Sir William Petty : A Study in English Economic Literature

Preface

Sir William Petty

PUBLICATIONS

OF THE

Vol. IX. No. 4 | Six numbers a year.

Price $ 4.00 a year.

Sir William Petty

A Study in English Economic Literature

BY

WILSON LLOYD BEVAN, M.A., Ph.D.

Sometime Scholar of The Johns Hopkins University and Fellow of Columbia College

American Economic Association

August, 1894

Copyright, 1894, by American Economic Association.

BALTIMORE: From the Press of Guggenheimer, Weil & Co. 1894.

PREFACE.

The following monograph, originally prepared as a dissertation, is presented with a good deal of diffidence to a wider public. Sir William Petty seems to merit more attention than he has hitherto received. An ordinary student must generally content himself with the few pages devoted to him by Roscher or by Cunningham. What has here been done is designed to give a fuller account than can at present be found elsewhere, with the hope of calling forth in the future a more satisfactory work than this can pretend to be. The reason for the space given up to Petty' s biography may not be very apparent. It is believed that it will be found to throw some light on his writings. Petty was no littérateur. His own experience and career supplied him with the material of his "Tracts." I wish here, as I have had no opportunity in the work itself, to express my great obligations to my honored friend, Professor Brentano, of the University of Munich. Without implying any responsibility on his part, it can with truth be said that, without his direction and encouragement, this essay would not have been undertaken or completed. It is pleasant for me here to record that a kind word from Professor Cossa, of Pavia, well known for his tenderness towards youthful work, induced me to think of republishing what seemed to me too imperfect even to offer as a short-lived contribution to a neglected field of study.

W. L. B.

Concord, Mass.,

September, 1894.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Introduction

INTRODUCTION-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

List of Works Used or Referred to.

Aubrey.—Letters and Lives of Eminent Persons.

3History of Wiltshire, edited by Britton.

Boyle's Works.—London (1744 and 1772).

Burrows.—Register of Oxford Visitation (Camden Society).

Burton.—Parliamentary Diary.

Buxton.—Finance and Politics.

Carte.—Life of the Duke of Ormond (Oxford ed.).

Chalmers.—Critical Estimate of the Nation.

Cunningham.—Growth of English Industry (2d ed.).

De Morgan.—Budget of Paradoxes.

Eden.—State of the Poor.

Evelyn.—Diary and Correspondence, edited by Bray.

Faber.—Agrarschutz.

Harleian Miscellany.

John.—Geschichte der Statistik.

Langtoft's Chronicle, edited by Hearne.

Lecky.—History of England (1st ed.).

Loria.—Analisi della teoria capitalista.

Lowndes.—Bibliographical Manual.

Macaulay's History of England.

Macpherson.—History of Commerce.

Masson.—Life of Milton.

McCulloch.—Literature of Political Economy.

Morgan.—Phœnix Britannicus, London (1742).

Notes and Queries.

Pepys' Diary, Bohn edition.

Prendergast.—The Cromwellian Settlement.

Roscher.—Zur Geschichte der Englischer Volkswirtschaftslehre.

Royal Society Transactions.

Rushworth.—Historical Collection.

Somers.—Tracts.

Temple.—Works, edited by Swift.

Thorpe.—Sale Catalogue.

Thurloe.—State Papers, London (1742).

Ward.—Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, London (1740).

Wood.—Athenæ Oxonienses, edited by Birch.

Worthington.—Diary (Cheetam Society Publications).

Wren.—Parentalia, London (1750).

Bibliography of the Printed Works of Sir William Petty.

In Petty' s manuscript remains in the British Museum, I have found, presumably in his own handwriting, the following list of his works. Some of them it is difficult to identify with those that are in print. (1) Analysis of the people and their wealth, (2) Expenses of a state and the branches of its revenues, (3) Weight of the Crown, (4) Art and methods of taxing the people, (5) The people and religions of the world, (6) The commercial world and the great emporium, (7) Observations on the births, burials and marriages of London, Paris and Dublin, (8) Multiplication of mankind, (9) Growth of London, and of uniting the English and Irish, (10) Of peace in religion.

