the arreares, which I purchased from our friend, who dyed since I commenced a eertaine suit against that man. Wherefore I desire your Ladyshipp to send mee a new letter of Attorney to recover the said arreares, with leave to take out letters of administration here for Collonell Cromwell's personall estate in this Kingdome, of which nature these arrears are which I bought of him. And if there bee any other personall estate of his in Ireland which may bee recovered, it shall bee to your Ladyshipps advantage onely. ' Doctor Wood knoweth all the circumstances of this business, and I hope will inform your Ladyshipp that there can bee noe inconvenience in doeing what I desire, even although there were noe legall obligation (as there is) for doeing the same. I shall send a man down to your Ladyship to bee witnesse to this Instrument. In the meane tim.e I am, ' Madam, ' Your Ladishipps most humble and faithfull servant, ' William Petty. ' For Madam Cromwell at Spinny, these.' * In the work entitled ' The Political A natomy o f Ireland,' published in 1672, Sir WilliamTnakes~an estimati^oTlhe general result of the successive convulsions in the land tenure of Ireland between 1641 and 1663. He takes the area of the country to be 10,500,000 Irish acres," of which 7,500,000 were good meadow, arable, and pasture. Of this amount 5,200,000 belonged in 1641 to ' Papists and seques- tered Protestants.' Of all the land seized by the usurpers,' the Papists, he says, recovered 2,340,000 acres ; the ' Dublin, October 10, 1679. Petty MSS. » 121 Irish = 196 English acres. 1665 THE SETTLEMENT OF IRELAND 135 * Protestants ' and Churches, 2,400,000 ; and other mis- cellaneous claimants, 460,000. ' Of all that claimed inno- <;ency,' he says, ' seven in eight obtained it. The restored persons by innocence and proviso have more than what was their own, 1641, by at least one fifth. They have gotten by forged feoffments of what was more than their own, at least one third ; and of those adjudged innocents not one in twenty were really so.' ' In his opinion the whole proceedings after the Eestoration were a mass of favouritism and oppres- sion, in which the strong trampled on the weak, and the guilty robbed the innocent. ' It may be inquired,' he wrote in 1686, ' who caused and procured the said enormities ? ' ' Whereunto it may be readily answered,' he replies, ' Those who got enormous profit by the same.' "Wherefore it ought to be inquired as followeth : ' 1. Who brought in the " 49 officers " to be satisfied, wholly excluding the Soldiers ? and who had greatest Pretence to " 49 " arrears ? ' 2. Whose Chaplains and Creatures were the Bishops whose Eevenues were augmented ? ' 3. For whose sake were the Articles of 1648 reputed for no miscarriage ? ^ ' 4. Who had the 300 thousand Pounds raised as year's value and supplement ? ' 5. Who in particular had the many vast Forfeitures, which should have been apply'd to the Publick ? ' 6. Who put in the 49 Trustees ? ' 7. Who named the Nominees ? ' 8. Whose Servants, Friends and Creatures, were the Private Grantees ? ' 9. Who had the general Power and Government, while these Things were transacting ? ' 10. Who were the Privy Councillors, that transmitted these Acts, and what have they gotten by the same ? ' 11. What has some one mangottenout of Ireland by and ' Political Anatomy eh. i. p. 304. the Commonwealth. See Froude, ^ The offer by Owen Eoe and the English in Ireland, i. 119. Irish to make a separate peace with 136 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, t since his Ma*^^ Eestoration ? And to how many unrestored Estates is the said Gain equivalent? ' 12. By the last Clause of the Act of Settlement the Lord Lieutenant and Council had Power to alter all the premises. ' Memorandum. That the Duke of Ormond, to keep himself unconcern'din these Matters, got his Lands restored (A° 1660) by an Act of Parliament in England, and also his Pardon ; and soon after his Regalities in Tipperary were set up. ' He only endeavour'd to have gotten some Lands in Desmond as holding of his ancient mannors, but quitted y^ same.' ^ Such, for the time, was the result of the dealings with Irish land by the successive Governments which existed be- tween the Eebellion of 1641 and the year 1665. The whole story forms one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of any country, and leaves the reader to wonder how any notion of right or respect for law could survive such an ordeal. ' If in Ireland you are conquered,' Sir William after- wards wrote, examining why the number of years' purchase of land was so far less than in England, ' all is lost ; or, if you conquer, yet you are subject to swarms of thieves and robbers, and the envy which precedent missions of English have against the subsequent. Perpetuity itself is but forty years long, as within which time some ugly disturbances hath hitherto happened, almost ever since the first coming of the English thither. The claims upon claims which each hath to the other's estates, and the facility of making good any pretence whatsoever, by the favour of someone or other of the Governors and ministers which within forty years shall be in power there ; as also the frequency of false testimonies and abuse of solemn oaths,' rendered a real security of title impossible." It specially irritated him that in the settle- ment many of the great Eoman Catholic nobles, whom he regarded as the prime fomenters of the Civil War, suc- 2 Nelligan MS., British Museum. * Treatise on Taxes, p. 33. Com- ' Narrative of the Sale and Settlement pare the observations in Arthur o Ireland.' The reference to ' one Young's Travels in Ireland, ch. vii. man ' is to the Duke of York. 1665-1666 SIR JAMES SHAEN 137 ceeded by perjury and falsification of documents in getting back their own lands and others also ; while thousands of those whom they had misled, their own co-religionists, lost everything irrevocably/ Sir William had escaped destruction ; but, notwithstanding his tenacity, it was only after many suits and after surrendering much, that he succeeded in getting into actual possession of his property, even after his legal title had been recognised and in retaining it when he had once got into possession. The custom still was to farm out the royal revenues to the highest bidder, and the farmers of the Irish Eevenue, of whom Sir James Shaen, now an avowed enemy, was the head, were not only a powerful, but an unscrupulous body. Every species of abuse and oppression arose in consequence. The people. Sir William says, preferred ' to pay anything that was required, rather than to pass the fire of that Purgatory.' '^ One device was to claim arrears of rent from the present holders as due to the Crown on account of the whole period of the Civil Wars, all such lands having no doubt been charged with a head rent to the State, which, however, the Act had remitted for five years from 1653 ; but there were no doubt some arrears antecedent to 1653, which technically were due from the holders of the lands as representing the previous proprietors. Another device was to find a title for the Crown in the estates of men who had long been in undisputed possession of their holdings, and to eject on the title, often for the benefit of some royal favourite. As the greater part of the land in Ireland during the previous hundred and fifty years had at one time or another been forfeited, the opportunities of raising such questions were end- less, and it became a regular trade ' to find out these flaws and defects and to procure a commission on the results of such inquiries.'^ Sir William, with characteristic fearlessness, determined to resist what he considered extortion, even at the risk of the loss of favour. The farmers of the revenue soon made him feel the effects of their displeasure. ' The ' Political Anatomy, p. 368. " Foid. p. 359. ' Ibid. ch. xi. p. 359. 138 LIFE OP SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, t prejudices His Majesty hath taken against me,' he writes to Mr. Oldenburg, one of the Secretaries of the Eoyal Society, ' are a great affliction. But because I am conscious of no kind of guilt, the more tolerable ; notwithstanding I have been punished with the loss of near half my lands already. If His Majesty hath any sparks of kindness for me, try of him the particulars of my faults. If not, I will bear the burthen with as much patience and belief that others have abused him, as any subject he hath.' ^ A quarrel with the Duke of Ormonde about some lands maj' have been the cause. ' Dear Cousin,' Sir William wrote to Sir Eobert Southwell, ' you did in your late friendly letter blame me for not getting some terra firma in England. I answered you by an essay, shewing I had thought of your matter in earnest ; and you sent me a paper wherewith — as with okum — I calked up the leaves of my Essay. You advised me in the same letter to compound my present law suites and prevent new ones. I answered you by telling what lawsuites I have ; and wished I could prevent one for about 15,000Z. against McGillicuddy, etc. You in your last promise that dear Neddy shall (I suppose when he is a Maynard or Hales) ferret McGillicuddy, but say nothing of it in the mean time. Cousin, hoping what I am now saying shall not reeoyle and kill me, I tell you the Duke of Ormonde is David ; but I am Uriah ; my estate in Kerry is Bathsheba; you should bee Nathan, and then my estate would be the poor man's lamb. Nathan told David that he had Wives and Concubines enough, without taking Bathsheba from Uriah and without murdering Uriah, a worthy man, who had served him bravely in his wars and difficulties ; as 1 had done the Duke and his interest before the King's restoration and now lately, to my great hazard. The Duke, his three sons and his servant, Sir G. L., gott more by the rebellion of Ireland and the King's restoration, than all the lands of Ireland were worth as they left it, and « November 24, 1663, Petty MSS. In the following entry, ' Lawsuits,' a list of Ms works found amongst his inserted between the titles of two papers, in his own handwriting, occurs poetical effusions. 1665-1666 QUAEREL WITH THE DUKE OF ORMONDE 139 as in anno 1653 ; besides advantages which cannot well be expressed by sums of money. You may now say, " What is that to you '> " I answer : " he needed not my Bathsheeba, nor the poor man's lamb." I might add that the ship settlement, wherein I am a sufferer, was thereby made top heavy and lop sided, so as she could not bear saile nor work in foul weather. Wherefore, dear Cousin Nathan, go down to GUgal and tell old David — the first gentleman of Europe and whom I ever •sought to serve — before hee dyes, that he should not have meddled with Bathsheeba, nor have caused Uriah to be kUled, who by his means hath been set in the front rank of all battles. ' I have sent Neddy the best present I am able to make , him ; viz. a _speeimeiLDl^my algebra _orJLogick ; which, with/ what I have formerly said of settling and signification of words,! is as much as I think necessary. Doing as wee would bej done unto is a very short rule, but requires much practice, I and so doth Logick. Adieu.' ^ The quarrel did not last long, for as soon as the Duke was made aware of an error of fact into which his agents had fallen, he allowed judgment to be entered against him by default. Sir William would have been fortunate if all his disputes had ended so easily. ' I have not as yet contributed,' he wrote about this time to Lord Aungier, 'to the applications lately made to Parlia- ment, nor am I naturally forward to engage with multitudes. Nevertheless your Lordship knows it is my opinion that there is much to complain of ; and that wrongs have been done needlessly, wantonly, and absurdly ; and it is notorious that I have had my share ; yet all this shall not provoke me to speak evil of dignityes, nor to desire great changes ; nor do I hope ever to see the world and the justice thereof really mended ; but I believe there may be a change of evil and evil-doers. I cannot think with your Lordship that some of ^ Petty to Southwell, March 1667. with 'having bragged, he had got See Carte's Ormonde, iv. p. 386, witnesses who would have sworn where the author charges Sir "William through a three inch board.' 140 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, v the late rules and practice in Ireland are to be called " old foundations," but do know them to be new, and already rotten. I wish that renouncing all my pretensions, an oblivion of all my wrongs could beget a true settlement upon principles of natural equity, and not the fictions and shifts of interest. I will pray for the peace of Jerusalem.' ' But peace seemed further off than ever, owing to the policy of the English Government at this juncture. There was, in the first place, a constant interference on the part of the Court in questions of Irish patronage ; and the tendency had already begun to assert itself to pension off on Irish revenues every person to whom it was undesirable to attract too much attention in England. Public opinion indicated Sir William as the author of a set of propositions concerning the government of Ireland which the Duke of Ormonde submitted about this time to the Crown. The first of these insisted on the necessity of an absolute cessation of further grants by way of reward to the King's servants, till the ordinary revenue was able to sustain the necessary charge of Government, and all debts had been fully paid ; and another sought to prevent applications being made in England in regard to Ireland over the head of the Lord-Lieutenant, and their decision without consultation with him.^ The country, it was pointed out, was weighed down by the charge of worthless favourites. Nor was this the only cause of dispute. Although the Parliament at Westminster, in which Ireland was no longer represented, was ready enough to secure the legal hold of the English interest in Ireland on the land, it was equally determined that that interest should not be allowed to develop the resources of the country in any way which might establish industries, whether agricultural or com- mercial, likely to interfere with the interests of the landowners and manufacturers of England. A fall of one-fifth in the rent of land, which took place in 1661 in England, was attributed to the import of Irish cattle ; and in 1663 an Act was passed at Westminster, practically prohibiting the importation of fat beasts from Ireland into England between the months of July ' March 14, 1667. ^ Political Anatomy, pp. 399-401. 1665-1666 TI-IE IRISH CATTLE ACTS 141 and December.^ Eents, however, continued to fall, and nothing less would then satisfy the English landed interest than the total prohibition of the import into England of Irish cattle, Irish wool, and Irish meat.* A fatal blow was thereby struck, not only at the branch of industry most suitable to the Irish soil and climate, but also at the Irish carrying trade into England. There was a strong opposition to the Bill both in Parliament and in the Privy Council, but the majority were of opinion that ' in a point evidently for the benefit and advantage of England, Ireland ought not to be put into the scale, because it would be some inconvenience there,' and that ' some noblemen of that kingdom lived in a higher garb and made greater expenses than the noblemen of England ; and that if something was not done to prevent it, the Duke of Ormonde would have a greater revenue than the Earl of Northumberland.' * It was true that it could be shown that many EngUsh counties — those which bought their cattle in Ireland to fat them for the English market — would suffer greatly by the projected legislation, and that the King and a majority of the Peers were opposed to the Bill. But the House of Commons, where the landowners held the pre- ponderatiag power, insisted on the Bill, and made it a con- dition of voting supplies. Ireland was also excluded from the advantages of the Navigation Act, and her independent trade with New England was thereby destroyed. Against these restrictions, so injurious not to trade only but to the Protestant interest also, largely composed as that interest was of the commercial and trading classes. Sir William strongly exerted himself. He drew up a paper of ' Observations upon the trade in Irish cattle,' in which he pointed out that the value of the Irish cattle imported into England had been too small to have been the cause of the fall in the value of English land. ' The owners of breeding lands ' (in England), he said, ' since the prohibition, have gotten above ten shillings more for their cattle per head than before it, which the owners of the feeding lands (ua Ireland) have lost. Moreover, the mariners of = 15 Charles II. i;. 7 (English » Life of Clarendon, p. 959 et seq. Statutes). * Ibid. p. 967. 142 LIFE OP SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, t England have lost the getting of nine shillings and six pence for freight and primage, and the people of England have lost four shillings and sixpence per head more for driving and grazing. The King hath lost three shillings and sixpence per head for customs on both sides : besides officers' fees. And the traders in hides and tallow have lost what they might have gained out of fifteen sliillings per head. And the merchants and artizans of England have lost yearly what they might have gained by one hundred and forty thousand pounds worth of English manufactures.' * He went over to England as the head of a deputation to oppose the Bill before both Houses of Parliament. But so violent were the passions of the English landed interest, that even the intercession of Sir Heneage Finch on behalf of the Crown could not prevail on the House of Commons — then sitting at Oxford, owing to the plague in London — to stop their headlong course, or to give a copy of the Bill to the petitioners. They were told that it might be read to them once, and then they must immediately say what they had to offer in objection.'' Sir William next appeared with Mr. Boyle and others before the Committee of the Lords, but there also his efforts were useless, and the Bill passed into law. In 1664, which Sir William considered the year of Ireland's greatest commercial prosperity, three-fourths of her foreign trade was with England, but afterwards it was only one-fourth.* To alleviate the injury done to Ireland, a project was started to set up an export trade to Holland, and Sir William wrote a paper in support of it ; but it does not appear that the plan was ever carried into effect. He also did all in his power to second the efforts of the Duke of Ormonde to encourage the linen trade as some compensation to Ireland, and to establish a bank to supply a circulating medium of exchange for the country on a firm basis. ' We do the trade between England ' Petty MSS. The substance of tical Anatomy, oh. x. p. 348, ch. xi the argument is reproduced in the p. 362. The Acts in question are 18 Political Anatomy, ch. x. Charles II. c. 2, and 32 Charles II. ' Commons'' Journals, 1665. ch. 2. (English Statutes.) ' Carte's Ormonde, iv. 245 ; PoU- 1666-1667 EFFECTS OF ABSENTEEISM 143 and Ireland,' lie wrote at this period, ' as the Spaniards in the West Indies do to all other nations ; for which cause all other nations have war with them there.' It was absurd, he pointed out, ' that a ship trading from Ireland into the islands of America, should be forced to unlade the com- modities shipt for Ireland in England, and afterwards bring them home, thereby necessitating the owners of such goods to run unnecessary hazard and expense.' The Irish cattle trade was thenceforward diverted to the West Indies, where the cattle were sold in exchange for sugar ; then this sugar had to be transported to England in English bottoms, and was sold there to pay what Ireland owed.^ The amount of remittances to England was greatly in- creased by the rise at this period of the new class of non- resident proprietors, and the artificial obstacles placed by the English Parliament in the way of the natural development of Irish trade were rendering absenteeism peculiarly injurious to the country. The ordinary arguments against absenteeism Sir William Petty rejected, because he considered the remit- tance of rents to England as simply the remittance of interest on money invested in Ireland by English capitalists, which would bring back goods in exchange from England in the ordinary course ; but ' to remit so many and great sums out of Ireland into England, when all trade between the two kingdoms is prohibited must,' he argued, ' be very chargeable ; for now the goods which go out of Ireland in order to furnish the said sums in England must, for example, go into the Barbadoes, and there be sold for sugars, which, brought into England, are sold to pay for what Ireland owes. Which way being so long, tedious, and hazardous, must necessarily so raise the exchange of money, as we have seen 15% frequently given, anno 1671 and 1672.' Exchange, he points out, naturally corresponds ' with the land and water carriage of money, and the insurance of it while on the way, if the money is alike in both places.' ' 'If,' he continues, 'it be for the good of England to keep ' Political Anatomy, ch. v, p. 323. ' Ibid. ch. X. p. 349, ch. xi. p. 357. 144 LIFE OF SIR ^^'ILLIAiI PETTY chap, v Ireland a distinct kingdom, why do not the predominant party in Parliament — suppose the Western members — make England beyond Trent another kingdom under commerce, and take tolls and customs upon the border ? Or why was there ever union between England and Wales, if the good effects and fruits whereof were never questioned ? And why may not the entire kingdom of England be further cantonized for the advantage of all parties ? ' ^ ' If,' he goes on to argue, following the same line of thought, ' the whole substance of Ireland be worth 16 millions, as above-said : if the customs between England and Ireland were never worth above 32,000Z. per annum : if the titles of estates in Ireland be more hazardous and expensive, for that England and Ireland be not under one legislative power : if Ireland till now hath been a continual charge to England : if the reducing the late rebellion did cost England three times more in men and money than the substance of the whole country, when re- duced, is worth : if it be just that men of English birth and estates, living in Ireland, should be represented in the legisla- tive power ; and that the Irish should not be judged by those who, they pretend, do usurp their estates ; it then seems just and convenient that both kingdoms should be united, and governed by one legislative power. . . . ' In the mean time, it is wonderful that men born in England, who have lands granted to them by the King for service done in Ireland to the Crown of England, when they have occasion to reside or negociate in England, should by their countrymen, kindred and friends there, be debarred to bring with them out of Ireland food whereupon to live ; nor suffered to carry money out of Ireland, nor to bring such commodities as they fetch from America directly home, but round about by England, with extream hazard and loss, and be forced to trade only with strangers, and become unacquainted with their own country ; especially when England gaineth more than it looseth by a free commerce, as exporting hither three times as much as it receiveth from hence : insomuch as 95L, in England, is worth ' Political Anatomy, eh. v. p. 324. 1666-1667 ESTIMATE OF THE IRISH CHAEACTER 145 about 1001. of the like money in Ireland, in the freest time of trade.' ^ * I have lately perused all the Acts relating to Trade and Manufactures which are of force in Ireland,' he wrote some years after to Southwell, when the full evils of the system had had time to make themselves felt, ' and could without tears see them all repealed as encroachments on the Laws of Nature ; for Trade will endure no other Laws, nee volunt res male adminis- trari. But, Lord, Cousin, to what a magnitude will the Statutes both of England and Ireland swell, if they grow at this rate. How hard will it be for our lives, liberties, hmbs, and estates to be taken away upon Statutes which we can never remember nor understand. Oh, that our book of Statutes were no bigger than the Church Catechism ! ' ^ The hostility of the English Parliament was doubly odious to Sir William, because knowledge and experience had con- 1 vinced him of the possibility of a great increase in the wealth I of Ireland under natural laws, if the country were allowed ( to develop her own resources without impediment, and the \ freedom of intercourse which had existed under the Pro- ' tectorate were allowed to continue. But it was useless, he said, to have broken the power of the chiefs and 'lazing friars,' if the English Parliament was to throttle all the natural industries. Like Sir John Davis, in the previous century, he observed nothing in the character of the people to prevent them attaining a high degree of material civilisation and prosperity. He considered their faults, such as they were, to be the result of the confusion and anarchy of the times, and of ignorance, not of any in- nate inferiority to the English, or unwillingness on their part to work, if given a fair opportunity, and if order were main- tained. ' As for the manners of the Irish,' he said, ' I deduce them I from their original constitutions of body, and from the air ; \ next, from their ordinary food ; next, from their condition of | estate and Hberty, and from the influence of their governors ^ Political Anatomy, oh. xv. p. 384; oomp. oh. v. p. 322. ' To Southwell, September 10, 1678, 146 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, t and teachers, and lastly from their ancient customs, which affect as well their consciences as their nature. For their shape, stature, colour, and complexion, I see nothing in them inferior to any other people, nor any enormous predominancy of any humour. ' Their lazing seems to me to proceed rather from want of employment and encouragement to work, than from the natural abundance of flegm in their bowels and blood ; for what need they to work, who can content themselves with potatoes, whereof the labour of one man can feed forty ; and with milk, whereof one cow will, in summer time, give meat and drink enough for three men ; when they can every where gather cockles, oysters, muscles, crabs, &e., with boats, nets, angles, or the art of fishing ; and can build an house in three days? And why should they desire to fare better, though with more labour, when they are taught that this way of living is more like the patriarchs of old, and the saints of later times, by whose prayers and merits they are to be relieved, and whose examples they are therefore to follow ? And why should they breed more cattle, since 'tis penal to import them into England? Why should they raise more commodities, since there are not merchants sufficiently stocked to take them of them, nor provided with other more pleasing foreign commodities to give in exchange for them ? And how should merchants have stock, since trade is prohibited and fettered by the statutes of England? And why should men endeavour to get estates, where the legislative power is not agreed upon ; and where tricks and words destroy natural rights and property ? ' They are accused also of much treachery, falseness, and thievery ; none of all which, I conceive, is natural to them ; for as to treachery, they are made believe that they all shall flourish again, after some time ; wherefore they will not really submit to those whom they hope to have their servants ; nor will they declare so much, but say the contrary, for their pre- sent ease, which is all the treachery I have observed : for they have in their hearts, not only a grudging to see their old pro- perties enjoyed by foreigners, but a persuasion they shall be shortly restored. As for thievery, it is affixt to all thin-peopled 1666-1667 INTERESTS OF THE IRISH PEOPLE 147 countries, such as Ireland is, where there cannot be many eyes to prevent such crimes ; and where what is stolen is easily hidden and eaten, and where 'tis easy to burn the house, or violate the persons of those who prosecute these crimes ; and where thin-peopled countries are governed by the laws that were made and first fitted to thick-peopled countries; and where matters of small moment and value must be tried with all the formalities which belong to the highest causes. In this case there must be thieving, where there is neither encourage- ment, nor method, nor means for labouring, nor provision for impotents. ' As for the interest of these poorer Irish, it is manifestly to be transmuted into English, so to reform and qualify their housing, as that English women may be content to be their wives ; to decline their language, which continues a sensible distinction, being not now necessary ; which makes those who do not understand it, suspect, that what is spoken in it, is to their prejudice. It is their interest to deal with the English for leases for time and upon clear conditions, which being performed they are absolute freemen, rather than to stand always liable to the humour and caprice of their landlords, and to have every thing taken from them, which he pleases to fancy. It is their interest, that he is well-pleased with their obedience to them, when they see and know upon whose care and conduct their well-being depends, who have power over their lands and estates, than to believe a man at Eome has power in all these last particulars in this world, and can make them eternally happy or miserable hereafter. 'Tis their inte- rest to join with them, and'foUow their example, who have brought arts, civility and freedom into their country. ' On the contrary, what did they ever get by accompanying their lords into rebellion against the English ? what should they have gotten if the late rebellion had absolutely succeeded, but a more absolute servitude ? and when it failed, these poor people have lost all their estates, and their leaders in- creased theirs and enjoyed the very land which their leaders caused them to lose. The poorest now in Ireland ride on horseback, when heretofore the best ran on foot like animals. t 2 148 LIFE OF SIK A^^LLIAM PETTY chap, t They wear better clothes than ever ; the gentry have better breeding, and the generahty of the plebeians more money and freedom.' * It was, he said, often his lot to hear ' wise men,' when bewailing the vast losses of England in suppressing rebellions in Ireland, and considering how little profit had come thereby, proceed to wish in their melancholy ' that (the people of Ireland being saved) the island were sunk under water,' while others wished for another rebellion as an excuse for stamping out the inhabitants. To these melancholy philosophers he used to reply that ' the distemper of his own mind ' caused him to dream that the benefit of their wishes might practically be obtained without the adoption of such very extreme courses, ' if all the moveables and people of Ireland and of the High^ lands of Scotland, were moved into the rest of Great Britain,' where he was prepared to show there was abundant room and occupation for them ; though he thought it as well to guard himself by saying that, however ingenious and attractive these speculations might be, they were to be considered ' a dream or reverie,' rather than rational or serious proposals.' He did, however, seriously favour a considerable State-aided emigration from Ireland to England and vice versa, as affording a partial solution of many political and religious difficulties.'^ This pro- posal he renewed more than once. He also suggested that the inhabitants of New England might, as had been proposed in the time of the Commonwealth, be removed to Ireland. ' The Government of New England, both civil and ecclesiastical,' he wrote in almost prophetic words, ' doth so differ from His Majesty's other dominions, that 'tis hard to say what may be the consequence of it. . . . I can but wish they were trans- planted into Old England or Ireland (according to proposals of their own made within this twenty years) although they were allowed more liberty of conscience than they allow one an- other.' ' But his favourite idea was the union of the countries. '' Political Anatomy, ch. xii. p. 366. ' Political Arithmetic, ch. v. p. ' Political Arithmetic, ch. iv. p. 252. 269. The allusion is to the expulsion ' Political Anatomy, oh. v. pp. of Eoger Williams from Massachusetts 318, 320. and the persecution of the Quakers. 1666-1667 SETTLEMENT AT KENMARE 149 ' May not the three kingdoms,' he asks, 'be united into one, \ and equally represented in Parliament ? Might not the several species of the King's subjects be equally mixt in their habita- tions ? Might not the parishes and other precincts be better equalized ? Might not jurisdictions and pretences of powers be determined and ascertained? Might not the taxes be •equally applotted and directly applied to their ultimate use ? Might not dissenters in religion be indulged, they paying for a competent force to keep the public peace ? I humbly ven- ture to say, all these things may be done if it be so thought fit by the Sovereign power, because the like hath often been done already, at several places and times.' ° In order to set the example of promoting the develop- ment of the country, he established an industrial colony of English Protestants at Kenmare, in Kerry, with iron and copper works ; and attempted to develop the sea fisheries. For the former undertaking ore was shipped from Wales and Bristol, where Sir Eobert Southwell, who lived near the city, at King's Weston, probably assisted in the undertaking. The ore was sent to Kenmare, where the woods which clothed the mountains afforded a large supply of the best fuel. But there were great local difficulties to contend with. ' The Ministers of Justice,' he writes, ' have been often abused in their persons and goods ; they have been either terrified from proceeding in their duty, or else wearied into a compliance with or connivance at those whom they before sought to punish. ... In all the Baronies — being about 100 miles in compass — there is resident but one Minister, and he with- out Churchwardens or Service Books ; officiating only now and then in one place, and who, although he have 300Z. due to him, is now ready to perish for want of maintenance.'' Some instructions given to his agent illustrate the diffi- culties of the situation, and show the minute care with which he superiatended every detail. " PoliticalArithmetic,ch.v.-p.'26d. addressed to the Lord-Lieutenant. ' Eeport on the condition of Kerry Petty MSS. 150 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, v ' Mr. Cheesey. — Instructions for Kerry. ' By Sir William Petty. ' 1. When you goe into Kerry find out Cornelius Sulivane of Dromoughty, in the barrony of Glanneroughty, and take direc- tions from him for goeing into all the woods in the 2 barronyes of Glanneroughty and Dunkerron, and particularly those of Glancurragh, soe as to satisfie yourself what clift ware, ship tymber, house timber, and other wooden commodityes may bee made out of them, and at what charges they may bee brought to the water-side, how far each respective wood. '2. I would have you take the best accoumpt you can of all the staffes and other clift- ware which now lyeth upon the river, and examine by all the meanes you can what part of them was brought from any other than my woods, and to oppose the shipping of any untill all controversyes of that point bee cleared, to prevent the cutting of any wood but by my order, to bringe in English and Protestante workmen in the greatest number you can, assureing all such who are able and honest they shall have the best incouragement in Munster, and forbidding all tenants from paying any rent to any but myself or my order. ' I would have you encourage Sandford and Sellberry, and lett Sandford goe on with his boate, slender worke, such a one as may be able to carry 20 tunne to Corke or Lymericke, and sett as many hands as you thinke convenient to worke upp the timber already fallen into clift-ware, and sawing-tymber, according to such scantlings as I have given you. ' And to agree with as many as you can to take the rent of the land or stocke for their wages. ' To take care that noe pipe staffes coming from any other woods be shipped before they have paid the lawfull dutyes and customes for the same. ' To consider what conveniencey is for making of sale for beefe and fish. ' Dublin, dated the 24tii of May, 1666.' '' '' History of the Kingdom of Kerry, pp. 279-80. 1667 INSTRUCTIONS FOR KERRY 151 Meanwhile for three weary years the struggle with the farmers of the revenue had continued, complicated by another with the ' '49 men ' who claimed the whole of Sir William's Limerick property. Events in England influenced the situa- tion. The death of the Lord Treasurer Southampton in 1667, followed as it was shortly after by the fall of the Chancellor Clarendon and the rise into power of the heterogeneous body of statesmen known as the Cabal, had for an immediate con- sequence the retirement of Ormonde from the Lord-Lieuten- ancy of Ireland. John Petty was thereupon removed from the Surveyorship, and was succeeded by Sir James Shaen. Mis- fortunes, as usual, did not come singly. About the same time Sir William's house in London was destroyed by the Great Eire, and his surrounding property seriously depreciated in value. ' You know,' Sir William writes to a friend in 1667, ' when I had much money in the bank, much land in Ireland, and some houses in London ; but the houses and money are gone, and only so much of the land remains as is a continual foun- tain of vexations to me, for I have about thirty lawsuits.' ' In another letter he gives the following enumeration of the storms which had befallen him since the Eestoration : — ' 1. The " 49 men " siege of my Limerick concernment, and Sir Alan Broderick; 1661 and 2. ' 2. The Court of Clayms and Innocents, 1663. ' 3. The great "Double bottom," 1664. ' 4. The Plague, 1665. ' 5. Lord Eanelagh and the Eire of London, 1666. ' 6. War with Lord Kingston, 1667-8-9-70 and 1, when Sir W. Fenton died.' In addition to these, he got involved in a suit with Sir George Carteret, the Treasurer of the Navy, who had joined him in one of his Irish undertakings. During the first of these storms, Sir Alan Broderick, ' one of the '49 men ' who had put in a claim to part of the Limerick lands, and in other respects also was a sort of second edition of Sir Hierome Sankey, being given to preaching in Dublin " Petty to Southwell, January 21, 1667. 152 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, v when not engaged in soldiering elsewhere, sent Sir William a challenge to fight. Sir William, however, notwithstanding his recent knighthood, was not more desirous of distinction in martial exercises than in the days when Sir Hierome's friends had pressed on him the command of a troop of horse. Being the person challenged, it lay ^\ith him to nominate place and weapon. As he was very short-sighted, he claimed, in order that his adversary should have no unfair advantage over him, that the place should be a dark cellar, and the weapon a great carpenter's axe. This turned the challenge into ridicule, and Sir Alan declined so unexpected a form of contest.'' ■* Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 96. Bodleian Letters, ii. p. 485. 153 CHAPTEE VI DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 1667-1678 Marriage— Offer of a peerage — Housekeeping in 1672 — Character of Sir William Petty — Correspondence with Lady Petty — Family troubles — Business affairs — John Aubrey — The farmers of the revenue — Commitment for contempt — Portrait by Sir Peter Lely — Southwell as an adviser — Colonel Vernon. In 1667 Sir William, who was now forty-four years of age, married Lady Fenton, the widow of Sir Maurice Fenton, and daughter of Sir Hardress Waller, one of the most distinguished of the Parliamentary officers. Sir Hardress, as already seen, had materially assisted Dr. Petty at the time of the survey, by becoming one of the securities in a bond for the punctual execution of the contract. His signature appears to the warrant for the execution of Charles I. At the Eestoration he suffered for his opinions. Narrowly escaping the death penalty, he was imprisoned for life in the Tower, and appears to have died there.' Aubrey describes Lady Fenton as ' a very beautiful and ingenious lady, browne, with glorious eyes.' Her tastes, combined with a certain love of splendour, are con- trasted by Evelyn with the simple habits of Sir Wilham. ' When I,' he says, ' who have knowne him in meane circum- stances, have been in his splendid palace, he would himself be in admiration how he arrived at it ; nor was it his admiration for splendid furniture or the curiosities of the age ; but his elegant lady could endure nothing mean, or that was not magnificent. He was very negligent himself, and rather so of his own person, and of a philosophic temper. " What a to-do is here," would he say; "I can lie in straw with as ' Noble, Lives of the Regicides, ii. 285. 154 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vi much satisfaction." . . . She was an extraordinary wit as well as beauty.' ^ Some bantering lines, signed ' Dorothy Anwacker,' thus allude to his marriage : — ' Petty complains that nature was unkind, In that she made him heavy-eyed and bhnd, Never considering that the mighty three. Fortune, Love, Justice, were more blind than he. ' The Blind were all his friends, for understand, It was blind fortune gave him all his land. Blind love, in her he had gave him a wife, Eich, fair, and civil, without brand or strife.' ' ' This is the fourth day,' Sir William writes from Dublin, in the autumn of 1667, to Captain Graunt, ' since my wife's arrival in the town, and I thank God that her presence and conversation have been a continual holy day unto me ; so as I have declined all other business till this time, the better to entertain her.' ' I am almost weary of living,' he says a few weeks later, ' did not my wife, as she is at this moment doing, refresh me with the lute strings, to which purpose I am con- tented that our dreadful account should be inflamed with two packets of lute strings, which will cost about 17 or 18 shillings.' * The following letter gives an insight into the troubles of furnishing in 1668 : — Sir William to Lady Petty. ' I have sent an inventory of such goods as we have. Consider what you have of your own, and then consider also what more is next necessary to be bought, to the value of about 3001. ; whereof a good part must be in linen ; as also a pair of horses, about 501. ; with another pair, about 60L ; and a pair for loading, to make them up to six. I suppose we may have them here, either bays or blacks. The great art will be in buying these horses, next to the finding means to pay for them.' ' ' Evelyn's Memoirs, v. 95-97. * Petty to Graunt, Oct. 13, Nov. 28, ■'< Petty MSS. Sir William Fenton, 1667. son of Lady Petty by her first mar- ° Dublin, Oct. 15, 1668. riage, died on March 18, 1671. 1668-1669 OFFER OF A PEERAGE 155 By his marriage Sir William became connected with the family of his friend, Sir Eobert Southwell, and they now addressed each other in their correspondence as cousins.^ About the time of his marriage, Sir William appears to have been offered a peerage ; but there was a condition annexed — a round contribution to the Exchequer of the impe- cunious King. The offer came at a peculiarly inopportune moment, when his house in London had just been destroyed, and in the midst of his struggle with the farmers of the revenue. It appears to have been made through the Bishop of Killaloe, a friend of Lady Petty ; the title offered, according to Aubrey, being that of Baron Kilmore.'^ To the Bishop Sir William replied as follows : — 'My Lord, — I thank you on my wife's behalf for your good intentions ; but is it better for me at this time to buy titles, or to get me a house and furniture, whereby I may do for your Lordship as your Lordship hath done for me ; and to rebuild my ruins at London ; to pay my year's rent ; to restore the iron works and fisheries of Kerry ; to buy off my incumbrances, and to carry on the just and necessary war against Lord Kingston ? ' I will not tell your Lordship what I think of people who make use of titles and of tools ; nor would I fall into the temptation of doing the like. The end of those things will be like that of the Dublin tokens. I had rather be a copper farthing of intrinsic value, than a brass half-crown, how gaudily soever it be stamped and guilded. I might have had those things a long time ago, for the third part of what your Lordship propounds. Beside, if ever a thirst of that kind should take me, I hope to quench it at the very fountain, where those matters are most clear and wholesome. Herewith then, I thank your Lordship for the honour you intended me, and if I can serve your Lordship's friend by being his broker " Lady Petty was descended from ' Bodleian Letters, ii. 485. The Sir Thomas Southwell, whose brother estuary now known as the Kenmare Anthony was godfather to Sir Eobert River is marked on Sir William Petty 's Southwell. map ' Killmare.' 156 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap. yi in the market of ambition, let him give me his selling price, and employ your Lordship's most thankful, etc., etc.,* 'William Petty.' The death at this moment of John Petty, who had managed his affairs in Ireland and understood the labyrinth of suits in which they were involved, not only deprived him of a near relative, but of a trusted adviser. Sir William's marriage in some respects also increased his troubles. The ' war with Lord Kingston,' which is frequently referred to in his papers, was originally undertaken on behalf of Lady Petty's son by her first husband, whose cause, once espoused by Sir William, was pushed by him with characteristic deter- mination. A Mr. Napper also, who had married Sir William's only sister, died, and left his wife and family dependent upon his brother-in-law. Sir William was not wanting to his duty. Writing to Southwell, he says : ' I am, and ever shall be, a friend, and as an only brother to my sister and *hers ; and will do for them as for my own self ; but God knows how long I shall be able to act for either. Let her doubt nothing of those steady principles whereby 1 have ever acted.' ^ The desponding tone of his letter was no doubt owing to the losses he had himself sustained. ' Sir William,' Lady Petty says, writing to Lady Ingoldsby, 'lost about 4,000L by the fire of London ; has lately paid about 2,000Z. for the " yearly value " (which is more than the land is worth) ; has expended more than 5,000L in Kerry, without a penny return ; hath laid out for William Fenton about 1,500L more than he hath received ; is now paying TOOL of Sir Michael Fenton's debts ; and lives all the time on money taken up at interest. Consider that I have neither jewels, plate, nor house to put my head in.' ^ Sir William himself writes in the same strain to Mr. Waller : ' Exchange being at the intolerable rate of ten per cent., and we having contracted many debts for furnishing our house, it behoves us to be frugal ; ' ^ and Mr. Waller's 8 Earl of Kerry's MS. The original " To Southwell, Sept. 19, 1671. is stated to be among the MSS. of Sir ' July 18, 1671. Thomas Phillips. ^ Nov. 14, 1671. 1670-1672 HOUSEKEEPING IN 1672 157 reply appearing not altogether satisfactory, Sir William in his answer goes a little into details. ' As to your housekeep- ing,' he says, ' upon perusal of the accompte, I find there has been about eleven in family : viz. yourself, Crookshank, Gary, Antrobus, Seney, Harry, Bryan, and the groom, Jane, Margaret and Mary ; besides my cousin, before Crookshank came. Now I see no necessity of above four, yourself, Crookshank, a groom, and maid. I also find there has been spent in housekeeping since my departure above 250Z. ; at which rate the whole year's expense must come to 340Z. ; nothing being reckoned for Marshall, Butter, or several other agents in the country ; which being put together and spend- ing proportionately, will amount to between 400Z. and 500L ; whereas I think 200Z. is very fair for doing all my business out of Kerry. I also find that in the same three quarters of a year there hath been spent in law, letters, and travelling expenses, and agents' salaries, about 350L, which in the whole year will amount to above 450Z. ; whereas I conceive that about half the same would very well suffice. To be short, I conceive that comparing the business which hath been done with your accounts, that about 400Z. may defray the charges of the lands, letters, travelling charges, dyet, horsement, and two ser- vants' wages in Dublin ; more than which I neither can nor will expend, both for the premises and all your salaries, consider- ing that you have a house, furniture, and horses, over and above the sum ; which cannot be worth less than SOL or 60Z. per annum. I now perceive what hath ruined me, forasmuch as till now I never could come to the sight of any of my accounts ; and being kept in perpetual darkness.' ^ At this period Sir William was almost continuously in Ireland. 'As for my health,' he writes to Lord Anglesea from Dublin, 'it is ordinarily well. What I do here are matters of recreation or business, or mixt. The first sort are such things as I exercised myself with before the age of twenty, to delude myself that I am now as then. The second sort of my business is to rectify double charges in the Exchequer, and prevent double payments, to contest with » Jan. 9, 1672. 158 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vi proud Beggars, and, lastly, I thank God, to provide employ- ment for 300 useful artisans and labourers without profit to myself. The last sort are " Political Arithmetick ; " and the " Political Anatomy of Ireland ; " whereupon I think depends the Political Medicine of that country ; and these things too without passion or interest, faction or party ; but as I think according to the Eternal Laws and Measures of Truth. As for complaints, the Poor ever complained against the Eich ; one endeavoured to cheat or oppress the other ; and those out of power did ever find fault with those that are arm'd with it. Trading was ever dead among the Lazy and Ignorant ; nor is it any more than good luck for the Ingenious and Industrious to thrive, or for the Innocent to be punished as malefactors. But if you would have me pitch upon the partialitys which may diminish our grievances in Ireland, I shall shortly do it as well as I can ; and, I hope, without reflection on any person in power or envy of his preferment ; altho' I do not think that shifty and transient expedients, or any gratifying of humours or opinions, can produce any permanent advantage ; for I ever fear'd the Act of Settlement (how much I own it ought to be preserved) not to have been built upon so firm ground, as ought to have been had at the price.' * As already seen, the house which he had erected in Loth- bury had been totally destroyed in the Great Fire. The disaster was serious, but never perhaps did the elasticity of his mind come out more strongly. No sooner was he aware of the extent of his losses than he set to work to repair them. He at once addressed a paper of inquiries from Dublin to Captain Graunt, in order to ascertain the plan proposed for the restoration of the City. ' What,' he inquires, ' do the several parties give as the provocation of God unto this vengeance on London ; and to what action or motion does this providence incline them ? ' He soon had made up his own mind on what he intended to do himself. ' I intend,' he said, replying to his own inquiry, ' God willing, to introduce the use of brick into the city ; for I find that a sixth part more housing may be built upon my ground, than with stone, and at less charge.' ^ ' Deo. 17, 1672. ' To Graunt, August 1667. 1G70-1672 CH.IRACTER OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY 159 The versatility and pertinacity which thiS' letter exhibits, and the fund of humour which enriched an otherwise serious nature and enabled him to see the comic side of events and to laugh over his own failures, were the gifts which enabled him to surmount his various troubles. He builds houses in London and Dublin ; reads papers before the Eoyal Society ; keeps up his interest in medicine ; commences a metaphysical treatise; plunges deeply into political economy; not only translates the Psalms into Latin verse, but also what he irreverently termed ' the catterwouling songs ' of Sir Peter Pett of the Board of Admiralty, one of his colleagues on the Council of the Eoyal Society ; writes a quantity of good Latin and bad English original verse ; builds a new kind of chariot, not to mention the ' double bottom ; ' and does all these things in the intervals of his endless suits with the farmers of the revenue, and the battle with Lord Kingston, besides keeping up a large private correspondence. He gets a ' custodium ' of his lands in Kerry, and ' is gone,' Lady Petty despairingly writes to Sir Eobert Southwell, ' upon the unlucky place him- self ; which she is very sorry for, considering how unfit he is to ride in such dangerous places.' ^ He draws up schemes for the education of his own children and for Southwell's son Edward; he dabbles in theology, and consoles himself in dreamy and rather mystical speculations on the character and nature of the Deity, for the terrestrial troubles which he suffers owing to 'there being always some devilish enemy, who sows tares amongst the corn at night.' ' His old habit of mimicry was also an unfailing source of consolation; and he could not resist falling back upon it notwithstanding his constant resolves to abandon a practice too dangerous for unsettled times. He could speak ' now like a grave orthodox divine ; then falling into the Presbyterian way ; then to Fanatical, to Quaker, to Monk, and to Friar, and to Popish Priest,' all of which Evelyn declares 'he did with such admirable action and alteration of voice and tone, as it was not possible to abstain from wonder, and one would sweare to heare severall persons, or forbear to think he was not ' Aug. 11, 1683. ' To SouthweU, April 1684. 160 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap. ti in good earnest, an enthusiast, and almost beside himself. Then he would fall out of it into a serious discourse ; but it was very rarely he would be prevailed apon to oblige the company witti the faculty, and that only amongst most intimate friends. My Lord D. of Ormond once obtained it of him, and was almost ravished with admiration ; but by and by he feH upon a serious reprimand of the faults and miscarriages of some Princes and Governors, which, though he named none, did so sensibly touch the Duke, who was then Lieutenant of Ireland, that he began to be very uneasy, and wished the spirit layed, which he had raised ; for he was neither able to endure such truths, nor could he but be delighted. At last he turned his discourse to a ridiculous subject, and came down from the joint-stool on which he had stood, but my lord would not have him preach any more.' ^ Sir William was now the father of two children : John, born in February 1669 ; and a daughter. But in 1670 both son and daughter died, apparently of small-pox, in Dublin. From this time forward Lady Petty evinced a great and natural dislike to the idea of returning to the Irish capital. The fate of her two children is alluded to in a letter from Sir William to Lady Petty in 1671. ' I did not forget upon the 17th and 18th,' he says, ' to commemorate the translation of our dear children ; but without any regret or chagrin, and with much pleasant contemplation upon their blessed estate and condition, practicing as well as I could how to resign our best things to the disposure of God and to acquiesce perfectly in his will. I hope you have done the same and no more.' ^ In 1672 Lady Petty had another daughter, Anne. Sir William to Lady Petty. 'Dublin: 13° July 1672. ' I hope, my Dearest, That this will find you safely de- livered, the news whereof will be of all others most welcome. I " Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. 95-97, 1, buried in St. Bride's Churoh, Dublin, 417. Jan. 2S, 1670. " March 19, 1671. John Petty was 1G72 CORRESPONDENCE WITH LADY PETTY 161 am very weary of this separation, but hope to make this one the Prevention of any more. Otherwise this it selfe had been intollerable. I and my affaires do still mend, tho' I shall trouble you with none of them. Onely I wish that you have or may get such monyes as are necessary without troubling your mind in the least. I presume Ewing has ere this payd the 30" and that the Lothbury rents, due about the 7"* instant, have done somewhat, whatever Beechers prove. But as to this point I say, as in my last, do any thing rather then entertayne an anxious thought. Draw what you will, I can pay it at sight. I thinke powerfully of you and pray as often for you. You may repay this care and kindness, onely by sending mee the Newes of your being well ; and that I have now 2 strings to my bow, and that you are patient under the providences of God, and wiU forgive the Injuryes of my absence. Who neverthelesse am ' Yours entirely, 'W. P. ' Let me know particularly how you did this last night for I have dreamt very much about you.' • Dublin : 16° July 1672. ' Notwithstanding the necessity I had to stay here, I am full of perplexity that I did not breake away from all my businesse to be with you. I did allwayes presume upon our deare friend, Dr. Cox, his kindnesse and care of you, and his goodnesse is almost halfe the cause why I am not with you. I should now write a great many lynes of thankes to him, but pray shew him this letter, that he may see I write nothing to that purpose, as conceiving it too big a worke to be per- formed by words. I desire that hee would appoint a name to our Child which I trust to God is by this time borne and well. If it be a Girle, I except against your name onely because it rymes to Petty.' Why may it not be Anna Maria, the name of both your sisters, or Katherine, the Queenes name ; And if a boy, why not Charles or James ? To conclude, desire Dr. Cox to helpe you alsoe in this weighty matter. ' Elizabeth, Betty ; Petty. M 162 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vi ' For my owne part my businesse is and shall be, night and day, though without ostentation, to think of you and pray for you, and to make our being more quiet and comfortable hereafter than hitherto. In these endeavors I remaine, ' Yours intirely, 'W. P.' ' I vehemently fear,' Sir William told Lady Petty, ' that an Irish estate cannot exist without the owner daily, for sense and inspection. But I would have you satisfy yourself of this matter by your own actual experience upon the place.' ^ Lady Petty, however, continued to be very reluctant to leave England, for a few days after we find Sir William writing to her as follows : — 'Aug. 20, 1672. ' To yours of the 13th my deerest, I say God is angry with us, that we cannot meet without so much inconvenience. In short I cannot stir from Ireland, unless all I have done should relapse again. I am a slave and a prisoner, nor did I ever believe that you could come without inconvenience ; wherefore stay where you are, and let us pray and withal endeavour that the time may be shortened.' He very soon, however, repented of his consent, as only a week afterwards he writes to Lady Petty : ' In my last perceiving your indis- position to come hither, I said that then you might stay there. But opinions and even lawes against nature are not stable and permanent. Wherefore I say again now, why may you not take a time before All Hallows tide to come to me, leaving your family as it is and bringing only a man and a maid. If your train and attendance in your journey be not great and splendid, consider that here you are sufficiently known, and therefore shall not want these outward signs to shew who you are. Well, I say again, methinks you might come with one man and a maid, and make any shi^t rather than let me be here alone and as it were a prisoner : aye a slave for your sake and concernments. ... I am in the fairest way to beget a thoro' settlement in my affairs that there ever yet was. Let the ' July 30, 1672. 1673 FAMILY TROUBLES 163 work not fall to ruin or decay by my absence hence, neither let me work here without the best wages, your company.' Such entreaties were irresistible, and in consequence Lady Petty went over to Ireland early in the autumn. She had not been long there before anxieties, of far greater consequence than pecuniary embarrassments, or the tortuous processes of the law, made her regret that she had yielded to her husband's entreaties. The infant daughter left in London was taken dangerously ill, and it was long doubtful whether she would not succumb. Writing to Dr. Cox, the physician under whose care she was placed. Sir William says : ' We hare received your several letters. In giving you all the thanks we at present can for your patient and affectionate care, we can acquiesce in the will of God by whom all these things came to pass. How smart the blow is and how sore the place whereon it lights, and what a concurrence there hath been of several other perplexities, many know, and my poor wife thinks it an aggravation that she is again with child. But be things how they will, there is one short remedy for all, viz. That they are the will of God, which we pray may be done. Hopes of better news do a little flatter nature, but fail much of satisfying my understanding that we shall be happy even in \ that : wherefore I again conclude, God's will be done. As for my wife she hath a reciprocation of sharp resentments and stupidity, and is now lately fallen into her tickling cough, &e., ( and these things too must be borne. What more to say I know not, but to beg you to have the same courage for us as I here pretend to, and to impress the same upon all the servants that attend the uncomfortable employment, assuring them that they all shall be considered, whatever the event of their labors be. I know of no better use for all men can spare above necessary food and raiment, than to do such justice, and it is the honestest way of giving it to the children for whom we are solicitous.' ^ The child recovered. We get some glimpses of her, and of her brother Charles, born in 1673, in the following letter, written two years after : — • ^ Jan. 25, 1673. 164 LIFE OF. SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, ti Sir William to Lady Petty. ' London, 31 July 1675. ' Yours of the 20* instant mentioning your return to Dublin, put us all into a flame of joy. Charles rejoyceth, but little dreames how hee must bee whipt for all his Eogueryes when you come, which work unless you come suddenly I must undertake myselfe. But as for My-Anne I protest I think her, taken altogether, the most desirable child I know. I assure you shee is neither forward nor abates a jot of her lusty feeding and sound sleeping, nor of her merry humor and pretty tricks, for shee also growes a mighty mimick and mocker of her brother Charles, and when hee bawles, will counterfet a wondring at him, as well as Lacy.^ If you doubt what I say, make hast to disprove mee upon the place, and let mee know where I shall meete you, but I will not come far, for I will not leave my children. I was 2 nights at Windsore, without pleasure, upon your accompt, and would goe to Tun- bridge and the Bath, and to Eumsey, but for that reason. The great point you have to do before you come away is to fix with my brother Tom and James, taking security of them ; for I need neither of them, and do with my owne hands what Jemmy did, with far lesse trouble then that of calling upon him, &c. Beware of caprices about our writings and deeds. There is one Capt. Shieres, that lives neere Dublin, who would be a fit instrument in our busines. If Gwyn be not. God blesse my brother Tom. I wish it sincerely, but feare to have much dealing with him. Jemmy is much more likely, if hee can bee fixt right. God direct you in these matters : they are your brothers and your father's children, wherefore I would endure much. These my deare are the cheife direccions. I have to give you thanks for sending us mony or rather for getting it in. You need none. Crukshank may pay it immediately to merchants without troubling my Brother Tom, who sends no accompt, notwithstanding his promises ; nor answers any letter, but writes a deale of the most frivolous stufie im.aginable. When your busines is done, wayte a little for a faire passage ' The famous actor. 1674-1675 BUSINESS AFFAIRS 165 to Chester water, which I think is the best way for your con- dicion, it being summer time and the nights short and light. . . . ' I wrote in my last the excellent newes of our quitrents being reduced to a very good pitch. There hath since fallen some water into our wine ; but upon that accident, I take heart againe, and hope to make it better than before. On Tuesday next we shall have another Tug, especially about the arrears. ' I hope you have been at Balliboy and among other matters settled with Fletcher, who I believe intends to remove his goods to Cloncurry, which should be prevented by seizmg y™ for our arrears. ' Adieu my dearest, 'W. P.' Sir William's hands appear at this time to have been full of business of all kinds. He was again urging upon the English Government the adoption of a plan for the improve- ment of the Irish revenue, a subject rarely out of his thoughts. To do justice to his plan it was absolutely necessary for him to be upon the spot, and he was therefore reluctant to leave England. Under these circumstances Lady Petty, who had become the mother of a second son, Henry, born October 22, 1675, undertook to remain in Ireland, and to supply her husband's place. If anything could mitigate her separation from the children to whom she was so tenderly attached, it must have been the habit to which Sir William constantly adhered of keeping up a correspondence at once most regular and minute. Every circumstance, however trivial, relating to the children which could interest a mother was almost daily dispatched to her, while her conduct was assisted and directed in all the points where advice could be of use. Interspersed with these directions are instructions for her guidance in business. ' I suppose,' Sir William writes in May from London, ' this letter will come to your hand before your arrival in Kerry. I thought to have said Oceans about that Gulf of trouble ; but know not what to say more, than what was in the letters whereof you have a Catalogue, nor was I willing to perplex you with new and perhaps contradictory 166 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vi directions. Wherefore be courageous, let not every cross affect you ; let none break your rest ; talk with every body ; hear all their tales, true or false; see with your own eyes where you can ; compare receipts with the Books and Eent Eolls ; make no confounding haste ; seem to know and under- stand more than you do ; cover your ignorance with silence, nods, shrugs, &c. Make no lasting nor great bargains rashly ; let Jamesey keep a diary of all your actings, copy your letters of business, bundle up and endorse your papers ; and let God be a light to your feet and a Lanthorn to your paths.' ^ ' Sir,' he writes to Mr. Cosby of Balliboy, ' I must once more take the liberty of writing about the Quakers you keep in prison. The occasion of their being troubled was from their tythes. They say that although they cannot pay them in a formal way, yet they have always permitted you to take even what you please, so as for want of formality only, and no way prejudicial to you, they were put into the Bishop's Court, as they say, to accumulate a new crime upon them, viz. a contempt : which they say also was not want of appear- ance, but of form only. Now if upon the whole matter, these men do not deny the King's nor the Bishop's power nor jurisdiction, nor withold the Tythe, why should they be persecuted ; whereby the commonwealth is deprived of their labour, and His Majesty's intentions, lately declared, frus- trated ; and the Church and yourself evil spoken of ? You know that the way is not apostolical, nor is there one Quaker less in Ireland, since you took this course, but rather the more ; as His Majesty also observed in his declaration ; and,' he sarcastically concludes, ' let me once more desire and advise you to quit this method of reducing them, and instead thereof try public preaching and particular admonitions of them from the Scripture ; and the Lord bless you evermore.' '^ The following letter from William Penn alludes to this affair : — ' My old friend,- — I have broacht y* affaire to the great man. He took it marvellous kindly and desired me to give it him in ' May 4, 1675. claration ' is the Declaration of Indul- « Jan. 24, 1675. The King's ' De- genoe of 1672. 1674-1675 JOHN AUBREY 167 writeing, promissing to name noe person, but upon assurance to thrive. Now I entreat thee most earnestly to have ha •writeing what was read to me of Eng(land) and Ir(eland) as to revenue. The bearer waites wholly for it, for this night I am to goe to him again. I was with him yesterday about my own business, and then fell into discourse about 'this. Ire- land took as well as England. Now is the crisis ; therefore pray fail not, and if anything be to be done for the retriveing my business about the Lord Kanalagh, lett me have two words ; and what progress is made in our Irish affaires there. I will run, goe, or doe ten times more for thee at any time. Noe more, but once more beseech you not to fail for both our sakes. In great hast. ' Thy sinceer friend ' Wm. Pbnn. ' Windsor : July 30, 1675. ' For my old and worthy friend Sir William Petty at his house in Pecedille. Speed and Care.' Amongst others whose good opinion Sir William at this time gained was John Aubrey, the celebrated Wiltshire anti- quarian. John Aubrey to Sir William Petty. ' Drayoot, July 17, 1675. ' Sir, — My quondam neighbour and ever honoured friend, Sir James Long, hath importuned me to leave my all till October to wayte on Him. I pass my time away here merrily in ingeniose conversation, and with very great Beautys. But notwithstanding all these very great divertisements, I cannot, nor shall not while I live, ever forget the kindness, the great favour, friendship, and honour, in my case, of my ever honoured friend Sir William Petty, to so unlucky and unfortunate a person as your humble servant. Truly, Sir William, I have been so battered with the afflictions of this world, that I am almost weary of it, and could I with a wish advance my fortune, it should be more to endeavour by way of retaliation and gratitude (which if I can plead to any virtue 'tis that) to express my thankfulness to two or three friends, whereof Sir W" Petty is the chiefe : " Nescio quod me tibi temperat 168 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ti astrum." ^ Could such a Monk, such an object as I am, think that Sir W™ Petty, who has so great concerns of his own, ao great thoughts for the advancement of learning, so great thoughts for the propping up of a Government, would think upon John Aubrey ? And since it is so, how can I express my thankfulness enough ? I cannot do it to my mind, it is im- possible, but I'll tell you what I'll do. 'Tis true I am no Oratour, but I will bring Compurgators to attest for me : the Bishop of Sarum, Mr. Wyld, Mr. Hooke, and this noble Baronet, all whom I mention for honours sake and upon the account of Friendship.' ' Sir William,' says Aubrey, ' hath told me that he hath read but little, that is to say not since 25 Aetat, and is of Mr. Hobbes, his mind, that had he read much, as some men have, I he had not known so much as he does, nor should have made such discoveries and improvements.' Energy in action, accord- ing to his opinion, was the great requisite in life. There was ' much boggy ground in this world ; ' ^ but he was ready to fight all his enemies to the bitter end, whether on firm ground or the opposite, whether they were his ancient foes of the San- key type, who under the aegis of Shaftesbury and Buckingham were showing a renewal of activity, or the representatives of the dispossessed Eoman Catholic owners, who would gladly have involved him and Sankey in a common ruin. He spends the whole of 1676, 1677, and 1678 in Ireland, engaged in one continuous struggle, sometimes up, sometimes down, some- times fighting his own battles, sometimes those of others. His buoyancy and pugnacity appear even in the hour of defeat. ' Let me tell you,' he writes to Southwell in 1676, ' that even in this last storme, which has blown upon my concerns both in England and Ireland, I have (to shewe mine enemies that they cannot give me business enough) actually made and finished the chariot, which I was modelling in England.' * Lady Petty is badly hurt in a carriage accident — it is to be hoped not in the chariot of Sir William's designing. At one moment he is himself prevented crossing the sea by the fear 7 1 ! ' SoitGenius.nataleoomesquitem- * To Lady Petty, April 27, 1680. perat astrum.'— Horace, Sp. II. 2, 187. » Jan. 13, 1677. 1674-1675 THE FARMERS OF THE REVENUE 169 of the Barbary corsairs, who, under the guidance of some rene- gade pilots from Liverpool, were making the navigation of the Channel dangerous ; ^ at another he is wrecked on his way to England, and narrowly escapes losing his portmanteau and all his business papers. In 1677 he is very iU, but mind triumphs over body ; and he grimly announces his wish that ' his friende and enemies should both alike know that he is in a much better condition to chastise the one and cherish the other than at any former period.' ' Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito' is his favourite quotation. He tells Aubrey that some men may accidentally have come into the way of preferment by lying at an inn and there contracting an acquaintance on the road; but he proposes to be the architect of his own fortunes, and does not expect to get legacies in the future, having observed that he had got very few in the past, and that they had not been paid ; but he intends to claim his own.^ The struggle with the farmers of the revenue was continu- ing with unabated fury, exasperated by the attempt made by the Lord-Lieutenant in 1674, and probably suggested by Sir William, to carry out a proper survey for revenue purposes of the assessments for the hearth money. Sir William, through the combined influence of his own obstinate determination not to give way, and that of his enemies to ruin him, at last succeeded in getting into Chancery, both in England and Ireland, and was arrested and imprisoned for contempt of court. ' The two Chanceries,' he says, writing to Southwell, ' the one of England and the other of Ireland, are two sore blisters upon my affairs. My throat is also sore with crying for relief ; nor hath paying nor bleeding done me any good. I cannot continue the parallel between j'our fortune and mine in the Point of recovering Losses ; those who wrong you are in Irons and Chains, and those who abuse me have Eods of Iron > To Lady Petty, April 27, 1680. taten and executed. The story is On June 20, 1631, Baltimore had been the subject of one of Davis's poems, plundered by Algerine corsairs, who ^ Bodleian Letters, ii. pp. 486 and were piloted by one Hacket, a native 487. of Dungarvan. He was afterwards TU) LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY cieap. \i in their hands. However I am glad I have any fortunate friend, how much soever otherwise I am myself.' ^ The ' two Chanceries,' having once got Sir William into their clutches, showed no inclination to let go of him easily. He appears to have been partly indebted to his own want of caution for the trouble in which he found himself involved.'' ' This day,' he says, writing on February 10, ' about 11 o'clock, I and my Councils, one M"" Whitchett, were comitted Prissoners to a Serj'-at-Armes by the Lord Chancellor,' upon a very great mistake, as I think. The matter was this, viz. : — I drew up materials for a Bill to be preferred in Chancery against the farmers ; and, as I used always to do, I gathered up all matters and motions which might have any affinity or relations to my intentions, expecting that my Councile would have made such alterations in matters and form, as might answer the practise of the Court. Whereupon he made a few notes up and downe my paper, as if he had thoroughly passed over it. But when I myself came to review it, I found he had not corrected some nonsense and other defects, which I myself had left in it — insomuch as I went to him, myself showed him his oversight, and desired him that he would take a special care of it, for that, although my matter was short, I would have it soe tempered by him as to give noe offence, nor spoile my business ; telling him that I had several times sufifered (as you know I have done), by oblique advantages which my adversaries have taken, upon some faults in the forme and cirkumstances, when they could not do it directly upon the matter. But hee having much business, let pass those two following points, viz. : I complained among other abuses the farmers had done me, that they (as I believed) had instigated my L"^ Chancellor of England to speak sharply to mee ; and that they stood laughing, whilst the dreadful grind- ing of your orator to the nether Millstone was denounced. And the point was this, that the farmers had given out That they would force your Orators plainest pretences at Common Law into Chancery; and that they had turned = To Southwell, Feb. 13, 1677. ' Feb. 10, 1677. ^ The Lord Chancellor of Ireland. 1676-1677 COMMITMENT FOB CONTEilPT 171 the Chancellors of both Kingdoms against him. Upon the read- ing of these paragraphs, and having heard both Sir Whitehall and myself speake somewhat in explanation and excuse of the matter, he gave sentence as aforesaid : saying that he could easily pass over those reflections, which was in those words upon himselfe ; but not what concerned a principal Minister in England — meaning (as we all think) the L'^ Chancellor. — Now see my misfortune : that I who had lately received an account out of England, how my L'^ Chancellor there publickly expressed himself to this purpose, viz. : That though he had granted an Injunction against mee with some favour to the farmers, yet that he did not intend that by delays or other devises, the Justice of the Court should be discredited ; and therefore bidd them to dispatch their cause by Easter — upon which I was greatly pleased, and my thought of my Lord Chancellors former severity was quite banish't away. I say that my misfortune was that when I was well reconciled to my Lord Chancellor's proceeding, I should be thought to throw dirt in his face, whilst I was endeavouring to wipe off what I conceived to have been thrown against him by others. Now the mistake I think my Lord Chancellor was in, was that he punishes me for telling him that some others abused him, without even questioning those whom I accused for so doing. There be two or three points more, which I lett pass, for I do not like to believe that persons in great place doe mistake so m-uch as it seems to me they doe. In brief, I am now a prisoner for haviug scandalized the L* Chancellor of England ; whereas I verily believed I was doing the quite contrary, and at the time when his Lordship was as kind to me as I desired. All that I can accuse myself of, is that I took such a method as was not absolutely necessary ; but which way I scarce had pro- ceeded. It is an easy matter to say " An asses ears are horses," as mine are now esteemed. I presume you will hear this story with much flourish among mine enemies ; but in these two above mentioned points does lie the Ratio form,alis of my suffering. . . . Deare Cousin, I am sure you will have some sympathy with me in these troubles, and I am sorry for it. I am in the right, and my adversaries are in the wrong : at least 172 LIFE OF SIB, WILLIAM PETTY chap, ti I am soe happy as to think soe — and my mind is soe quiet, that when I have done my letters, I intend to make an end of translating the 104* Psalm into Latin verse, for which, amongst all others, Buchanan himselfe was most famous. I do not hope to reach the admirable purity of his Latin, but in some other points to come neare him.' ^ Sir William's imprisonment was of short duration. While it lasted this translation of the 104th Psalm was his great solace. The occupation was one for which he could at least plead the example of Clarendon, who during his first exile had consoled himself by writing ' Contemplations and Eeflections on the Psalms of David applied to the Troubles of this Time.' ' ' The Chancellors of both Kingdoms,' Sir William tells Southwell, speaking of this translation, ' are the cause why it was done at all ; and ye farmers why it was done noe better. I have sent it you, because I said "I have done it;" but desire you not to show it, at least not as mine, for I do not value myself by my Poetry, no more than by my discretion ; but the pride I take is in the Love of Truth and of a very few r Friends. But you will ask why I meddled with the Poem at all — to which I answer you that my mind was sick, and that I I tost and travelled from place to place, to find rest; which when I had in vain sought from truth and reason, I fell to this poetry ; and when I was vexed in considering ye wicked works of man, I refreshed myself in considering the wonderful works of God ; and wrote about fifty of these same verses the same night I was committed, after I had written my post letters.' ' ' Lord,' he exclaims soon afterwards, unable to help smiling at the absurdity of the situation, ' that a man 54 years old, should, after 36 years discontinuance, return to , the making of verses, which boys of fifteen years old can : correct, and then trouble Clerks of the Council and Secretaries of the Admiralty to read them.' ^ ' I am not well,' he writes to Southwell in the autumn of 8 To Southwell, Feb. 10, 1677. » tq Southwell, March 10, 1677. ' Lord Campbell's Lwes of the ' To Southwell, April 3, 1677. Chancellors, iv. 44, ed. 1868. 1677 PORTEAIT BY SIR PETER LELY 173 1677, 'yet better in my mind than in my body. My legs swelling ; my belly is not only big but hard ; and my breath short ; and methinks I see the same horse bridled and saddled for me that carried off your father. . . . My belly seems to myself a wooden belly.' ' But he pulls through, and after a time is able to sit up a,t a table, and at once writes to Lady Petty to keep up her spirits. ' To let you see,' he continues, ' how waggish I am, I acquaint you that I had my picture drawn this week by Mr. P. Lely in a beard of 31 days growth, and in my owne hair without perewig, and in the simplest dress imaginable, without so much as a Band, and so as the picture is Uke myself, if I had never stirr'd from Eomsey. . . .^ I would not have you troubled at the appre- hensions I take of my owne growing infirmities. I feele nothing serious, but severall things which require my care. I'll assure you my whole study is to make things cleare, and to naUe loose things fast, for you and my children ; and hope there are some about me (who should be your friends), that will prevent im- postures from Books and strangers. As for others I am not solicitous. The first piece of my new care for my owne health is the fitting our garden for my exercise and diversion. The walks will be 1,000 ft. about, planted with the best walled fruit that Ireland affords. The stone and Brick wall will be ^ part of a mile, the House you sufficiently know is very meane, but 300Z. will make an apartment which wiU serve you for a shift, for I am not furiously bent to the building of a great house, till I see a change in my affairs; altho' I do elude my melancholy sometimes by contriving many noble places upon paper. . . .' ' In 1677, the vicissitudes of EngHsh politics having led to the restoration of Ormonde to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, Sir William saw the prospect brighten before him. There were still, however, difficulties and delays. ' My Lord ' Sept. 27, Nov. 10, 1677. been painted out. It may also be 2 This picture is now the property of mentioned in connection with the Mr. Charles Monck, of Coley Park, above letter, that the word ' beard ' Beading. In the original picture Sir was frequently used at the time for William was represented holding a, any hair on the lips and chin, skull in his hand, but the skull has = Oct. 6, 1677. 174 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vi Lieutenant upon your, and my lady as I think upon my own interest,' he wrote to Southwell, ' I believe would be glad I had some reasonable reliefe ; but my Lord dreads either the trouble or the danger of doing it, (though I think nothing of either in the case) for when he has gone about it, there come the Chief Judges of each Bench and the King's whole learned counsel, all armed with prongs and pitchforks. They all agree in a deep sense of my sufferings ; but breake up in irre- solution and in some oblique expediente, without any direct remedy, soe as nothing is yett done.' ^ The exorbitant quit- rent on his estate was, however, reduced ; a judgment entered against the farmers, and his principal antagonist among them, one Sheridan, replaced by a friend. Dr. Eobert Wood. In the same year he was appointed Judge of the Court of Admiralty, a post which, amongst other reasons, he was glad to occupy, because it relieved him of the onerous duty of serving the office of Sheriff, a post which, from his ownership of land in more counties than one, he was constantly liable to being called upon to accept.* The peace with the farmers, however, proved but a truce. Fresh quarrels soon arose, for the farmers appear to have resisted the execution of judgment in his favour by an appeal to the intervention of the King. Even in England it had not been unusual before the Civil War to stay legal proceedings by the issue of a writ rege inconsulto, which practically asserted the right of the King to interfere in private causes.'' One of the most discreditable chapters in the career of Bacon is that of his efforts to maintain this practice, which like other abuses lingered on in Ireland when it had ceased to exist in Eng- land. ' I say nothing now,' Sir William writes to Southwell in May 1677, 'of Poems and Scales of Creatures; you see now what these Farmers are ; how they abuse the Chancel- lors of both kingdoms ; how they fly to prerogative for pro- tection. They have done all that knaves and fools, and that sharks and beggars could devise to do ; all is nought. The ' To Southwell, .Tune 10, 1677. cellars, ed. 18G8 ; Life of Bacon, ch. = To Mr. Herbert, Aug. 1, 1676. iii. p. 73. '■ See Campbell, Lives of the CJmn- 1677 SOUTHWELL AS AN ADVISER 175 delay of indulgence which I have suffered, will endanger my whole.' ^ He goes on to tell Southwell that he sees no chance of any redress : nought indeed save ' promises and vajDours ; ' but he is determined to continue the fight ' in the hope of the resur- rection of slain truth, like the seven sons in the Macchabees.' ^ Southwell, in a letter full of sympathy and good sense, advised a little prudence and moderation under the circumstances. ' You may imagine,' he writes, ' whether it be not a grief to me, to see you involved in the anguish and depredation of the law, beginning the year with one complaint and ending it with twenty ; running in consequence the hazard of your life or the ruin of your wife and children by the life of others. Nor can I foresee a period of such calamities, till you resolve absolutely on other measures than what you have taken. But if " Eight be Immortall," yet you have not a Corporation of lives to assert it, in all that variety of channels and courses ' wherein it runs. And there are some wrongs whose scourge must be remitted to God Almighty alone; and therefore if even soe dear a thing as the Eight Eye be offended, pluck it out ; and enter maimed into the smooth things and Peace of this Life, which is next door to the Joys of another. And suffer from me this expostulation, who wish you prosperity as much as any man living ; and having opportunities to see and hear what the temper of the world is towards you, I cannot but wish you well in Port, or rather upon the firm land, and to have very little or nothing at all left to the mercy and [ goodwill of others. For there is generally imbibed such an ; opinion and dread of your superiority and reach over other men in the wayes of dealing, that they hate what they feare, and find wayes to make him feare that is fear'd. I do the more freely open my soul to you in the matter, because I see 'tis not for the vitalls that you contend, but for outward limbs and accessories, without which you can subsist with plenty and honor ; and therefore to throw what you have quite away, or at least to put it in daily hazard, only to make it a little more than it is, is what you would condemn a thousand times over ' May 10, 1677. » Aug. 22, 1677. 176 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vi in another ; and you would not think the reply sufficient, that there was plain right in the cause and justice of their side ; for iniquities will abound and the world will never be reformed. After all this, I mean not that you should relin- quish the pur suite of your £2,500, which is money out of your Pockett, and for which you are a debtor unto your family. But for other pretensions, lett them goe, for Heaven's sake ; as you would a hot coale out of your hand ; and strive to retire to your home in this place, where you had the respect of all, and as much quiet as could be in this life, before your medling with that pernicious businesse of the Farme ; but you may reckon it as a Storme wherein you were seized, and if it has obliged you to throw overboard some rich Bales, 'tis but the common case, and what others doe for the safety of the rest.' He concludes by telling his friend to believe in his unaltered affection, even if he writes unpalatable truths ; and that he ' will store him in an ebony cabinet, wherein,' he says, ' I keep, as in an archive, all the effects of your pen, for I look on them as materials fit for those that I would take most care of; and hope they will hand them over with like estimation.' ' Sir William seems for the moment to have accepted Sir Eobert's kindly advice. He replies to his friend with a growl, that he is reserving a place for the farmers in the ' Scale of Creatures,' which part, whenever it appears, will be entitled ' the Scale of Devils ; ' and he acknowledges that patience is at the moment comparati^'ely easy, as, a final decision releasing the old quit-rents having at length been given in his favour, ' praise be to God, he had more ready money than his friend had ever known him to have, and yet not more than half of what he had nominally received, so much water had the Devil and his instruments put beside the mill.' ^ He was now contemplating a visit to England, having been three years continuously in Ireland ; but he was not able to start till quite the end of 1679. Shortly after arriving in London he became the object of the attacks of Colonel Vernon,- a dis- ' Sept. 15, 1677. ' Nov. 10, 1677. and he may have had some old quarrel ^ The name of a Colonel Vernon with Sir William Petty in connection appears in the 'History, of the Survey,' with it. 1677 COLONEL VERXON 177 contented officer, and one of the professional bravoes of the day, who had just before been directing their violence against the persons of those who were obnoxious to their employers. The attacks of Colonel Blood on the Duke of Ormonde and of Sir John Sandys on Su- William Coventry were still fresh in the public mind. Vernon appears to have been a shabby imitation of Blood, if not actually one of the satellites of that notorious adventurer, who, for occult reasons, was shielded at Court and enjoyed a dangerous impunity. Vernon now commenced a series of insulting attacks against Sir William, who, exasperated at length by repeated provocation, and by the advice of those ' who pretended to understand the punctilio of such affairs,' determined to resent the affronts which this Alsatian knight continued to put upon him in London. He struck the Colonel in the street with a cudgel, and, drawing his own sword, desired him to draw also. The Colonel, however, who seems to have been as cowardly as he was insolent, took refuge ' in the Blue Posts Ordinary ; ' and, having bolted the doors, appeared at the upper windows and at that safe distance addressed the by-standers, accusing Sir William of cowardice. Then Vernon sent one East with a challenge, which Sir William accepted, and a day was fixed for a duel ; but when the time arrived, the Colonel was nowhere to be found. In the events which followed, the Duke of Monmouth appears upon the scene on behalf of the Court, and sends for both Sir William and Colonel Vernon, with a view to reconcil- ing the parties. Colonel Vernon, however, declines his advice, and files an information in the King's Bench against Sir William; and Sir William is fined 200L and costs. But before the time is over, Vernon, East, and their servants, violently assault Lady Betty's relative, Mr. James Waller, and a friend, Mr. Hughes, and East gets badly wounded in the encounter. Waller there- upon files an information against East ; and the Colonel and his accomplice are on the point of being convicted, when the Crown enters a nolle prosequi. Then Sir William brings an action against Vernon for slander, but before the trial comes on, Vernon, accompanied by his brother, runs the pike of his cane into Sir William's left eye, ' who saw him not.' Then Sir N 178 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ti William draws his sword and Vernon decamps, but hearing Sir William is still breathing vengeance, applies to the King's Bench for personal protection, and Sir William appears ulti- mately to have been forced to give securities that he would keep the peace, ' and neither prosecute the bastinado nor the suit.' And thus did this affair, which so strangely illustrates the manners of the period, at length terminate.^ » ' The state of Matters between Sir William Petty and Colonel Vernon.' Petty MSS. 179 CHAPTEE VII POLITICAL ABITHMETIC Captain Graunt — Sir William Davenant — Principal works — Hobbes — The ' Book of Eatea ' — France and Holland—' Treatise on Taxes ' — Proposals for reform — The prohibitory system — The origin of value — The mercantOe system — Difficulties of reform — The Navigation Acts— Customs duties — Excise — The par of value — Usury laws— Eent — Views on population — Growth of London — The division of labour— Supply and demand— The 'Essays' — France and Holland — The example of Holland — The greatness of England. Feom Aubrey's friendly pen we get a sketch of Sir William at about this period of his life. 'He is a proper hand- some man,' the antiquarian writes ; ' measures six foot high, good head of brown hair, moderately turning up — vide his picture as Dr. of Physiek. His eyes are a kind of goose grey, but very short sighted, and as to aspect, beautiful, and pro- mise sweetness of nature ; and they do not deceive, for he is a marvellous good natured person, and sva-'TrXayxvos. Eye- brows thick, dark and straight (horizontal). His head is very large, fj,aicpoK£«h in a list of his writings are grimly set down in one particular year of specially evil memory, 1667, as the sole proofs of authorship he could produce.^ Already at a very early period of his career he had given attention to the col- lection and examination of statistics, and had earned thereby the goodwill and support of Captain Graunt. Graunt was by occupation a clothier, but, like many others, had taken to soldiering during the Civil War, and was a captain and major of the City train bands. His good sense and probity caused him to be elected to the Common Council, and to be fre- quently named arbitrator in trade disputes. He had for some time been collecting materials for his ' Observations on the Bills of Mortality of the City of London,' which appeared in 1661, and is the first work of the kind published in the English language. It was generally believed at the time that Graunt had received material assistance from Petty, and that he was to be regarded as the literary patron rather than as the real author. Bishop Burnet and Evelyn were both of this opinion,^ which the numerous parallelisms between the ' Bills ' and Sir William's own work, the ' Treatise on Taxes,' go far to support, different though the two books are in style and in some of the views expressed. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand why Sir William in this particular ease should have sheltered himself under the name of a friend, instead of publishing the book anonymously, as he did several of his works. Whatever the explanation may be, a reasonable view probably is that it was a true instance of joint authorship. That Sir William had some hand in it can hardly be doubted, owing to the frequent mention of Ireland, which is so cha- racteristic of all his works, and the wealth of medical illustra- tion, which Graunt could hardly have supplied himself. This 2 The references to Sir W. Petty '8 ' Burnet, History of his own Times, Works throughout this chapter are to i. 423 ; Wood's AthencB, iv. 218 ; the volume published at Dublin in Evelyn, Diary, ii. 97 ; Bodleian Let- 1769, entitled The Petty Tracts. ters, ii. 488. CHAP. VII CAPTAIN GEAUNT 181 little book — it occupies barely 100 pages — was the first serious attempt to classify vital statistics and define the limits of a science respecting them.'' It met with an extraordinary suc- cess, and at the Eestoration the King ordered Graunt's name to be enrolled amongst the members of the Eoyal Society, adding that, if there were any more such tradesmen in his City of London, he desired they also should be enrolled imme- diately. In France Colbert is believed to have been encou- raged by it to provide for the first regular register of births and deaths.^ Towards the end of his career, Sir William wrote some ' Observations on the Dublin Bills of Mortality ' ^ in imitation of those which Graunt had published many years before. The publisher protested against the brevity of the manuscript sent him, which in size hardly exceeded a pamphlet. At his re- quest Sir William added a postscript, but wrote at the same time : ' Whereas you complain that these observations make no sufficient bulk, I could assure you that I wish the bulk of all books were less.' ' ' The observations upon the London Bills of Mortality,' the book opens by saying, ' have been a new light to the world, and the like observations upon those of Dublin may serve as snuffers to make the same candle burn clearer.' •* The collection of statistics naturally led Petty and Graunt to attempt to deduce some general laws from them, and thus the whole field of public economy, or, as Sir William Petty generally termed it, ' political arithmetick,' was opened up to their investigations.^ Observation, it has been said, is the one eye of political economy, and comparison the other.' Sir William was one of the first to grasp the fact, and was singularly successful in seeing through both eyes if, at least, he is to be judged by ' the knowledge of the times — in such a case the only legitimate standard of comparison. Political economy, in the modern * See the dissertation by Mr. W. L. ' Several Essays, p. 145 bis. Bevan referred to in the Preface, pp. ^ Ibid. p. 131. 20-22. s The expression 'political econo- = See article ' Graunt,' in Chalmers' mies ' occurs in oh. ix. p. 344 of the Biographical Dictionary. Political Anatomy of Ireland. ' In 1683. ' Eosoher, p. 70. 182 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, tii acceptation of that term, may be seen just beginning/? to struggle into a bare existence as a separate branch of science in the pages of the writers of the earHer part of the seventeenth century. Economics, in the sense in which they were understood by the authors of antiquity, were concerned with those practical questions only which affected the finances of the State. In the Middle Ages even such limited inquiries could hardly find a natural place in a society which, outside the limits of the towns, was almost entirely based on the idea of personal service. Meanwhile political philosophy had chiefly busied itself with speculations whether man by nature was or was not a social being, but little or no connection was established between these speculations and the sphere of economics.