A collection of Petty's printed works is to be found in the library of Brasenose College, Oxford. I am indebted for a list of this collection to the kindness of Mr. Madan, of the Bodleian Library. To it I have been able to make a few additions:

Advice of W. P. to Mr. Samuel Hartlieb for the advancement of some particular parts of learning, London, 1648, 4to, reprinted in Harleian Miscellany vi vol. On double writing, London, 1647, folio. Declaration concerning the newly discovered Art of Double Writing, London, 1648, folio. Brief of proceedings between Sir H. Sankey and the Author, London, 1659, folio. Reflections upon some persons and things in Ireland, London, 1660, 12mo.; Dublin, 1790, 8vo. Treatise on Taxes and Contributions, 1662, 4to; 1667, 4to; 1679, 1685, 1689, 1690, 1691; Dublin, 1769, 8vo. On Duplicate Proportion, London, 4to, 1674. Colloqium Davidis, 1679, folio. Apparatus to the History of Dyeing, 1667. Political Arithmetic, London, 8vo, 1690, 1691, 1699. Essay on the growth of London, London, 1683. Observations on the Dublin Bills, 1683. Maps of Ireland, 1683. Essay on Multiplication of mankind, London, 1682, 1683, 1686. Further observations on the Dublin Bills, 1686, 12mo. Two Essays in Political Arithmetic, London, 1686. Essay in Political Arithmetic, London, 1682, 1687, 1751, 1759; in French, London, 1686, 8vo. Five Essays in Political Arithmetic, London, 1687, 8vo. Treatise of Naval Philosophy, London, 1691, 12mo. Political Anatomy of Ireland, London, 1691, 8vo., 1719, and Dublin, 1769. Verbum Sapienti, 1691, 1719. Several Essays in Political Arithmetic, London, 1699, 1711; Edinburgh, 1751; London, 1755. Quantulumcunque, London, 1682-1695, also in Scarce and valuable Tracts on Money, 1760, in Somers's Tracts and in Select Tracts, 1856. History of the Down Survey, Dublin, 1651, 4to. Politician Discovered, 1681, 1690. Privileges and practices of Parliament, 1680, 1690. Letter to John Pell, in Collection of scientific letters edited by Halliwell, 1841. Three letters to Boyle in vol. v, pp. 276–278 of Boyle's Works, 1st ed. Essays in Political Arithmetic republished in Arber's English Garner, 1877, and also in part by Professor Morley in Cassel's National Library. Papers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 161, 167, 183, 185, 198. Discourse of making cloth, printed in Birch's History of the Royal Society, 1665. Observations on the Bills of Mortality, 1661, 1662, 1663, 4to, London; fourth ed., London and Oxford; fifth edition, 1676, 8vo., London; 1759, reprinted. Handgreifliche Demonstrationen (a German translation of the Bills), Danzig, 1693, 1724.

Notes on the Petty Manuscripts.

In Lownde's "Bibliographical Manual" it is asserted that several of the Petty manuscripts are to be found in the Bodleian Library. This is evidently a mistake, for the Bodleian contains only a few letters catalogued in the Aubrey and Pepys collection. After a careful search I failed to discover any other manuscript remains. The British Museum contains manuscript copies of the "Political Anatomy of Ireland," and of the "Essays in Political Arithmetic," two unprinted tracts in defense of the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland, some short papers of no great importance, and a few letters. A list of these manuscripts is given in Ayscough's Catalogue, p. 884, and in the Catalogue of Additional Manuscripts, p. 1137.

Thorpe's "Sale Catalogue," London, 1837, contains a notice of a manuscript volume of the correspondence between Petty and Sir Robert Southwell. Extensive extracts covering several pages are given. In Notes and Queries, 2d series, viii, 130, mention is made of a collection of letters by Petty, advertised for sale in a catalogue of M. A. Cooper's library, Dublin, 1831. In whose hands these two important volumes at present are there is little prospect of discovering. Aubrey reports (iii, 488) that after Petty' s death he saw in his closet a great many tractatiuniculi, among others "An essay to know and judge the value of lands," and an autobiography in Latin. À. Wood, in his notice on Petty (Athenae Oxonienses, pt. iv, 215,) mentions an autobiography of Petty, which he had heard of, but had not seen.

Chapter I: Materials for Petty's Biography

SIR WILLIAM PETTY.

CHAPTER I.

MATERIALS FOR PETTY'S BIOGRAPHY: THE WILL, AND AUBREY'S LIFE OF PETTY.

Petty' s Will.

Petty's will, dated May 2, 1685, printed in the Dublin collection (1769) of his writings, gives the following autobiographical data:

"In the first place I declare and affirm that at the full age of fifteen years I had obtained the Latin, Greek and French tongues, the whole body of common arithmetick, 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,1 preferred me for the King's Navy, where at the age of twenty years I had gotten up about three-score pounds, with as much mathematicks as any of my age was known to have had.