^ When at length, after the long political and religious struggles of the sixteenth century. States in their modern form had arisen, and the trading and commercial classes of society became a political factor in every country, the inquiries of the old economics as to what taxes a Government might properly raise naturally revived, and political philosophy lived again in the works of Bodin and Grotius. But the two sisters still stood apart, and political economy cannot be said to have existed till Hobbes proclaimed the doctrine that political philosophy was concerned with certain general questions, on which ' the nutrition and pro-creation of a commonwealth ' * depended in practice, as well as with the questions on the border-land of metaphysics and moral philosophy. Scattered up and down the pages of both the ' Leviathan ' and the ' De Give ' are discussions which not only touch on a number of social questions, but contain occasional attempts to define terms, such as value and price, and to analyse the origin of wealth,* as well as the usual practical considerations as to the taxes which ought to be imposed as a matter of immediate ^ See Bonar, Philosophy and Poli- oh. xxiv. tical Economy, Book II. chaps, iii. •• See, for example, Leviathan, ch. and iv. xxv., as to ' price ; ' and, as to ' wealth,' ^ ' De Cvoitatis facultate nutritivd the De Give, pp. 221, 222. et generativd,' Leviathan, Part II. CHAP. Til SIR WILLIAM DA YEN ANT 183 convenience to the law-giver and the State, or are right from a purely ethical point of view. The ' Oceana ' of Harrington, published in 1658, further proclaimed the opinion that the distribution of property determines the nature of govern- ment, and that the political philosopher is therefore concerned with the distribution of property. Petty, as already seen, had been the pupil of Hobbes and the ally of Harrington in his club ; and it was to Harrington that the popular belief attributed the original idea of the settlement of Ireland in which Petty had just played so con- spicuous a part. Thus all the influences most likely to affect him, those of his own pursuits and of his social surroundings, combined to attract him to the examination of those questions which the final break-up of the old order of things founded on the ideas of the feudal system, and the rising influence of the trading and commercial classes, imperatively indicated as re- quiring an answer on something better than a merely empi- rical basis. As Petty possessed the mathematical faculty in a f marked degree, his natural impulse was to attempt to apply mathematical methods and arguments drawn from figures to the elucidation of economic questions; though whether he was the inventor of the term 'political arithmetick' may- be doubted : it was probably already a current term. Thus ' in his hands political economy was to be mainly an inductive science. ' By political arithmetick,' says Sir William Davenant, ' we 1 mean the art of reasoning by figures upon things relating to 1 government. The art itself is undoubtedly very ancient, but the apphcation of it to the particular objects of trade and revenue is what Sir William Petty first began. ... He first gave it that name, and brought it into rules and methods. At the time,' Davenant proceeds, ' the very foundation of the art, viz.| reliable statistics, and more especially a competent knowledge of the numbers of the people, was wanting.^ |' Sir ) William, therefore, in all his inquiries ' had to take the figures ' of the customs, excise, and hearth money as his guides, and to i reason from them, trying to compute the number of the people from the consumption of the nation as evidenced by 184 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vn the receipts ; ' to ' guess at our strength and wealth by the general stock employed in trade ; ' and to compute the popu- lation by the returns of the number of houses paying the tax.* I But even these data were very imperfect ; for example, the farmers of the excise were never obliged to render a real account of their receipts prior to 1674, nor was there any correct return of the gross produce of the hearth money prior to 1679. The study of the bills of mortality of the City of London, which comprised 134 parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, pro- bably furnished him with his most valuable data ; but it is obvious that the difficulties with which he had to contend from the insufficiency of his materials could not fail greatly to impede the accuracy of his conclusions ; and Davenant goes on to regret that the ' excellent wit ' and ' skilful hand ' of the author had not survived till a later date, when the fuller information which had accumulated under the variety of taxes that had been lately levied in the kingdom would have been at his command for purposes of comparison.^ ffTf the method of these calculations, admittedly founded on insufficient data, his views in regard to the amount of the population of London may be given as an example. He starts from the number of houses prior to the Plague and Fire, which appear by the register to have been 105,315 ; he then estimates that one-tenth of the houses held two families, the remaining nine-tenths only one ; he takes the average number of persons to a family at ten in the wealthier, five in the poorer, eight in the middle class. He then checks his calculation in two ways : by multiplying the annual death rate by thirty, and by taking the number of deaths in the Great Plague — estimated at one-fifth of the total population ; and then calculates the natural rate of increase subsequently. The three methods produce results approximating to the same result : the first, 695,076 ; the second, 690,360 ; the third, 653,000.^ I His calculation of the stock of Ireland he bases on ' Davenant, Political Aritkmetick ; ' Several Essays, i. ' Of the Growth Works, i. 128, 129. of the City of London,' pp. 100- « Ibid. i. 128, 129. 110. CHAP. VII PRINCIPAL WORKS 185 the area of the pasture land of the country, ' supposing them to be competently well stocked,' and he ' guesses ' that one-third of the small occupiers have one horse, and ' supposes ' that 16,000 wealthier families have 40,000, and so on. He is of opinion that, because the export of Irish butter and cattle in 1664 had increased one-third since 1641, the population had increased one-third since the latter date also.'f He calcu- lates that the population doubles itself in 40 years, and that the present population of London being about 670,000, the population of the 133 parishes would in 1840 be 10,718,880, almost equal to the population of the whole of the rest of the country, a result which he thinks impossible ; and he antici- pates that the highest point in population will be reachedi about 1800, and that afterwards there will be a falling-off.^j Such calculations are manifestly hazardous, and based on very imperfect premises ; but they were the best of which the existing materials admitted. Nor was anyone better aware of ( their defective character than the author himself. ' Curious I dissections,' he says, ' cannot be made without variety of proper i instruments, whereas I have had only a common knife and a! clout, instead of the many more helps which such a work ' requires ; ' ' and (his works contain constant and oft-repeated | pleas for the collection of more accurate information, and for the intervention of the State, especially in regard to a correct enumeration of the people, statistics of trade, and a register of lands and houses^ until then everything will be ' by hit ' rather than by wit, and all calculations merely conjee- ( tUral.' 2 Of Sir William's contributions to the infant science five have achieved a permanent reputation : the ' Treatise on Taxes and Contributions,' published in 1662 ; the ' Discourse on Political Arithmetick,' written in 1671, but not published till 1691 ; and a tract entitled ' Quantulumcumque concerning ' Political Anatomy of Ireland, ch. ' Political Anatomy, Author's Pre- iv. 312 ; ch. viii. p. 338 ; ch. ix. p. face, p. 289. 362. 2 Treatise on Taxes, ch. v. p. 40. ; ° Several Essays, ' Of the Growth of Essays, p. 119. the City of London,' p. 107. 186 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii Money,' dealing with questions of currency, and written in 1682 ; a tract entitled ' Verbum Sapienti,' written in the last year of the first Dutch war, in 1665 ; and the ' Political Anatomy of Ireland,' published anonymously in 1672. To these may be added the two series of detached Essays on political arithmetic written at various times between 1671 and 1687. pll these works are essentially practical in character, and have for their primary object the introduction of improve- ments in government and administration. They are largely inductive in method ; a certain number of facts being as a rule first noted, and then followed by an attempt to found some general proposition upon them, and to apply that pro- position to the circumstances of the time, by the selection of apposite illustrations, showing either the advantage of adopt- ing it or the injury of neglecting it in practicej On the other hand, there are frequent instances of purely deductive reason- ing ; e.g., the whole speculation on the par of land and labour, to be noticed further on, is a piece of purely deductive reason- ing from hypothetical premises.' The influence of Hobbes on the early development of Sir William Patty's mind has already been traced. The ' Treatise on Taxes ' shows the maintenance of that influence. The great problem of government, which in a confused manner all the statesmen of Europe in the seventeenth century were engaged in trying to solve, lay chiefly in the question what the shape should be in which the final transition was to take place from the still surviving mediaeval forms of civil administration to others more suited to the needs of the time. On one side were the evils of the confusion paused by a mass of ancient local customs and exclusive privileges, with maladministration and weakness at head-quarters. On the other lay the dangers of extreme centralisation, and, as in France, of the consequent loss of civil and political liberty. The taxes to be raised, the methods of raising them, the mode of collection, and their receipt when collected, were all equally cumbrous and anti- ' A list of Sir William Petty's works will be found in the Appendix, taken from a paper left by him. CHAP. VII HOBBES 187 quated. They required not so much remodelling, as to be placed on an entirely new footing. The finances of every Crown in Europe still bore the character of the budget of a feudal superior, and were struggling to get free from the restraints of that system — if system it could be called.'' In all these matters centralisation was as much the necessity of those times, in order that the State should hve, as a decen- tralisation is the need of the 'present day. Different minds, according as they were constituted, saw — some the dangers of the existing disorder, others the perils of change, more clearly. Ministers like Strafford and Eichelieu only recognised in ancient customs the shield of innumerable abuses, and a fixed obstacle to the material development of their country at home and to a consistent foreign policy abroad. In England the privileges of the aristocracy and corporate towns fortunately found defenders capable of comprehending that, in order to survive, they must prove themselves something more than the bulwarks of a dead past, and that a reformed and properly organised central administration was necessary for the benefit of the nation as a whole. Notwithstanding his undoubted leaning to the monarchical element of the Constitution, Hobbes is not to be identified with the vulgar adherents of mere personal absolutism. The enemy he combated was the notion of any shape of imperium in imperio, whether lay or ecclesiastical, which could stand in the way of the legitimate development of the State. Following up the ideas which Bodin was the first to enunciate clearly, he defended the cause of a strong and powerful administration on determinate lines, able to assert itself against privilege within and foreign attack and intrigue without. He may be regarded as the founder of the doctrine of the ultimate ' ' En 1614, une derni&e Assembles moderne, concju selon les exemples des EtatB se prepare k examiner, une romains, aveo ses exigences souvent fois encore, le probl^me pos6 depuis mal justifi^es, aveo ses proc^d^s arbi- des Slides. Qui va I'emporter ? traires, et sa revendication inoessante Sera-oe la tradition m^di^vale avec ses et souvent abusive de la maxime an- priucipes aristocratiques, ses engage- tique : " Salus populi suprema lex " ? ' ments ^troits, ses entraves apport^es Histoiredu Cardinal de BicheUeu,-p3,T a I'unit^ ? Ou bieu sera-oe I'Etat Gabriel Hanoteau, tome i. p. 352. 188 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, .vii sovereignty of the State, and therefore, however httle he may have intended or foreseen it, of the sovereignty of Parhament as the final depositary of the power of the State in England. More indirectly, he was the father of the school of political thought which came on the Continent to he known as that of doctrinaire or authoritative liberalism, as distinct from democracy pure and simple, which has always had a tendency to break up into local anarchy. What Hobbes laid down in theory, Petty sought to apply in practice. The ' Treatise on \ Taxes ' is continually occupied with the wide sphere of the proper powers of the State ; with the benefits ;svhich an en- lightened administration can confer on all its ^ubjebts both by removing the disabilities which shackle and' impair their energies, and also by the positive development 91 the resources of the country through a thorough reform of the system of taxation ; and by the activity of the State being extended into many as yet neglected directions, including that of education, including naval and commercial knowledge. Petty's own connection with Ireland tended to develop the natural tendencies of his mind. He evidently saw in it, like Cromwell, ' a clean paper ' for experiments in. government which in England might be impossible owing to the accu- mulated weight of historical prejudice and the power of vested interests,^ especially as his own estimate of the capacities of the native population, if given a fair opportunity, was high. It was this order of ideas which made him the natural enemy of the great Irish nobles of the Eebellion, and also of the existence of separate Parliaments and of all ecclesiastical pri- vileges. Improved communications both in England and Ireland, and between them, was one of the principal weapons he relied on to attain his objects. He wished 'every year to make 50 miles of new navigable river in the most advan- tageous places,' and that ' there might not be a step of bad way upon all the great nine roads to London,' ^ and then it would cease to be said that ' the English in Ireland growing poor and discontented degenerate into Irish ; and, vice versa, ^ Ludlow's Ifemoirs, i. 246. be done,' 1685. Nelligan MS., British " ' An Opinion of what is possible to Museum. CHAP. VII THE 'BOOK OF RATES' 189 Irish growing into wealth and favour would reconcile to the English.' 7 The ' Treatise on Taxes ' was immediately occasioned by the changes discussed after the Eestoration in the laws relating to the revenue, both in the method of assessing the older taxes, and by the imposition of new burdens in lieu of the feudal duties on land then finally abolished : changes marking the transition from the system of direct to that of the indirect taxation which existed almost unimpaired till the days of Sir Eobert Peel. A new ' Book of Bates,' or table of duties, with a revised code of customs law, was adopted under the name of ' the Great Statute ; ' an excise on wines and liquors was granted to the Crown, in lieu of the abolished feudal duties; and 'hearth money,' an unpopular tax copied from a French original, was imposed on all houses, except cottages, according to the number of stoves or grates. ' There is much clamour against the chimney money,' says Pepys in June, 1662. A few years later, in order to meet the expenses of the first Dutch war and the costs of the expected struggle with France, the poll tax, together with the old Tudor subsidies and the Commonwealth monthly assessments, were revived, to serve as a rude method of making all sources of property contribute to the revenue. At the same time the import and export of a long list of ' ennumerated ' articles was absolutely prohibited, and the Act of Navigation, which practically limited trade with England to goods carried in English bottoms — an inheritance from the Cromwellian period — was renewed, with a few modifications.^ At a date slightly later than the appearance of the treatise, viz., in 1668, 1670 and 1676, the duties on brandies and wines were raised, in order to protect the home manufacturer, and to retaliate on France for the prohibition of the import into that country of many articles the pi-oduce of England." These statutes mark the beginning of the long ' Political Anatomy of Ireland, eh. 32 ; 15 Charles II. e. 7 and 15 xiii. p. 375. ' See Dowell's History of Taxation « 12 Charles II. o. 18, and the for the details, iv. 119, 162. statutes 14 Charles II. o. 5, 7, 18, 190 LIFE OF SIR WILLIA.M PETTY chap, tii war of tariffs, which became accentuated after the Eevolution of 1688, and continued till the middle of the present century. In France a new tariff, from the adoption of which an epoch in the commercial history of Europe is to be dated, had been promulgated at the advice of Colbert, and the question debated in England was whether the main principles on which that tariff was founded were sound and to be imitated, or the reverse. Political leanings influenced personal judgments as much, perhaps, as any abstract views on the relative a.dvan- tages and disadvantages of different systems of taxation, accord- ing as the sympathies of individuals favoured either the French or the Dutch alliance. The object of Colbert's tariff was by means of reduced duties on raw materials to encourage the manufacture and export of French goods, and to discourage the import of foreign manufactured articles by the imposition of heavy duties on their entry. The export of French corn was at the same time prohibited, under the mistaken idea that food would be thereby cheapened, and French manufactures be stimulated by increasing the purchasing power of money .- The actual result was to reduce the production of French corn to the amount required for home consumption, without mate- rially lowering the price. Underlying the whole of this com- plicated scheme was the idea that France would be more enriched by disposing of the surplus of her manufactured goods abroad for money, than through becoming ' tributary,' as the phrase went, to foreign countries, and sending abroad, in exchange for foreign manufactured goods, the agri- cultural produce of her soil, which, according to the views of the supporters of the system, ought to be consumed at home. Another and a sounder part of the system was the improve- ment of the means of internal communication by road and by water, the abolition of monopolies and exemptions, and the removal of the artificial barriers — so far as popular pre- judice permitted — by which the unwisdom of man had aggra- vated the difficulties created by nature. The mercantile portion of Colbert's policy reposed partly on the error that value — in other words, wealth-r-consisted in the precious metals^coming into a country as the result of CHAP. VII FRAKCE AND HOLLAND 191 foreign trade, and that to increase the former was to add to the latter ; partly in the idea that the profit on the export of home manufactures, fostered by protective duties and stimulated by bounties, was greater than that gained by the export of the agricultural products — -the corn and wine and wool — which Colbert's predecessor. Sully, had recognised as the sources of the wealth and prosperity of France. These premises once conceded, the soundness of the system followed as a matter of course. It was the policy of a nation of landowners which had been seized with a desire to become at aU hazards a nation of manufacturers and merchants. Of an exactly opposite character was the example of Hol- land, whose prosperity it was the desire of France to destroy. That country, as observed by Adam Smith in the following century, had approached the nearest to the character of a free port of all European countries.' Holland still held the greater part of the carrying trade of the world. Colbert hoped to crush it by hostile duties ; Louvois and his royal master by open war. The Dutch tariff imposed no protective duties at all, and the State gathered the necessary revenue from the home consumer by a wide-reaching system of in- direct taxation on commodities. It was the policy of a nation of merchants and bankers who understood the inte- rests of their class. 'Holland,' to use the words of a recent author, 'was in- trinsically a poor country. But, notwithstanding, in nearly all commodities Holland gave the price, and it did so because her towns had a good market, to which all the world resorted. The Dutch were manufacturers ; in some articles the successful manufacturing rivals of Englandf; but their principal source of wealth, of that wealth, abundance of good products, on which alone the capacity for any other industry can be based, was to be traced to trade and the policy of free trade.' ^ Such were the two rival systems of the Continent, between 1 Adam Smith, We-alth of Nations, pp. 192, 420. ii. 350. See, too, Thorold Eogers, ^ Tliorold Eogers, Indmtrial and Industrial and Commercial History, Commercial History, p. 192. 192 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY cha.p. vii which, in the latter half of the last century, England was being called upon to choose in the settlement of her future financial and commercial system. Sir William, in his early days, had travelled in Holland. He had evidently even then been attracted by the example of Dutch trade and finance, and as early as 1644 he had written a tract called the ' Frugalities of Holland,' which, however, was lost at sea.^ In the ' Treatise on Taxes,' with an eye still fixed in the same direction, he begins by pointing out that the only legitimate public charges of a State are, its defence by land and sea so as to secure peace at home and abroad and honourable vindication from injury by foreign nations ; the maintenance of the chief of the State in becoming splendour, and of the administration, in all its branches, in a state of efficiency ; ' the pastorage of souls by salaried ministers of religion ; ' the charge of schools and universities, the endowment of which, in his opinion, ought to be a concern of the State, and the distribution of whose emoluments ought not to be ' according to the fond conceits of parents and friends,' and of which one of the principal aims should be the discovery of Nature in all its operations ; ' the maintenance of orphans, the aged, and the impotent,' for, in his opinion, 'the poor can lay up nothing against the time of their impotency and want of work, when we think it is just to limit the wages of the poor ; ' and the improvement of roads, navigable rivers, bridges, harbours, and the means of communication, and the development of mines and collieries.'' He then considers the causes which increase and aggravate the public charges and render them unpopular. These he analyses under six heads : (1) The distrust of the people in the honesty of the administration which collects and spends the taxes ; (2) their compulsory payment in money and the want of a proper banking system ; (3) obscurities and doubts concerning the right of imposing ; (4) scarcity of money and confusion of coins ; (5) the fewness of the people ; (6) the absence of accurate statistics and of proper valuation lists. ' See list of Sir William Petty's writings in the Appendix. ■■ Treatise on Taxes, ch. i. pp. 1-4. CHAP. Til 'TREATISE ON TAXES' 193 To these he adds the fear of wars, aggressive, defensive, and civil: the first of which he traces to mistaken notions of national greatness ; the second to want of adequate pre- paration, ' wherefore to be always in a position of war at home, is the cheapest way to keep off war from abroad ;' and the third largely to the persecution of the heterodox in religion. In connection with these ' aggravations ' he proposes a large redistribution of the revenues of the Church, and suggests a return to a celibate clergy, and the abolition of the mass of unnecessary officials, lawyers, doctors, and professional men, who make unnecessary business or fatten in idleness at the expense of the taxpayer. ' If registers,' he says, ' were kept of all men's estates in lands, and of all the conveyances and engagements upon them ; and withall, if publick loan banks, lombards, or banks of credit upon deposited money, plate, jewels, cloth, wool, silk, leather, linen, metals and other durable commodities were erected,' he cannot but ' apprehend how there could be above one tenth part of the law suits and writings, as now there are.' ' He desires that the State should find work for the unemployed. ' The permitting of any to beg,' he says, ' is a more chargeable way of maintaining them whom the law of nature will not suffer to starve, when food may possibly be had.' ^ He contemplates a large system of public works, especially in connection with his favourite object, the improved communications by road of the different parts of the country. The ' supernumeraries ' of the State, as he terms them, should ' neither be starved, nor hanged, nor given away.' That they wUl either beg, or starve, or steal, is certain, and there are grave objections to each and all of these three courses. It would even be better ' to let them build a useless pyramid on Salisbury plain, or bring the stones at Stonehenge to Tower hill,' than leave them in absolute idleness.^ He then passes to the discussion of taxation, or, in other words, what the public charges ought to be in a well-regu- lated State, and suggests that one-twenty-fifth part of the value ' Treatise on Taxes, oh. ii. p. H. ' Ibid. oh. i. pp. 14-16. ' Ibid. oh. ii. p. 16. 194 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii of land and labour is the share, or ' excisum,' which ought to be sufficient for public uses. In the tract entitled ' Verbum Sapienti,' publ^hed during the Dutch war — when the burden of taxation had become intolerable, and was doubly odious from the want of success attending the operations at sea — he puts the monthly charge on landed estate of the taxes at 70,000L a month, or 840,000Z. a year ; and hints at the pro- bability of this charge rising to 250,000L a month. He cal- culates that it amounts to one-third of the annual value ; but that, if the charge were laid in a just proportion and on a proper basis, the charge would only be one-tenth. He con- sidered, for example, that the City of London paid about half the proper contribution, ' because the housing of London belonged to the Church, the companies, or gentlemen, and is taxed by the citizens, their tenants.' The expenses of the State he puts at one million, includ- ing war expenses. To meet this he estimated the ' ordinary ' or ancient Eevenue of the Crown as follows : £ 70,000 20,000 12,000 4,000 Crown Lands Post Office .... Coinage and pre-emption of tin Forests .... 6,000 18,000 Courts of Justice . First-fruits .... 130,000 And the Customs at 2 per cent. . . . 170,000 300,000 The above amounts do not include the duties on ' wares, wine, licenses, butlerage, excise, chimney money, the land tax, the poll tax, and the monthly assessment,' levied in order to make up the balance. These taxes he proposed to levy in the proportion of three-eighths on land and houses and the value of stock-in-trade, and five-eighths on consumption, beheving that this distribution of burdens represented the true proportion of the value of the former to that of wages, and that it was fair to distribute taxes in proportion. The sum of 375,000Z. he pro- posed to place on land and on stock-in-trade ; and 625,000Z. CHAjp. VII PROPOSALS FOR REFORM 195 on the people by a poll tax of 6^. a head, and an ' excise of 19^., or one eighty-fourth of the value of consumptions.' ' He insists in this tract, and at still greater length in the * Treatise on Taxes ' and the ' Political Arithmetick,' on the necessity of a reasonable basis for the ' subsidies ' and ' assess- ments,' instead of leaving the matter to be scrambled over by the local authorities of each county. This had ever been the case with the ' subsidy ' system, partially reformed though it had been under the Commonwealth 'assessments,' which the Bestoration Government adopted with some modifications. The inequalities still, indeed, existed of the state of things, when without more ado ' he that had a cup of wine to his oysters, was hoisted into the Queen's subsidy book.'* Sir William, as a remedy, propounded a regular survey and a real valuation of land, in order to get a basis for a land and house tax, which should be fixed at one-sixth of the total rent : ' about the proportion that the Adventurers and soldiers in Ireland retribute to the King in quit rents.' ' A land tax — and the argument he points out applies to tithes also — can only exist as a consequence of the value of the land, and is not a cause of the price of land, and therefore does not raise prices ; ' for hereby is collected a proportion of all the corn, cattle, fish, fowl, fruit, wool, honey, wax, oyl, hemp, and flour of the nation, as a result of the lands, art, labour, and stock which produced them. . . . Whosoever buys land in Ireland is not more concerned with the quit rents, wherewith they are charged, than if the acres were so much the fewer ; or than men are who buy land out of which they know tythes are to be paid.' ^ The burden of a new land tax would therefore fall on those who paid it in the first instance, after which it would remain an excisum or ' part cut out ' of the land— the property of the State, laid aside for public uses. He next passes to the discussion of customs and excise ' Verbum Sapienti, oh. iv. pp. 478- Hon, ii. 6. ■^80. I Treatise on Taxes, ch. iv. p. 24. ' Lyley, Mother Bombie, act ii. sc. ' Ibid. oh. xii. pp. 70-71. 6, quoted by Dowell, History of Taxa- o 2 196 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii duties, and kindred topics. Tin and wool were, at this time, the staple of the English export trade, for England, it is to be remembered, was not then a manufacturing country to any very large extent. The trade in wool was a practical monopoly. In consequence. Parliament had constantly been able to exact an export duty of 100 per cent, on the sack of ordinary raw wool without checking the demand or impoverishing the husbandman, the burden falling on the consumer, who had no other market to fly to. The manufacture of wool was still in its infancy. Holland was the great seat of textile industries, and it had been proposed in influential quarters — under the influence of the example of France — to try to crush the manufacturers of Holland, by prohibiting the export of English wool thither and the import of the Dutch manu- factured article, so as to compel the wool to be manufactured into cloth at home.' With the extreme prohibitory school Sir William hardly con- descends to argue seriously. He examines the whole question of prohibition by the light of the examples of the prohibition of the export of money. This he shows is practically im- possible, probably alluding to the experience acquired from the East India trade. The revenue officers, he says, had always been bribed, and the result was that the price of the articles bought with the money had thereby been raised to the consumer If, however, a particular branch of trade will not bear this charge, then he points out it is lost altogether, to the injury of the nation and the prohibition of so much foreign trade ; with this difference, that the discretion of what branch of trade shall be curtailed is left to the mer- chants. If a merchant, wishing to bring in Spanish wine and coffee berries, found that he must pay 40,000L abroad in money to complete the transaction, and was prohibited from sending that amount abroad, he would curtail his business in one article or the other, according to his own convenience ; while at least, under a direct sumptuary law on particular commodities, the State, and not a private individual, has the ' This Act was eventually passed, 14 Charles II. c. 18 and 19 (English statunes). CHAP. VII THE PEOHIBITORY SYSTEM 197 responsibility of choice as to the goods which are to be allowed to enter. The prohibition of the export of money, he also points out, diminishes the selling power of the English merchant by depriving him of an article, money, which he could bargain with like any other : in this following the arguments of Mun and others, who had pleaded for a remis- sion of the rate against the export of specie to the East, and urged that the sale of Indian imports would bring in an amount of the precious metals far larger than the silver exported to purchase them. As to wool, of which, as already stated, it was proposed to prohibit the export, in order to destroy the Dutch trade in the manufactured article, he points out that the prohibition ' would perhaps do twice as much harm as the loss of the trade.' It would have as an effect that the English producer would raise the price of his article by diminishing the supply, of which there were ' such gluts upon our hands.' Why, he asks, did not the English producer of wool turn his pasture into arable, thereby obviating the necessity of importing such large quantities of corn from abroad, and stop money going abroad to pay for that corn, thereby giving employment to many, instead of ' one man by the way of grazing, tilling as it were many thousand of acres of land by himself and his dog ? ' ^ ' Suppose,' he goes on, ' our Hollanders outdo us by more art, were it not better to draw over a number of their choice workmen, or send our most ingenious men thither to learn ; in which, if they succeeded, it is most manifest that this were the more natural way, than to keep that infinite clatter about resisting of nature, stopping up the winds and seas, etc. If we can make victuals much cheaper here thaii in Holland, take away burthensome, frivolous and antiquated impositions and offices ; I conceive even this were better than to persuade water to rise of itself above its natural spring. We must consider in general that as wise physicians tamper ■ not exceedingly with their patients, rather observing and ' Treatise on Taxes, oh. vi. p. 47. that piece of Ovid's verse prove true, Compare Bacon's speech, Oct. 1597, " Jam seges ubi Troja fuit " — in Eng- in the House of Commons : ' I should land nought but green fields, a shep- be sorry to see within this Kingdom herd, and a dog (1 Pari. Hist. 890). 198 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vir complying with the motions of nature than contradicting it with vehement administrations of their own ; so in poHticks and economics the same must be used. ' Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.' Passing to the prohibition of imports from abroad, ' why,' he asked, ' should we forbid the use of any foreign com- modity, which our own hands and country cannot produce, when we can employ our spare hands and lands upon such exportable commodities as will purchase the same and more.'* ' For if we should think it hard to give good necessary cloth for debauching wines, yet if we cannot dispose of our wine to others, 'twere better to give it for wine or worse, than to cease making it ; nay better to burn a thousand men's labours for a time, than to let those thousand men by non-employment lose their faculty of labouring.' ^ it He thus indicated that 'labour is the true foundation of wealth and value, and that to increase the facilities for employment and the yield of labour is the genuine method of increasing wealth, and that gold and silver are only one of many forms of it. I' If a man,' he argued, ' can bring to London an ounce of silver out of the earth in Peru, in the same time that he can produce a bushel of corn, then one is the natural price of the other ; now if by reason of new and more easy mines a man can get two ounces of silver as easily as formerly he did one, then corn will be as cheap at ten shillings the bushel, as it was before at iive shillings cmteris paribus.' ^ ' But a further, though collateral question,' he proceeds, ' may be, how much English money this corn or rent is worth ; I answer,' he says, ' so much as the money which another single man can save within the same time, over and above his expence, if he employed himself wholly to produce and make it ; viz. Let another man go travel into a country where is silver, there dig it, refine it, bring it to the same place where the other man planted his corn ; coin it, etc. — the same per- ' Treatise mi Taxes, ch. vi. p. 48. ' Treatise on Taxes, ch. vi. pp. 48, Political Anatomy of Ireland, ch. 49. xi. p. 356. Pee, too, the Quantulwin- ' Ibid., ch. v. p. 38. cimque concerning Money, (^ns. 6 and?. CHAP, VII THE ORiaiN OF VALUE 199 son, all the while of his working for silver, gathering also food for his necessary livelihood, and procuring himself covering, etc. — I say, the silver of the one must be esteemed of equal value with the corn of the other : the one being perhaps twenty ounces and the other twenty bushels. From whence it follows that the price of a bushel of this corn to be an ounce of silver.' * Successful trade he saw was a matter of exchange, and that the wealth of a country did not consist, as was then generally supposed, in the value of the exports exceeding that of the imports and the exporter gaining the difference in hard coin : but the value of the trade of any particular country was, on the contrary, to be ascertained — by adding the values — so far as they could be ascertained, of the imports and exports together, not forgetting to take into account the value of the payments made for freight and seamen's wages and the value of cash payments received from abroad.' But while thus understanding the great central truths of commercial economy, he did not push them to their logical result or always hold clearly to his own principles. Thus he says in the ' Treatise on Taxes ' that, ' as for the prohibition of importations, it need not be until they much exceed our ex- portations.' Again, wishing apparently to make some con- cessions to his adversaries, after exposing the absurdity of prohibitions, he acknowledges that nevertheless ' if the Hol- landers' advantages in making cloth be but small and few in comparison of ours, that is if they have but a little the better of us, then that prohibition to export wool may sufficiently turn the scale.' The ' measures of customs ' which, developing this idea, he describes and classifies in the ' Treatise on Taxes ' seem to give a carefully-thought-out view of a system of trade by which the home producer might be secured to a certain extent, without the volume of trade being seriously checked. A closer analysis would probably have led him to see that this was logically inconsistent with a condemnation of attempts to regulate the tides and to persuade water to rise * Treatise on Taxes, ch. iv. p. ' Political Arithmeiick, ch.'iv. pp. 29. 261-264. 200 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii above the natural spring.^ Again, in the ' Pohtical Arithme- tick ' he seems to miss the full application of his own doctrines as to the origin of value, and maintains the I advantage of foreign trade because it produces 'not only wealth at large, but more particularly abundance of silver, gold and jewels, which are not perishable articles, but are iwealth at all times and all places, whereas abundance of wine, corn, fowls, flesh, etc., are riches but hie et nunc ; so as the raising of such commodities, and the following of such trade, which does store the country with gold, silver, jewels, etc., is profitable before others;' and his analysis of the influence of supply and demand on value, to be noticed further on, is partly vitiated by the recognition of an inherent value in some articles as such, which he thinks must be wealth at all times and places.^ To acknowledge these shortcomings is only to acknowledge that Sir William Petty, though far in advance of his time, had not shaken himself entirely free from the influences of the errors which the mercantile system had accepted from the purely prohibitory system, viz., that wealth consists of the precious metals, and that a system of revenue and trade is to be deemed good or bad, according as it can be shown to pro- mote the influx of those metals into a country or not. There I is always a temptation to believe, when certain general concep- ; tions seem present to the mind of an author, that the logical \ basis of those conceptions must have been present also ; but (this is an error which the student of economic history has ■ to avoid. Progress in economic science in the seventeenth century was gradual and tentative, and Petty's grasp of logical method does not require to be exaggerated in order to make him take a high place in the ranks of the founders of the science. It was no mean achievement for any writer in the seventeenth century to have discerned the great theoretic truth on which free trade depends ; to have clearly realised that the highest ' Treatise on Taxes, cli. vi. pp. 42- 89, 164. 44. See Progress of Political Eco- ' Political Arithmetick, oh. i. p. nomy, by Sir Travers Twiss, pp. 64, 224, and oh. ii. p. 235. CHAP. Til THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 201 wisdom did not consist in closing the ports or in prohibiting exports ; to have been wiUing to welcome the arrival of foreign wealth, even if money had in the first instance to go abroad to fetch it ; and, finally, to go as far as to allow that it was far better to consent even to the importation of perishable goods than to prohibit trade altogether — even though what is said on all these subjects may occasionally appear shghtly inconsistent with something that has gone before, or may occasionally be a little uncertain in sound, or not be pushed to the full logical consequence of the premises, or be accompanied by too many apparent concessions to adversaries. With reference to these concessions, a special set of con- siderations have to be borne in mind. The early authors on political economy, not only in France, but in England also, wrote with a constant fear before their eyes of the dangerous consequences of speaking too freely. Their publications were frequently anonymous, and even posthumous : the safest course of all. The liberty of unlicensed printing was not yet secured; and the ill-will of those in authority was easily incurred by the expression of views in advance of the times. The only thoroughly free trade pamphlet of the century, ' The Discourses,' published in 1691 by Sir Dudley North, is believed to have been suppressed. It certainly entirely dis- appeared from circulation. Parliament had just before pro- claimed trade with France ' a nuisance,' and North's pamphlet was like a winter rose. The author of the ' Detail de la France,' Boisguillebert, was not saved by his high position from ending his days in exile and poverty ; and death alone preserved Marshal Vauban from a similar punishment for publishing the strong condemnation of existing abuses and the sweeping proposals of reform contained in the ' Dime Eoyale.' This class of considerations should be present to the mind of the reader of Sir William Petty's economic works, when he finds arguments adduced in favour of some of the restrictions of the mercantile system, and observations almost immediately afterwards mterpolated — and with curious fre- quency — absolutely fatal to the whole system, thus proving either that the acute mind of the author was doubtful of the 202 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii accuracy of part of his own reasoning, or thought it prudent to dispel error by covert insinuation of the truth, rather than by an open attack on the front of the hostile position, and to leave some loophole to his antagonists, and some means of retreat to himself. Unlike his brother physician and economist in the following century, Quesnay, with whom a comparison suggests itself, his mind was essentially practical. He would probably have preferred the relaxation of the fetters of Irish trade, even of a partial character, to any amount of proclama- tions of abstract economic truth. Quesnay, sheltered by the silence and security of a royal palace, elaborated a deductive system, and pushed it, with the pitiless logic characteristic of his countrymen, to the most extreme conclusions, and then left it there to blossom or to wither as might happen. Sir William Petty wrote in order to influence the political conduct of the men amongst whom he lived and moved ; he expressed himself ' in terms of number, weight, and measure ; ' he used only ' arguments of sense, and such as rested on visible foundations.' ^ He had to battle with principalities and powers ; to be closeted with politicians ignorant of the very elements of commercial policy, but able at any moment to silence him ; and to persuade kings more open to flattery than to argument, qui sciret regibus uti Fastidiret olus, is the maxim which, with almost cynical frankness, he placed at the head of one of his essays on Political Arithmetick ; * and at no time would he probably have thought it worth his while to press for more than there was an actual chance of obtaining, or to injure his own case by indiscreet advocacy. ' Men of great ofiice in England,' he said, ' are so mutable and slippery, as that they spend their whole time and thought in securing themselves, and dare not employ others than creatures and confederates under themselves.' ^ ' Political Arithmetick, Preface, p. Si pranderet ohis patienter, regibus uti Nollet Aristippus. Si scireb regibus uti, 207. Fastldiret olus, qui me notat. ' The quotation is from Horace, Ep. '^ ' An Opinion of what is possible to I. xvii. 15, where the full passage is : be done ' (1C85). Petty MSS. CHAP. Til DIFFICULTIES OF REFORM 203 ' Through the whole course of Su- WilHam Petty's writings,' says Davenant, ' it may be plainly seen by any observing man, that he was to advance a proposition not quite right in itself, but very grateful to those who governed.' •* The particular instance, however, which Davenant selects to illustrate this proposition is singularly ill-chosen. He argues that the opinion advanced in the ' Political Arithmetick,' and to be noticed further on, that England had nothing to fear from French competition, was put forward by Petty to ingi-atiate himself with Charles II., whose French sympathies were notorious. But the exact opposite is the case, for that work was not allowed to see the light during the reign of that king and his successor, ' because the doctrines offended France,' ^ and were in substance a plea that there was no necessity for England to join France in her crusade against Holland and Dutch trade, but that the true policy for England lay not in trying to crush the manufactures of Holland, but in becoming rich by following the example of the commercial policy of the Dutch Government. Sir WUliam Petty no more advocated a policy hostile to French than to Dutch trade, and would gladly have seen a good understanding between the two nations. For that reason probably he was stigmatised by Davenant as being necessarily a supporter of the French policy of Charles II., on the assumption that everybody must be on one side or the other, and either wish to ruta France or destroy Holland, in order thereby to enrich England. If, however, Davenant had noticed the scattered observations in which Sir William Petty sometimes seems suddenly to recoil from the natural conclusions of his own premises, or to shelter himself behind an ambiguous plea of want of responsibility or of insufficient knowledge, he would not have been so wide of the mark in his criticisms. Some instances of this have already been given in regard to commercial policy. Others may be noticed in such passages as those in which, in the ' Treatise on Naviga- tion,' he suddenly asks if, after all, it might not perhaps really be better, instead of employing seamen in trade, to employ ' Davenant, Political Arithmetick, ' Bee the Dedication to William III. Works, i. 129. by Sir William Petty's son, p. 200. 204 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii them under letters of marque against the enemies of England ; or in which, in the ' Treatise on Taxes,' after observing that ■wiser physicians observe and comply with the motions of nature, and that the analogy might perhaps be applied to the customs duties, and yet that a prohibition to export under certain circumstances might be legitimate — he then imme- diately protects himself with the observation ' that he knows that he is himself neither merchant nor statesman ; ' ' and, after noticing that it may be an impediment to the prospe- rity of the country ' that the power of making war and raising money for carrying it on is not in the same hands,' he quickly adds that he leaves this question to those ' who may more properly meddle with fundamental laws,' which, he says, he never ventures to do himself ; ^ and if he ventures ' to discourse ' of the customs, he only takes leave to do so as ' an idle philosopher,' and warns his readers that, whatever they be, they must certainly be paid.' That the Nonconformists increase is stated in the Preface to the ' Political Arithmetick,' with a great appearance of profound respect, amongst the signs alleged to be apparent of national decadence. '^ But it is then covertly shown, by the example of Holland, that Dissenters are for the most part thinking, patient, and sober men, and ' such as believe that labour and industry is their duty towards God ' — ' how erro- neous soever their opinions be ; ' and that ' the case of the primitive Christians, as it is represented in the Acts of the Apostles, looks like that of the present Dissenters '— ' exter- nally, I mean,' he immediately adds ; and that trade is most vigorously carried on in every State and government ' by the heterodox part of the same, and such as profess opinions dif- ferent from what are publicly established,' of which he proceeds to give numerous instances ; and that absolute religious freedom is therefore presumably desirable, only licentious actings, as in Holland, being restrained by force. The reader is at length left in amused perplexity to wonder what has ' Treatise mi Taxes, oh. vi. p. 48. ' Treatise on Taxes, ch. vi. p. 41. " Political Arithmetick, ch. v. p. ^ Political Arithmetick, Preface, p. 268. 205. CHAP. VII THE NAVIGATION ACTS 205 become of the observation in the Preface. Elsewhere he points out the economic objections — which are universally true — against the prohibition of the sale of land to foreigners, because such sale would furnish the country with what it then most wanted, a circulating capital for trade ; and then pru- dently adds that he can only suppose that ' the laws denying strangers to purchase ' were made when ' the publick state of things was far different from what they now are.' ^ But in what way they were different he does not even try to point out, and ends the sentence evidently with his tongue in his cheek. His silence on the general policy of the Navigation Act may be traced to the same causes. No approval of the policy of this Act is to be found in the ' Treatise,' and no open disapproval, and yet the question must have constantly been present to his mind, and indeed prominently so. The interest which he took in the Irish branch of the subject has been related. The General Navigation Act had only just been passed when the 'Treatise on Taxes ' appeared. That celebrated measure decreed that no goods of the growth, production, or manufacture of any country in Europe should be imported into Great Britain except in British ships, or in such ships as were the property of the people of the country in which the goods were produced, or from which they could only be, or most usually were, exported. The object of the Act was to destroy the Dutch carrying trade and promote the growth of a British mercantile marine, in other words, of ' shipping ; ' and as Sir William considered shipping the principal origin of the wealth of the Dutch, the aim of the Act, cmteris paribus, might have been supposed to be likely to command his approval for that reason. Husbandmen, seamen, soldiers, artisans and merchants, he had written, ' are the very pillars of any commonwealth ; all the other great professions do rise out of the infirmities and miscarriages of these; now the seaman is three of these four. For every seaman of industry and ingenuity is not only a navigator but a merchant, and also ' Political Arithmeiick, eh. i. pp. 227-229. 206 LIFE OF SIK WILLIAM PETTY chap, tii a soldier ; not because he hath often occasion to fight and handle arms ; but because he is familiarised with hardship and hazards, extending to life and limbs, for training and duelling is a small part of soldiery in respect of this last men- tioned qualification ; the one being quickly and presently learned, the other not without many years most painful experience : wherefore to have the occasion of abounding in seamen is a vast conveniency.' ^ His acute mind, guided by the study of the Irish question, had no doubt realised that the inevitable rise of freights, consequent on the cessation of the Dutch carrying trade to English ports, must seriously injure the home producer, and that to diminish the number of buyers in English ports was also to diminish the number of sellers. Shipping, therefore, unless naturally developed, would be of little permanent use to the country. But he probably thought that he had done his part, and gained unpopularity enough in influential quarters, by his opposition to the Irish Acts. Certain it is that he passed by the general subject of the Navigation Acts in a silence which, under the circumstances, is eloquent. An anecdote related by Aubrey might perhaps be cited in support of the view that he approved the encouragement of native shipping by legislative enactments of a distinctly pro- tective character. The Privy Council in Ireland, Aubrey relates, had a notable plan to prohibit the importation of coal from England, and for consuming turf, by which the poor, it was averred, were to be greatly benefited, and a small revenge perhaps be taken for the prohibition of the import of Irish cattle into England. Said Sir William : ' If you will make an order to hinder the bringing in of coals by foreign vessels, and bring it in vessels of your own, I approve of it very well ; but for your supposition of the cheapness of turf, 'tis true, 'tis cheap on the place, but consider carriage ; consider the yards that must contain such a quantity for the respective houses ; these yards must be rented, what will be the charge ? And they found on enquiry that all things considered, turf * PoUtical Arithmetick, ch. i. p. 223. CHAP. VII CUSTOMS DUTIES 207 would be much dearer to the consumer than coal.' ' But this story does not prove much. Taken for what it is worth, it does not go beyond an approval of the limitation by law of the coasting trade between England and Ireland to vessels of native origin, a limitation which has not been held incon- sistent with the application of free trade doctrines even in modern times, long after the repeal of the Acts of Navigation.^ Passing to the consideration of the question of the practical means of raising the revenue, Sir William discusses in the ' Treatise on Taxes ' the whole question of the customs duties, which at the beginning of the reign of Charles II. consisted of a uniform 2 per cent, duty on the value of all exports and imports. He points out that a tax on exports may at any moment raise the price of commodities above the limit which foreign commerce may be able to afford to pay, and that the smuggler will then have his opportunity for evading the law. He then urges that export duties, if any, should be levied on articles which cannot easily evade the law, such as horses, for they ' cannot be disguised, put up in bags nor casks, nor shipped without noise and the help of many hands.' ' He next dwells on the inconvenience of customs duties on imports, for analogous reasons. They are a payment before consump- tion, and raise prices altogether beyond the amount which they yield to the State. He also dwells on the expense of collec- tion, and the evasions of duty by the bribery and corruption of the customs of&eers. He finally suggests the abolition of customs duties, calling them ' unseasonable and prepos- terous,' * and the levy in their place of a tonnage duty ; and that these duties should be treated as a maritime insurance on the part of the State, which would be a return to their true original function, like those of the Dutch, which were intended merely to keep an account of their foreign trade.^ Nevertheless, he admits that ' all things ready and ripe for consumption may be made somewhat dearer than the same = Sir Josiah Child in 1671 states ' Bodleian Letters, ii. 490. that the Act of Navigation had already ' Treatise on Taxes, ch. vi. p. 43. seriously injured the British Eastland * Ibid. ch. xv. p. 85. and Baltic trades. See Adam Smith's ' Ibid. ch. vi. pp. 44, 45. Wealth of Nations, iv. 384. 208 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, vir things made at home,' only trade is not to be destroyed or seriously hampered ; so that here again his opposition to ' easterns ' is to be traced more to the practical objections which his keen eye had noticed, than to an abstract opinion in favour of absolutely unrestricted intercourse and open ports. As a greater profit he thought could be gained by manu- facture than by husbandry, and by merchandise than by manufacture, he argued that the great object of English policy should be to promote shipping — which was the mother of trade, and therefore of manufactures and of inventions — ^and to raise revenue by taxing the manufactured article, and not the raw import. He therefore considered an excise to be the justest of all taxes for the purposes of revenue, as being light to those who ' please to be content with material necessaries, and being also self-adjusting ; ' ' only it should not be farmed, but properly collected by paid and responsible officers ; also the articles taxed must as a rule be few, and not be raw material : to do the opposite, he says, ' is the same ill-husbandry as to make fall of young saplings instead of dotards and pollards.' ^ He points out that excise may be what he calls 'accumu- lative,' i.e., that within one article you really may be taxing many things together, and, in order to avoid this, whatever articles are taxed should be so as near the point of consump- tion as possible. ' Some,' he goes on, 'proposed beer to be the only exciseable commodity, supposing that in the propor- tion that men drink, they make all other expences ; which certainly will not hold, especially if strong beer pay quintuple unto, (as now) or any more excise than the small : for poor carpenters, smiths, felt-makers, etc., drinking twice as much strong beer as gentlemen do of small, must consequently pay ten times as much excise. Moreover, upon the artisans beer is accumulated, only a little bread and cheese, leathern clothes, neck beef, and inwards twice a week, stale fish, old pease without butter, etc. Whereas on the other, beside drink, is accumulated as many other things as nature and art can produce.' ' ' Treatise on Taxes, ch. xv. p. 87. ' Ibid. oh. vi. p. 44. Ibid. oh. XV. p. 86. CHAP. Yii EXCISE 209 ' The very perfect idea,' he says, ' of making a levy upon consumptions, is to rate every particular necessary just when it is ripe for consumption : that is to say not to rate corn until it be bread ; nor wool until it be cloth, or rather until it be a very garment ; so as the value of wool, clothing and tayloring, even to the thread and needles, might be compre- hended ; but this being perhaps too laborious to be performed, we ought to enumerate a catalogue of commodities both native and artificial, such whereof accompts may most easily be taken, and can bear the office marks either on themselves or what contains them ; being withal such as are to be as near con- sumption as possible ; and then we are to compute what further labour or charge is to be bestowed on each of them before consumption, that so an allowance may be given accordingly.' * He proposed to levy an excise on flax in Ireland, on linen goods in England, and on herrings in Scotland : " the above articles being all, in his opinion, those in which the home producer had a practical monopoly, and which therefore would bear taxation most easily. He would have allowed these duties under certain circumstances, especially in Ireland, where ready money was not easily to be obtained, to be paid in kind, and he would also have allowed taxes in England to be paid in corn in the years of an abundant harvest, and the corn to be stored in Government granaries, to meet the diffi- culties which so often arose from the absence of a proper cir- culating medium, until that difficulty was provided for by the establishment of a bank and the reform of the circulation.® The hearth money he thought the best form of ' accumulative excise,' it being easy to tell the number of hearths, 'which remove not as heads or polls do ; moreover, 'tis more easy to pay a small tax than to alter or abrogate hearths, even though they are useless or supernumerary ; nor is it possible to cover them, because most of the neighbours know them, nor in new buildings will any man who gives forty shillings < Treatise on Taxes, eh. zv. p. 83. ' Treatise on Taxes, ch. iii. p. 20 ; = Political Arithmetick, ch. ii. p. Political ArithmeticTe, oh. ii. p. 240. 243. 210 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii for making a chimney be without it for two.' He considered the house tax to be a species of excise, or tax on the con- sumption and use of an article, a house, and to be the easiest and clearest and fittest to ground a certain revenue upon.^ The poll tax had, in his opinion, the advantage of being easily collected ; but the great objection to it was that it was very unequal, and fell severely on the poorest class, while the attempts which had recently been made at introducing dis- tinctions between different classes of persons in order to obviate these evils had only ended in such a mass of ' con- fusion, arbitraries, irregularities and hotch pot of qualifica- tions,' that nobody knew where he stood.* It is evident that he gradually came to the conclusion that a just poll or capita- tion tax was an impossibility, and that, if it was desired to tax proportionally the income of the mass of the people, it could only be done, as in Holland, by taxing their expense, through an excise or tax on commodities ; though, as already pointed out, the articles taxed were to be few and the tax light. The risk of relying too much on this species of taxation had not been fully realised by the political economists of the seven- teenth century, who were mainly familiar with the evils of a clumsy system of direct taxation. Sir William Petty was indeed fully aware that there were taxes the incidence of which was not on the person who paid them in the first instance ; but he did not sufficiently realise the dangers arising from the fatal facility with which the system could be extended. It was left to Adam Smith to point out, with unanswerable force, that such taxes, especially when levied upon necessaries, were calcu- lated to diminish the reward of labour, and therefore either raised wages in proportion or reduced employment, and that their ultimate burden was either on the land in the shape of diminished rent, or on the capitalist in reduced profits ; and that, by their complicating and disturbing effects on trade and employment, they diminished the volume of trade and took far more out of the pockets of the taxpayers than they brought into the coffers of the State. By the time of Adam Smith, ' Treatise on Taxes, eh. iv. p. 26, ch. xv. p. S6. ^ Ibid. eh. vii. p. 50. CHAP. Til THE PAR OF VALUE 211 Holland itself could be pointed at as an example to be shunned rather than to be followed, for taxes on commodities levied ■with a fatal facility to meet the needs of a war policy had reached such a point that they seriously injured the manu- factures of the country.' In the ' Treatise on Taxes ' an examination of the possi- bility of finding a standard or ' par ' of value which can be stated in terms follows the discussion of the origin of value. The precious metals, especially silver. Petty points out, are principally adapted and used as a standard or measure of value, owing to their durability and universally recognised value ; but even their value, he points out, may vary, accord- ing to the supply and other circumstances, and for that reason, not being altogether satisfied with them as standards, he de- sires to find a universal 'par,' not only for commodities, but for gold and silver as well : an inquiry which may be called the North-West Passage of political economy. ' All things,' he says, ' ought to be valued by two natural denominations, " land and labour : " that is, we ought to say a ship or garment is worth such a measure of land, with such another measure of labour ; forasmuch as both ships and garments were the creatures of lands and men's labours thereupon. This being true, we should be glad to find out a natural par between land and labour, so as we might express the value of either of them a,lone, as well or better than by both, and reduce one into the other as easily and certamly as we reduce pence into pounds.' ' He does not, however, attempt a further development of the idea, although there is another reference to the subject in the ' Political Anatomy of Ireland,' where he describes it as the most important subject ' in political economies.' In this passage he assumes that there is a certain equality of the cost of production ' in the easiest gotten food of the respective countries of the world,' and that the cost of transporting it from one country to another will be about equal. He appa- rently alludes to the coarser and healthier forms of diet : oat- meal, rice, &e., which are of general distribution. He next " See Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, iii. 505. ' Treatise on Taxes, oh. iv. p. 31. F 2 212 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, -vir supposes two acres of pasture land enclosed, and a weaned calf put out to graze there. In twelve months' time the calf will have become one hundred heavier, he thinks, in eat- able flesh. Then one hundredweight of such flesh is the ' value or year's rent ' of the land. He next supposes the labour of a man, for a similar period of twelve months, to make this same land yield sixty days' food of the same or any other kind. Then the overplus of days' food is the wages of the man, both beuig expressed by the number of days' food ; and in this case land and labour will stand as five to six, the unit being the ordinary day's food of an adult man. This par, he declares, seems to promise to be as regular and constant as the value of pure silver ; but he fails to show how it could be adapted in practice to the purposes of trade by any instru- ment of exchange, and the chapter in the ' Political Anatomy ' in which this disquisition occurs concludes, instead, with a fan- ciful sketch, how the par of land and labour just described could be extended to art and opinion, eloquence, and other matters : inquiries which, he ends by acknowledging, ' are perhaps not very pertinent to the matter in hand.' ^ The want of a proper circulating medium, both in quality and in quantity, was one of the great difficulties of the finan- ciers of the reign of Charles II., and, as already stated, the confusion of coins is set down in the ' Treatise on Taxes ' amongst the principal causes which unnecessarily increase and aggravate the public charges.* A chapter is devoted to the arguments against raising, depressing, and embasing the coinage, in which the arguments now universally ac- cepted are clearly stated. They hardly now need a place in a formal treatise on public economy, but at the time were stni deemed doubtful and hazardous. Sir "William also ex- pressed himself as in favour of a single metallic standard, in a passage devoted to a further discussion of these topics in the ' Political Anatomy of Ireland.' * In the same treatise he points out, with reference to the trade of Ireland, that the in- 2 Political Anatomy of Ireland, ch. xiv. p. 76. ix. pp. 344-346. ' Political Anatomy, ch. x. p. 347. ' Treatise on Taxes, oh. ii. p. 5, eh. 'CHAP. VII USURY LAWS 211 •creasing the cash of the nation ' is not of that consequence that many guess it to be,' but that the amount of money in the country should not exceed the amount necessary as a medium of exchange, ' for in most places, especially Ireland, nay England itself, the money of the whole nation is but about a tenth part of the expense of one year, viz. Ireland is thought to have about 400,000L in cash, and to spend about four millions per annum. Wherefore it is very ill husbandry to double the cash of the nation by destroying half its wealth ; or to increase the cash otherwise than by increasing the wealth, simul et semel ; ' ' ' for money, ' he observes else- where, ' is but the fat of the body pohtick, whereof too much doth as often hinder its agility, as too little makes it sick.' ^ ' Laws made against usury, against raising of money, and against exportation of gold and silver, and many others con- cerning Trade,' were all in his opinion equally ' frivolous and pernicious, forasmuch as such matters will be governed by the laws of nature and nations only ; ' and, following out the same order of ideas, he points out that the rate of interest depends upon the accumulation of money and the amount of it in a country at any given time, and that therefore money, like everything else, has a legitimate price according to the amount of it, and the relative difficulty of procuring it at any par- ticular time or particular place : a truth which had been obscured by a mistaken interpretation of Scriptural texts in the Middle Ages. What the Jewish law forbade was usury as between Jews, not loans to foreigners. It was a moral precept to be observed as between members of the same society. But the early Christian doctrine, based on the text, ' Lend, hoping for nothing again,' adopted and enlarged the Jewish view till what was termed ' usury ' became the most frightful of moral offences in the eye of the Church, and was forbidden by the Canon Law, as contrary both to the law of nature and to authority. It was to be regarded as worse than theft ; even what was termed mental usury — the intention of the lender to ^ Political Anatomy, ch. xi. pp. See, too, Qvxmtulumcumque concern- .356, 357. ing Money, Query 27. " Verbum Sapienti, ch. v. p. 48. 214 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY ohap. vii accept something from the borrower without formally binding the latter — was a mortal sin. It was only by a refined and ingenious adaptation of this traditional doctrine to the needs and facts of economic life, as time went on, that any progress- at all was possible.' But the general result was that business passed largely into the hands of the Jews at high rates of interest, and that the Church itself had to connive at pious evasions of its own prmciples by means of inonts de piete and similar devices ; and that after the Eeformation trade and com? merce found a more natural home in the countries which had shaken themselves free from the meshes of the Canon Law, than in those which still held by the ancient faiths.* Exchange, or local usury, Sir William points out, arises simply when one man furnishes another with money at some distant place, and engages under peculiar penalties to pay him there and at a certain day, or at some convenient time. ' The questions arising,' he proceeds, ' are what are the natural standards of usury and exchange ? As for usury the least that can be, is the rent of so much land as the money lent will buy, when the security is undoubted j but when the security is casual, then a kind of insurance must be interwoven with the simple natural interest, which may advance the usury very conscionably, unto any height below the principal itself. Now if things are so in England, that really there is no such security, but that all are more or less hazardous, troublesome or chargeable to make, I see no reason for endeavouring to limit usury upon time any more than that upon place.' But he seems to have conceived the possibility of a state of such absolute security that no ' damnum emergens ' could exist, and any interest on a loan would consequently be unfair beyond the standard of interest on money fixed by the rent of land. The laws against usury, he maUciously suggests, probably arose because those who made such laws 'were rather borrowers than lenders ' — a suggestion which soon ' See Ashley's Economic History, Mr. Henry C. Lea in a recent number Book ii. oh. vi. of the Yale Bevicw, 1894. See, too,. 8 An able review of the history of Leoky, Bise and Influence of Ba- thia question has recently appeared by tionalism, ii. 280. CHAP. Yii BENT 215 received a striking illustration in the closing of the Exchequer at the time of the Cabal, and the suspension of the payment of interest on the royal loans. With a sound financial policy and commercial stability, he thought that the rate of interest could be reduced to 4 per cent, without any law.^ Of State lotteries — another favourite device of needy monarchs — he maliciously observes that they are a tax upon ' self-conceited fools,' and ' that as the world abounds with this kind of fools, it is not fit that every man that will, may cheat every man that would be cheated. It had consequently een ordained,' he adds, 'that State lotteries should be a roml monopoly.' ' j Sir William-attributed the increase of rent to the increase of population ; and considering the increase of population a certain sign of the prosperity of the country, he looked forward to increasing population and increasing rents. The fears of tEe~consequences of a too rapid growth of population, which at a later period weighed so heavily on the minds of Malthus and his successors, and in France made Babceuf declare that a free use of the guillotine was perhaps the only method of escaping them, did not oppress him. One thousand acres which can support one thousand men he thinks are better than ten thousand acres which do the same thing ;^ and he says he would prefer to see the Commonwealth passing laws 'to beget a luxury in the 950,000 plebeians of Ireland, rather than making sumptuary laws directed against the expenditure of the 150,000 optimates, as the latter would only injure the plebeians, while , the former would promote their splendour, arts and industries.' t' In the ' Treatise on Taxes ' a long digression occurs] towards the commencement of the work, on rent, the nature of which he acknowledges to be ' mysterious.' He treats it and so far correctly, as a species of profit, arrived at after all the expenses of cultivation have been paid ; but he makes no distinction between the profit on capital and the true economic ' ' Opinion of whai.is possible to be ' Treatise on Taxes, oh. viii. p. 53. done,' 1685. Nelligan MS., British ^ PoliUcalAnt'hmetick,ch..i.^.2l^. Museum. ^ee,ioo,Quantuliimawmgue, ^ Political Anatomy, eh. xi. p. 356. Qu. 28-80. 216 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii rent of land. ' As great need of money,' he says, ' height- eneth exchange, so doth great need of corn raise the price of that hkewise, and consequently of the rent of land that bears corn and lastly of the land itself. . . . Hence it conies to pass that land intrinsically alike near populous places, such as where the perimeter of the area that feeds them is great, will not only yield more rent for these reasons, but also more years purchase than in remote places, by reason of the pleasure and honour extraordinary of having lands there.' ^ The ' Political Arithmetick,' from which some quotations have already been made, consists of three parts. The first two consist of a number of short essays on the ' Vital and other Statistics of London, Dublin, Paris, Eome, Eouen, and other great Cities, and of the United Provinces of Holland,' and were published in 1682 and 1687. The scope of the first essay was to be ' concerning the value and increase of people and colonies ' — such is the exordium — and was intended to precede another essay concerning the growth of the city of London. Only a sort of syllabus of it remains, the fourteen heads of which well illustrate the many-sided character of the mind of the writer, which at one moment is seen grappling with the hardest statistics, and then flying off into speculative inquiries of an abstruse character in the domain of theology. He proposes to examine ' how many live on their lands ; how many on per- sonal estate ; how many on professions ; how many pay poll tax, and how much ; how to plant colonies ; the relative value of land in colonies and at home ; with calculations in how many years England will be fully peopled.' These, and kindred topics, form the first ten heads of inquiry ; from which the reader is suddenly transported by an abrupt transition into an appendix ' concerning the number of wild fowl and of sea fish at the end of every thousand years since Noah's flood,' and an inquiry as to what may be ' the meaning of glorified bodies, in case the place of the blessed shall be without the convex of the orb of the fixed stars ; ' ^ just as the essay on population concludes with a grotesque statistical argument to prove that ' Treatise on Taxes, ch, v. p. 35. * Several Essays, pp. 98, 99. •CHAP. TO VIEWS ON POPULATION 217 there would be room in Ireland alone to bury all the dead bodies up to the day of judgment, which professes to be written ' to assist a worthy divine, writing against some scepticks, who would have baffled our belief in the resurrection, by saying that the whole globe of the earth could not furnish matter enough for all the bodies that must rise at the last day.' '' Sir Eobert Southwell also had views of his own about the Deluge, and he sent them to his friend for consideration ; but Sir William professed to be unwilling to meddle with such dangerous matters, notwithstanding his wish to oblige, for even his friendship with Southwell could be limited, though it required Noah's flood to do it. ' I thank you for your theory of the Deluge,' he cautiously replied, ' but do candidly say that I do know not what to say on that point, but take it to be a Scripture mystery, which to explain is to destroy ; ' ' so he confined his attention to tracing the economic effects of that event on remote ages. Southwell appears to have re- venged himself by declining to enter on the topics suggested. ' I am angry,' Sir William writes to him, ' you did not speak a word neither of Eeason nor of Eidicule upon the paper for the Multiplication of Mankind ; as if that desideratum were frivolous ; which I take to be equal to all the projects which have been these many years for the advantage of the world. Pray send it back, with an affidavit on the back of it, that you have not shewn it to any fortunate fop nor taken any Copy of it.' « Sir Eobert Southwell was at length persuaded to present his objections to Sir WUliam's scheme. In Sir William's answer is to be found aU that remains of his opinions on the subject. ' I reply in these following positions, viz. :\l. It is for the glory of God and the advancement of mankind that the world should be fully and speedily peopled, and that objections against the same may be deferred tOl a thousand years hence. 2. That the more people there are in any country the greater is the value of each of them. 3. There is no need of careing how to provide for children, as long as there be three acres of ' Several Essays, pp. 109, 120. ' March 10, 1676. » Petty to Southwell, 1685. 218 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii and for every head, which I call sufficient peopling. 4. Ta say that other nations may use the same expedient as well as wee, is an objection to all proposals for the good of mankind./ I like your having shewn the paper to Mr. Pepys, for he is no fopp, tho' fortunate.'' The first of these positions is quaintly elucidated in another letter. ' To honor God,' he says, ' is really (and not in specious words only) to acknowledge his power, Wisdome, etc. Wee cannot say that the whole earth and the fixed stars too were made for the use of man ; but till we see the earth peopled (as perhaps three-fourths is not) we may doubt it ; and not knowing to what other use it was de- signed, may stumble into the error of its having been made by chance, and not by the designe of an Infinite Wisdome — I should rather say of the greatest Wisdome — wherefore the= sooner the stumbling block is removed the better. I add that hee who shall give the reason and use of what lyes in the 8,000 miles space between the two poles of the earth, and of the use of the fixed stars to man, shall honor God more than by singing the " Te Deum " every day.r2nd, I say that, as in great cittyes and cohabitations of men, arts and sciences are better cultivated than in deserts, so I say that if there were as- many men on earth as it could bear, the works and wonders of God's Providence would be the sooner discovered, and God the sooner honoured really and heartily. TBrd, I say that Gods first and greatest command to man and beast was to increase and multiply, and to replenish the earth. Why therefore should this duty be put off ? ... I should aidd to my last head : it being probable that the world will not be destroyed, nor the day of Judgement come, till the whole earth be peopled. If we pray that God would hasten the number of his elect, and if the Blisse of the Blessed cannot be perfect till the soul and Body are united, then we must wish the speedy peopling of the world. 'jj /While insisting on the advantages of an increased popu: lation, Petty had, however, not failed to grasp the fact that, in order that an increase of population may not be injurious, there must be a corresponding increase in the efficiency of labour and in wealthJ The internal prosperity of the country ' Sept. 8, 1685. ' Sept. 19, 1685. CHAP. Til GROWTH OF LONDON 219 and the best means of promoting the material improvement of the people are, therefore, constantly present to his mind in the discussions of the subject of population. /Thus, for example, his plan for the transplantation to England of a large portion of the population of Ireland, was entirely based on the belief that the population would be increased and the standard of comfort raised by the accession of a large body of productive labourers^W In connection with this discussion he made a remarkable forecast of the growth westwards of the City of London. ' If great cities,' he says, ' are naturally apt to remove their seats, I ask which way? I say in the case of London, it must be westward, because the winds blowing near three fourths of the year from the west, the dwellings of the west end are so much the more free from the fumes steams and stinks of the whole easterly pyle ; which, where seacole is burnt, is a great matter. Now if it follow from hence, that the palaces of the greatest men will remove westward, it will also naturally follow, that the dwellings of others who depend upon them will creep after them. This we see in London, where the noblemens ancient houses are now become halls for companies, or turned into tenements, and all the palaces are gotten westward ; insomuch that I do not doubt but that five hundred years hence, the King's palace will be near Chelsea, and the old building of Whitehall converted to uses more answerable to their quality. For to build a new royal palace upon the same ground will be too great a confinement, in re- spect of gardens and other magnificencies, and withal a dis- accommodation in the time of the work ; but it rather seems to me, that the next palace will be built from the whole present contignation of houses, at such a distance as the whole palace of Westminster was from the city of London, when the archers began to bend their bows just without Ludgate, and when all the space between the Thames, Fleet Street, and Holborn, was as Finsbury-fields are now.' But this digression, he acknowledges, may prove a mere imper- ^ Poliiical AritJimetick, ch. iv. pp. Eanke, English History, iii. 586- 251-254. See also tlie observations of (Oxford Edition). 220 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii tinence, since it was not unlikely that, long before the time arrived at which all this could happen, they ' might all be transplanted from hence into America, and these countries be overrun with Turks, and made waste, as the seats of the famous Eastern Empires at this day are.'' He was writing in the days of Mahomet IV., and the hard-won victory of Montecuculli at Saint Gothard, which saved Europe, took place in 1664, only two years after the appearance of the ' Treatise on Taxes.' The second series of the Essays was largely devoted to a discussion of the calculations of the Parisian statistician, M. Auzout, and was published in the two languages, French and English, in parallel columns. Like the ' Treatise on Taxes,' ' these Essays and the Discourse contain many points of interest ■outside the immediate subjects with which they deal. The author addresses himself, for example, to the question of wages, and examines whether a high or a low rate of wages, in the then economic constitution of society, tended to increase pro- duction. His own observations of the habits of the cloth- workers in England and of the Irish peasantry compelled him, however reluctantly, to the opinion that the general standard of living was as yet too low to make high daily wages of any advantage to the labourer, because of their tendency at once to reduce their hours and be content with wages just sufficient to support existence at a very low level of material civilisation. ^ It was observed,' he says, ' by clothiers and others who employ great numbers of poor people, that when corn is extremely plentiful that the labour of the poor is proportion- -ately dear and scarce to be had at all, so licentious are they ■who labour only to eat, or rather to drink.' It was the same in Ireland, especially since the introduction of that ' bread- like root, the potato. A day of two hours labour was there ■sufficient to make men to live after their present fashion, and the cheapness of food was the excuse for the people to live in a condition little above that of animals.'* He argues that an ^ Treatise cm Taxes, oh. iv. p. 28. p. 478. Compare the opinionB of Sir ' Political AritlmieticTc, eh. ii. p. W. Temple, Worfts, i. pp. 60, 114; and 240. Verbum Sapienti, oh. ii. s. 10, the discussion of the history of the sub- CHAP. TO THE DIVISION OP LABOUR 221 equilibrium between production and consumption is necessary, and that without an increase of demand, which the State itself in his opinion may wisely stimulate and direct into proper channels by taxation, no improvement or increase of wealth was possible; and that it was the absence of this feeling of the need of the higher wants of civilisation which constituted one of the chief causes of the poverty of the population of that island. ' There are in Ireland,' he says, ' 160,000 nasty cabbens, in which neither butter nor cheese, nor linen, yarn, nor worsted can be made to the best advantage, chiefly by reason of the soot and smoaks annoying the same, as also for the narrowness and nastiness of the place, which cannot be kept clean nor safe from beasts and vermin, nor from damps and musty benches, of which all the eggs laid or kept in those cabbens do partake. Wherefore to the advancement of trade, the reformation of these cabbens is necessary.'' Other passages show that he attached the greatest impor- tance in theory to the division of labour, which he had already himself applied so successfully in practice during the survey. ' Cloth,' he says, ' must be cheaper made, when one cards, another spins, another weaves, another draws, another dresses, another presses, and packs, than when all the operations above mentioned are clumsily performed by the same hand ; ' * and he argues that the division of labour, applied to the ship- building trade, is one of the reasons of the superiority of Holland at sea to France, because it enables the Dutch to build the exact sort of ship required for the circumstances of each particular branch of trade and navigation, and to charge less for freight and maritime insurance.' ' The gain,' he argues, with reference to the trade of London, 'which is made by manufacture will be greater as the manufacture itself is greater and better. For in so vast a city manu- factures wUl beget one another, and each manufacture jeot in Dr. Schultz Gavernitz's, Der topics is acknowledged. Grossbetrieb (Einleitung), Leipzig, ^ Political Anatomy, ch. ix. p. 354. 1892, and Luio Brentano, Hours, " Political Arithmetick, ah. i. p. Wages, and Production, pp. 2, 3, Lon- 224. don, 1894, where Petty's position as ' Ibid. ch. i. p. 225. one of the first to inquire into these 222 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii will be divided into as many parts as possible, whereby the work of each artizan will be simple and easie ; as for example in the making of a watch, if one man shall make the wheels, another the spring, another shall engrave the Dial plate, and another shall make the case, then the watch will be better and cheaper than if the whole work be put upon any one man. And we also see that in towns and in the streets of a great town, where all the inhabitants are almost of one trade, the commodity peculiar in those places is made better and cheaper than elsewhere.' * He distinguishes between productive and unproductive labour, contrasting two classes of men : the first who produce material objects, or things of real use and value, or, in other words, which increase 'the gold, silver and jewels of the country by trade and arms ; ' the other who ' do nothing at all but eat, drink, sing, play and dance,' to whom he ma- liciously adds ' such as study the metaphysicks or other needless speculation.' ^ The Essays also show that he under- stood, at least partially, the principles underlying the laws of supply and demand in their effect on value. Distinguish- ing between what he terms ' intrinsic ' and ' extrinsic ' value in a dialogue on the price of diamonds, ' I will first take notice,' he says, ' 1. that the dearness and cheapness of diamonds depends upon two causes ; the one intrinsic which lies within the stone itself, and the other extrinsic and contingent, such as are the prohibitions to seek for them in countries from whence they come. 2. When merchants can lay out their money in India to more profit upon other commodities, and therefore do not bring them. 3. When they are brought, upon fear of wars, to be a subsistence for exiled and obnoxious persons. 4. They are dear near the marriage of some great person when great numbers of persons are to put themselves in splendid appearance. For any of these causes, if they be very strong upon any part of the world, they operate on the whole. For if the price of diamonds should rise in Persia, it shall also perceptibly ' Several Essays, p. 116. = Political Arithmetick, eh. ii. pp. 235, 236. CHAP. Til SUPPLY AND DEMAND 223 in England, for the great merchants all the world over do know one another, do correspond, and are partners in most -of the considerable pieces, and do use great confederacy and intrigue in buying and selling them.' ' Amongst other subjects discussed in the ' Treatise on Taxes ' is that of penalties considered as a source of revenue, and the discussion leads him to the consideration of religious toleration from the point of view of the political economist and the statesman. The Sovereign, he argues, by punishing the heterodox with death, mutilations, and imprisonments, thereby injures the Crown and his own revenue ; and if heresies existed, it was perhaps because the pastors had neglected their own duties, and they ought themselves to be punished accordingly. The true use of the clergy ' is rather to be patterns of holiness, than to teach men varieties of opinion de rebus divinis,' ^ and their excessive wealth should be curtailed as being injurious to religion ; ' unless,' he sar- castically says, it is to be denied ' that there were golden priests when the chalices were of wood, and but wooden priests when the chalices were of gold.' ^ In the ' Treatise on Taxes ' he says ' that many have heretofore followed even Christ him- self but for the loaves he gave them.' * He constantly had floating before his vision the idea of a broad and compre- hensive Church, founded on ethical precepts rather than on any definite theological dogma or creed ; the Church of God rather than the Chuxch of England, or of any strictly sacerdotal body. To disbelieve indeed in the immortality of the soul rendered man, in his opinion, a beast ; and persons holding such views should, he thought, be under civil and political disabilities. With this exception, the only reason- able penalties he considered to be fines for actual breaches of the peace, even if committed in the name of religion. Such fines he defended ' as being the fittest way of checking the wantonness of men in this particular ; forasmuch as that course savours of no bitterness at all ; but rather argues a ' Sloane MS. 2903, British Museum. mary in the Table of Contents, p. xxxi. ^Treatise on Taxes, eh. ix. The ^ Treatise on Taxes, ch. xii. -p. G9. words quoted above are from the sum- ' Ibid. eh. i. p. 3. 224 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, tii desire to indulge ; provided such indulgence may consist with the indemnity of the State ; for no heterodox heliever will desire to he tolerated longer than he keeps the public peace.' ^ The system was that which Hobbes had laid down in theory, and Sully had applied in practice in France. In the work on ' Political Arithmetic,' he states the doctrine of religious toleration in the boldest and broadest terms. ' They cannot but know,' he says, ' that no man can believe what himself pleases, and to force men to say they believe what they do not, is vain, absurd and without honour to God.' ^ Dissenters, he shows, have been everywhere the prin- cipal creators of the trade and manufactures of their respec- tive countries ; even in Ireland, where, the Eoman religion not being authorised, the professors thereof have a great part of the trade. ' The Hollanders were one hundred years since a poor and oppressed people, living in a country naturally cold, moist and unpleasant, and were withal persecuted for their heterodoxy in rehgion, and they were become the greatest trading and manufacturing people in the world.' He thought, however, that the Jews might ' well bear somewhat extra- ordinary ; because they seldom eat and drink with Christians, hold it no disparagement to live frugally, and even sordidly among themselves, by which way alone they become able to undersell any other traders ; and to elude the excise, which bears but according to mean expenses : as also other duties by dealing so much in bills of exchange, jewels, and money ; and by practising of several frauds with more impunity than others, and by their being at home everywhere and yet no- where, being become responsible almost for nothing.' ^ With his keen eye for abuses, Sir William had observed the inequality of the distribution of the revenues of the Church, and the determination of the beneficiaries not to reform these and other evils. He had seen how frequently small parishes had large revenues, and large parishes small revenues ; and, pursuing his favourite statistical methods, he had arrived at the conclusion that, by a redistribution of parochial areas and '^ Treatise on Taxes, ch. x. p. 59. 227. » Political Arithmetick, oh. i. p. ' Treatise on Taxes, ch. xiii. p. 74. CHAP. Til THE ' ESSAYS ' 225 their revenues, he could not only improve the position of the parish priests on lines consonant with substantial justice, but could also economise half a million a year, which could be paid into the national exchequer. ' If anybody,' he said, ' cried sacrilege, I answer that if the same be employed to defend the Church of God against the Turk and the Pope, and the nations who adhere to them, it is not at all, or less, than to give three fourths of the same to the wives and children of the priests, which were not in being when their allowances ■were set forth.' ^ He enforced this argument still further by the remark that the unnecessary multiplicity of parishes led, amongst other disadvantages, to an unnecessary multiplicity of sermons. There were in England 10,000 parishes, in each of which there must be about 100 sermons a year preached. This was equal to one million sermons a year, and ' it were a strange miracle,' he said, ' if these sermons composed by so many men, and of so many minds and methods, should pro- duce uniformity upon the discomposed understandings of above eighty millions of hearers.' ' The first two series of the ' Essays on Political Arithmetick ' were published during the life of the author, but the third part, which is the work more generally known as ' The Political Arithmetick,' was posthumous and did not appear till 1691. The general object of the book was to show ' the weight and importance of the English Crown.' It had probably been commenced after the disaster at Chatham and the Plague and Fire, at a moment of great national despondency, but it was not completed till a far later date, when the superiority of France instead of that of Holland had become the object of national apprehension. The publication of such a book was impossible at a period when the King of England was the pensioner of Louis XIV., the sworn foe of Holland, and money was desired, not to reform the public services, but to supply the pleasures of the Court and to stifle inquiry. Nor was the free manner in which such subjects as » Treatise on Taxes, ch. ii. p. 9. pare, as to the abuses of the Church, ' Several Essays, p. 115, ' Of the Burnet, History of his Own Times, i. Growth of the City of London.' Com- 338. Q 226 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vii religion were dealt with, without danger to the author. There- fore it was not till after the Eevolution that the book was allowed to see the light, when it was published by the author's son, with a dedication to William III. ' What my father wrote,' so the dedication runs, ' was by him styled " Political Arithmetic " inasmuch as things of Government, and of no less concern and intent than the glory of the Prince and the happiness and greatness of the people, are by the ordinary rules of arithmetick brought into a sort of demonstration. He was allowed by all to be the inventor of this kind of in- struction ; where the perplexed and intricate ways of the world are explained by a very mean piece of science ; and had not the doctrines of the Essay offended France, they had long since seen the light and had found followers, as well as improve- ments before this time, to the advantage perhaps of mankind.' The author declares himself satisfied that England is in no deplorable condition, as some would have the world believe, notwithstanding trifling and temporary appearances to. the contrary ; and he undertakes to justify his belief. ' The method I take to do this,' he explains, ' is not very usual, for instead of using only comparative and superlative words, and intellectual arguments, I have taken the course (as a specimen of the political Arithmetic I have long aimed at) to express myself in terms of number, weight or measure, to use only arguments of sense, and to consider only such causes as have visible foundations in nature : leaving those that depend upon the mutable minds, opinions, appetites and passions of particular men, to the consideration of others : really pro- fessing myself as unable to speak satisfactorily upon those grounds, (if they may be called grounds), as to foretell the cast of a dye, to play well at tennis, bowls, or billiards (without long practice), by virtue of the most elaborate conceptions that ever have been written " de projectilibus etmissilibus " or of the angles of eyidence_and reflection.' ' His special aim was to prove that the subservient policy pursued by Charles 'II. in his relations with France was not justified by any relative weakness on the part of England, ' Political Arithmetick, Preface, p. 207. CHAj'. VII FRANCE AND HOLLAND- 227 especially if allied with Holland, and imitating her commercial policy. A small country, he argues, and few people, may by their situation, trade, and policy be equivalent in wealth and strength to a far greater people and territory ; and conve- niences for shipping and water carriage particularly conduce thereto. These exist in England, owing to her extended coast- line and admirable natural harbours, which ought always to secure for her a marked superiority at sea.^ He proves the great wealth of England by reference to the extreme ease with which she had been able to bear an increasing amount of taxation ever since the commencement of the century. He warns his readers against being dazzled by the splendotirs of the Court of Louis XIV., and taking those splendours to be a proof that the wealth of Prance was greater than that of England. They simply arose, he pointed out, from the King of France taking a large share of taxation out of the pockets of his people, and spending it in brilliant but unproductive ex- penditure at his Court and in military display. The material condition of France was, indeed, already a warning, and the growing misery of the people, crushed down by war and taxation, was a living commentary on the magnificence of Versailles. The policy of Colbert had been superseded by that of Louvois ; and when, in September 1683, that great and at heart peaceful minister sank into the grave, a mid- night and almost secret funeral alone protected his remains from the insults of the rabble, who, however unjustly, asso- ciated him with the distress of the country. France, Sir William argued, by reason of perpetual obstacles interposed by nature, such as her inferior length of sea-board, could never be more powerful at sea than England and Holland combined. The people and territories of Eng- land are, he says, naturally as considerable for wealth and strength as those of France, and the impediments to her greatness arise from contingent causes which can be removed : the principal being an unwise commercial policy and the ■' Compare the passage in Bacon's the sea is an abridgment of monarchy ' Essay, ' Of the True Greatness of King- (Essays XXIX.). doms,' beginning, 'To be master of q2 228 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, tii insufficient organisation of the military and naval defensive forces of the country ; with the absence of religious toleration, proper means of internal communication, a sound banking system, and the other conditions which he notes as those of the wealth and prosperity of Holland. One-tenth part of the annual expenditure of the nation, he calculates, would maintain an army of 100,000 foot, 30,000 horse, and 40,000 sailors, were the revenue properly administered. He wishes to employ the surplus labour of the kingdom in some profitable manner, calculating it could earn two millions a year, but he believes that the capital and labour actually in the kingdom are sufficient ' to drive the trade of the whole commercial world.' Situation,- trade, and water carriage would have been useless to the Dutch, had they not been developed by a wise policy. This policy he analyses into three heads, viz. : 1. Liberty of conscience; 2. Securing the title to lands and houses by land registries ; and 3. the Dutch banking system, ' the use whereof is to increase money, or rather to make a small sum equivalent in trade to a greater.' The Dutch also knew how to make the burden of the maintenance of the poor as light as possible. The burden of military service is also reduced by them to the minimum, and the smallest number possible of the population are engaged in cow- keeping, which in his opinion is the least profitable branch of trade. Here is the example for England to follow ; and the concluding pages of the essay are occupied with an appeal to the younger sons of the English landed gentry, to go into trade instead of starving at home, and to their parents to found a bank with a capital secured upon land. The Dutch, he points cut, had known how to profit by their situation on the sea, and how to improve the means of water carriage at their com- mand. Thus situation had given them shipping, and shipping had given them the command of the trade of the world. ' Do -they not work the sugar of the West Indies,' he asks, ' the timber and iron of the Baltic ; the hemp of Eussia, the lead, tin and wool of England, the quicksilver and silk of Italy, the yarns and dyeing stuffs of Turkey ? ' They do so, he replies, because their shipping goes to every part of the world ; ' and CHAP. ■^^I THE EXAJVIPLE OF HOLLAND 229 shipping hath given them in effect all other trade, and foreign traffick must give them as much manufacture as they can manage themselves, and as for the overplus make the rest of the world but as workmen in their shops.' ^ If the wealth of Holland sprang from a wise and enlightened policy, the prin- cipal impediments to England's greatness had their origin in defects of policy. The widely separated character of the terri- tories belonging to the English Crown, with their different Governments and separate legislative powers, stands first ; and he again advocates a union between England, Scotland, and Ireland, with a view to a uniformity of trade and customs. He dwells on the consequences which may arise from the de- velopment of the Government of New England upon lines so widely different from those of the mother country ; and he points out how the whole burden of the defence of all her scattered colonies and territories falls with an unnecessary burden upon England alone. He advocates the formation of an Im- perial Council of two Chambers, the first nominated by the Crown and the second by the people. He again attacks the absurdity and injustice of the commercial policy of England towards Ireland ; and argues that, if the resources of England and Ireland at home were properly developed, there was room at home for the whole population which had fled to the Colo- nies. Finally, he mentions the evils which had arisen from farming out the revenue and relying too much on direct taxa- tion ; from the uncertainty of several material points in the theory of the Constitution and in the law, viz. the King's pre- rogative, the privileges of Parliament, and the obscure differ- ences between law and equity, as also between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions ; and from the doubts which existed whether the kingdom of England had power over the kingdom of Ireland ; and lastly, returning to his favourite subject, from ' the wonderful paradox that Enghsh men lawfully sent to suppress rebellions in Ireland, should after having effected the same, be, as it were, disfranchised, and lose that interest in the legislative power which they had in England, and pay cus- toms, as foreigners, for all they spend in Ireland, whither they ^ Political Ariihmetick, oh. i. pp. 222, 223. 230 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, vir were sent for the honour and benefit of England.' " But while putting his finger on the weak points in the national armour, he does so in no desponding spirit, but in the belief that he can thereby stir the public conscience and secure their reform, if not their removal, by an appeal to the conscience and under- standing of a progressive and vigorous people. There always have been and there ever will be those who are able to detect around them the signs of the approaching ruin of their country and of the dissolution of society, and also believe that they can distinctly recollect the time when things wore a more promising aspect. For minds so constituted the best medicine would perhaps be a course of the writings of the pessimist literature of previous generations, and the perusal of the unfulfilled prophecies of the authors. The desponding philosopher of the nineteenth century might find consolation from learning how Mr. Sedgwick, who was an Under-Secre- tary of State in 1767 — a year now generally considered one in which the reputation of the country stood at a high pitch in the prosperous period which intervened between the Peace of 1763 and the commencement of the American war — declared that ' it became more evident every day that this our country is so clearly on the high road to ruin, that nothing as it seems but a miracle can save it.' Even the elements he declares were in sympathy with the gloom of the political prospect, for ' the seasons,' he observes, ' are totally changed in this country, and one of them is quite done away. We are not now to expect warm weather till the autumn, and may therefore as well dismiss the word summer from our language as being no longer of any use, in reference to our own country at least.' Nor did Mr. Sedgwick stand alone, for a congenial spirit, Mr. Waite, writing in the gloomy atmosphere of Dublin Castle, was clearly of opinion that not England only, but ' the great globe itself, as well as those who inhabit it, seems hastening to a final period,' and ' that the spirit of the Devil was gone forth over the whole British Empire, and Satan seemed to be hastening his kingdom.'' ■" Political Arithmetic, oh. v. p. MSS. Commission, 1885 : Weston- 267. Underwood Papers'. Appendix, pp. ' Tenth Report of the Historical 404, 407, 417, 426. ■CHAP. VII THE GREATNESS OF ENGLAND 231 But Mr. Sedgwick and Mr. Waite in their turn might have found consolation in the still more sad prognostications which were current exactly a century before, when men were declaring that ' the whole kingdom grew every day poorer and poorer,^ and that formerly it abounded with gold, but that now there was a scarcity of gold and silver ; that there was neither trade nor employment for the people ; and yet that the land was under-peopled ; that taxes were many and great ; that Ireland and the plantations in America were a burthen ; that Scotland was of no advantage ; that trade was decaying ; that the Dutch were outstripping us as a naval power : and that we only owed it to the clemency of the French that they did not swallow us ; and that both the Church and State were in the same state of decay as the trade of the country,' with many ■other equally dismal comments on the condition of the nation. To these prophets the ' Political Arithmetick,' notwith- standing the acknowledgment by the author of the existence of many dangers, was a rejoinder. There is another side to the picture, the author says. The buildings of London grow great and glorious ; the American plantations employ four hundred sail of ship ; shares in the East India Company are nearly double the principal money ; those who can give good security may have money under the statutory interest ; materials for builders — even oaken timbers — are little the dearer, some are cheap'er, for the rebuilding of London ; the Exchange seems as full of merchants as formerly ; much land has been improved, and the price of food is so reasonable that men refuse to have it cheaper by admitting Irish cattle ; no more beggars exist in the streets, nor are executed for thieves than heretofore; the number of coaches and the splendour of equipages exceeds former times ; the public theatres are very magnificent. The King has a greater navy and stronger guards than before our calamities ; the clergy are rich and the cathedrals in repair ; and that some are poorer than others, ever was and ever will be, and that many are naturally querulous and envious is an evil as old, as the world." " Political ArilJitnetick, Preface, p. 206. 232 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, txii CHAPTER VIII IRELAND 1678-1685 Captain Graunt — The Church of Borne — Condition of Ireland — Roman Catholic- intrigues — The Popish Plot— Kerry— The Admiralty Court — Eeform of the- revenue — The'Dublin Society — The ' Double-bottom ' — Death of Charles II. — Private correspondence — The ' double-bottom.' The Duke of Ormonde had hardly been restored to power in Ireland, when in England a widespread belief arose that a vast Eoman Catholic conspiracy, or ' Popish Plot,' as it was popularly denominated, existed, intended by the instigators and authors to destroy all the institutions of the country. It is hard at this distance of time to discover what amount of solid truth lay underneath the huge mass of half-insane imaginations which confused and distracted the public mind. The case of Sir William Petty's friend, Captain Graunt, affords an illustration of the absurdities which, even before- the excitement of the Popish Plot, could be accepted as un- doubted truth, if a Eoman Catholic was concerned. Early in the reign he had become a convert. About the time of the Fire he happened to be one of the trustees of the estate of the Countess of Clarendon, which consisted partly in shares- in the recently formed New Eiver Company. As he pos- sessed a considerable knowledge of engineering, he was made a member of the Board of Directors, and as such had access to the keys of the Pumping Station at Islington. It was declared and firmly believed that on the Saturday before the Fire he went thither, cut off the water, and departed, carry- ing away the keys with him. ' So that when the fire broke out next morning, they opened the pipes in the streets to find water, but there was none.' ' The inventor of this story for- • Burnet, History of his Own Times, i. 423, 424. 1678 CAPTAIN GEAUNT 233- got that Graunt was a City man himself, and liliely to be a heavy loser by the fire which he was accused of creating.^ Petty regretted the change of religion of his old friend, but stood firmly by him in his troubles. Graunt had become an opulent merchant of London, of great weight and considera- tion in the City. Subsequently, however, to the Fire his circumstances grew embarrassed. As soon as Sir William became aware of the fact, though a heavy loser himself, he showed his anxiety to enable his former benefactor to retrieve his fortunes. ' You know,' he writes to him, ' I have allotted 500Z., besides the year's rent for my own rebuildings, making, as I conceive, about TOOL I will rather forbear laying out that whole sum upon my own grounds, than that you should want a house of your own wherein to manage your trade.' ' He accordingly made Graunt his agent in London. But mis- fortune seemed to dog Graunt's footsteps at every turn. His efforts to disentangle himself only sunk him deeper in the mire, and threatened to drag down others with him. Sir William, after the exercise of much forbearance, was obliged to withdraw the management of his affairs from his hands. He did not do so, however, without endeavouring to make an honourable provision for him elsewhere. This was a very difficult matter to arrange, as Graunt does not appear to have liked to be obliged to qpyone, even to an old friend. Sir Wilham proposed an Irish agency, where his change of reli- gion would have been less injurious to him than in England ; but Graunt was unwilling to reside anywhere in Ireland except in Dublin. This was an impossible arrangement, as wUl be seen from a letter of Sir William's." ' 1501. per annum,' he says, 'is the least you can have. ... All that I can contribute to this matter is from my own affairs, which are not at Dubhn, viz. I was thinking to have gotten 3 great Baronys in Kerry belonging to me and several others to be united into 2 As a matter of fact, Graunt was supposed transaction. See article not admitted a Governor of the New ' Graunt ' in Chalmers' Biographical Biver Company till twenty-three days Dictionary, where the whole story is. after the breaking-out of the Great examined. Fire, and the evidence of his guilt was ' Oct. 3, 1667. invented long after the date of the ' Dec. 24, 1672. ^34 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, tiii one vast Manor,^ and you should be judge and seneschal thereof. This being done, 'tis true you would live imperially ; but in an obscure corner of the world ; but such where I am forc'd to go twice a year, thro' thick and thin. Consider hereof : I will not attempt the doing hereof except for your sake. Let me know what acquaintance you have gotten by your solicitation and attendance on the great ones, to frame something on that ground. Sir Henry Ford thinks that you, being an Englishman and a Eomanist, might be of an indif- ferent nature to solicit an Union between England and Ireland, to which many of both kingdoms, both English and Irish, seem well affected. ... As for difference of religion,' he goes on to tell him, ' you have done amiss in several particulars. . . . However we leave these things to God ; and be mindful of what is the sum of all religion, and what is and ever was true religion all the world over. ... I cannot approve of some other things ; nevertheless try all the other friends you have, and you shall see none of them shall prove so effectuall as Yours, &c.' ^ Sir William continued to befriend Graunt to the end of his days, and after his decease in 1674 he provided for his widow. It may be asked why, considering his liberal opinions on all religious questions, did Sir William deem his friend ' to have acted amiss ' in changing his religion, and becoming a Eoman CathoUc. The answer is obvious. Although the con- duct of the leading Eoman Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth was a splendid proof that their religion in itself was no bar to patriotism, yet Eoman Catholicism in the reign of Charles II. was none the less an object of fear, and Eoman Catholics of just suspicion.' Men of opinions as different as Temple, Penn, * Partly carried into effect a.d. parce qu'elle empeoha ce qu'elle crai- 1721, bytlie erection of the Manor of gnait. L'Angleterre fut comme un Dunkerron. taureau, que le loup vient flairer la " Deo. 24, 1672. nuit. II frappe de la come au hasard, ' 'L'Angleterre,' saysagreatFrench et frappe mal ; mais ses coups for- historian, ' frfimissait de sentir autour tuits qui montrent sa force et sa d'elle et sous elle gronder ce monde f ureur, donnent k penser k I'assaUlant. de la nuit. . . Vainepanique dit-on. . . . Le complot tr^s vrai fut la Pourquoi vaine ? On la juge telle, trahison des deux fr^res, Charles II 1678 THE CHURCH OF ROME 235 and Sidney, but all men able to form a competent opinion, believed that some kind of plot was on foot.* Those who had fought and suffered in the Ciyil War — whether Eoyalist or Eepublican — were conscious that the Queen Dowager, foreign alike in blood and religion, had been ' the principal instru- ment to advise and encourage the King in his illegal actions ; ' ' and when she returned after the Eestoration the watchful Pepys noticed that ' there were very few bonfires in the city, whereby he guessed that, as he believed before, her coming do please but very few.' ' The Queen had indeed long since removed to France, but the conversion of the Duke of York, his open preference for the French and Irish, the in- trigues of his sister, the Duchess of Orleans, and the infamies of the Treaty of Dover, unknown in their full extent but even then suspected, had together concurred in raising a belief that the removal from the scene of the mischievous person- ality of Henrietta Maria had indeed altered the characters, but had not changed the nature of the permanent conspiracy which was being constantly renewed on the Continent against the civil and religious liberties of Protestant England. The quarrels of Louis XIV. with the Pope did not deceive the acute statesmen of the time, as these differences seemed a mere repetition of the quarrels of Philip II. with Paul IV., which had never prevented ultimate co-operation against the common enemy. First to ruin Holland, the home of the religious and political refugees from every country, and while engaged in that operation to cajole the Nonconformists in England by a pretended support of religious liberty against the Church ; then to overawe both with a large standing army when the projected war with Holland had been brought to a successful close ; and, lastly, to put down the assertors of 'pretended liberties,' who wished 'to advance the sovereignty of old hateful laws above the more sacred majesty of princes, the only rightful legislators,' were the carefully marked stages et Jacques II, qui vingt-cinq ans Penn, Collected Works, ii. 678 ; Temple durant annul^rent I'Angleterre, ou Memoirs, ii. 491. mgme la vendirent k la France.'— ^ Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 327. Michelet, Bist. de France, xiii. 255. ' Pepys's Diary, i. 274 ; Secret " Sidney's Letters to Savile, p. 24 ; History of Whitehall, i. 45. 236 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, viii of the well-devised scheme of the French negotiators at Dover, which sooner or later was to culminate in the public adoption of the Eoman Catholic rehgion by the King, and the admission of the professors of the true faith to a predominant share of power.^ Something of all this the public mind more than suspected. How far the King and his brother were cognisant, how far they consented, and how far, below the high-placed political conspirators, a baser set of men may have existed, ready to use the doctrines of Mariana and the weapons of Jacques ClementandEavaillac, and thereby to make up for the more cautious and dilatory methods of their superiors, is one of the unsolved problems of history. The theology of the Eoman Catholic Church was the theology of the Tridentine Council ; and the period was that of the Jesuit reaction, which was in full command at the Court of Vienna and in the affairs of the Empire ; which in Italy had stamped out Protestantism, philosophic doubt, and political Kberty ; and in France had been successfully directed to inducing the youthful King to reverse the policy of his immediate predecessors and to enter on a career of aggression against Holland, the representative Protestant State of the Continent. The liberties of the French Protestants, supposed to have been secured by the express terms of the Edict of Nantes, were meanwhile being cunningly sapped and mined by the action of the Assemblies of the Church, which, whenever the necessities of the Eoyal Exchequer compelled the King to seek financial aid from their wealthy treasury, made the limi- tation of those liberties the unfailing condition of their grants. The root of the troubles of Ireland, as in the days of the Cardinal of Fermo, still lay in the intrigues of the Eoman Curia, which simply regarded that island as a counter in the great political game being played on the Continent, and was deter- mined never to allow the country to be quiet as long as it suited the exigencies of the struggle. Sir William Petty, like his master Hobbes, distinguished between the Eoman Catholic religion considered as an abstract ^ Secret History of Whitehall, i. 45 ei seq. 1678 THE CPIUECH OF ROME 237 ■scheme of belief and morals, and the imperium in imjierio ■which the Papal Court desired to set up in every country. ' If,' he argues in a paper on this subject, ' the Pope's power resemble the sun and that of Kings and Emperours resemble only that of the moon, that is to say. If the power of Kings be but reflex and derivative from that of the Pope, then it is absurd to obey prince or state, when the Pope intimates his pleasure to the contrary, and consequently no man kaows whether he be bound to kill rather than defend the King, when the Pope demands it. ' The Pope by his power of the Keys, by his keeping men •or letting them out of Purgatory, can give greater rewards and inflict greater punishments, than any other the greatest mon- arch in the world can doe ; and consequently the peace and settlement of aU nations and peoples lyes at his meer mercy and discretion only. ' All which pretensions and powers of the Pope having no affinity or likeness to the office of Christ, (whose vicar he would be), Protestants doe well to renounce and have reason to call the Pope Antichrist, and to bind his said wild and unruly power in chaines, that it may no longer hurt the nations of the earth.' ^ Neither did he think more highly of the claims of General Councils to inspiration. ' If the Holy Ghost,' he says, ' is pleased to inspire infallible truths into a thousand members of a General CouncU, for the good of the whole Church, why may not the same God immediately inspu-e into every elect soul, such truth as he himself knoweth to be sufficient for him, without all the perplexities and dangerous dependencies upon Coimcils, priests, and prelates whom no one can under- stand.' ■* But it was not Protestants only, Sir WilKam was well aware, who had to fear. Every scientific man knew the fate which ' Councils, priests and prelates ' reserved for those who speculated outside the limits prescribed by orthodoxy. The funeral pyre of Bruno had cast a lurid light over the opening years of the century, and remained a standing notice, with the prison cells of GalUeo and Campanella, to the founders of ^ Bibl. Sloane Collection, British Jluseum. 2903. Plut. xcviii. D. Papers collected by Dr. Hill. ' Ibid, 238 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, viii the Eoyal Society as to what the fate was which the Church had in store for those whose inquiries were not stamped with the seal of ecclesiastical approval, and what might become of their deliberations if they had to obtain the prior appro- bation of the General of the Jesuits or the exequatur of the Queen's Confessor. Therefore, both as a man of science and a disciple of Hobbes, Sir William, while entirely free from the narrow bigotry of the Calvinistic Protestants, and anxious to improve the civil position of the Eoman Catholics, knew, with the example of Italy and Spain before him, that the political supremacy of Eoman Catholicism meant, at that period of the world's history, the entire de- struction of liberty of thought. In such a condition of affairs, the uncritical public opinion of the day was ready to accept almost any fable, however absurd, and to declare an implicit belief in the active existence, ready in a moment to stalk the streets, of ' a damnable and hellish plot, continued and carried on by Popish recusants, for assassinating the King, subverting the government, and rooting out and destroying the Protestant religion.'' The exigencies of party strife made it necessary for the ministers and legal advisers of the Crown and the leaders of the opposi- tion to vie with each other in professing to believe in perjuries repulsive to minds trained in public affairs and presumably able to distinguish between false and true testimony. Acting under the same pressure, the tribunals of the law, which till then had been occupied in harrying the Nonconformists of the humbler class, now transferred their attention to the judicial murder of Eoman Catholics of rank and position. Soon a de- mand arose not only for precautions against open attack, and for the prosecution of the leaders of the Eoman CathoUc party in England, but also for violent measures against their co- religionists in Ireland, who were declared to be in accord with the authors of the plot in England, if not themselves among the actual instigators and authors.^ ° The words are those of the motion " The Eleventh Eeport of the His- made by Shaftesbury in the House of torieal MSS. Commission, Appendix, Lords. Pari. Hist. iv. 1022. Part ii., contains a great mass of valu- 1678-1679 CONDITIO?: OF IRELAND 23 & Notwithstanding the mistaken commercial legislation of, the English Parliament, Ireland was at the time enjoying a period of greater prosperity than she had known for many years. The population, which Sir William Petty estimated at 850,000 in 1652, was considered by him as having increased, in spite of the loss of 616,000 lives in the Civil Wars and the accompanying disturbances, to 1,100,000 in 1672. Just before the passing of the Cattle Acts in 1664, the export of sheep, butter, and beef to England, so far as could be ascer- tained, had increased one-third ; and the farm of the revenue, notwithstanding the defects of which Sir William was the con- stant and unsparing critic, showed according to his calculations a yield three times greater than the revenue of 1657.^ The walled towns steadily grew, and improved in the character of the housing of the inhabitants. The woollen manufactures were becoming famous. The outward signs of increasing prosperity were especially to be observed in Dublin, Kinsale, Londonderry, and Coleraine.^ The great problem remained : how to improve the lot of the mass of the people. Not more than 16,000 out of the 200,000 families estimated to be in the country had more than one chimney in each house. The 16,000 were prosperous enough : little inferior, in fact, to the well-to-do classes in England. 'Even,' says Sir William, 'the French elegancies are not unknown among them, nor the French and Latin tongues ; able information for the study of the (Paris, 1879, oh. i. ' L'Eglise militante Popish plot, though the papers therein sous Louis XIV '). For illustrations of referred to relate mainly to the State theinfluenceoftheseeventsonEnglish Trials and other public events, and do opinion, see the preamble of the Bill not throw much light on the question introduced into the House of Lords whether any real plot existed. The entitled ' the Protestant Foreigners influence of events in France on the Bill ' (December 17, 1680), printed in belief in a plot in England has not the above Eeport of the Historical been sufBoiently taken into account by MSS. Commission, p. 259. the English historians. This error ' Political Anatomy, chs. iv. p. 313 has arisen from treating the final and xi. p. 354. Eevooation of the Edict of Nantes as " It was left to the folly and selfish- an isolated act, instead of as the com- ness of the next generation of English pletion of a long series of previous statesmen and manufacturers to crush events. SeeL'Egliseetles Philosophes the Irish trade in manufactured au Dix-huitiime Siicle, by M. Lanfrey woollens. 240 LIFE OF SIR WILLI Ail PETTY chap, viii the latter whereof is very frequent among the poorest Irish and chiefly in Kerry, most remote from Dublin.' But the others all lived in what Sir William describes as ' wretched nasty cabbins, without chimney, window or door-shut ; even worse than those of the savage Americans.' To try to im- plant in the minds of this population a wish for the needs of an improved civilisation ; to improve education in all its branches ; to diminish, if possible, the number of ' priests and lazing friars ; ' to cut down — which was certainly possible — the number of the sinecurist clergy of the Established Church ; to remove the grievances of the Protestant Dissenters ; to secure the title to land and to develop trade, were, in his opinion, the principal remedies. ' Ireland,' he observed, ' lieth commodiously for the trade of the new American world ; which we see every day to grow and flourish. It lieth well for send- ing butter, cheese, beef and fish, to their proper markets, which are to the southward, and the plantations of America.' ^ But all such developments required time and the mainte- nance of the existing framework of government and society, and to the outward eye that framework might have seemed secure ; but, notwithstanding the presence of the ' external and apparent government of Ireland,' there always was, Sir William pointed out, in existence by its side, and acting as a constant cause of disturbance and in defiance of all the laws and official ordinances to the contrary, another and ' internal and mystical Government,' consisting of about twenty gentlemen of good family of the Irish nation and of the Eoman Catholic religion, who had a firm foothold at the English Court, and at the Court of the Lord-Lieutenant. These gentlemen were supported by regular contributions levied throughout Ireland by the priests of their religion, under the direction of twenty-four bishops, who, owing to their education abroad, had a powerful interest at all the foreign Courts, and an intimate knowledge of their business and policy. They notoriously exercised spiritual jurisdiction in Ireland, and an occult temporal power also, by influencing the justices of the peace of their own religion, so much so that in some parts of the country no Eoman CathoHc ' Political Anatomy, chap. xi. p. 354 ; xiv. p, 379. 1678-1679 EOMAN CATHOLIC INTRIGUES 241 could be convicted, and crime went unpunished, aa it was practically impossible for an English and a Protestant settler to live ; for the priests had, as Sir William puts it, ' a militia ' of their own, consisting of ' the divested persons,' who roamed about the country, and were far stronger than any armed force which the regular Government could oppose to them.' They eagerly watched every opportunity, and with undaunted hopes looked forward to the subversion of the existing order of affairs, and to their own restoration to their ancestral lands and their former political supremacy. Already at the begin- ning of the confused period which followed the fall of Claren don and the retirement of Ormonde in 1668, they made a bold attempt to resume the offensive. Lord Eobartes had succeeded the Duke. He was a great Presbyterian noble of austere manners, who quickly rendered himself impossible. His successor was Lord Berkeley, at heart a Eoman Catholic. Notwithstanding the nominal existence of the laws forbid- ding the presence of ' Popish priests,' Talbot, the Eoman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, was allowed to appear at the Council Table in episcopal robes, and the Lord-Lieutenant was supposed to have said to him that soon ' he hoped to see high Mass at Christ Church.' Meanwhile he had undoubtedly sent him plate and hangings from the Castle to furnish out a ceremony in the Viceregal chapel. But the English Parlia- ment, the majority of which throughout the Long Parliament of Charles II. never wavered in its devotion to the Church of England, and was equally hostile to the Eoman Catholics and the Dissenters, became alarmed at the course of affairs. Lord Berkeley was recalled. His successor in 1672 was Lord Essex, a man of the most opposite stamp, and, Uke Lord Eo- bartes, nurtured in Presbyterian traditions. But his melan- choly character made a retention of his high position for any lengthened period impossible, and in 1676 he made way for the Duke of Ormonde. After these events it was not unnatural that, when a wild ' Political Anatomy, pp. 327-330. in the note to Burnet, History of Mb Compare the letter of Archbishop Own Times, i. 459, 460. Boyle to Archbishop Sheldon, quoted 242 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY ciap. viii cry against the Eoman Catholics arose in England, the Irish Protestants should join in it. The policy of Ormonde was directed to securing the country from any actual danger, but he refused, so far as was possible in the excited condition of the public mind, to gratify the vindictive outcry for blood which arose on every side around him, and was fanned by Buckingham and Shaftesbury in England, in the hope of in- volving him personally in the unpopularity which attached to real or supposed Popish sympathisers.^ The judicial murder of Archbishop Plunket is the chief record of this triumph of religious bigotry and political intrigue. The main argument on which, in order to baffle the popular outcry, Sir William and the supporters of Ormonde relied, was an appeal to the prac- tical impossibility of the Eoman Catholics of Ireland, in their then reduced condition, being able, at least at that particular moment, to give serious trouble, whatever might be the inten- tions of their co-religionists in England, or the hopes of some of the Eoman Catholic leaders in Ireland, such as Colonel Eichard Talbot and his brother the Archbishop. The opinions of Sir William on this subject were set out by him in various memoranda, the main argument of which is to be found in a complete shape in the ' Political Anatomy of Ireland.' ' That the Irish will not easily rebel again,' he said, ' I believe ; ' and he gives as reasons the possession by the Protestant interest of three-fourths of the land and five-sixths of the housing of the country, of nine-tenths of all the housing in the walled towns and places of strength, and of two-thirds of the whole trade of the country ; also that the Crown had the means of raising, easily and at once, 7,000 men of a regular army, and a Protestant militia of 25,000 men, mostly experi- enced soldiers ; that there were places of strength and cities of refuge within easy reach of the sea, to which in case of '' The death of the Duke's son, the thumbs won't be excused by saying he Earl of Ossory, at this moment, was meant no harm.' This did not pre- generally recognised as a great public vent him writing a copy of indiffer- calamity, and is thus quaintly alluded ent English verses on the occasion, to by Sir William : ' The name of Seventh Eeport of the Historical MSS. Ossory is a tender thing; he that Commission, p. 742,' Ormonde CoUec- .sullya it by handling with dirty tion.' Carte, iv. 483-490. 1679 THE POPISH PLOT 243 necessity the Protestant population could retire till reinforce- ments arrived from England; that the English fleet would prevent the Irish getting any foreign assistance ; that no foreign power now wished to assist the Irish, as none had ever got any benefit by so doing ; and that England was full of men discontented with their present situation, who would gladly throw themselves into a new war for the suppression of an Irish rebellion.^ These memoranda he sent to Southwell.'' ' I think,' he wrote to him towards the end of the year, ' that the apprehensions of men are allayed since they were composed. The world was then full of Fury. But the Temper of these papers, I conceive to be such as may serve in all Times : therefore keep them till Antichrist comes.' ^ The passions let loose at the time of the Popish Plot had a powerful effect on the general course of national history and on the development of the powers of Parliament and of the House of Commons in particular. The reign of Charles II. was a period of transition, not only in finance, but in the civU administration also, and in the political relations inter se of the different powers of the State. The first indications of the rise of the Cabinet are to be recognised and of the steady decKne of the powers of the Privy Council. Sir WiUiam Temple in 1679, jealous of the growth of the Cabinet system, had persuaded the King to place the Privy Council on a new and extended basis, so as to be representative of all parties loyal to the Crown. The scheme was intended to maintaia the Privy Council as a living power in the State, by including in it all the leading men both in Church and State, and to constitute a body of known and responsible statesmen to act as the advisers of the King and prevent him trusting him- self to whatever small knot of political or religious intriguers might have caught the royal ear in private, or have got pos- session of the House of Commons. The plan was aimed ' Political Anatomy, oh. v. p. 318. both parties now standeth in the pre- ' ' Considerations how the Protes- sent year, 1679.' — Petty MSS. The tants or non-Papists of Ireland may opinion of Archbishop Boyle, given in disable the Papists, both for intestine Burnet, History of his Own Times, i. rebellion there, and also from assist- 459, points to the same conclusion. ing a French invasion as the state of ' To Southwell, June 10, 1679. 244 LIFE OF SIK WILLIAM PETTY chap. Tin against the domination of the extreme men of both parties, against Shaftesbury and Buckingham, and also against the old Cavalier party. It was the first definite attempt of the wiser heads of the old order that was passing away to prevent the domination of party over the Crown, and it marks the opening of the constitutional struggle of which, in the next century, the schemes of Bolingbroke and the elder Pitt to- break up party form the concluding chapter. Temple proposed to remodel and extend the Irish Privy Council on similar lines, only excluding those who were known to be absolutely hostile to the maintenance of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. In such a combination Sir William Petty was indicated by public opinion as finding a natural place.^ ' The news of the wonderful alterations in the Council,' he writes on April 29, 1679, to Southwell, ' hath made us all drunk with the new wine of further expectations. The change happened the same day 20 years, that I answered Col. Sankey in the Parliament at Westminster, the 21^' of April 1659 j and, on the 22"'', the 1^' Parliament was dissolved — since which time I have been travailing in dark dirty crooked ways, and have been rowing against wind and tide. May I now come into some smoothings with Sir G. Carterett, the farmers, Kerry quit rents, Vernon, and my £1,100 disaster ; and as my eyes and activity doe faile, may there be clean weather and a calm at sea ; that I may stand the course for this little part of my life, which my own needle points at, and not be dashed to and fro whither the outrages of fooles and knaves doe force mee. The novaturient world is gaping here after the like alterations for Ireland. May whatever is done, tend to the resisting of the French, pulling out the sting of Popery, and pulling up the old Acts of 17 & 18 Car : prim : ^ being 3 things I have forced on this many years, and which I believe need not bee forced, if moderate and easy remedies be timely applyed.' * ' Carte, iv. 581. II. c. 2 (English statutes) was the prin- ' The Navigation Laws already de- oipal Act. scribed, of which the 17 and 18 Charles « Petty to Southwell, April 29, 1679. 1679-1680 KEREY 245 Fortune now seemed to smile. He was again offered a ^peerage, but he declined it, unless it was accompanied by a seat at the Privy Council. ' There are both conveniencys and the contrary in being of the Council,' Lady Petty wrote to her connection, Edmund Waller, the poet, through whom a communication on the subject had been made from the Crown, ' for we designed that point as a public sign of His Majesty's heartiness in the other ; for a bare Title without some trust might seem to the world a Body without soul or spirit. Now, having said all this, I fear we have said just nothing, for you can't gather from it what we would be at. The truth is that our belief that you believed the thing to have been already and cheerfully granted by the King for us, was the reason of our forwardness, instead of that indifferency which you found in the first part of one of our letters.' ^ ' Though j'our Privy Council in England be named,' Petty wrote to Southwell, ' yett I have sent you over a list of such as I think worthy of preferment. They are strangers to 7nost of our statesmen, nor have they many friends ; however pray use your interest to get them in, and endeavour to get your- self made Clerk of the Councill, and make hay therein while the sun shineth.' ' His prospects also in Kerry seemed to improve. ' We have our fore top sail loose and our anchors a-peeke to sail again,' he wrote to Southwell. ' I hope we shall at last find the North West Passage into the India of Kerry; altho' all the while I continue sailing about the Cape of the Law ; and it is the Cape of Good Hope I am now doubling ; and truly, Cousin, though I have been unkindly and unequally and absurdly dealt with, yett I goe on without fear of the French, of Popery, nor even of death itself.' ^ ' Our children and whole family are now (blessed bee God) very well,' he tells Lady Petty. ' I have this day on my back my flower'd velvett suit, which I doe not find of half the substance and weight of what I have hitherto worne. Soe that wee need dig no deeper for the cause of my Lameness, for eertainely wearing » Maroh 8, 1680. ' To Southwell, June 10, 1679. ^ May 3, 1679. 246 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, tiii that suite all the Christmas hollydayes of a most bitter winter, did begett all the effects of cold, even to the marrow of my bones.' ^ Southwell, who already in 1671 had again occupied a temporary diplomatic appointment, in 1679 took the post of Envoy Extraordinary to the Elector of Brandenburg, and ter- minated his connection with the Privy Council. His experi- enced eye possibly doubted the stability of the new system ; nor was he mistaken. The sun did not continue to shina very long, and after the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament in March 1681, and the complete failure of Sir William Temple's plans, a reaction in favour of the King set in, through the violence of the advanced section of the Whig party in the struggle round the Exclusion Bill, of which the King cleverly took advantage, knowing that, whatever else might happen, the public mind dreaded most of all the renewal of the appearance of the symptoms of civil war. Southwell on his return from. Brandenburg practically retired into private life, and fixed his residence permanently at Kings Weston. Thence he resumed his correspondence with Sir William, who by this time was engaged in a fresh series of encounters with his different enemies, who all over Ireland had at once taken heart. Ormonde also hesitated to support his wish to be a Privy Councillor,* and the farmers renewed their attacks. Sir William, as usual, stood firmly by his own view of law and right and determined to fight out the issue, notwithstanding all the wise saws and sermons of Sir Eobert on the wisdom of compromise. So the battle went on more fiercely than ever. ' I love peace,' he writes to Southwell, ' but will not buy it on base terms.' ' We are like a cat in a cupboard,' says Lady Petty, ' and must leap forth. We are now in a close fight with the farmers : lend us your prayers.' ^ His position at the Admiralty was another cause of trouble,. ' June, 1679. on a suit between J. Marshall and ' Ossory to Ormonde, June 5, 1680. w. Petty on the Crown, respecting Seventh Beport of the Historical MSS. grants of land in Kerry, 1683. Eaw- Comminsioners, p. 739. Eeport on linson MSS., Bodleian Library. the case of Bandon, farmer of the s Nov. 3, 1680. Bevenue of Ireland, 1684. Eetorts 1679-1G80 THE ADMIRALTY COURT 247 That position, he had by this time discovered, was no bed of roses. His knowledge of the principles of the art of naviga- tion was no doubt a qualification, and no mean one, for the office ; but it does not appear that, amongst his numerous studies, he had ever directed any special attention to that of the law. For the ordinary practitioners of the Common Law he had indeed an unconcealed aversion, having had only too much to do with them ; nor does it appear that he had ever given any special attention to the Civil Law. The general rules also by which Courts of Admiralty were to be guided, being in the seventeenth century but ill-ascertained, and an appeal being held to lie from the Court of Admiralty in Ireland to the English Admiralty Court, his situation as judge was precarious. In England itself the jurisdiction was in dispute, for ' in the reign of James I''' the Lord High Admiral of the day had protested against the encroachments of the Courts of Common Law, and claimed among other things for His own Judges a Jurisdiction at least concurrent with that of the Judges of the Land in suits arising out of foreign contracts and contracts executed in England, but wholly or in part to be performed on the High Seas, and in suits instituted for the recovery of Mariners wages. This claim Westminster Hall, which up to the time of Lord Mansfield never failed to evince great jealousy towards the Civil Law and its professors, was not prepared to concede.' ^ At first there was little or nothing to do. ' The famine in " Those who are interested in the of Admiralty, in opposition to Chief merits of this question will find the Justice Vaughan. On another oeca- arguments on either side in 4th Coke's sion he is related to have encountered Inst., 37 et seq., and in a short treatise in the same cause, but before the King written expressly in answer to Coke, in Council, a, still more formidable by Dr. Zouch, an eminent civilian, antagonist, viz. Lord C. J. Hale, who Judge of the Court of Admiralty in says Molloy, in his preface to the trea- 1641, and again in 1660. The con- tise De Jure Maritimo et Navali, ' by troversy revived with the office of his law, position, as other his great Lord High Admiral, in the reign of reasons, soon put a period to that Charles II. On one occasion. Dr. question, which during his days slept, Leoline Jenkins argued at the bar of and it may modestly be presumed will the House of Lords in support of a hardly (if ever) be awaked.' Life of Bill introduced for the purpose of Sir Leoline Jenkins, I. Ixxvi. defining the jurisdiction of the Court 248 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, tiii our court,' SirWilliam told his friend, Sir Peter Pett, who was now one of the Commissioners of the Navy, ' hath been so great, that I am afraid the tone of its stomach is broken by over- fasting.' ^ These quiet times, however, did not last long, and cases began to come in. He wisely determined, as he wrote to Southwell, to be ' pestilent cautious ' at starting, but unfortu- nately he was not able to hold firmly by this resolve. ' The plebs of lawyers ' soon began, as he put it, to find out that the Admiralty Court ' had a shorter and sounder way of justice than its neighbours ; ' for, as he triumphantly told Sir Peter Pett, 'we stumble not at straws but leap over blocks."* Troubles naturally soon began, for his enemies were on the look-out, and he soon gave them opportunities. A corpse was washed up somewhere on the coast, and the Court of Ad- miralty claiming the right to act as a coroner, a jury was impanelled, a verdict found, and the corpse buried ; where- upon certain ' cunning fellows ' indicted the judge and his officers for holding ' an unlawful assembly.' Then there was a quarrel about the right of the Court of Admiralty to inter- fere with the building of a bridge over the Liffey near Dublin. Next, a Dutch prize was brought into Youghal by the French, and adjudged to the captors by Sir William. Prance was very unpopular at the moment, for Louis XIV. was still in full career against the liberties of Holland ; and the decision of the Court was consequently fiercely criticised. It unfortu- nately turned out that the decision was very doubtful in point of law. 'I see the good gentleman meaning well,' was the opinion of Mr. Bedford, one of the leading civilians of Doctors' Commons ; ' but he hath not been versed in the practical matters of Admiralty proceedings ; and I fear the matter will be complayned of both by the French and the Dutch.' Mr. Bedford would probably have been still more horrified if he had seen a serio-comic letter from Sir William to Sir Peter Pett, in the style of the historical arguments founded on ' To Sir Peter Pett, 1679. There At the Bodleian Library among the are several letters at the Bodleian Li- Eawlinson MSS., and at Longleat, brary on the subject. some memoranda exist, by Sir W. » To Sir Peter Pett, March 19, 1679. Petty, on ' Admiralty Jurisdiction.' 1680-1681 THE ADMIRALTY COURT 249 Scripture precedents which were so dear to the jurists of the time. The pages of Grotius teem with them, and when Whitelocke proposed to the Parhament of the Common- wealth that law proceedings should in future be conducted in the vernacular, he foimded his case on the precedent set by Moses, who, he said, had expounded his laws in the vernacular to the Jews. So now Sir William affected to establish the right of the Lord High Admiral's Court to claim tenths on shipping by reference 'to Abraham's paying tenths on the conquest of the five Kings, besides some other precedents of the Admiralty Court held upon Mount Ararat, when Noah was Judge, Japhet registrar, and Shem Marshal of the Admiralty.' " I wonder,' he says, ' where the Common Law was then, that troubles us so much now ? Surely the Admiralty Court was the high Court of the world.' A determined onslaught on the Judge, as might have been expected, soon began. ' 'Tis expected,' Sir William writes to Sir Peter Pett, 'that I should some time or other build Hospitalls, &c. ; but I assure you that the pains, the attendancy and expence I am at, and the fear of treading awry, in order to doe poor men Justice, may well commute pro tanto for the Charitys I owe the world. I am not weary of what I do, because I believe I do well ; but have often wish't I never had engaged in it; and truly without the Appeals into England are taken away, or limited, I will throw up ; for I cannot doe the good which is necessary to bee done. The last week I adjudged three considerable men of Dublin to pay wages unto 5 seamen in ye plainest case imaginable.' Now although no case requires a summary and speedy Decision more than this ; yett these men appeal to the Admiralty of England, knowing the poor seamen had not a penny amongst them ; and must be forc't to go to sea, and disperse themselves before anything can be done therein. Besides why should one Kingdom appeal to another ? Can matters of fact be better examin'd in remote parts, than in ' This point about the jurisdiction House of Lords, Life, I. Ixxx. As to oi the Court of Admiralty over seamen's Whitelocke and the example of Moses, wages is referred to in Sir Leoline see Lord Campbell, Lives of the Jenkins's speech at the bar of the Clmncellors, ed. 1868, iii. 392, note. 250 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, viii the very place where they happen ? ' ' 'I am like to be brought upon the highway, and say "Date obolum pauperi Bellizario," ' he writes to Southwell. ' It is a sad thing that I almost in everything doe endure the wrong and the punish- ment.' ^ Under the combined influence of his ' text letter oppres- sions ' in the suit with the farmers, and of the depressing atmosphere of the Dublin Court of Admiralty, he about this time composed a long piece of Latin poetry of a melancholy tone, under the nom de guerre of ' Cassidius Aureus Manutius,' with the title of ' Colloquium Davidis cum anima sua.' The day on which he retired from his troublesome judicial office was probably not the least happy of his life. He resigned it, he says, ' not because it affords me no wages, but because it gives me no such work as I expected, and should have been glad to have bestowed my time upon, even without any other recom- pense or reward than the satisfaction to have done well.' ^ More congenial work was, however, awaiting him in England. In 1681 he was summoned to London to take part in the discussion before the Privy Council of the re-organ- isation of the Irish revenue, the abuses of which were too patent to be able any longer to escape reform. He had an adventurous journey, as the following letter will show : — ' Chester, 5 June 1682, 6 a'olock morning. ' We set sayle in the Yatcht from Dunleary * upon fryday noon, the 2'^ instant, bemg our weding day ; and after a deli- cate Passage came to Neston about 4 aclock on Saturday, but in the droping our Anchor the Yatcht struck upon the flook of it, so as in a minutes time there were 2 or 3 foot water in the hold ; in less than a quarter of an hower we sunk down to the ground, and the tide coming in was quite covered in an hower more. I was the first that got out into the boat, and as many more immediately followed as were like to sink her. But in brief being near the Shoare, the boat made 2 or 3 returns, and fetcht every body off, with their goods. I was in great fear for ' To Sir Peter Pett, 1679. '' August, 1683. Petty MSS. ■' Jan. 4, 1679. ' The modern Kingstown. 1682-1683 1;EF0RM OF THE REVENUE 251 my great Portmantle, which was full of papers concerning my businesse ; but all is well. Wee got all safe to Chester the same night, where wee are ready to take coach to be in London on Thursday night, the Eight instant. Bobbin Napper comes with me, as also one of the black coach horses, Maurice and Phil. ' The Principall passengers were my Lady Eeynolds and her daughter upon account of my Ladye's deep consumption. There came also M" Justice Turner and his Lady with her woman Cicill, who was dear Masyes maid. There is also the Elder Lady Davies, young M""" Stopford and her sister, all goeing for the Bath and 2 of M"' Aldworth's Children. Wee supped this night, being Sunday night, at the Bpp. of Chester's,, who presents you his service, where wee had Pease to Supper, haveing had the same at Dinner at our Inne, altho' wee paid 8 shillmgs a quarter, Wednesday last. ' Alderman Anderson has marry ed one of his maids. Wee left our Children and Sister Biddy well at Dublin. God grant I may find you all so at London. ' Adieu my dearest. ' Wee hear the Yateht is recovered again and almost ready to sayle.' On arriving in London, Sir William submitted to the Privy Council a plan for abolishing the whole system of farming, and for the introduction of large reforms — including a heavy ale licence — which would have introduced order and regularity into the collection of the taxes, and have greatly increased the royal revenue.'^ He so far prevailed that the obnoxious system of farming the revenue was abolished, but his other proposals were rejected. His disappointment was great, especially as he could trace the hand of his rival, Sir James Shaen, in the defeat of his plans.'' ' Yesterday,' he writes, ' came to toune. It was declared on Sunday night at Windsor, viz. : that the Eevenue of Ireland is to be managed by the Lord Langford, * Notes of interview with Lord Privy " See Sir W. Temple's Memoirs, i. Seal, Duke of Ormonde, and Earl of 317. Koohester. Petty MSS. 252 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chip, viii Sam : Kingdom, one Mr. Strong, of the Excise, Mr. Dixon, of ye Customs of London, and Capt" Bryden, of Dublin, who as 'tis thought does but represent M"" Trant. By good luck I never soUicitated any body in the case. I only putt in 3 severall papers of proposals, which I think did the service no harme.'^ ' 'Tis said the managers are to have 1,000L per ann., without any obligation whatsoever, and I suppose they may treat how and with whom they please concerning Tangier and the ships ; whereas I did in a manner undertake for the whole by demonstration, by oath, and a wager of 2,000^ But I am represented (as the Duke of Ormonde told me this Articles, the wagers upon each of those Articles shall bee double. S. Pepys ; A. Deanb. York Buildings : 6 Dec' 1684. 269 CHAPTER IX SIR WILLIAM PETTY AND KING JAMES II 1685-1687 Accession of James II. — ' Speculum Hibemise ' — Optimism of Sir William Petty — Plan of a Union — Reform of Parliament — Conference with the King — Apprehensions of danger — Eeaetion in Ireland — The Declaration of Indulgence. In Ireland the accession of James II. was received with the gravest apprehension. It was generally helieved that the new king, exasperated by the attempts of the extreme Protestant party in England in the previous reign to ex- clude him from the succession, and elated by their failure, would ascend the throne with a fixed determination to revenge the wrongs of the Eoman CathoUcs on those who had not only attempted to deprive him of the throne for changing his religion, but had also caused innocent blood to be shed during the outburst of fanaticism in 1678. The Acts of Settlement and Explanation were looked upon as doomed, for although James, as Duke of York, held vast tracts of Irish land, it was believed that the surrender of these to the former owners would be easily purchased by a liberal grant, from a Eoman Catholic Parliament, of lands to be taken from Protestant proprietors. Only a small minority clung to the hope that, sobered by misfortune and warned by the example of his father of the danger of extreme courses, he might follow a prudent policy ; and while gaining religious toleration and a free exercise of their form of worship for his own co-rehgionists — which might also be the occasion of securing like benefits for the Protestant Non- conformists — he would not seek to repeal the Acts of Settle- 270 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix ment and Explanation, and while freeing England from the domination of the narrow party which had governed it almost uninterruptedly since the Kestoration, would not be tempted into seeking to throw Ireland into the hands of the Talbots. To the views of this minority Sir WiUiam was inclined to lean, and his friendship with Penn, who held similar views, no doubt increased his tendency to be hopeful of the royal intentions. According to Sir John Perceval, a friend of Sir "William's and a member of the old Cromwellian party, ' the King, in order to persuade men to vote for taking off the penal laws and tests, was ready to renounce the Pope's supremacy, and not suffer him to concern himself with any branches of his prerogative. This promise he undertook to embody in a Test that should be a greater security than the existing one, which he would have taken off. He offered be- sides to part with the greatest part of his dispensing powers and the greatest part of his army, and that the established religion should be inviolably preserved.' ' Parliament had met in May, and was then prorogued till the autumn of 1685. ' Will you be in London on the 9th of October,' Sir William wrote to Southwell, ' when the Parlia- ment sits ; and help to do such things for the common good, that no King since the Conquest besides his present Majesty can so easily effect ? ' ^ He augured well of the personal dis- position of the King; but he acknowledged his 'fear as to what men, drunk with rage and mad with revenge, might do of harm to themselves and others,' ^ notwithstanding the good inten- tions with which he credited the new occupant of the throne. ' Pamphlets,' he wrote, ' are very rife, pro and contra, con- cerning religion ; the clergy also, of all parties, are very busy concerning the same.' ' When anybody,' he told Southwell, ' would have you to be a Eoman Catholic, a Papist, a Pro- testant, a Church of England man, a Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Quaker, fanatick &c., or even Whig and Tory, let them quit ' ' Notes of a Conversation between Papers, 27,989. the King and Sir John Knatehbull,' ^ August 22, 1685. April 1688, Adversaria Miscellanea ' August 29, 1685. of Sir John Perceval, Brit. Mus. Ad. 1685-1686 ACCESSION OF JAMES II. 271 all those gibberish denominations and uncertain phrases ; but make you a list of credenda and agenda, necessary for your eternal happiness, and give you the reasons for the same. This being done, let them give you a clear and sensible explanation of these words : viz. God, Omnipotent, Soule of Man, Soule of Beast, Church, Christian, Pope, Spirituall, Substance, Scrip- ture, Keason, and Sense. For without these words you can- not understand these matters, much less can come into any conclusion.' "• Events in Ireland soon began to show clearly in which direction things were about to move. As soon as the failure of the movement headed by Monmouth and Argyle was assured, the Irish Roman Catholic party began to betray their real intentions. The corporations, partly by fraud and partly by force, were everywhere packed ; and every post the appointment to which lay in the hands of the Crown, from the Lord-Lieutenancies of the counties to the commissions of the smallest places, from Dublin and Cork to the remotest districts, fell into Roman Catholic hands. The repeal of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation and the practical expulsion of the whole Protestant population, were already announced as imminent by the more outspoken members of the party, of which Richard Talbot, now created Earl of Tyrconnel, was the daring and unscrupulous mouth- piece. But it was officially denied that such were the inten- tions of the King, and on the recall of the Duke of Ormonde, the special object of the hatred of the priests,^ who owing to age and infirmity was glad to retire from the scene of his long labours and avoid the coming storm, the Lord- Lieutenancy was conferred, after an interregnum of nine months, in December 1685, on the Earl of Clarendon, brother of the Lord Treasurer Rochester. Hopes were therefore still entertained that matters might not be pushed to extremes, and these hopes still continued, even when the command of the forces had been conferred on Richard Talbot, in June 1686, and the Irish Privy Council had been at the same time entirely remodelled. * April 1, 1686. ■■ Burnet, History of his Own Times, iii. 72. 272 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix At the end of the year a pamphlet, entitled ' The Sale and Settlement of Ireland,' appeared, and attracted great atten- tion. It was believed to be inspired from high quarters. The author was one David Fitz-Gerald. It impugned the whole Irish land settlement, made a series of bitter charges against the Duke of Ormonde, and accused Lord Clarendon of desiring to extirpate the Irish people root and branch. It was soon followed by another publication of a similar kind, called ' Queries on the State of Ireland,' written by Dr. Gorges and also aimed at the Duke of Ormonde and the Earl of Clarendon. Sir William was urged to write a reply. He at first considered it was not within his province to do so. ' As to my answering the " Queries," ' he said, ' I say that my Lord of Ormonde and Lord Chancellor Clarendon's family are much concerned to satisfy the world as to the said " Queries ; " and also the substance of the scandalous Treatise called the " Sale and Settlement of Ireland ; " and that therefore it should be done by such hands as they think sufficient for it ; by lawyers, skUled in Parliamentary and Prerogative Law ; and such as are well versed in the history of the wars of Ireland, and in all the transactions between the Phelym O'Nealians, Owen O'Nealians, Einuccinians, and Clanricardians of the one side, and the Ormondians, Inchiquinians, and the Oliverians of the other side ; or in other words between those who changed the Government, rebelled against the same, and would have extirpated the English name and EeHgion — whom we may in one word call " Eebells " — on the one side, and those who endeavoured to avenge the wrongs done to their King, countrymen, and religion, under the best Captain's and con- ductors, which they could from time to time find, in direct pursuance of the Act made 17 Car. prim, for that purpose ; whom in one other word we call " Patriots " of the other side.' ° He was, however, ultimately prevailed upon to write a memorandum in reply to Fitz-Gerald and Gorges, which he developed into a small book called ' Speculum Hibernise,' the " September 8, 1685. 1686 'SPECULUM HIBERNIiE ' 273 object of which was to set out in greater detail the conclusions to be found in the first chapter of the ' Political Anatomy of Ireland : ' viz., that when all the circumstances of the case were considered, from the rebellion of 1641 onwards, the grievances of the great Eoman Catholic proprietors were not what they had been represented, because those proprietors had deliberately courted the arbitrament of the sword, which had proved adverse, and nevertheless had been reinstated in a very large proportion of their possessions at the Eestoration. Since then the steady growth of the prosperity of the country had left them, if with possessions in extent dimi- nished, yet, all the circumstances considered, in a far more favourable position pecuniarily, owing to the increase in the value of land, than would otherwise have been the case. To overturn the whole of the Land Settlement would, he argued, not only be an act of injustice, but would once more plunge the whole country — the great need of which was security and order — into confusion. It would be far better to compensate the dissatisfied Catholics in some other way : for example, with grants of land in England, which would have the effect of strengthening the Eoman Catholic interest there, an object which he considered equally desirable with the strengthening of the Protestant interest in Ireland, in order to prevent the supremacy of either denomination in any part of the two kingdoms. He also prepared a plan for the partial disendowment of the Established Church both in England and Ireland, in order to pay the Eoman Catholic priests, and wrote three small tracts developing the same order of ideas ; but it does not appear that, though privately circulated, any of them were printed or published.'^ Already early in 1686, in a letter written to Southwell, ' (1) Speculum SibemuB : or, a Policy, 1687. (3) Another View of Beview of what has been lately Said the same Matter, by Way of Dialogue and Suggested concerning the Titles between A. and B. (4) Another more of Estates in Ireland; of the Civil True and Exact Narrative of the Wars there between the Years 1641 Settlement and Sale of Ireland, and 1653 ; and of His Majesty's Nelligan MS., British Museum. See Bestoration; the Court of Claims, Preface. Amongst the Petty MSS. £c., 1686. (2) The Elements of Ire- are several papers which appear to be land and of its Beligion, Trade, and the rough drafts of the above. 274 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix after mentioning gome particular cases of oppression which the Eoman Catholics had complained of, he acknowledged that the situation had made great ' tourbiUons ' in his mind ; but, he continued, 'I retreat to the sayings following: — 1. God is above all. 2. Few designs succeed thoroughly. 3. Naturam expellas furca. 4. The balance of knavery. 6. The foUyes of our enemies. 6. Ees nolunt male administrari. 7. We shall live till we dye. 8. Time and chance, &c. 9. Another shuffling may cause a better dealing. 10. Fish in troubled waters. 11. Trees may grow the better for pruning. 12. Lets do what we can. 13. 'Twill be all one 2,000 y"* hence. 14. Una salus miseris nullam sperare salutem. 15. Some other Bowls may drive the Jack from the Eest. 16. Playing at tennis in a wheelbarrow, etc' ' The late new addition to the Council,' Southwell replied, ' is a new light which is very dazzling, and will need all y'' 16 axioms for consolation. ... I wish it were as easy to find the cure as the disease. A consultation of doctors is scarce to be thought of ; for such advising might be called combination, and so pass for witchcraft. Wherefore all I can at present think of, is to pray God that there may be from all good Pro- testants, such demonstrations of Loyalty, zeal, and affection to his Majesty's person and Government, that their enemies may not have credit in objecting that his authority is not safe in their hands, or that they are still the race of those who murdered the father.' * Sir William still went on hoping against hope. He disliked the extreme Protestant interest, and he had suffered so much under preceding Councils, that he was inclined to take a lenient view of the present members, and could not help trusting that things might still not come to the worst, and that, as on other occasions, the sun might shine forth again. ' I will set all the Goblins, Furies, Demons, and Devills, which stand straggling up and down within this letter, in battle array,' he writes to Southwell on June 5, 1686. He lacknowledges that he knows he is not ' a general favourite ' and that Kerry will be ' a gnawing vulture,' and that he is himself » June 2, 1686. 1686 OPTIMISM OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY 271 ill and the cure not clear ; ' to all which,' he goes on, hii irrepressible spirits again getting the upperhand, ' I say — " Hulchy, Pulchy, suckla mee, Hoblum, Doblum, Dominee." ' I heartily join in your prayer,' he concluded, ' and you know that my study es are how his present Majesty may •even by and with his religion, do glorious things for God himself and his subjects ; and trust his affairs in no worse hands than the maligned persons you mention, who will serve him upon demonstrable motives, not base assentation ; and "who saith, with our friend Horace, ' Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae.' ' Southwell, from London, again warned him of the serious ■character of the position, and against indulging in a foolish optimism based on the mere fact of Lord Clarendon being ■still nominally kept in of&ce, while the real power was fast passing into the hands of Tyrconnel. ' I have known you formerly,' he said, ' to mind the cylinders, while your acres were tearing from you ; and you would not desist from Philosophy as long as it was not in the power of a decree to forbid rubarb and Cena from purging.' ' Sir William's natural inclination to make the best of what he could not avoid, and his evident disposition at the moment io put a favourable construction on conduct deserving the worst, was strengthened by the encouraging manner in which he was received by the King, who at this juncture accorded him an interview. His experiments in ship-bmld- ing in the previous reign, it has been seen, had brought him into frequent relations with James during the time that the latter was Lord High Admkal. It would appear that James had learnt to place confidence in him, and the optimistic tem- perament of Sir William led him to desire to take the most lenient view that was possible under the circumstances of the intentions of the new ruler. On general grounds Sir William probably sympathised with the abortive attempts made in the » June 5, 1686, • June 9, 1686. T 2 276 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix previous reign by the late King to effect a general measure of toleration : efforts which had been defeated by the Parliamentary action of the Church and State party, in their blind hatred of the Protestant Nonconformists. Then had come the passage of the Test Act, when the popular fury had turned against the Eoman Catholics ; and by this Act the political position was further complicated, for it at once divided the advocates of religious liberty between those who simply desired to see the free exercise of religion, whether in private or in public, guaranteed by law, and those who wished also for the repeal of the civil disabilities imposed by the Act. This second party again was itself divided between those who desired to repeal the tests altogether, and those who would still have maintained the tests against the Eoman Cathohcs, not as holders of unsound theological opinions, but as the champions of tenets inconsistent with the maintenance of the free insti- tutions and the existing government of the country. ' By liberty of conscience,' Sir William said, ' is meant the liberty of professing any opinion concerning God, angels, good and bad, the souls of men and beasts, rewards and punishments after death, immense space and eternity ; con- cerning the Scriptures, the truth of their copies and transla- tions ; as also of their history ; with the authority of their doctrines, precepts and examples ; as also concerning the will of God revealed in any other ways. But not concerning the lives, limbs, liberties, rights and properties of men in this world ; nor extending to punish or reward any man for sin or not sin against God ; leaving offences against the peace and commonwealth of the nation to the civil magistrate, God's visible vicar and lieutenant and true representative of the people, whether the same be in one or more persons.' ^ In regard to England he saw no difficulty ; but in the existing condition of affairs in Ireland, the free admission of Eoman Catholics to power was, he thought, too dangerous an experiment to be tried as an isolated measure. His wish, therefore, was that ' England and Ireland should be united by one Common Council, or Parliament, at the pro- ' Petty MSS. Notes on Eeligious Toleration. 1686 PLAN OF A UNION 277 portion of ten to one, without tests or embarassing oaths, and that there be a well grounded liberty of religion in these Kingdoms such as may be depended on.' ^ ' What is meant,' he asked, ' by Union between England and Ireland? ' He answered : ' That the wealth of both peoples united will increase faster than of both distinct, and conse- quently that their revenue may also increase proportionally. That the Government of both united will be less expensive and more safe. That the enrichment of Ireland wUl neces- sarily enrich England, even in spite of statutes made to the contrary. That the prevention of rebellion in Ireland attain- able by this Union is a benefit to England : former rebellions, and the last particularly, having been a vast prejudice to England. That the said Union will weaken the Popish power and party as well without as within his Majesty's own dominions. That the King's loss of Customs between the two kingdoms will be easily and willingly repaired by the same Parliament which makes the Union. That neither the pre- rogative of King nor the privilege of Peers, or of either House of Parliament in either kingdom, need to be lessened hereby. That there may be different laws, even in any of the parts of either kingdom if need be, notwithstanding the Union. That for want of a Union, even the Protestant and English interest of Ireland may, as it formerly hath done, in time degenerate, be estrayed, and rebel. That as Wales is an example of the good effects of a Union, so wUl Ireland be to Scotland, New England, and the other of his Majesty's out-territories. That all his Majesty's territories being united are naturally as strong and rich as the kingdom of France. That rather than not unite Ireland, 'twere better to dispeople and abandon the land and houses thereof, all movables, with the people, being brought away. The cause why the same hath not been hitherto done hath been indeed the vain feares of many, and the interest of but a very few, and these of the worst members of both kingdoms. That this Union cannot be thought a private project or intended for the particular or present advantage of any man. If it be an ' '' Ten tooles for making the Crow n than any other now in Europe.' and State of England more powerful Petty MSS. 278 LIFE OF SIE WILLIAM PETTY chap, ir evil thing to unite Ireland with England, it seems a good thing to colonize even England itself into many small king- domkins as heretofore, and now in America and Africa, though nominally under one monarch. That this Union must be first transacted in the Parliament of England before it can be stirred elsewhere, and to be reckoned amongst the fundamen- tals of settlement and common peace. That a Union would ipso facto put an end to several dangerous and new ques- tions depending between the rights of England and Ireland, to the disquiet of many of both nations, and which none dare determine. That poor and decaying persons of England always went for Ireland, and that the rich of Ireland always spent their estates in England. That the price of land hath fallen in England, even since the prohibition of Irish cattle, but will more probably rise upon the Union. That this Union is a probable means to get the real sovereignty of the seas, and to undermine the Hollanders trade at sea, and both without war and bloodshed. That if either nation did or should lose by the Union, yet even the loser, in justice, equity, honour and conscience, ought to promote and accept it from the other. That the late usurper and his party did hope tO' strengthen themselves by it.' ■* He also recognised the growth of a set of Imperial ques- tions, created by the rise of the colonies and dependencies, for which the established constitution hardly as yet seemed tO' provide any adequate answer ; and in order to solve them he proposed ' a grand National Council consisting of six hun- dred persons (being the greatest number that can hear one another speak), propounded not to be a ParKament nor to- make laws, but to give his Majesty advice and information only, concerning husbandry, buildings, manufacture, money, navi- gation, foreign commerce, American colonies, and the natural recolte and consumption of the people. This Council,' he said, ' might consist of two hundred persons to be chosen by his Majesty as the very best landed men in England, and who receive the greatest yearly rent out of their lands, over • ' Heads of a Treatise proposing a union between England and Ireland.*' Petty MSS. 1686 REFORM OF PARLIAMENT 279 and above legal charges and incumbrances particularly lying upon the same, viz. jointure, dowers, annuities, pensions, rent charges and extents upon statutes, recognizances and judg- ments ; as also mortgages, children's portions, &c. ; with liberty to any person who thinks himself unduly excluded out of the said two hundred to apply to his Majesty for remedy, and that his Majesty may every seven years thereof renew and alter his said election, according to the changes which shall happen in the landed estates of those who were first chosen. All the free- holders of England (of which certain hsts are to be made and determined at the general assizes of each county) may choose one hundred persons out of themselves (whereas there are now chosen but ninety-three for the House of Commons) to make up the aforementioned 200 to be 300, and consequently half of the whole assembly of 600. Whereas there are now about 9,600 parishes, whereof some are enormously greater than others, it is humbly propounded to cut and divide so many of the said 9,600 parishes as may make the even number of 12,000 precincts or districts, and that in each district all the males of above twenty-one years old may meet upon a certain day to choose a certain person who may represent them as to the ends above mentioned, and that forty of the said 12,000 may meet at 300 convenient places (suppose seven days after their election) to elect 300 mem- bers for the Grand Council to make up 600 for the whole as aforesaid. The rules, orders, and methods of debate to be the same in this assembly, as in the present House of Commons.' ' Of all the Men in England of 21 years old,' he saw that 'although they have all Eight and Capacity to be made Members of either House of Parliament, yet scarce one-fifth part of them have power to elect Members for the House of Commons ; that 70,000 Persons, called London, send but eight Members, while 7 other persons send two, and some counties of equal Bigness and Wealth send ten times as many as others.' This also had to be altered. There were also a great number of other urgent administrative and financial questions, but the immediate 'Work for the 280 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix next Parliament in England ' in his opinion was : ' To come to a full understanding with Ireland. To form a Grand and General Council for all the King's dominions. To make a new aplottment of the public revenue. A new apportionment and election for the House of Commons. To restore the true use of seats and titles. To understand and allow liberty of conscience, and to level the rewards and punishments depending on religion with oaths, &c. To insti- tute an account of lands and hands of all the King's subjects. To moderate the use and learning of the Latin and Greek tongues. To limit the City of London, to make the same a county and diocese and a bank. To lessen the sad effects of the plague in that City. To regulate coins, usury and ex- portation of bullion. To increase the King's subjects, and fully people his territories.' ^ In a letter to Southwell he gives an account of his inter- view with the King. ' As to the Great Man you mention,' he says, ' I had indeed strange access and acceptance. I spake unto him as one having authority, and not as the Scribes and Pharisees ; I said several soure things, which he took as juice of orange, squeezed into his mince meat, and not as vitrioU ; fur some of the things I told him were these. 1. That all the lands which the Irish lost as forfeited, were not worth, anno 1653, when they left them, 300,000Z. 2. That the 34,000 men, which the heads of the Irish were permitted and assisted to carry to foreign states, at 101. p"" head, were worth more than the said lands ; that 101. is not ^ the value of negroes, nor |- of Algeir slaves, nor -f of their value in Ireland. 3. I said that what the Irish got restored, anno 1663, more than what belonged to them, anno 1641, is worth more than all they ever lost. 4. That they got 1,110,100 acres of land by innocency, making 7 out of 8 innocent. He heard me with trouble and admiration. He press'd me to speak of the Settlement. I told him there were things in it against the Light of Nature, and the current equity of the world ; but whether it was worth the breaking I doubted ; but if it were broken by Parliament, I offered things to be ^ An Opinion of what is Possible to be Done, 1685. Petty MSS. 1686 CONFEEENCE WITH THE KING '28^ mixed with those Acts as should mend the condition of all men.' ^ A few days later he wrote to Southwell : ' I have heen at Windsor, where I had private and ample conference with the King, who told me expressly and voluntarily that he would neither break the Act of Navigation in England, nor the Settlement of Ireland ; that hee would never persecute for conscience, nor raise his revenue, but as the wealth of his subjects increased. I also conversed with some Grandees, who do seem to go close hal'd, and not quartering according to the best advantage of that wind, which so blew from the King's gracious mouth. For my part I find the storme so great, that I cannot lay my side to it, but am forced to spoon away before it, without carrying a knot of saile, and yet believe that all things may do pretty well, if God be not very angry with us.' ' During one of these interviews the King, in confidence, gave Sir William copies of two papers found in the late King's private chest, explaining the reasons which had induced Charles, and also the Duchess of York, to adopt the Koman Catholic faith.' On another occasion he visited the King in his camp at Hounslow. There he found assembled a formidable force, which had at once become an object of suspicion. Sir William would, however, appear to have formed a favourable opinion of the sincerity of the King's professions that what he desired in England was a measure, intended no doubt primarily to benefit the Eoman Catholics, but to be made feasible by the inclusion of the Nonconformists. He was, however, unfavourably impressed by the atmosphere of the Eoyal Court, and could gain no clear view as to what plan the King had to secure toleration in Ireland, if the government passed into the hands of the Koman Catholic majority. ' To leave our mimicks and ridicules,' he wrote to South- well, ' what do you say to our lands in Ireland ; to the ' To Southwell, July 13, 1686. p. 9, Orig. Mem. ; Evelyn's Diary, ' September 30, 1686. October 2,1685; andMacanlay'sflisf., " Copies are amongst the Petty ii. 44 (ed. 1856), on the general sub- MSS. See Clarke, Life of James II., jeet. 282 LIFE OP SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix army, the Judges, Privy Council, and Parliament, which are like shortly to be there ? Pray write me a word in earnest concerning the matter. How can we talk of being facetious, till we have burnt a candle upon these funest and lugubrious points ? ' ' 'If the Irish,' he proceeded, ' be now to the British as 8 to 1, and if they should be all armed as an army and mihtia, and the English disarm'd, and if the Irish should be the predominant party in all Corporations, may not the King- dome be delivered up to the French ? And that it would be,, depends upon the motives on each side to do the same ; which I leave to the consideration of our superiors, whom God direct.' ' Apparently with the royal sanction, he drew up some pro- positions on the civil administration of Ireland for submission to the Lord Deputy, for as such Tyrconnel was already re- garded.^ They covered the points with which the reader is already familiar : the satisfaction of the leading Irish Eoman Catholics by large grants from the Crown estates in England ; the interchange of population by the encouragement of emi- gration from England to Ireland and from Ireland to Eng- land ; the protection of the Eoman Catholic minority in England and the Protestant minority in Ireland ; complete liberty of conscience in both countries ; and a statutory Union with an alteration of the representation and of the basis of taxation ; and many other reforms in Church and State directly affecting both the prosperity of the people and that of the Eoyal Exchequer, which Sir William was never weary of insisting could be shown to be identical interests. He believed it would be possible by these means to turn the Irish into loyal subjects in nine years. Eenewing apparently the set of proposals which he had made in the latter years of Charles, he undertook to carry out several of his own plans, if » May 12, 1686. delivered to the Earl of Tyrconnel,. ' September 19, 1686. 12tli May, 1686, in Order to an Ac- " A great number of papers, mostly oommodation ; ' ' Papers concerning in a very fragmentary condition, exist Sir WiUiam Petty's Project of getting on these topics amongst the Petty Himself Appointed Surveyor General MSS. The most important are :' The and Acoomptant General of all his Scope and Designe of the Papers Majesty's Dominions.' 1686 APPREHENSIONS OF DANGER 283 appointed Surveyor-General of the kingdom, and placed at the head of a statistical ■office, to combine the functions now discharged by the Ordnance Survey and the Census, and he once more set out the advantages which would thereby accrue to the Eevenue and the nation. His plans were the occasion of a squib, in which he was described as enumerating the heads of an agreement with the King for a reform to be introduced into every public depart- ment, and concluding by demanding that aU necessary powers were indeed to be lodged in the King and his Minis- ters, but that the partners ' by an under hand writing were to convey them all to Sir William Petty, and to make him Pre- sident.'' ' Dear Cousin,' Southwell wrote to him from Kings- Weston, ' I have read yours of the fourth and have read the papers enclosed, which are either for transplanting or propaga- tion. The things are mighty, and call unto my mind that when Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judg- ment to come, Felix trembled. You know Columbus made the first offer to us of his golden world and was rejected ; that the Sybil's books, though never so true, were undervalued ; and Mr. Newton's demonstrations will hardly be understood. The markett rule goes far in everything else. Tantum valet quantum vendi potest. Soe altho' I do not suspect you can be mistaken in what you assert, since you enumerate so many solid as well as bitter objections, yet the dullness of the worlde is such, the opposers soe many, your fellow-labourers so few, and your age so advanced, that I reckon the work insuperable. * However, I am glad that your thoughts are all written down for posterity, as favoured by accidents it may cultivate what the present age neglects ; and in the meantime since you purpose to entertaine the King on these subjects, lett me advertise you what his goode brother once said at the Councill Board " that he thought you one of the best Commis- sioners of the Navy that ever was, that you had vast know- ledge in many things ; but," said he, " the man will not be contented to be excellent but is still ayming at impossible ^ Petty MSS. 284 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix things." You know I am in possession of saying anything to you that comes into my head, but this I say for your service : that being abeady advanced in his Majesty's opinion for things that he comprehends, you doe not growe lesse by going beyond his reason.'^ Sir WiUiam, however, remained unconvinced. ' Standing upon mine own integrity,' he tells his friend, ' I will (1) except against several of your doctrines. (2) I will plead not guilty to some of the faults you suspect me of. (3) Others I can excuse and attenuate. (4) I will shew how my practice doth and hath complied with many of your docu- ments. (5) I will heartily caU peccavi upon most of the other points.' •' But Sir William had soon to recognise that rougher hands than those of the economist and the statesman were wanted by the King for the task in hand. As might have been anticipated, ideas of administrative reform and religious tole- ration found no supporters in Tyrconnel and his military and ecclesiastical coadjutors. The mask was thrown off and the party of moderation rudely brushed aside, notwith- standing the advice of the Pope, Innocent XI., who took a truer measure than his English advisers of the strength of the Eoman Catholic party, and dreaded the supremacy of France in Europe, which an alliance between James and Louis XIV. would have secured. It was now hardly concealed that the ■expulsion of the Protestants was the object of the new Irish Administration. Surrounded by Jesuits, influenced by the Queen, and probably failing in health, the King abandoned the English in Ireland to the vengeance of his importunate and overbearing Deputy. Louis XIV. had given up the Huguenots to the tender mercies of Madame de Maintenon and his confessor. The example was attractive, but James forgot that the circumstances were not the same. Sir William had now begun reluctantly to realise how extreme was the danger, though he still obstinately hoped something from the good intentions of the King. Caution and a careful observation of the times were, he thought, for ' August 13, 1686. " December 13, 1686. 1686 REACTION IN IRELAND 285 the moment the best policy. If necessary, though now an old man, he would try to begin life over again and seek to restore his fortunes. But for the first time in his life h^ began to lose hope about the prospect in Ireland, where all seemed in utter jeopardy. ' Let us have patience,' he wrote to Southwell in October, ' till our browne necks returne into fashion ; nor venture upon any necklaces that wiU strangle us, and that we cannot unty when we please.'* 'I am sorry the Eocks whereupon I have for- merly spHt, must be shaken down by a general earthquake. The posts which supported us were rotten and painted; you must not wonder that they should moulder away. . . . For, briefe, I am beginning the world again, and endeavour instead of quarrel- ling with the King's power, to make him exert all he hath for the good of his subjects.' ' In the course of the next month he writes : ' I tell you again, that I heard nothing from the King contrary to what he was before graciously pleased to tell me, concerning the settlement ; but say as I formerly said that others go very close hal'd upon that wind. When I told you I would begin the world anew, I meant that I would take a new flight, and not any more from Irish grounds. I behave myself towards great men as cautiously as I can, and repent of my former methods. ... I have matters under my hands ; and do study how to proceed humbly with them. . . . The King told me last week that my Essays were answering in France ; * and I am told by several others that the mightiest hammers there are battering my poor anvill &c. In all these cases I hear an old voyce, " Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito." ' ^ ' I do not wonder,' he wrote to Southwell in the same month, ' at your apprehensions, because I take them to be very like my owne. I cannot tell what to say that may sweeten them. I find no man doubts but that the Chief Government of Ireland^ the Benches, the Officers, and soldiers also of the Army, the Commissioners and Collectors of the Eevenue, the Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace, the Magistrates of Corporations, and the " October 26, 1686. ' November 6, 1686. s The Essays on Political Arithmetick, Second Series. = November 1686. 286 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, ix officers of the Courts and Christ Church itself, to say nothing of the college of Dublin, wiU shortly be all in one way. "Whether toleration be intended to Dissenters, I know not ; but find some bitterly against it, altho' the King hath most ex- pressly told myself the contrary, with as good arguments as can be used for that purpose. It is manifest that a Parlia- ment will be called there. It is said that a New Warrant will be forthwith brought against the Charter of Dublin, and con- sequently against many more, to make all things fit for "the great work." Some also say that Poynings' Law shall be dispens'd with, and bills directly pass'd as here. I hear that 2 or 3 of the new form'd Irish regiments shall be brought hither ; and that 3 English regiments shall in lieu of them be carried from hence thither. We hear that many of the most considerable persons of Ireland will come away with my Lord Clarendon ; and that there are thousands coming away already ; the violences in Ireland of several sorts being so many and unpunished ; the consideration whereof doth make poor people even of London weep. Dear Cousen, when I first treated with a great man, things were not near this rapidity ; but I saw an Eddy in that Tide (tho' indeed strong enough), wherewith with pains one might rowe ; and I had prepared oars for that purpose, that is to say, innocent and beneficiaU designs for the good of mankind, which I had contrived should have been driven on by the same current that was likely to drive on worser things for myself. I yet stand fair with many, but fear as I told you in my last, that my cakes will never be baked.' ' In January 1687 Eochester was deprived of the office of Lord High Treasurer, and Clarendon of the Lord-Lieu- tenancy of Ireland. Tyrconnel became both Lord Deputy and Commander-in-Chief, with powers practically unlimited. The English Parliament had been prorogued in November 1686, and had not since met. James decided not only to introduce religious toleration and freedom of worship, but also to abolish tests, and to carry out all these steps at once by virtue of the royal prerogative, 'making no doubt,' as he said ' January 18, 1687. 1687 THE DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE 287 in the royal proclamation which announced his policy, ' of the concurrence of the two Houses of Parliament, when we shall think it convenient for them to meet.' Meanwhile the dis- pensing power would be exercised to relieve all persons coming within the penalties of the Acts. In Scotland a bolder policy still was adopted. There the royal prerogative was claimed as sufficient to deal finally with all such questions. In Ireland Tyrconnel was given free powers to pack the Parliament which was about to be summoned, and secure a favourable verdict as a preliminary to still larger measures. In the expressions of the fateful Declaration of Indulgence issued by the King the echo of some of Sir William's economic ideas may perhaps be detected. The Declaration states the King's unalterable resolution to grant freedom of conscience for ever to all his subjects, rendering merit, and not a com- pliance with the Test Act, the condition of the tenure of office ; experience had shown the impossibility of constrain- ing conscience, and that people ought not to be forced in matters of mere religion; and liberty of conscience would add to the wealth and prosperity of the nation, and give to it what Nature designed it to possess — the commerce of the world.^ In July 1687 the English Parliament was dissolved, and it was determined to spare no effort to bring together a more subservient assembly to carry out the royal wishes. The words of the royal Declaration were fair, and if the questions involved had affected England only, it is possible that the result might have been different from what it proved to be. But events in Ireland decided the issue in England. It soon became clear that there, whatever the private views and wishes of the King might be, Tyrconnel was the real ruler, and that the King was powerless to protect the lives and property of his Protestant subjects from the vengeance of then- hereditary enemies. Nor could it escape attention that, even in England, Eoman Catholics were everywhere being promoted ^ See the text of the two Deolara- the Befcyrmed Church of England, -tions of April 4 and April 27, as given ii. 369-66. in Cardwell's Documentary Annals of 288 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap is to places of trust and emolument, from the highest to the lowest, in numbers altogether out of proportion to their position in the State, and that a huge army was being collected in the neighbourhood of London, at a moment when there was no reasonable apprehension of a foreign war, and therefore with every appearance of being either intended to overawe the country, or of being used to co-operate with France in a fresh attack upon Holland — which, if successful, would be followed by the suppression of Protestant liberties in England. Meanwhile the country was full of refugees flying from persecution in Prance, and the conviction slowly forced itself on the public mind that, whatever might have been the case in 1678, a conspiracy against the liberties of the nation was now on foot, and that the King was con- niving at it, if not himself the actual instigator. 289 CHAPTEE X DEATH OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY 1687 Capture of Kenmare— Directions to Lady Petty — Recollections— Coat and Armes — Criticism of Pascal —Views on education — Instructions to his children — Edward Southwell — Newton's ' Principia ' — Sir William Petty's death — A political prophecy — On mourning for the dead — Monument in Eomsey Church. ' God, Cousin,' Sir William writes in March 1687 to South- well, ' how doth my foot slip, when I consider what Provi- dence hath winked at in its dispensations of Ireland ! ' ' The news which had arrived from Kerry was of the most serious import, as it announced that the native Irish had commenced a series of attacks on the Protestants ; that Lieutenant-General Justin Macarthy had been made Governor of that County and Sir Valentine Brown Lieutenant-Governor, both of them noted adherents of Tyrconnel. The colony at Kenmare at once became the object of special hoiitility. The surrounding population drove off the cattle, ' plundered haggard, barn, and granary,' and carried o£f even the goods and provisions in the houses. These outrages being evidently winked at by the authorities, the colonists decided on retiring to Kilowen House, situated on a kind of peninsula at the head of the Bay of Kenmare, which they fortified. Thither came in forty- two families, consisting of 180 persons, among whom were seventy-five fighting men. ' They had four blunderbusses,' says the author of an account by one of the party, ' forty muskets, carabines and fowling pieces, twenty cases of pistols, thirty-six swords, twelve pikes and six scythes, with 170 Ib«. weight of powder, and a proportionable quantity of ball. They encompassed half an acre with a clay wall fourteen feet ' March, 1687. 290 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY CHAP. X high, -which lay round the house, and twelve feet thick, and fortified it with flankers in the manner of an irregular pentagon, in which work they were assisted by 150 of the natives that lived amongst them ; and they erected small huts of planks within the wall, in which some of the families lodged.' They made Mr. Orpen, Sir William Petty's agent and clergyman of the place, who combined the duties of Judge of Admiralty for the western coast with his eccle- siastical functions, their leader, and they entered into a WHITE HOUSE EUIN, KENMAEE solemn association to stand by one another in defence of their lives, religion, and liberties. These proceedings, the narrator of these events quaintly observes, ' greatly disgusted the neighbouring Irish.' ^ Success rewarded their early efforts. They made an attack on the known leaders of the recent rob- beries and captured six of them ; but the prisoners, although seized under warrants of Lieutenant-General Macarthy, were almost immediately released by his direction. All further • Smith's History of Kerry, ed. 1756, p. 319. 1687 CAPTURE OF KENMARE 291 disguise as to the sympathies of the representatives of the law were soon at an end, for on February 25, Colonel Phelim Macarthy himself attempted to surprise the garrison at night. Faihng in this he next day summoned the place, in the name of Sir Valentine Brown, to surrender, with a pro- mise of good conditions, but threatening them with fire and sword if they held out. They were at the same time in- formed that all the Protestants in Cork had been dis- armed, that Castle Martyr had surrendered, and that Band on was about to do so. Finding resistance hopeless, the little garrison surrendered on honourable terms, security for life and property being promised. But hardly had the surrender taken place, before the native Irish rushed in, and, having plundered the houee, turned out the occupants in a miserable and starving condition. It is probable that all would have perished, but for the fortunate arrival at this moment of two small vessels, which Mr. James Waller, fore- seeing trouble, had despatched into Kenmare Bay. On board these vessels all the fugitives crowded, with the exception of eight, whom the officers of Captain Maearthy's force com- pelled to stay in order to work in the iron-mines. But the troubles of the fugitives were not even then over ; for the native Irish, encouraged by their success in plundering some French Protestant refugees who had been driven by stress of weather into the bay in 1685, succeeded in carrying off the sails of the vessels. A delay of eight days took place in consequence, and an order then arrived from Captain Hussey, representing Sir Valentine Brown, prohibiting a journey to England. Mr. Orpen thereupon passed a bond for 5,000Z., to be forfeited if they did not go to Cork, considering this a cheap price to pay for life and liberty. At length, with only five barrels of beef, forty gallons of oatmeal, and some unbaked dough, the little party was allowed to embark. The masters of the barques knew nothing of navigation, but the gentlemen on board were able to shape the course. They made for Bristol, but the winds were contrary, and they did not arrive till March 25, 1688, and in so miserable a condition that the mayor ordered collections for their relief. Many of the party 292 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x died soon after landing from the effects of cold and exposure. The survivors went to London and were hospitably entertained by Lady Petty.' Sir William they found had died a short time before. When, in 1687, the serious position of the little colony at Kenmare first became known, Sir William was in his sixty- fifth year, and the labours and anxieties of his career had already begun to impair his strength. The change in Ireland was an almost intolerable blow to him. It seemed as if his life- work had been destroyed, and the catastrophe was the harder to bear because he could not well believe — in spite of his natural buoyancy of temperament — that he could live to baffle his enemies himself, even if those who came after him might succeed in doing so. A troublesome disease in the feet, apparently some compli- cated form of gout, now partially lamed him. His health was shaken and the conviction that his end was not far off was constantly present to his mind, and he commenced putting his house in order, so far as events permitted, against the arrival of ' the horse bridled and saddled,' which he thought was soon to carry him off. Already in 1684 he had written from Dublin to Lady Petty that ' he had rummaged and methodized his papers,' which amounted to ' fifty-three chests,' and are, he says, ' so many monuments of my labours and misfortunes.' * He also completed the full and detailed account of the ' Down Survey of Ireland,' to which frequent reference has been made in this narrative. ' I shrine all up,' Southwell told him, ' and premise that in after times, I shall be resorted to for your works, as Mr. Hedges is for the true Opobalsamum.' « ' As to your fifty years' adventures, I have them and keep them more preciously than Csesar's Commentaries.' ^ To Lady Petty, Sir William also sent a summary of his claims on the nation as a legacy to his children. ^ Losses sustained by the Protes- 11, 1682. The letter quoted in oh. i. tants of Kmmare, 4to. London, 1689 ; belongs to this series. Smith's History of Kerry, pp. 317- ^ Southwell to Petty, September 320. 11, 1682. ■■ Southwell to Petty, September ' Ibid., November, 1686. 1687 DIRECTIONS TO LADY PETTY 293 Sir William to Lady Petty. ' Do not, iny dearest, too much despise the enclosed to our boys. — We have Acts of Parliament for a reward to the Survey; authentic accompts of our Wearys in Kerry; the hands of Lord Halifax, D. of Ormond, and L"^ Eochester, for the revenue ; and the laws of God and Nature for the shipping. Meethinks your gossips should instead of silver spoons, help their gossoons upon these matters. Oh ! God how many Offices, Eewards and Titles, have been bestowed these last hundred years for lesse merit. You may show the enclosed letter, (not to every body), but where it may do noe harme, if noe good. Meethinks these 4 cows should yield some milk this next summer, to make butter for the present, and cheese for the next age. Gods will be done and lett me be satisfied with the " conscienscia rerum gestarum " and expect noe more.' Enclosure. 'Deare Children, — Your father from his Infancy tryed many ways to raise an Estate for you and a faire name in the world ; and among the rest he did in the year 1655 measure Ireland, viz. as much line, in 13 months, as would compasse the globe of earth neare six times about : of all which many records and Books, confirmed by two Acts of Parliament, doe remaine. ' He hath suffered a loss stated by the King's Auditor (in concernments of Kerry above all other the King's subjects) about 20 thousand pounds, by the folly and malice of flatterers. ' He hath propounded a demonstrable way of advancing the King's Pievenue about 10,000 pounds per ann : with the benefit, ease, and accomodation of all his subjects in Ireland ; tho' not yet embraced. 'He hath made so many modells and experiments on shipping within two and twenty years, and at 1,500L expense of his owne money and 3,500L of other friends, and has begotten the enclosed opinion concerning shipping. 294 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY CHiP. x ' The EeiJutation and Eecompense due to these performances by the Kmg and Country, I hereby bequeath to you, hoping you will not do lease nor icorse in the stations wherein Pro- vidence shall place you. ' Yr careful Father W. P.' ' [Here follows an account of a ship designed to be built in a particular manner.] But his mind travelled back as well as forward, and in some letters to Southwell he enshrined a pithy account of his early struggles. ' June 12, 1686. — I have drawn out a paper shewing what money I had Xmas 1636, v/hich was Is. ; how it 7iss to 4s. 6d. ; then to 24s. next to 4L, then to 70Z., next how it fell to 26L, then riss to 480/. at my landing in Ireland ; next to 13,060L at finishing the Survey ; and how after I got my land in Ireland and Estate in England &c., it was 3,200Z. at the King's Eestoration ; and so all along to the present day. Perhaps the like hath not been seen. This and the like gave me the courage wherewith I have fought Zanchy. Whatever becomes of me, I can leave such arguments of arts and industry as will be a credit to my children and friends. And now I say, naked came I into the world and naked must I go out of it.' 'July 13, 1686. — Concerning myselfe, I say that I had £13,060 in cash, anno 1656 ; which at 10 per cent., above 12 being then justly taken, would, anno 1666, have been £26,120, and anno 1676, £52,240 ; and in the yeare 1686, £104,480. I further say that without meddling with forfeited lands, I could, anno 1656, have returned into England and been at the top of practice in Oliver's Court, when Dr. Willis was casting waters at Alington Market and the Cook louse was but an egg.* And what the superlucration thereof, besides the £104,000, might have been in 30 years, I leave to your judgement. I say the profit of these two funds would have exceeded my present estate.' ' June 1684. to one of the leading practitioners of • This is apparently an allusion the day (see below, p. 296). 1687 KECOLLECTIONS 295 ' Jidy 17, 1686.— I said in mine of the 13th instant, that after I had with £13,060, and £4000, bought my Irish lands, built Lothbury, and marryed my sister, I had at the King's restoration £8,200 left. Then you have had the Debtor : now the creditor side. 1. My troubles with Zanchy, the Eump, and the Army, 1659. 2. The 49 mens siege of my Limerick concernments, and Sir A. Brodrick, 1661-2. 3. The Court of Clayms and Innocents, 1663. 4. The great double bottom, 1664. The Plague, 1665. L^ Eanelagh and Fire of London, 1666. 5. Warrs with L-^ Kingston 1667, 68, 69, 70, 71 & 2, when W. Fenton died. 6. The rebuilding of London ; years value ; Iron works, and Fisheryes defray, within the said year and 1672. 7. Eeducement of quit rent and Sir G. Carteret 1673 and 4. 8. Sir James Shean and partners ; and Kerry, 1675, 76 & 77. 9. Kerry custodium & imprint, from 1678 to 82. 10. More mischief about the same and stopping the law to 1685. 11. The fright of 1685 and 1686, with faylure of Eents. 12. Strange wrongs from paupers set up on purpose to plague me. ' Now to what my said £3,200, anno 1660, is shrunk to ann : 1686, I leave to consideration. Think also of my 53 chests of papers containing an epitome of my services and sufferings ; my Bookes and survey, and Copperplates, with the accurate and authentic History thereof and the first distribu- tions ; what I might have gotten without the least meddling with Irish estates, as from first letters ; how little I have gotten by religion and factions ; how I have been industriously opprest and supprest 27 years ; was never the Toole or Turn- shovell to any person or party; never convicted to have wronged either private persons or public interests — but have gotten all, as I did the first Is., 4s. 6^., 24s. and 4Z. — Dear Cousin adieu. — -When I am dead pick me out an epitaph out of these 3 letters, and let my children be ashamed of it, if they dare ; but out-doe it. What anatomy I have made of myself, I am able to make also of my enemies. I have herein followed the advice which Sir P. Pett heretofore gave : viz. That at the country feasts every man (when he was near drunk but not quite drunk) should disclose to the company the real cause of 296 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x his coining to Ireland. So lett (I say) a dozen others whom I can name, tell to the next Powers the cause of their coming to their estates : I say to the next powers ; for the last powers that gave them were but the summer ; the next may be the winter, and frost nip them. I have already past the summer and winter both, as I told Sir George Lane, upon occasion given. Again, adieu.' July 31, 1687.—' I told you that in Sep. 1652, when I first landed in Ireland that I had £280 in cash, and £120 ovit cf Brazenose ; the Anatomy Lecture of Oxford ; and Gresham College ; and that I had £365 p' annum salary, and the value of £35 per annum more out of the State's apotheca : in all £520 per annum, besides my practice (which tho' it were not in those days like Willis, Lowse, or Short's) made my super- lucration full £800 a year ; which for 4^ years, to Xmas 1656, was £3,456 ; which made my aforementioned £480 to be £13,060, as in my letter; which is about £2,176 p"" ann., a sum which Boys have gotten in the late offices, and which I have only had for measuring the whole world with the Chain and Instrument for near 6 times .about, the monuments whereof are to be seen in the Survey. ... I have indices and catalogues of the gross wrongs I suffered between 1656 and 1686 by the Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and the 49 men, with the rest of the " drinking " interest,^ till the present time, which I conceive the new expected Powers cannot well outdo. Notwithstanding all I have said, I apprehend it will be said to me : Pro te non plurima . . . Labenti pietas, nee pro te vota valebunt .' Nevertheless, I will endeavour to leave in some good hand wherewith to shew I have deserved a better fate ; that I am no mushroom, or upstart ; but that my estate is the oyle of flint, and that " ut apes feci geometriam." ' ^ Illustrating this last adage, he had devised a coat of ' The allusion is not clear. ' The letter quoted in chap. i. p. 3, ' The quotation is partly from July 14, 1686, belongs to the ' above Virgil, ^neid, ii. 429 : — series. nee te tua plurima, Panthu, Labentem pietas nee Apollinis infula texit. 1687 COAT AXD ARMES 297 arms, and wrote some verses upon it, which young Edward Southwell carried off to his father. ' To vindicate myself,' Sir William writes to the latter, ' from wildness of imagination in the Scutcheon and verses which were sent you, I further add by way of explanation viz., that I would have those Emblems and Symbols rather called my Coat and Armes, than my Coat of Armes ; for what is signified are indeed my Coat, Covering, Shelter and Defence ; viz. : Cseruleus candore nitor mea scuta decoret, Non atrum aut fulvum nee cruor horrificet, Stellam ut spectat avis, positoque tremore quiescit, Sic mens quse spectat sola quieta Deum. Mella ut Apes condunt, sic scire geometra quserit. Utile quserere apum est ; scire geometriEe. Sedulus ergo ut apes feci geometriam, ut inde Utile cum dulci scire et habere queam. At si perdam ut apes quae per geometriam babebam, Heu vos non vobis mellificatis apes. And thus,' he concludes, ' you have my field of azure, my magnet, my star, my Pole, and my beehive expounded.' ' Sir William was constantly occupied with the educa- tion of his sons, Charles and Henry. In regard to his daughter Anne, who appears to have inherited much of her father's talent for business and to have been a favourite child, he expressed a hope in writing to Southwell ' that one day Arithmetick and Accountantship will adorn a young woman better than a suit of ribbands, to keep her warmer than a damnable dear manteau.' " Charles was Sir Robert Southwell's godson. He was sent abroad about this time to see the world. ' The end of Charles' travels,' Sir William writes to Sir Eobert, ' is not to learne French, Latin, nor Arts nor science, but to learne a competency of Teutonick and Italian ; to see "mores et urbes multorum hominum," to shift among dangerous men, to be a frugal accomptant and manager reipublic£e suae ; to distinguish friendship, civility, and flattery ; and lastly, ad faciendum populum, to make fools believe he is more than he is, as to appear something at the University s August 7, 1686. ' To Southwell, December 4, 1685. 298 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x after lie comes home. Wee do not hope he shall make an interest with the great men abroade ; but are content if he know their persons and can talk of them, and have their names in his album.' To Sir Robert's regret, Charles appears to have inherited the faculty of imitation from his father, for Sir William, who had been evidently again put on his defence, continues as fol- lows : ' As for the mimicall faculty I say that it was never planted by me, but one of the weeds mentioned in my former letters, and which I want pulled up by the roots. I never sent him to the Playhouse to be instructed in either tragic or comicall Eecita- tions or Acting ; nor is he a frequent spectator there, but when he is, he doth oftener offer to correct, than to applaud their performances. I doe neither indulge him in it, nor doth he value himself upon it ; tho' I am much pleased 1. that he discerneth the persons who are fit matter for the stage. 2. That he readily picks out the genius, words, action, voice and tone, of any mimic able man, and can turne them to sample them. 3. That when he sees anything written, he can without art or industry, but by nature and instinct, adapt an action, speech, voice and tone, suitable to the matter and shape thereof. 5. That he can execute a just and judicious punish- ment and revenge on his enemies by this faculty. 6. Make himself loved by women, feared by men, at once. ' N. B. — He is taught to be careful in ridiculing nations, great posts of men, and coxcombs in commission, without a stake proportionable to the hazard thereof ; and must prepare himself to justify by the sword what he justly does in this way. His sister hath a dash of the same.' ^ ' Your Godson Charles,' he tells Southwell, ' grows like a weede without much culture or help of the gardiners. Perhaps it may be never the worse, for the race will not be to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Nor will favour go to the men of skill, or bread to the men of under- standing.' ^ ' Henry,' he says, ' is more for the bar than the stage. His talent is in stating arguments impromptu, pro and contra, for every thing he meets with. In short I lett = April 8, 1686. " December 4, 1687 CRITICISM OF PASCAL 299 nature work with them all, and plant no clove nor cinnamon trees upon them, but am content with the roses, peas and violets, and even with the hemlocks, nettles, and thistles, that grow vigorously. The one please the taste and smell of their friends, and the others sting, prick, and poison their enemies.' ^ Sir William was much interested at this time in a paper of Pascal's on a definition of ability, disagreeing from his views, which Sir Eobert Southwell supported. He tells his friend to let the question alone till he comes to town, and promises that he ' will then roast him and Sir James Lowther on one spit.' ' As to Pascal's paper whose name I honour,' hegoeson: ' I must say as followeth viz. 1st, That there he many words, phrases and sentences in it, which have not a certain, sensible signification ; and therefore cannot beget any clear notion, sense, or science in the reader. 2nd, He dis- tinguisheth witts only by their learning or aptitude, either for geometry, or sagacity : whereas I think the best geometri- cians were the most sagacious men, or that the most sagacious men did ever make the best geometricians. Wherefore the distinction of Witts is not well made by those words, which are but the cause and effect, and consequently the same. 3. He maketh the difference of the great achievements made by the severall great men undernamed to have depended upon, either their making use of many or few principles, whereas the words " many," " few," have noe real difference, no man being able to say whether the number ten be many or few, or be a small or great number. ' Those I would name among the Modern are : Mohere Sir Francis Bacon Suarez Dr. Donne Galileo Mr. Hobbes Sir Thomas More Descartes ' Whereas the good parts of men are in generall : ' 1. Good sense. ' 2. Tenacious Memory of Figures, Colors, Sounds, Names, &c. ' April 8, 1686. Ancien are : Archimedes Julius CsBsar Aristotle Cicero Hippocrates Varro Homer Tacitus 300 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x ' 3. A quickness in finding out, matching and comparing ; as also in adding and substracting the Sensata layd up in the Memory. ' 4. A good method of thinking. ' 5. The true use of words. ' 6. Good organs of speech and voice. ' 7. Strength, agihty and health of Body and of all its parts. ' The severall achievements of the severall great persons above named, have proceeded from the just and proportionable applications of those last mentioned faculties to severall matters and ends. ' I have now given you a description of what I call good parts, which I resemble to the severall colours upon a Painters pallet, out of which any colour may be made by composition. And I say that I can out of the ingredients before mentioned make you an Archimedes, a Homer, a Julius Caisar, a Cicero, a Chess player, a Musican, a Painter, a dancer of the Eopes, a courageous spark, a fighting fool, a Metaphisicall Suarez, etc. And I would faine see how, out of Mr. Pascals grounds, viz. of aptitude for geometry, or sagacity, and the use by many of few principles, the same can be performed ; and how thereby all the above mentioned species of transcendental men can be produced.' * Charles Petty was abroad in 1686. ' I am glad,' Sir William wrote to his godfather, 'that wee agree that the main end of travelling is to learn frugality, circumspection, discreet jealousy, and generall prudence ; with such Beha- viours as will adapt us for conversation with all mankind — without laying much weight upon Languages, University Arts and Sciences — and Interest in the famous men of other nations. As I did, Deare Cousin, venture to fall upon the great Pascal, 8oe I shall now again venture to set down some of my thoughts on the faculty of Imitation, which you think soe ill of, and I say viz. : 1. That no man can be a good Painter without a perfect faculty of imitating all colours, figures and proportions of magnitude. 2. Noe man can be said to sing well or to " British Museum, Egerton MSS. ; pendix to the Pensies : ' Difference also among Petty MSS. The paper entre I'esprit de G^om^trie et I'esprit referred to is to be found in the Ap- de Finesse.' 1687 VIEWS OX EDUCATION 301 learn the same happily, that cannot readily imitate all the sounds and tones of voices hee heareth. 3. No man ca^n danse well or fence well, that cannot readily imitate all the motions which are taught in those exercises. 4. No man can be a good orrator that cannot attune and put on all the miens, looks, gestures, and appearances, which attend the passions that he would excite in his hearers. 5. Eepresentation, or the art of making absent Persons and things present, as often as is requisite — this is imitation, monstration, or demonstra- tion of persons and things. These are the only Mimicks that I like in my children, applied to good uses and not to hurt neighbours. If this be crooked timber, instead of straight, we must dispose of it to shipping — and beast hooks. I suppose you do not blame mimicking in this sense, but rather mean the act or practice of ridiculing any person or thing and making the same vile and contemptible, which faculty who is master of, saith your author, Clerambault," is master of the world. I incline to this opinion, notwithstanding what you say of the D. of Buckingham, whose case requires a special Essay. For why do you learn to ride the great horse, but to trample down your enemies ? Why to fence, but to disarm or disable them ? Why do you affect great offices, but to make men subject to you and to become low and weak, in comparison of yourself? Yet in all these cases you are not certain of victory, but only encouraged to fight upon occasion ; nor doth it follow that whoever can ride or fence and shoot and wrestle, is thereby made more apt to offend or wrong his friends, but rather to defend himself against wrongs, by the re- putation that hee can repay them. Now if the art of ridiculing be used as aforesaid, where is the evil, when it is only another more manlike sort of fighting ; whereas in the other sort of fighting, beasts commonlj' excell men ? I have expounded the faculty of mimic or ridiculing : there is another between them, which is, not to make men laughed at, but to bee facetious ; that is to make the generality of men laugh, with- out offending any, but be conscious of their owne fault ; of which more hereafter.' ' ' The allusion is not clear. Cle- poser, was only born in 1676. rambault, the celebrated musical com- ' May 4, 1686. 302 LIFE OF SIK WILLIAM PETTY chap, x Among the various studies which Sir William encouraged his children to pursue, law, notwithstanding his dislike for the practitioners of it, bore a prominent part. Perhaps he re- gretted not having had a more intimate knowledge of it him- self. At Christmas 1685 we find it used to introduce a kind of family diversion, possibly to gratify the disputatious talents of Henry Petty. ' As you tell us,' he writes to Sir Eobert, his old humour breaking out for a moment through the gloom, ' what excellent exercise Neddy and the ' fair spinsters are employed upon, so I tell you that my two sons are busy upon the Law. Harry is the Lions Attorney General, and counsel for most of those whom Eeynard has wronged ; and Charles is of counsel to Eeynard, to defend him against all accusations. I will not prejudice you to be of either side ; but will only give you a list of the principal points which will come in question : viz. whether Eeynard conspired with the Carpenter that wedg'd Sir Bruin into the hollow tree ; about the murder of Dame Coppett, whether she was a sorceresse and intended to poison Eeynard ; about the great trepann upon Kynward, so as he lost his life ; what kind of action Curtis may bring against Eeynard for the pudding taken from her ; whether the earth of Malepardus be a privileged place ; and whether replevin will not lye for the goods which Eeynard hath lodged in it ; ' and so on under thirteen heads of legal quip and joke.^ The following instructions to his sons were also written at this time : — ' Directions for my son Charles, 7 July 1686. ' To pursue dansing, fencing, and riding ; to fence in public, if you do well ; otherwise not. ' To pursue the flute and sing justly. ' To write fair, straight, and clerklike. ' To practise Arithmetick upon real business that shall be given you. ' To copy flats, and draw after round and dead life. ' To dress yourself well without help. ' To carve at table and treat friends and strangers. - Deo. 31, 1685. 1687 INSTRUCTIONS TO HIS CHILDREN 303 ' To pitch upon ten good families, whereupon to practise civility and conversation. ' To heare 4 or 5 of the most eminent preachers. ' To go to plays, and learn the company, as alsoe to the Drawing room, S* James Park, Hyde Park, and balls. ' To know the seats upon the river of Thames, between Windsor and Greenwich, and within 6 miles of London Bridge. ' To know the alliances of all the noble families, with their friends and friendship. ' To know the names of the most famous persons for every faculty and talent at home and abroad. ' To know the names of 3 or 4 of the best authors upon every faculty. ' To be well acquainted with 3 or 4 that make news their businesse. ' To have a Friend in every great office. ' To heare Tryals, criminal and others. ' To read Josephus, Moliere, Virgil, Csesar, Sallust and Tacitus without bounds. ' To study the Mathematicks, Globe, Mapps, measuring Instruments. ' To learn logick, by reading the most rational Discourses, the History of England and chronological tables. ' To read Aristotles Ehetorick, Hobbes de Cive,^ Justinians Institutions, and the Common Law. ' To go to Gresham College.' ' 8 July 1686. Directions for my son Henry, borne the 22nd of Octohei, 1675. ' 1. To perfect his Latin by reading the Latin Testament, Corderius, Erasmus, Cicero's Epistles and Offices, and Justin. ' 2. To write a fast and short hand. ' 3. To make a Leg salute to come into a room. ' 4. To sing. ' 5. To write and read the Court hands and manner of writing. ' The connection of these two books Hobbes was the translator of the by Sir WiUiam is worth noting, for Rhetoric of Aristotle. 304 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x ' 6. Arithmetick and measuring and the Globe. ' 7. Map of the world : Europe, England, France, Holland, and, pro re nata, of the eountryes which are the scenes of warre and businesse pro tempore. ' 8. Josephus, and the 6 first chapters of Genesis, St. Luke's Gospell, The Acts of the Apostles, The Catholic Epistles of Peter, James, John, Jude ; and Homilies, Catechism, Duty of Man, Psalms, Eclesiasticus. ' 9. The English Chronicle ; Bacon's Collections. ' 10. Eeynard the fox. ' To know the Inns of Court, Chancery, and Guild Hall ; the Sessions Houses ; Doctors Commons, Westminster Hall ; the great offices and priveleged places ; The Arches, &c. ' To hear Tryals of Criminals, and see executions of several kinds. ' To read Latin abreviations in printed books of law. ' To know the names and chambers of all the chief Lawyers and Atorneys. ' A list of 500 great Estates in England, Coats of Armes and Pedigrees. ' At 14 or 15 years old to be with the best attorney for 3 years, and to be entered at some Inn of Court at 17 years old. ' To read Aristotles Ehetorick and Logick ; Hobbes de Cive ; Logick ; Argumentative Discourses ; and begin the Law. ' Some more History, Casuistry and Morals. ' His father's writings.' '' Southwell himself was constantly consulting his friend on the education of his son Edward — 'that honey seeking youth,' as Sir William called him — and was prone to devise elaborate plans for his instruction, according to the most approved me- thods of the age. On many of these plans Sir William poured good-humoured ridicule. ' You would have me do by deare Neddy's head,' he tells Southwell, 'as my Lady Dutchess of Ormond did to the round tower in Kilkenny ; that is, make his walls thinner, breaks out lights, make partitions, set up ' The above papers are at the Hill, Sloane Collection, 2063 ; also British Museum, among the Philoso- among the Petty MSS. phical Papers, Sc, collected by Dr. 1687 EDWARD SOUTHWELL 305 shelves, bring in furniture, new frame the stairs, make new passages etc., after which there would be very little left of his head.' * ' Kemember me to dear Neddy,' he writes on another occasion. ' Bid him study moderately, and not burn his fingers with his tonge, nor pinch them in his nose. I say, cram into him some Lattin, some mathematicks, some drawing and some law, (which is almost all done already), and then let Nature work, and let him foUow his own inclina- tions ; for further forcing him to learne what you like, and not what he chooses himself, will come to no great matter. But when you see what he thrives and prospers in, provide him a course of life whereby he may make the best use of his own natural wares.' * ' For further impositions ' about Neddy, he writes later on, 'I think them needless. You have planted all necessarys in his ground ; you have led him through all the shops and Warehouses of other things. Let Nature now worke, and see what he will choose and learn of himself. What is cramed in by much teaching will never come to much, but parch away when the teachers are gone. Within a year or two, you will have a crisis on him: let's mark that.' ^ ... 'As to the burthen of providing for families, do you mean that a young man of 26 years old should provide for all that may descend from him before fourscore, and that not only for his ordinary food and raiment, but all the extraordinary disasters and calamities incidental to man, without any care or labour of ours. For my own part I have made my 3 chil- dren to learn and labour proportionally to their ages, and the common rate of others ; and a man may as well exceed in his aims and solicitudes concerning the matter as in talking of meyriads and millions. I have laboured for them 64 years. I do not make my House a Bridewell unto them, nor myself a Bedel. I will take to myself as much as I can use, and divide the rest according to their merits, and it will become them to be thankful for so much, without grumbling that ;per fas et nefas I had not gotten more. To conclude, I do not think * October 10, 1686. 1682. " To Southwell, September 16- ' Petty to Southwell, 1686. X 306 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x that I have managed this matter so as to be worser than an in- fidel. I have been an Ant, but not an Ant which " ore trahit quodcunque potest," but only "quod Jure potuit, quod posset honor e." Concerning alliances, that is lofty Marriages, I sett down with the Greek posey of my Eomsey Schoolmaster King, which is in English : " he that is Married according to himself is well Married : " that is to say in parity or proportion of parts, person, parentage, and fortune. The common opinion of the world shall be my rule. I will not sweat to make my Daughter a fortune nor to be honey for Drones. And I desire to enable my Son to live within the compass of that wifes fortune which himself best loveth. Concerning leaving money or land to a son, I incline to your opinion : it is better to leave a Son SOL worth of land well settled than 501. in money. But if he be an ingenious active lad it is better to bestow 5 thousand pounds upon him in an office worth one thousand pounds per ann., than to sett him to plow upon a farm of 250 pounds per ann. Five thousand pounds will buy but 250 pounds per ann. in land, about 400 pound a year in houses. A thousand pound a year in offices will buy as many things as will bring in 2 thousand pounds per ann. and as many low priced houses as may be hyred for above 4L Soe that it dependeth upon a good Judgment to determine with what species of effects to stock ones Children.' ^ In 1687 the ' Principia ' of Newton appeared. Sir William was one of the few who at once perceived the transcendent merits and importance of the book. '' Poor Mr. Newton,' he wrote on July 9 of that year to Southwell, ' I have not met with one person that put an extraordinary value on his book. ... I would give 500L to have been the author of it; and 200L that Charles understood it.' ' On August 16, 1687, he wrote to Southwell : ' I have had no letter from Charles, since the 8th instant from Amsterdam. I only say God send him luck ; and then a little learning will serve his turn ; for of the hundred prosperous men which we have seen since the year 1660, neither the learning nor parts of five have been admirable ; and the forty » December 13, 1686. » To SouthweU, July 9-23, 1687. 1687 NEWTON'S 'PRINCIPIA' 307 five contemptible ; nor have one quarter of that hundred thriven by following the course which their parents put them into. I do perfectly approve of your advice concerning Mountebank players ; but we eate toads and wash our hands in molten lead to sell of our oyntments for the itch. ... I gave the King a paper at Windsor,' he goes on to tell South- well ' entitled " the weight of the Crown of England in 20 short articles," more stupendous than what I sent you. I desired the King to pick out of the whole one article which he wisheth to be true, and another which he thinketh to be false, and command me within 24 hours and within one sheet of paper, to shew him my further thoughts concerning them. All was very well taken, but without getting butter to my parsnips, or Hobnayles for my shoes ; and poor M'' Newton will certainly meet with the same fate, for I have not met with one man that putt an extraordinary value on his book. Now because you cannot believe that my Projects can gaine the Nation 140 millions, I send you another paper to shew how 619 millions might be gotten in 25 years, and have the five points whereon the same is bottom'd, as well demonstrated as in the Pulpit and at the Bar. As usual you will ask me why I persist in these fruitless labours. I say they are labours of pleasure ; of which ratiocination is the greatest and most angelicall ; and, being by my age near Heaven, I think it high time to build myself a Tomb on Earth, out of these Materialls to which I hope you will furnish mortar in due time. You will say the "double-bottom" hath poysoned my proposals, to which I say that y° Closet I shew'd you containes the solution of all questions in Shipping and Sayling. A vehement combination against me made the fourth attempt worse than the first ; I courted the King's mysteries, and like Actaeon would have seen Diana naked, and was therefore sett upon by many cruel dogs.' The end was now very near. In December he was taken ill, but without apparently entertaining any serious fear for his life at the moment, and he wrote to Southwell, the old combative spirit reviving : ' On Saturday I was taken with a great lameness. I have nevertheless shewn how the Earmers are overpaid all their demands by 2,183L ; ' and he announces X 2 308 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, i Ms intention of yet being even with them. If he was to die, he would fight up to the end and die in harness ; and, notwith- standing the acute pain he suffered, he attended the annual dinner of the Eoyal Society. But it was the last flicker of the expiring lamp, and he was observed by his friends to be discomposed. Immediately afterwards he sickened, his foot gangrened, mortification set in, and on the night of December 16 he died in a house in Piccadilly, opposite to St. James's Church. It was just a year before King James fled from England. ' Sir W™ Petty,' Lord Weymouth wrote to Sir Eobert Southwell, ' dyed whilst I was in towne, and I think I saw him the moment he was taken ill. You know St. Andrew's day is the Election of Officers for the Society, when my Lord Brouncker was again chosen President. At dinner at Pentack's, where we had but one bottle of wine between two. Sir W" Petty fell very roughly upon Mr. Tovey, to soe unusual a degree for a man of his breeding and temper, that my Lord Carbery and I wondered at it, and fancied he might have drunk some wine in the morning ; but it appeared afterwards to be the beginning of his distemper, for he went home ill, and the humours fell into his leg, which gangrened in a very few days. The subject of his dispute with Mr. Tovey was about the weight of woods ; Sir William affirming that Quince wood was the heaviest of all woods, and though Mr. T. argued little and very modestly. Sir William fell upon him with reproach- ful language. He was certainly a very great man, and I heartily wish some knowing person might have the perusal of his papers, for I am told he had excellent things by him. It was for some time observed by some of his friends that the in- justices done to him in Ireland, where he had lost above 700Z. per annum very much discomposed him, upon the apprehen- sion that the same method would strip him of the rest.' ' Charles Petty had returned to England before his father's death. ' Dear Cousm,' he wrote to Edward Southwell, ' if there be anything to ease the great affliction I lie under for the loss of such a father, the part Sir Eobert and yourself take in ' To Southwell, January 4, 1688. 1687 SIR WILLIAM PBTTY'S DEATH 309 it would much contribute thereunto ; but what shall I say ? The blow is very heavy and lowde. God make me to submit to his will ; for myself I can do nothing. I know you have kindness enough for me to suffer my complaint, but all I can say is too short to express my sorrow. And as an high aggravation I see dayly my dear mother under an unexpress- able grief ; and indeed she has reason, for she has lost the test of friends, who living and dying manifested his true value for her, commanding us to obey her as the best mother in the world. It was a great satisfaction to me to see how like a Christian and philosopher he left this world. It has taken off from me the fear of death to see him die, and I do not think death so terrible as people make it. I have no more to say, only to beg you to intercede with your father that he will please, for my father's sake, to take me under his protection and preserve me a place in his friendship, which I shall endeavour to deserve by all wayes imaginable and in the power of his and yours most affectionate kinsman and humble Servant, ' Chables Petit. ' As soon as my mother is able to write, she will not faile to acknowledge the favour of Sir Eobert's letter.' Sir William was at work till the end, and there was found in his pocket on his decease a paper entitled : ' Twelve Articles of a good Catholique and good patriot's creed ' — which appears to be the paper alluded to in his letter of August 16, as having been sent to Southwell.^ It contained a summary of the plans with which the reader is already acquainted. ' Twelve Articles of a good Cailiolicque and good patriots creed. By Sir William Petty .=* ' 1. That xio"' parte of the Men naturally able to learn Arms is a Competent Army to be kept in pay. ^ Sir Eobert Southwell became Edward Southwell became Secretary Secretary of State for Ireland in 1690. of State in succession to his father He died September 11, 1702, at King's till 1720. He died in 1730. Weston, near Bristol. He served in ' Longleat MS. ; endorsed, ' Found three Parliaments and was five times in his pocket after his death.' President of the Irish Koyal Society. 310 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x ' 2. That •jij*'' parte of the peoples Expence, is a Competent Eevenue for England in peace and warr. ' 3. That the officers of the above Army, being yV* of the same, with a few others, seems to be the Naturall and to have been the originall House of Peers. ' 4. That the Council elsewhere described, chosen by God and the whole people, is a good Eepresentation of them and of the Church Nationall. ' 5. That an account of [the] lands and hands of all the King's Subjects, is an effectuall Instrument of Government. ' 6. That it is not the Interest of England to seek more Territoryes nor send out its Subjects, but to unite Ireland with England and soe enlarge their trade. ' 7. That the Navy Koyall should consist of particular ships, with a perfect account of all others, both at home and abroad. ' 8. That there should be a Bank, sufficient for all the trade these Nations are capable of, as alsoe a Eegister of lands. ' 9. That Liberty of Eeligion and Naturalization be secured. ' 10. That the Coynes, weights, and measures, be made regular and unabuseable. ' 11. That there be a Eeformation of Diocesses, parishes, and Church Duties. ' 12. That means be used to lessen the plagues of London which probably the next time will carry away twenty thousand people, worth seventy pound p. head.' Another paper in his handwriting was found on the table in his room, containing a remarkable forecast of the course of events in England and Ireland in the great struggle which was so clearly at hand. It ran as follows : — ' When the Establishment of Popery in England is found impracticable, then K. J., being a friend, and the Irish officers, with their 8,000 soldiers, will make a Convention of the forfeit- ing Irish and a Mihtia of 15,000 men. The French will send 7,000 men and shipping ; and will have Cautionary Townes. The Eevenue will be 300 thousand per annum, and the Pro- testants estates, above 800 thousand, in all 1100 thousand ; 1687 A POLITICAL PEOPHEOY 311 whereas 450 thousand will suffice. The Irish will send 100 thousand Protestants into France, which 100 small vessells will do in one Sumer ; the East India and other trades will be taken from England by the Hollanders. England wiU swarme and be pestered with poore English driven out of Ireland. ' The Princess of Orange will question the loosing of Ireland. ' The Hollanders and all Northerne States will oppose France in having Ireland. ' The 30 thousand papists of England and Scotland will be sent into Ireland in exchange of the Protestants. ' The Scotts and fugitive English will come in with Orange and Holland. ' The French and Irish will invade England, and will be left Prisoners there. ' The Emperour and Spain will fall upon France. ' The Venetian and the Turk [will be] busyed. ' 1. The Brittish will beat the French and Irish, and keep them Prisoners in England. ' 2. The Irish and French will be brought Captives into England. ' 3. Ireland and the Northern third of Scotland will be made a place of pasturage. ' 4. 9,600 thousand English, Irish, and Scotch, and 2,000 thousand out of France, will plant in 58 millions, and be a Eepublick, at y^ upshot of the troubles, at 5 livres to each head.' ^ Lady Petty was created a Peeress for life by King James, who appears to have entertained a sincere goodwill for Sir Wilham, and possibly regretted that his own policy in Ire- land had proved so disastrous to his friend. She became Baroness Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland, and Charles, her eldest son. Baron Shelburne, by a simultaneous creation.^ In the events which followed. Lord Shelburne was attainted, and the whole of the Petty estates were sequestered by the Irish Parliament in 1689, but they were restored by the events of •■ Longleat MS. James II. from England. The patent ' The privy seal is dated December was passed December 31 of the same 6, 1688, five days before the flight of year. Eot. de A"., 4 Jao. II. 6, p. 1. 312 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY" chap, x 1690. The barony became extinct by the death of Lord Shel- burne without issue in 1696. It was revived in favour of his brother Henry in 1699, who was further created Viscount Dun- kerron and Earl of Shelburne in 1719. These titles becoming extinct on his death without issue in 1751, the estates and pro- perty passed to his nephew, John Pitzmaurice, the second sur- viving son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry, who, as his grandson afterwards wrote, had 'married luckily for me and mine, a very ugly woman, who brought into his family whatever degree of sense may have appeared in it, or whatever wealth is likely to remain in it.' ^ This ugly but sagacious woman was Sir William's daughter, Anne Petty, who by marrying in Ireland had complied with the express desire of her father, that such a sum as he had left her in his will should not be carried out of that country.' A short time before his death Sir William had written to Southwell on the question of mourning for the dead. The letter was occasioned by the loss of a favourite child by Sir Eobert, who in his grief had asked his friend's views on what degree of sorrow it was legitimate to express by public and outward show. ' When any one dies,' he replied, ' who had promoted your honour, pleasure, or profit, and still desired so to do, 'tis manifest you mourn for yourself and your own Life, and may express or suppress the signs of it, as you think fit to make the world under- stand what esteem you had of the defunct, and to encourage the living to serve you as the defunct had done. And you shall mourn very properly in this case, if you give to the defunct's surviving friends what you owed to the defunct for the good he had done you in his life more than you had requited by reciprocal kindness ; whether by black, called mourning garments, or by rings with Death's heads on them, by boxes of sweetmeats, burnt wine or rosemary within sweet water, or by gloves and scarfs, or any other effectual way or signs of gratitude, which the world understands, but without " Life of Lord Sfielburne, Chapter favour of John Fitzmaurics. of Autobiography, vol. i. p. 3. The ' See Appendix, ' Will.' Shelburne title was again revived in 1687 ON MOURNING FOR THE DEAD 313 cutting off your joints,^ as the " Foppes " and other Coxcombs you mention. I say you need not punish yourself, but with parting with what you can spare as aforesaid, and giving to those of the Defunct's friends that most want it. As for Bells, Sermons, Coffins and Couches, you are to defend yourself from the reproaches, grounded upon the custom and opinions, true or false, of the country and age you live in. If you found such signs of God's grace in your friend as persuade you he is in Abraham's bosom with poor Lazarus, or in Paradise with the penitent thief expecting a glorious resurrection and consum- mation of his bliss, I think you need not mourn at all, except as aforesaid. But if you suspect him to be in chains of dark- ness, you must grieve that you did not by your precepts and example prevent his sad condition ; and if you believe that any sort of man can relieve him, you shall do well to hire him at any rate to do so, and in the meantime have such a com- passion with the defunct, as unison harp-strings have one with another : and you must warn the living (especially the defunct's friends) to avoid all those things that caused your fears concerning him ; for Dives desired that one might be sent from the dead to his brethren on earth for that purpose.' ^ Sir William in his will ordered his own funeral charges not to exceed 300Z. He was buried in the Abbey Church at Eumsey near his father and mother. He left a sum of 1501. for a family monument, which he had intended to erect during his lifetime, and he had actually gone as far as to write the inscription for it, in which he specially recorded his affection ipv his brother, Anthony Petty, in whose memory he also ordered ' a stone worth 51. ' to be set up in Lothbury Church. The inscription was to be as follows : ' Here lyeth Anthony Petty, who died 22 July 1654, and Francesca his wife, who dyed Gef 1663, whose children were Anthony, Francesca, William, Susan, Anthony J"" and Dorothy, of whom the first, second and fourth dyed Infants. Anthony Jun'' dyed at London 16 Ocf 1649, admirably skilled in all naturall and practicall knowledge. Dorothy, marryed to James, Son of Sir Nathaniel Naper, Baronet, liveth yet in * In the sense of a knot of ribbands. ' June 5, 1686. 314 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY chap, x Meath in Ireland ; and William having many wayes tryed his fortunes was, anno 1649, after much foreign travel, made Doctor of Physic and Professor of Medicine in Oxford. Then, having geometrically surveyed all Ireland in 13 months and therein measuring as much Line as would encompass the whole Earth above 5 times about, was anno 1661 Knighted, and now being 46 anm. of age hath in memory of his family and in due acknowledgment of his Parents exemplary care in the education of their children, erected this Tomb and given his whole patrimony for pious uses to this Town.' ' But altered circumstances and the stress of the times caused him to abandon his good intentions towards his native town, and his will, dated May 2, 1685, was found to contain the following curious passage in regard to charitable bequests : — ' As for legacies for the poor, I am at a stand ; as for beg- gars by trade and election I give them nothing ; as for impo- tents by the hand of God, the publick ought to maintain them ; as for those who have been bred to no calling nor estate they should be put upon their kindred ; as for those who can get no work, the magistrate should cause them to be em- ployed, which may be well done in Ireland, where is fifteen acres of improveable land for every head : prisoners for crimes by the King ; for debt by their prosecutors. ' As for those who compassionate the sufferings of any object, let them relieve themselves by relieving such sufferers ; that is, giving them alms pro re natd, and for God's sake relieve those several species above mentioned, where the above- mentioned obligees fail in their duties. Wherefore I am contented that I have assisted all my poor relations, and put many into a way of getting their own bread ; and have laboured in publick works, and by inventions have sought out real objects of charity; and do hereby conjure all who partake of my estate, from time to time to do the same at their peril. Nevertheless to answer custom, and to take the surer side, I give 20L to the most wanting of the parish wherein I die. . . . ' The patrimony was the family house and property in the town. 1687 MONUMENT IN RUMSEY CIITJECH 315 ' As for religion, I die in the profession of that faith and in the practice of such worship, as I find estabHshed by the law of my country, not being able to believe what I myself please, nor to worship God better than by doing as I would be done unto, and observing the laws of my country, and expressing my love and honour to Almighty God by such signs and tokens as are understood to be such by the people among whom I live, God knowing my heart even without any at all. And thus, begging the Divine Majesty to make me what he would have me to be, both as to faith and good works, I willingly resign my soul into his hands, relying only on his infinite mercy and the merits of my Saviour for my happiness after this life ; where I expect to know and see God more clearly, than by the study of the Scriptures and of his works, I have been hitherto able to do. ' Grant me, Lord, an easy passage to thyself, that as I have lived in thy fear, I may be known to die in thy favour. Amen.' It does not appear that the projected monument was ever set up after his death, and till a descendant in comparatively recent years raised a permanent record in the west end of the nave to the fame of his ancestor,^ not even an inscription indicated that the founder of political economy lay in Eumsey Abbey ; for the hand of the Church restorer had desecrated even the stone in the aisle which in a previous generation had marked the grave with the simple legend, 'Here layes Sir William Pety.' ^ ^ In the present century, Henry, ' The original of the wi]l is in the third Marquess of Lansdowne, erected Eegistry Office of the Court of Probate a monument by Westmacott. It re- in Ireland. There is a copy in the presents a full-length recumbent effigy Egerton MSS. (2225), British Museum, of Sir William Petty. APPENDIX A COPY of the Collection of Sir William Petty's several works since the year 1636, found at Wycombe, in his own handwriting : — C^™ 11638. ri639. London 1640. 1643. Holland J 1644. (lost at sea) ] 1645. Paris f 1646. Oxford \ -1647. London < 1648. Oxford 1649. rl650. London < Ireland 1651. 1652. , 1653. I 1654. 1654. 1655. 1656. 1657. 1658. A course of practicall Geometry and Dialling. Ciirsus Khetorices at Geographieae. J , j; A i / Ptolemaieal, and A system of Astronomy •{ _ I Copernican. SeveraU Drawings and Paintings. An Englisli Poem of Susanna and the Elders. Collegium Logicum et Metaphisicum. A Collection of the Frugalities of Holland. An history of seven Months practice in a Chemical Lahoratory. A Discourse in Latin, ' de Arthritide et Lue Venereel ; ' and ' Cursus Anatomious.' Advice to M''. Hartlib about the advancement of *' learning. Collections for the history of Trees, etc. The double writing Instrument. The engine for planting Come, and Printing ; Boyling Waters, Woods. Six Phisico-MedioaU Lectures, read at Oxford. Several! Musick Lectures. Hester Ann Green. Three Osteological Lectures. Collection of Experiments. Pharmacopoea and formula Medioamentorum. Observationes MedioK et Praxis. De Plantis. Notae in Hippocratem. Scholaris situlifuga. Poemata Liturgica. A Discourse against the Transplanting into Con- A 3 ' naught. ' A Treatise of irregular Dialls. The Grand Survey of Ireland. SeveraU Beports about settling the Quarters and Soldiers. Breviar-ia, Clerk of the Council. Letters, etc., between the Protector and the Lieut. Gov. of Ireland. 318 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY 1659. ' The history of the Survey and first Distribution of Lands in Ireland. 1660. Brev: against Sankey, and William Petty's own ■^apology. 1660. ' Observations on the BUls of Mortality. 1661. A Discourse about registry, and Settlement of Ireland. {Materialls of a BiU and Small money. 1663. The Grand Map of Ireland, and Brev. of Boroughs. The Natural History of religion { g^J"^^ °f SyS' ' SatyricaU Poems .De motu maris et ventorum. De medicinis solutis per aquam et aera. 1664. Naval Experiments J Navicula Gemina. and Discourses. Reterium Nauticum. 1665. "Verbum Sapienti, Anatomia Navalis. and the value of \ People. English Translation of Hermes, per Alex. Brome. . 1667. Lawsuits. 1668. Poemata Glanarita; 1669. Severall Latine Epigrams. 1670. ''Anatomia Politica Hibernise. 1671. "Political Arithmetick. 1682. • Quantulumque concerning money. II Sir William Petty's Will, extracted from the principal Begistry of Her Majesty's Court of Probate in Ireland In the name of God. Amen. — I, S"" William Petty, Kn', born at Eumsey, in Halimtshire, doe, revoking all other and former wills, make this my last will and testament, premising the ensueing pre- face to the same, whereby to express my condition, designe, inten- tions, and desires, concerning the persons and things contained in and relating to my said will, for the better expounding any thing which may hereafter seem doubtful! therein, and also for justifing in behalfe of my children the manner and means of getting and acquiring the estate w* I hereby bequeath unto them, exhorting them to emprove the same by no worse negotiations. In the first place, I declare and affirms that at the full age of fifteene years I had obtained the Lattin, Greeks, and French tongues, the whole WILL 319 body of common Aritiimetick, the practicall Geometry and Astro- nomy conducing to Navigation, Dialing, &c., with the knowledge of severall Mathematical! Trades, at which, and having been at the University of Caen, preferred me to the King's Navy, where, at the age of 20 years, I had gotten up about three score pounds, w"^ as much mathematices as any of my age was known to have had. With this provision, Anno 1643, when the civill warrs betwixt the King and Parliament great hatt, I went into the Netherlands and France for three years, and having vigorously followed my studies, especially that of medicine, att Utretch, Leydon, Amsterdam, and Paris, I returned to Einsey, where I was born, bringing back with me my brother Anthony, whom I had bred, with about ten pounds more then I had carried out of England ; with this ^70 and my endeavours, in less than four years more I obtained my degree of Doctor of Phisick in Oxford, and forthwith thereupon to be admitted into the College of Phistians, London, and into severall clubbs of the vir- tuous, after all which expenses defrayed I had left twenty-eight pounds ; and in the next two years being made Fellow of Brasen Nose, and Anatomy Professor in Oxford, and also Eeader at Gersham Colledge, I advanced my said stock to about four hundred pounds, and with £100 more advanced and given me to go for Ireland into full five hundred pounds. Upon the tenth of September, 1652, I landed att Waterford, in Ireland, Phisitian to the army who had suppressed the Eebellion began in the year 1641, and to the Generall of the same, and the Head Quarters, at the rate of 20s. per diem, at which I continued till June, 1659, gaining by my practice about £400 per annum, above the said sallary. About September, 1654, I, perceiving that the admeasurement of the lands forfeited by the forementioned Eebellion, and intended to regulate the satisfaction of the soldiers who had suppressed the same, was most unsufficiently and absurdly managed, I obtained a contract, dated the 11th of December, 1654, for making the said admeasurement, and by God's blessing so performed the same as that I gained about nine thousand pounds thereby, which, with the £500 above-mentioned, my sallary of 20s. per diem, the benefit of my practice, together with £600 given me for directing an after survey of the advent''^ lands, and £800 more for 2 years' sallary as Clerk of the Councell, raised me an estate of about thirteen thousand pounds in ready and reall money, at a time when, without art, interest, or authority, men bought as much lands for 10s. in reall money, as in this year, 1685, yield 10s. per ann. rent above his Mattes quitt rents. Now I be- stowed part of the said £13,000 in soldier's debentures, part in purchasing the Earl of Arundell's house and garden in Lothbury, 320 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY London, and part I kept in cash, to answer emergencies ; hereupon I purchased lands in Ireland with sodier's debentures, bought att above the markett rates, a great p* whereof I lost by the Court of Innocents, anno 1663, and built the said Garden called Token House yard, in Lothbury, which was for the most part destroyed by the dreadfuU fire, anno 1666. Afterwards, anno 1667, I married Elizabeth, the relict of S"^ Maurice Fenton, Barronett. I sett up iron works and pilchard fishing in Kerry, and opened the lead mines and timber trade in Kerry, by all which, and some advantageous bargins, and with living under my income, I have, at the making this my will, the reall and personall estate following (viz*.), a large house and 4 tenements in Eunsey, with 4 acres of meadow upon the causway, and about 4 acres of arrable in the fields called Marks and Woollsworth, in all about thirty pounds per ann. ; houses in Token house yard, near Lothbury, London, with lease in Piccadilly, and the Seaven Starrs, and the Blazing Starr, in Birching Lane, London, worth about five hundred pounds per ann. ; besides mortgages upon certain houses in Hogg Lane, near Shoreditch, in London, and in Erith, in Kent, worth about £20 per ann. : I have | parts of the ship Charles, whereof Deryck Paine is master, which I value at £80 per ann. ; as also the copper plates for the mapps of Ireland, with the King's priviledge, which I rate at £100 per ann., in aU seven hundred and thirty pounds per ann. I have in Ireland, without the County of Kerry, in lands, remainders, and reversions, about three thousand one hundred pounds per ann. I have of neat profits out of the lands and woods of Kerry, above eleven hundred pounds per ann., besides iron works, fishings, and lead mines, and marble quarrys, worth £600 per ann., in all £4800. I have, as my wife's Joynture, during her life, about £850 per ann., and for 14 years after her death about £200 per ann. ; I have, by £3300 money at interest, £320 per ann., in all about £6700 per ann. The per- sonal estate is as foil, viz* — in chest six thousand six hundred pounds, in the hands of Adam Loftus £1296 ; of Mr John Gogs, goldsmith, of London, £1251 ; in silver plate and Jewells ab* £3000, in furniture, goods, pictures, coach horses, books, and watches, £1150 per esti- mate, in all twelve thousand pounds. I value my three chests of originall mapps and field books, the coppys of the Down Survey, ioith the.Barrony mapps, and the chest of distribution books, with two chests of loose papers relating to the survey ; the two great Barony books, and the book of the history of the survey, altogether at two thousand pounds. 1 have due out of Kerry for arrears. May rent, and iron, before 24th June, 1685, the sume of £1912, for the next half year's rent out of my lands in Ireland, my wife's joynture, WILL 321 and England, on or before the 24 June next, ^£2000 ; moreover, by arrears due the 30 Aprill, 1685, out of all my estate by estimate and interest of money, £1800 ; by other good debts due upon bonds and bills at this time, per estimate, j6900 ; by debts which I call bad, £4000, worth, perhaps, £800 ; by debts which I call doubtful, £50,000, worth, perhaps, 25 thousand pounds, in all, £34,612 ; and the totall of the whole personall estate, £46,412 ; so as my present income for the year 1685 may be £6700, the profits of the personall estate may be £4641, and the demonstrable improvement of my Irish estate may be £3659 per arm., to make in all fifteen thousand pounds per arm., in and by all manner of effects abating for bad debts, about £28,000. Whereupon I say in gross, that my reall estate or income may be £6500 per ann., my personall estate about £45,000, my bad and desparate debts, 30 thousand pounds, and the improvements may be £4000 per ann., in all £16,000 per ann., ut supra. Now, my opinion and desire is (if I could effect it, and if I wear cleare from the law custom and all other impediments), to add to my wives joynture | of what itt now is computed att, viz* — £637 per ann., to make the whole £1587 per ann., which addition of £637 and £850 being deducted out of the aforementioned £6700, leaves £5113 for my two sons, whereof I would my eldest son should have f , or £8408, and the younger £1705 ; and that after their mother's death, the aforesaid addition of £637 should be added in like pro- portion, making for the eldest £3832, and for the youngest £1916 ; and I would that the improvement of the estate should be equally divided between my two sons, and that the personall estate (first taking out ten thousand pounds for my only daughter,) that the rest should be equally divided between my wife and three children, by which method my wife would have £1587 per ann., and £9000 in personall effects ; my daughter would have ten thousand pounds of the erame, and £9000 more with less certainty ; my eldest son would have £3800 per ann., and half the expected improvements, with £9000 in hopefull effects, over and above his wifes portion ; and my youngest son would have the same within £1900 per ann. I would advise my wife in this case to spend her whole £1587 per ann., that is to say, in her own entertainment, charity, and muni- ficence, without care of increasing her children's fortunes ; and I would she should give away |- of the above-mentioned £9000 att her death, even from her children, upon any worthy object, and dispose of the other f to such of her children and grand children as pleased her best, without regard to any other rule or proportion. In case of either of my 3 childrens death under age, I advise as foUoweth, viz' — if my eldest, Charles, dye without issue, I would that Henry 822 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY should have | of what he leaves, and my daughter, Anne, the rest ; if Henry dye, I would that what he leaves may be equally divided between Charles and Anne ; and if Anne dyes, that her share be equally divided between Charles and Henry. Memorandum. — That I think fitt to rate the 30 thousand pound desperate debts at one thousand pounds only, and to give it my daughter, to make her aboveS 10™ and 9" to be full twenty thousand pounds, which is much short of what I have given her younger brother ; and the elder brother may have £3800 per ann. 9"° in money, worth good more £2000 by improvements, and £1300 by marriage, to make up the whole to £8000 per ann., which is very well for the eldest son, as 20 thousand pounds for the daughter. I think, to make a codioill to my will, when I shall find myself sick or decaying, whereby to dispose of severall small legacies, with my funerall charges not exceeding one thousand pounds, I desire may be born by my wife and 3 children as near as may be, according to the proportions above-mentioned. Now, whereas, I have made deeds of settlement, dated .... for my wife and two sons. And, whereas I have hereby made my yearly income to be £6700, my present will that my wife shall have, besides the provision made by S'' Maurice Fenton, £637 per ann. out of my said £6700, and that what by the said settlement is short thereof shall be made up out of the said £6700, and what is too much shall be abated out of £9000. By the aforemade computation, my eldest son, Charles, when his mother's provision of £850 and £637 is taken out the s^ £6700, will have £3400 per ann. ; whereof if the settlement be short, it must be supplied out of the rest of £6700 ; if too much, his share of the £9000 must be retrencht ; the like I order concerning my son Henry. As my daughter Anne, not medling with the £3200 at interest, which is part of the £6700 per ann., I give and bequeath to her of the £6600 in chest, and £1251 in M'' Cog's hands, £2149 out of my plate and Jewells, the full sume — ten thousand pounds — to be paid her at the age of eighteen years ; and I intend that if I shall see cause to dispose otherways of the said effects, to charge the said ten thousand pounds on some other reall security. I hereby make Elizabeth, my beloved wife, sole Executrix of this my will during her widowhood ; but if she marry, I make her brother, James Waller, and Thomas Dance, Exors in her room, in trust for my children. I also make my said wife Guardian of my children during her widowhood, but when she marrys, I appoint the said James Waller and Tho Dance Guardians in her room. I recommend to my Exors and the Guardians of my children to use the same servants and instruments for management of the estates, as were in my life time, viz* — the said James Waller, WILL 323 ht the yearly sallary of one hundred pounds ste"^' per ann. sterling ; Thomas Dance, at fifty pounds ; Thomas Milburne, at twenty, . . . . Crofton, at twelve ; and Maurice Carroll, at eight ; as also Eichard Orpin, at twenty ; John Mahony, at twenty ; Luke Parker, a,t five pound ; Phillip Prosser, at five pounds ; and Mr. John Cogs, of London, at twelve ; and Thomas Callow, at sis pounds per ann. ; all which sallarys are to continue during their lives, or untill my youngest child shall be one and twenty years, which will be the 22"'' of October, 1696 ; unless seven of the persons above named, whereof ray wife, Mr. James Waller, and Thomas Dance, shall, under their hands and seals, certifie that any of the said persons have broken their respective trusts and notably misbehaved themselves ; and after the said 22'"i October, 1696, every of my children, being of full age, may put the management of their respective concerns into what hand they please, having still a respect to such of the aforenamed as have been dilligent and faithfull in their respective trusts and imployments. I would not have my funeral charges to ejiceed three hundred pounds, over and above which sum I allow and give one hundred and fifty pounds to sett up a monument in the Church of Eumsey, near where my grandfather, father, and mother were buried, in memory of them and of all my brothers and sisters. I also give five pounds for a stone to be sett up in Lothbury Church, London, in memory of my brother Anthony, there buried about the 18* October, 1649 ; I also give fifty pounds for a small monument, to be sett up in S' Bride's Church, Dublin, in memory of my son John, and my near hinsman John Petty ; supposing my wife will add thereunto for her excellent son, S' William Fenton, Bar', who was buryed there 18*'' March, 167?- ; and if I myself be buried in any of the s"* 3 places, I would have £100 only added to the above named sumes, or that the said £100 shall be bestowed on a monu- ment for me in any other place where I shall dye. As for legacies for the "poor, I am att a stand : as for beggars by trade and election, I give them nothing ; as for impotents by the hand of God, the Publick ought to maintaine them ; as for those who have been bred to no calling nor estate, they should be put upon their kindred ; as for those who can get no work, the magistrate should cause thevi to be employed, which may be well done in Ireland, where is 15 acres of improvable land for every head : prisoners for crimes, by the King ; for debt, by their prosecutors. As for those who compassion- ate the sufferings of any object, lett them relieve themselves by relieving such sufferers, that is, give them alms, pro re nata, and for Gods sake relieve those severall species above named, where the above-named obligers faile in their duties. Wherefore, I am con- 324 LIFE OP SIR WILLIAM PETTY tented that I have assisted all my poor relations, and put many into a way of getting their owne bread, and have laboured in public works and inventions ; have sought out reall objects of charity, and do hereby conjure all who partake of my estate from time to time to do the same at their perill. Nevertheless, to answer custome,. and to take the surer side, I give twenty pounds to the most wanting of the parish wherein I dye. As for the education of my children, which are 2 sons and one daughter, I would that my daughter might marry in Ireland, desiring that such a sum as I have left her might not be carried out of Ireland. I wish that my eldest son may get a gentlemam's estate in England, which, by what I have gotten already intend to purchase, and by what I presume he may have with a wife, may amount to between two and three thousand pounds per ann., and by some office he may get there, together vrith an ordinary superlucration, may reasonably be expected, so as I designe my youngest son's trade and imployment to be the prudent manage- ment of our Irish estate for himself and his elder brother, which I suppose his said brother must consider him. For as for myself, I being now about threescore & two years old, I intend to attend the improvements of my lands in Ireland, and to gett in the money debts oweing unto me, and to promote the trade of Iron, Lead, Marble, Fish, and Timber, whereof my estate is capable ; and as for studies and experiments, I think now to confine the same to the anatomy of the people and pohticall Arithmetick, as also to the improvement of ships, land, carriages, guns, and pumps, as of most use to man- kind, not bleaming the studies of other men. As for religion, I dye in the profession of that faith, and in the practice of such worship, as I find establht by the Law of my country, not being able to be- lieve what I myself please, nor to worship God better than by doing as I would be done unto, and observing the Laws of my country, and expressing my love and honour to Almighty God by such signes and tokens as are understood to be such by the people with whom I live, God knowing my heart even without any at aU; and thus begging the Divine Majesty to make me what He would have me to be, both as to faith and good works ; I willingly resigne my soul ■ into His hands, relying only on His infinite mercy and the merritts of my Saviour for my happiness . after this life, whereof I expect to know and see God more clearly then by the study of the Scriptures, and of His works I have been hitherto been able to do. Grant me, Lord, an easy passage to thyself, that as I have lived in thy fear, 1 may be known to dye in thy favour. Amen. Dated the second day of May, in the year of our Lord Christ, one thousand six hun- dred eighty and five. — Wm. Petty. THE DOWN SURVEY 325 III A BEiBFB AccoMPT of the viost materiall Passages relatinge to the Survey managed by Doctoe Petty in Ireland, anno 1655 and 1656 1 Baeeonyes in Irland are of various extents, viz*., some but 8000 acres, and some 160,000 acres. The first survey or old measurement was performed by measuringe whole baronyes in one surround, or perimeter, and payinge for the same after the rate of 40* for every thousand acres contayned within such surround ; whereby it followed that the surveyors were most unequally rewarded for the same worke, viz*., he that measured the barrony of 160,000 acres did gaine neere five tymes as much per diem as he that measured that of 8000 acres. Besides, wheras 40* were given for measuringe 1000 acres, in that way 5* was too much, that is to say, at 5= per 1000 a surveyor might have earned above 20* per diem cleare, wheras 10* is esteemed, especially in long employments, a competent allowance. The error of this way beinge discerned, the same undertakers order, that instead of measuringe entire baronyes as before, that scopes of forfeited profitable lands should bee measured under one surround, bee the same great or small, or whether such scopes con- sisted of many or few ffarme lands, townelands, ploughlands, or other denominations usuall in each respective county or barrony. And for this kind of worke the surveyor was to have 45^ for every thousand acres, abatinge proportionably for such parcells, either of unprofitable or unforfeited land as should happen to be surrounded within any great scope. Now this latter way, besides the inconve- niencyes above mentioned, laboured with this other and greater, viz*., that by how much the measurer's paynes and worke was greater, by see much his wages and allowance was lesse, soe as noe surveyor could foresee wheather hee should be able to performe his respective undertakinge at the rate above said, or that hee should hot gaine exorbitantly by it. Hereupon D"^ Petty propounded that the whole land should be measured both accordinge to its civill bounds, viz., by barronyes, parishes, townelands, ploughlands, balliboes, &c., and alsoe by its naturall boundings by rivers, ridges of mountaines, rockes, loughes, boggs, &c. ; as answeringe not onely the very ends of satisfyinge the ' From a manuscript in the Kecord Branch of the Office of the Paymaster of Civil Services in Ireland. j.,A <^c li'l. 326 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY adventurers and souldiers then in view, but all such other future ends whatsoever as are usually expected from any survey. The objection was, that the same would not be don under twenty yeares tyme, and the settlement must be soe longe retarded. It was answered, that security should be given for performinge the whole in thirteen months, provided the allowance might be somewhat extraordinary. Hereuppon the army agree to give out of theire owne purses soe much as should be requisite over and above what the councell were limitted unto by theire superiours. This undertakinge extended onely to the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and Manster (that of Connaght beinge reserved for the Irish), nor unto all the lands in the said three provinces, although the same labour and method would have effected the whole, and more, as well as what was. Now the method and order used by the said Petty in this vast worke was as followeth, viz. : Whereas surveyors of land are commonly persons of gentile and liberall education, and theire practise esteemed a mistery and intri- cate matter, farr exceedinge the most parte of mechanicall trades, and withall, the makeinge of theire instruments is a matter of much art and nicety, if performed with that truth and beauty as is usuall and requisite. The said Petty, consideringe the vastnesse of the worke, thought of dividinge both the art of makeinge instruments, as alsoe that of usinge them into many partes, viz'.,, one man made onely measuringe chaines, viz*., a wire maker ; another magneticall needles, with theire pins, viz*., a watchmaker ; another turned the boxes out of wood, and the heads of the stands on which the instru- ment playes, viz*., a turner ; another, the stands or leggs, a pipe maker ; another all the brasse worke, viz*., a founder ; another workman, of a more versatile head and hand, touches the needles, adjusts the sights and cards, and adaptates every peece to each other. In the meane tyme scales, protractors, and compasse-eards, beinge matters of accurate division, are prepared by the ablest artists of London. Whether alsoe was sent for, a magazin of royall paper, mouth- glew, colours, pencills, &o. At the same tyme, a perfect forme of a ffeeild booke haveinge bin first concluded on, uniforme bookes for all the surveyors were ruled and fitted accordinge to it, and more- over large sheetes of paper, of perhaps five or six ffoote square, were glewed together, and divided throughout into areas of ten acres each, accordinge to a scale of forty Irish perches to an inch, and other single sheets (by a particular way of printinge dry, in order to pre- THE DOWN SURVEY 327 ■vent the uncertaynties of shrinkinge in the paper) were lined out into single acres. Dureinge the same tyme, alsoe, portable tables, boxes, rulers, and all other necessaryes, as alsoe small Ffrench tents, were provided to enable the measurers to doe any buissnesse without house or harbour, it beinge expected that into such wasted countryes they must at some tymes come. Dureinge the same tyme, alsoe, bookes were preparinge of all the lands' names to be measured, and of theire ould propreitors, and guesse-plotts made of most of them, whereby not onely to direct the measurers where to beginne, and how to proceed, &c., but alsoe to en- able Petty himselfe how to apportion unto each measurer such scope of land to worke uppon, as hee might be able to finish within any assigned tyme. At the same tyme care was taken to know who were the ablest in each barrony and parish to shew the true bounds and meares of every denomination, what convenient quarters and harbors there were in each, and what garrisons did everywhere lye most conveniently for theire defence, and to furnish them with guards, and with all who were men of creditt and trade in each quarter, fitt to correspond with for furnishinge mony by bills of exchange and otherwise ; and, lastly, who were men of sobriety and good affection, to have an eye privatly over the carriage and diligence of each surveyor in his respective undertakinge. Another person is appoynted to soUicite under offices for mony, and to receive it from severall publique and private persons, uppon whome each summe was assigned by the publique Treasurer. The same alsoe paid bills upon stated accompts, drew bills of exchange into the country, &c., as alsoe attended the course of coynes, which often rose and fell in that time ; and was to beware of adulterate and light peeces, then and there very rife. But the principall division of this whole worke was to enable certayne persons, such as were able to endure travaile, ill lodginge and dyett, as alsoe heates and colds, beinge alsoe men of activitie, that could leape hedge and ditch, and could alsoe ruffle with the severall rude persons in the country, from whome they might expect to be often crossed and opposed. (The which qualifications happend to be found among severall of the ordinary shouldiers, many of whom, havinge bin bread to trades, could write and read sufficiently for the purposes intended.) Such, therefore (if they were but headfuU and steddy minded, though not of the nimblest witts), were taught, while the other things aforementioned were in doinge, how to make use of their instruments, in order to take the bearinge of any line, and 328 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTF alsoe how to handle the ehaines, especially in the ease of risings or fallings grounds ; as alsos how to make ssverall markes with a spade, whereby to distinguish the various breakings and abutments which they were to take notice of ; and to choose the most convenient sta- tions or place for observations, as well in ordsr to dispach as cer- taynty. And lastly, they wsrs instructed, per autopsiam, how to judge of the valines of lands, in reference to its beare qualities, and accordinge to the rules and opinions then currant, to distinguish the profitable from such as was to be thrown in over and above, and not paid for at all. Another sort of men, especially such as had beene of trades into which payntinge, drawings, or any other kind of designinge is necessary, were instructed in the art of protractinge, that is, in drawings a modell or plott of ths lands admeasured, ac- cordinge to a scale of 40 perches to the inch, accordinge to the length and bearinge of every side transmitted unto the said protractors in the ffeild bookes of the measurers last above described ; the which protractions were made uppon the papers aforementioned, which were squared out into areas, some of 10, some of single acres?^ These" men, and sometimes others of smaller abilities, were employed to count how many of the said greater or lesser intire areas were comprehended within svery surround. And withall unto how many inteire acres the broken skirtinge reduced from decimall parts did amount unto, which worke was soe very easie, that it was as hard to mistake, as easie to discover and amend it, and infinitly more obvious to examination and free from error, then the usuall way of reduoeinge the whole surround into triangles was, and dsducing the content from laborious prostapheresis of them. The next works was reducinge barrony plotts, which, accordinge to the scale of 40 perches to ths inch, wsre somtymes 8 or 10 foot squars, or thersaboutes, within the compasse of a sheet of a royal paper, whsthsr ths seals happened to be greater or Isss, soe as all ths barrony plotts, being reduced to one size, might be bound up togeathsr into uniforms bookss, accordinge to the countyes or provinces unto which they did belonge. These reducements were made by paralelagrames, of which wsre made greater numbers, greater variety, and in larger dimsnsions, thsn psrhaps was ever yet scene upon any other occasion. Some hands that were imployed in the said reducements did, for the most parte, performs the colourings and other ornament of the worke. Over and above all these, a few of the most nasuts and sagacious persons, such as wsrs well skilled in all ths partes, practices, and frauds, appartayninge unto this worke, orwhereunto it was obnoxious, did in the first plac^ view the measurers ffsild bookss, and thsre by THE DOVkTST SURVEY 329 the same eritickes as artists discerne originalls from coppyes in paintinge, and truely antique medalls from such as are counterfeit, did endevour to discover any falsification that might be prejudicial! to the service. The same men alsoe reprotracted the protractions above mentioned, compared the comon lines of severall men's worke, examined wheather any of the grounds given in charge to be ad- measured were omitted ; and, lastly, did cast up all and every the measurers workes into Unary contents, accordinge to which the said Petty paid his workmen, although he himselfe were paid by the superficial! content, or number of acres, which the respective ad- measurements did conteyne ; the which course of payment he tooke to take away all byas from his under measurers to returne unprofit- able for profitable, or vice versa, he himselfe haveinge engaged, in an ensnaringe contract, begetinge suspicions of those evills against him, in as much as he was paid more for profitable then unprofitable land ; for some parcells of unprofitable receveinge nothinge at all. Ffor this end he paid his under-surveyors by the lineary content of theire worke as aforesaid, though some suspect he rather did it to obscure his gaines, as well from those that employed him as those others whome himselfe employed, and withall, by removeinge the old surveyors from of theire old principles, and confoundinge them with new, to make them more amenable to his purposes. The quan- titie of line which was measured by the chaine and needle beinge reduced into English miles was enough to have encompassed the world neere five tymes about. There doe remaine of this worke, as large mapps as a sheet of royal! paper will conteyne, of every parish distinctly, by as large a scale as such sheets of paper will contayne, and other mapps of the same size for every barrony. These are fairely bound up in large bookes, according to their countyes, and the bookes kept in a cabinett of the most exquisit joyner's worke, made for the purpose, of 60" value. Mapps of each county and province, as alsoe of the whole island, wil be published in print, according to the severall ancient and moderne divisions of the same, which have often changed by reason of the often change of proprietyes, occasioned by the often rebellions and revolutions there. INDEX Act of Explanation, 131 Navigation, 141, 189, 205 Acts of Settlement, 1662, 130 Admiralty, Courts of, 247 Adventurers, 23, 43, 51, 56, 130 Anabaptists, 31, 44, 48, 70, 71, 74,75, 89, 106 Anatomy, 18, 19, 22 ; see Political Anglesea, Lord, 157, 179 Appendix I. : Works, 317 ; II. : Will, 318 ; III. : ' Down ' Survey, 325 Argyle, 271 ' Arithmetick,' Political, 180, 181, 183, 185, 195, 204, 216, 220, 225 Army lands, 24, 42, 51, 125, 130^ Asoue, Sir S., 114 Aubrey, John, 1, 2, 10, 18, 20, 104, 108, 127, 163, 155, 167-169, 179,206, 256, 258, 261, 265 Aungier, Lord, 139 Auzout, Monsieur, 220 Axioms of Sir W. Petty, 27 G Ayscam, Antony, 36 Bacon, Loed. 174 Ballot, 'Boxing,' 58 Bathurst, Dr., 20 Bellarmine, 16 Berkeley, Lord, 241 Bigotry, 117-120 Bills of Mortality: Dublin, 181;. London, 181, 184 Bodin, 182, 187 Boyle, Hon. Eobert, 12, 15, 20, 21,45- 48, 63, 74, 142 Bradshaw, 97, 105 Brodrick, Sir Alan, 151 Broghill, Lord, 79, 130 Brouncker, Lord, 103, 109, 112 Brown, Sir Valentine, 289, 291 Bruno, 237 Buckingham, 242 Budgets, 187 Burnet, Bishop, 180, 232 Cabinet, rise of the, 243 ' Calais-Douvres,' a, 109-113, 253^ 257, 266-268 Campanella, 237 Cantarine, Monsieur, 65 Carteret, Sir George, 151 Cattle, Irish, 140 Cavendish, Sir Charles, 6 Chancery, Court of, 169-172, 174 Charles I., 23 — n., 103, 112, 225, 243, 257 Cheesey, Mr., 150 Church views, 223, 224, 234 Clarendon, 65, 151, 241, 271, 272, 275, 286 Clarges, Dr. Thomas, 82 Clotworthy, Sir J., 130 Coinage, 212 Colbert, 181, 190, 227 Commonwealth, end of the, 99 Connaught, transplantation into, 25, 26, 28, 31, 37 Coote, Charles, 40 Council, the Privy, 1679, 243 Coventry, Sir William, 177 Cowper, Samuel, limner, 179 Cox, Dr., 161, 163 Grawfurd, Major-General, 17 ' Creatures, Scale of,' 116 Cromwell, Henry, 28, 30, 34, 48, 54, 57, 63, 73-75, 78, 81-83, 87, 88, 95, 96, 98, 133 — Oliver, 17, 48, 74, 105 — Kichard, 78, 87 Customs duties, 207 Davenant, Sib William, 188, 203 Davis, Sir Joha, 145 'De Give,' 16, 82 Deane, Admiral, 256, 266-268 Declaration of 1660, 130, 131 Descartes, 6 Dorislaus, Dr., 36 ' Dorothy Anwacker,' 154 332 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY" DOtTBLB ' Double Bottom, the,' 109-115, 253- 257, 266-268 ' Doubling Ordinance, the,' 24 Down Survey, the, 23-68 ; 325 ; map of, 68 ' Dubious' lands, 27, 130 Dublin College of Physicians, 253 — Philosophical Society, 253 Duel, a proposed, 152 Durdans, The, 113 Economics, 182, 185, 201 Edict of Nantes, 236 Education, pamphlet on, 11 Engines in ships, 123 England, France, and Holland, temp. Charles II., 226 Ergaslula Literaria, 11 Essex, Lord, 241 Estates, Irish forfeited, 25, 42, 51 Evelyn, 109, 113, 133, 153, 180, 252 Excise, 209 Explanation, Act of, 131 Fakmbes, revenue, 137, 169, 174, 176, 246,251 Pauconberg, Lord, 74, 86 Fenton, Sir Maurice, 153 — Sir Michael, 156 — William, 156 ffoulkes, Lieut.-Colonel, 79 Fifth Monarchy Men, 74, 75 Finch, Sir Heneage, 142 Fire, the Great, 151, 155, 232 Fitzgerald, David, 272 Fitzmaurice, John, 312 Fleetwood, General, 21, 22, 28, 35, 37, 48, 86, 87, 96 Ford, Sir Henry, 234 Forfeited lands, 25, 42, 51 France and Holland, 190-196, 203, 227, 235 Galen, 116 Galileo, 237 Gassendi, 6 Golius, 8 Goodwin, Thomas, 17 Gookin, Vincent, 31, 37, 57, 77, 78- 81 Gorges, Dr., 272 Government, on, 94, 99 Graunt, Captain, 20, 114, 154, 158, 180, * 232 Green, Ann, revival of, 18 Gresham College, 102, 267 Grotius, 182 Guilbert, Bois, 201 LETTERS Hakkington, ' Oceana,' 28, 94, 183 HartUb, Samuel, 11-13, 63 Hayle, Lord Chief Justice, 116 Hearne, Thomas, 18 Henrietta Maria, 235 Herbordus, Dr., 9 Hervey, 7 Hobbes, 1, 5, 7, 10, 16, 168, 183, 186, 188, 236 Holland, 191, 196, 197, 203, 205, 206, 224-228, 235 Hooke, Mr., 113 Horghland, 9 Houblons, Mr., 115 House of Commons, impeachment, 81- 86 Impeeiai questions, 278 Indulgence, Declaration of, 287 Ingoldsby, Lady, 156 Inquisition, the, 118 ' Instrument of Government,' 95 Ireland, condition of, 1652, 21 seq. ; 1664, 142 ; 1678-79, 239 ; colonisation scheme, 23-27 ; map of, 68 ; union with, 229, 276 Ireton, General, 21, 105 Irish, Sir W. Petty on the, 145-148, 239 James, Duke op York, 107, 235 — II., King, 269, 271 seq., 280 Jenkins, Sir Leoline, 247 Jews, the, 224 Kbnmaee, 128, 149, 155, 289 Kepler, 7 Kerry, 61, 126, 149, 289 ; Instructions for, 289 Killaloe, Bishop of, 155 King, Mr., 57 Kingston, Lord, 151, 156, 159 Laboue, division of, 50, 220 Lambert, General, 21, 89, 97 Land debentures, Irish, 125 Lands in Ireland : adventurers', 23, 43, 51, 56, 130 ; army, 24, 42, 51, 125, 130; Church and Crown, 24, 42, 137; divisions and terms of , 39 ; dubious, 27, 130 Lansdowne, Marquis of, 315 Larcom, Sir T., 65 Lely, Sir Peter, 173 Letter-writer, the Manifold, 10 Letters from Sir W. Petty to : Angle- INDEX 500 sea, Lord, 157, 158 ; Aubrey, John, 258, 261,265; Aungier, Lord, 139, 140 ; Boyle, Hon. E., 45-48 ; Cromwell, Henry, 86, 87 ; Cromwell, Lady, 133 ; Graunt, Captain, 158 ; Pell, Dr., 7, 8, 10 ; Pett, Sir Peter, 249; Petty, John, 13-16; Petty, Lady, 154, 160-166, 245, 250, 253, 262, 263, 292, 293, 297 ; Southwell, Sir Robert, 5, 116, 117, 138, 139, 145, 156, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 217, 218, 243, 244, 245, 246, 259, 270-274, 280, 285, 294, 304, 306, 312; Waller, Mr., 156 Letters to Sir William Petty from : Aubrey, John, 167, 168, 169 ; Penn, William, 166, 167; Southwell, Sir Eobert, 260, 274, 275, 283, 292 Logan, Mr., graver, 179 London, ' Concerning Ye Plagues of,' 121 ; growth of, 216, 219 ; Philoso- phical Society, 15 Longomontanus, 7, 8 Lotteries, 215 Louis XIV., 227, 235, 248 Louvois, 227 Lowther, Sir James, 299 MaOAETHY, LlEUT.-GENEEAi JuSTIN, 289, 290 Mansfield, Lord, 247 Maps, the Survey, 66, 67, 68 Massereene, Lord, 112 Maynard, Consul, 118 Men, on, 299 Mersen, Father Marsin, 6 Milton, 94, 99 Minutes of the Dublin Society, 253- 255 Monk, General, 89, 93, 98 Monmouth, Duke of, 177, 271 Montecuculli, 220 Multiplication of mankind, 216, 217 Nappeb, Mr., 156 Navigation, Act of, 189, 205, 206, 244 ; treatise on, 203 New England, 148 — Eiver Company, 232 Newcastle, Marquis of, 6 Newton's ' Principia,' 306 Nonconformists, 204 North, Sir Dudley, 201 ' OcEANA,' 183 Oporto, Inquisition at, 118 Optics, 7 Ormonde, Lord, 104, 131, 138, 140, 151, 160, 173, 177, 232, 241, 242, 246, 271, 272 Orpen, Eev. Mr., 290 Osborne's ' Advice to a Son,' 114 Owen, John, 17 Oxford, 15-21, 142 PARLIA5IENT, the Little, 24 ; the Long, 75, 89, 97 ; the Bump, 87, 89 Parties, Irish, at the Eestoration, 128 Pascal, 6, 299, 300 Paul, St. Vincent de, 6 Pell, Dr., 5, 7-10 Penn, Admiral, 119 — George, 118-120 — William, 166, 234, 270 Percival, Sir John, 270 Pett, Sir Peter, 248 Petty, Anne, daughter, 160, 163, 297, 306, 322 Petty, Anionj, father, 1 — Antony, brother, 13 — Charles, son, 163, 226, 297, 300, 302, 306, 308, 311 — Henry, son, 297, 302, 303, 306 — John, cousin, 13-15, 48, 103, 104, 107, 151, 156 — Lady, 153, 154, 245, 311; see Letters Petty, Sir WiUiam, birth, 1 ; child- hood, 2 ; at sea, 2,4; as linguist, 3, 4, 5, 12 ; and the Jesuits, 3 ; at Caen, 3-5 ; in the Navy, 5 ; on the Conti- nent, 5-10; and Dr. Pell, 7-10; poverty of, 10 ; inventions, 10-13 ; on education, 11 ; famUy views of, 13-15 ; at Oxford, 15-21; Doctor in Physic, 16 ; revival of Ann Green, 18 ; Vice-Principal of Brasenose, 19 ; Chair of Anatomy, 19 ; Pro- fessor of Music, 20 ; in Ireland, 21 seq. ; and Worsley, 29, 40, 41, 48, 49, 55, 56, 90 ; and Gookin, 31-34; and the Waldenses, 36; mapping plan, 38 ; and the sur- vey, 41 seq. ; manner of life and ■work, 49 ; and the Adventurers, 56, 64; and Colonel Whalley's lands, 56; and the Army lands, 57-63, 69-72 ; in London, 63 {see Sankey) ; honours to, 73 ; his Latin, 73, 297 ; and the pamphlet of 1658, 76 ; reply to attacks, 77 ; becomes M.P., 78, 81 ; commended by Henry Cromwell, 81, 87 ; arraigned in Parliament, 81, 82 ; defence, 83-87 ; to Ireland and back, 85, 87 ; dismissal from service. 334 LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY 88 ; from Brasenose, 89 ; escapes to Dublin, 89 ; pamphlet and book by, 90-93; in London, 93; and the Cromwell family, 75, 96, 106, 133 ; his views, 1659, 96, 98, 101 ; on Henry Cromwell, 98, 106 ; and the Eoyal Society, 102, 107 seq.\ on shipping, 103, 104, 107, 109, 113 ; and the King, 103 ; peculiar position of, 105, 106; claims of, 106, 132; knighted, ] 07 ; will of, 108, 114 ; on the Plague, 108, 121 ; his ' Calais- Douvres,' 109-113, 255 ; his ' Scale of Creatures,' 116, 117 ; his Chris- tianity, 118, 120 ; on a ship-engine, 122-124 ; money gain of, 126 ; land in Kerry, 126-128, 132; an Irish M.P., 130 ; his great map, 133 ; troubles and firmness of, 137, 151 ; on Irish government, 140 ; on Irish cattle, 141, 142 ; foreign trade, 142 ; absenteeism, 143 ; exchange, 143 ; on English throttling, 144, 145 ; on the Irish, 145-148, 239 ; on the New England, 148 ; plea for union, 148, 229, 276; his colony at Kenmare, 149, 150, 155, 289 ; and the Great Fire, 151, 155, 156, 168 ; a challenge to, 152 ; marriage of, 158 ; banter of, 154 ; tired of life, 154 ; on fur- nishing, 154 ; offered a peerage, 155 ; troubles and losses of, 156 ; cha- racter of, 159, 168 ; and his children, 160, 163, 166, 297-306; on the Quakers, 166 ; in Chancery, 109-172, 174 ; and the Psalms of David, 172 ; health of, 1677, 172 ; portrait of, 173, 179 ; and the revenue farmers (see Farmers) ; and Colonel Vernon, 176- 178; Aubrey's sketch of, 179; his works, 183, 185 seq^., 317, 318; on the Deluge, 217 ; on sermons, 225 ; and Captain Graunt, 233 ; on Pope and Councils, 237; on Ireland, 1678, 289 ; declines a peerage, 245 ; in Kerry, 1680, 245 ; at the Admiralty, 247-250 ; and the reform of the revenue, 250-252 ; as a Latin poet, 250, 252 ; in Kerry again, 253 ; and the Dublin Society, 253-255 ; and James IL, 269, 275, 280 ; on deno- minations, 270 ; his ' Speculum HiberniEe,' 272 ; axioms of, 276; on Imperial questions, 278 ; and Tyr- connel, 282 ; preaches patience, 285 ; his aifairs at Kenmare, 289 ; sum- mary of claims, 293 ; on his early struggles, 294 ; on his coat and armes, 297 ; on men, 299-301 ; death of, 308 ; his patriot creed, 309 ; a fore- SHELBURNE cast by, 310 ; on mourning, 312 ; burial-place of, 313 ; will of, 314, 318-324 ; see Letters, Works, &c. Philosophical Society, Ireland, 253- 255 Plagues of London, 121 Plunket, Archbishop, 242 ' Political Anatomy of Ireland,' 33, 39, 43, 59, 133, 134-187, 140, 143-145, 148, 181, 185, 186, 189, 212, 213, 215, 219, 221 ' Political Arithmetic,' 100, 148, 149, 180, 181, 183, 185, 195, 204, 209, 215, 216, 22L224,225seg. Popish Plot, 232, 234 seq., 240 Population, 216-220 Privy Council, 1679, 243 QuAKEES in Ireland, 166 'Quantulumounque concerning Money, ' 185, 213 ' Queries on the State of Ireland,' 272 Quesnay, 202 Bates, Book of, 189 ' Eeflections,' 44, 56, 59, 60, 70, 71, 72, 73, 83, 84, 85, 90, 91, 92, 93, 98, 107, 121 Beligions and States, founders of, 99 Restoration, the, 98, 105, 128 Eevenue, farmers, 137, 169, 174, 246, 251 ; raising, 207, 251 Eobartes, Lord, 241 Eochester, 271, 286 Eome, Church of, 234-238 Eomsey Abbey, 315 Eota Club, the, 94 Eoyal Society, the, 20, 21, 107, 108 Rump, Parliament, the, 87 '88, 89 Eumsey, 1 Rushworth, 10 St. Cyran, 6 ' Sale and Settlement of Ireland,' 272 Salmasins, 8 Sandys, Sir John, 177 Sankey, Sir Hierome, 70, 71, 76, 77, 81-86, 88-93, 106, 131, 151 ' Satyre, 'A,' 93 ' Scale of Creatures,' 116, 176 Sedg.vick, Mr., 230 Servetus, 120 Settlement of Ireland, 1654-8, 65 Shaen, Sir James, 49, 137, 151, 251, 263 Shaftesbury, 242 Shelburne Barony, the, 311 INDEX SIDNEY Sidney, Algernon, 118, 235 Skinner, Cyriao, 94 ' Sluioe-boat, the,' 109-113, 253-257, 266-268 Smith, Adam, 191 — Lewin, 126 Southampton, Lord, 151 Southwell, Edward, 159, 297, 304 — Sir Robert, 108, 116, 117, 138, 145, 155, 159, 169, 172, 174-176, 217, 246, 259-, 260, 264, 270-275, 280, 283, 285, 292, 294, 304, 306, 308, 812 ; see Letters Spanheim, Dr., 9 ' Speculum Hibernise,' 272 Statute, the Great, 189 Strafford, 27 Suarez, 16 ' Supellex Philosophica,' 255 Survey, the Grosse, 28 seg., 35 ; Civil, the, 37 seq^. \ see Down Symuer, Col. Miles, 57, 60 Talbot, Akoheishop, 241 — Earl of Tyi-connel, 271, 275, 284, 286, 287 Tariff, Colbert's, 190 — the Dutch, 191, 196 Taxes ; see ' Treatise on Taxes ' Taylor, Thomas, 107 Temple, Sir William, 234, 243, 246 ' Ten Tooles,' 277 Thurloe, Secretary, 31, 35-37, 75, 76, 78, 81, 83, 96, 118 Tokenhouse Yard, 126 Toleration, Religious, 224, 237, 274, 276 Tomlinson, Colonel, 41 ' Treatise on Taxes,' 118, 180, 185, 188 seq., 223, 224 Tyrconnel ; see Talbot YORK Ulster, Plantation of, 23 Union, Sir William Petty on, 148, 229, 276 Universities and Cromwell, the, 17 Usury laws, 213 Value, extrinsic and intrinsic, 222 ; origin of, 198 ; par of, 211 Vauban, Marshal, 201 ' Verbum Sapienti,' 185, 194, 213 Vernon, Colonel, 176-178 Vesalius, Andreas, 6 Wages, 220 Waite, Mr., 230 Walaeus, 8 Waldenses, the, 35 ; and the Irish, 36 Waller, Edmund, 245 — Mr., 156 — Sir Hardress, 41, 153 Wallis, Dr., 15, 20 Ward, Seth, 20 Weymouth, Lord, 308 White House Ruin, Kenmare, 290 Wilkins, Dr., 15, 19, 20, 113-120 Will, Sir William Potty's, 5, 20, 115, 314 ; in full, 318-325 Wood, Antony, 18, 20, 70, 94, 113 Works of Sir William Petty : Principal, 185 seq: ; List of, and written by, 317 Worsley, Benjamin, 29, 40, 41, 48, 49, 55, 56, 90 Wren, Christopher, 20, 102, 103 Wybord, Dr., 9 York, Duke of, 107, 235 ; as James IL, 269, 271, 280 PRINTED BY SPOTJ-ISWCOni! 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