"With this provision, anno 1643, when the civil wars betwixt the King and Parliament grew hot, I went into the Netherlands and France for three years, and having vigorously followed my studies, especially that of medicine, at Utrecht, Leyden, Amsterdam, and Paris, I returned to Rumsey, where I was born, bringing back with me my brother Anthony, whom I had bred, with about ten pounds more than I had carried out of England. With this seventy pounds, and my endeavours, in less than four years more I obtained my degree of M.D. in Oxford,2 and forthwith thereupon, to be admitted into the College of Physicians, London, and into several clubs of the virtuous;3 after all which expences defrayed I I had left twenty-eight pounds, and in the next two years, being made Fellow of Brasenose4 and Anatomy Professor in Oxford and also Reader at Gresham College, I advanced my said stock to about £400, and with £100 more advanced and given me to go for Ireland, unto full £500. Upon the 10th of September, 1652, I landed at Waterford in Ireland, physician to the army, who had suppressed the rebellion begun in 1641, and to the general of the same, and the headquarters, at the rate of twenty shillings per diem, at which I continued till June, 1659." Here follows an account of his public career in Ireland, more fully related in his other works. He estimates his profits at £13,000. "I bestowed part of the said £13,000 in soldiers debentures, part in purchasing the Earl of Arundel's house and garden in Lothbury, London, and part I keep in cash to answer emergencies. I purchased lands in Ireland, .... a great part 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 dreadful fire, anno 1666. Afterwards, anno 1667, I married Elizabeth, the relict of Sir Maurice Fenton, Bart. I set up iron works and pilchard fishing in Kerry, and opened the lead mines and timber trade there." Here follow detailed accounts of his investments by all of which he estimates that he has an income of £15,000, "As for myself, I being now three-score and two years old, I intend to attend the improvement of my lands in Ireland, and to get in the many debts owing 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 political arithmetic, as also to the improvement of ships, land carriages, guns and pumps, as of most use to mankind, not blaming the studies of other men. As for religion, I die in the profession of that faith, and in the practice of such worship as I find established by the law of my country....."

Aubrey's Biography of Petty.

The following life of Petty is printed in "Letters of Eminent Persons," by J. Aubrey, London, 1813, volume II., pages 481–491:

Sir William Petty was the son of 3 Petty,5 of Rumsey, in Hampshire, by 3, his wife. His father was born on the Ash Wednesday before Mr. Hobbes, sc. 1587. He was by profession a clothier, and also did dye his own clothes. He died and was buried at Rumsey 1644, where Sir William intends to set up a monument for him. He (Sir William) was born at his father's house, aforesaid, on Monday, the twenty-sixth of May, 1623, eleven hours 42′ 56″ afternoon. Christened Trinity Sunday.6

Rumsey is a little haven town, and hath most kinds of artificers in it. When he was a boy his greatest delight was to be looking on the artificers, smyths, watchmakers, carpenters, joiners, and at twelve years old he could have worked at any of these trades. Here he went to school, and learned by twelve years a competent smattering of Latin, and was entered into the Greek before he was fifteen. He has told me there happened to him the most remarkable accident of his life (which he did not tell me), and which was the foundation of all the rest of his greatness and acquiring riches. He informed me that about fifteen, in March, he went over to Caen, in Normandy, in a vessel that went hence, with stock, and began to play the merchant, and had so good a success that he maintained himself and also educated himself. This, I guess, was that most remarkable accident that he meant. Here he learned the French tongue and perfected himself in Latin, and had Greek enough to serve his turn. At Caen he studied the arts. At eighteen he was, I have heard him say, a better mathematician than he is now. But when occasion is he knows how to recur to more mathematical knowledge. At Paris he studied anatomy; and read Vesalius with Mr. Hobbes, who loved his company. Mr. Hobbes then wrote his "Optics." Sir William Petty then had a fine hand in drawing, and drew Mr. Hobbes' optical schemes for him, which he was pleased to like. At Paris, one time, it happened that he was driven to a great straight for money, and I have heard him say that be lived a week on two pennyworth (or three, I have forgot which, but I should think the first) of walnuts. Query: whether he was not some time a prisoner there.7 Anno Domini 1644 he came to Oxford8 and entered himself of Brasenose College. Here he taught anatomy to the young scholars. Anatomy was then but little understood by the university, and I remember he kept a body that he brought by water from Reading a good while to read on, some way preserved or pickled. Anno Domini 2 happened that memorable accident and experiment of the reviving Nan Green, which is to be ascribed and attributed to Dr. Petty, as the first discoverer of life in her and author of saving her.9 Here he lived and was beloved by all ingenious scholars, particularly Ralph Bathurst, of Trinity College (then Dr. of Physic); Dr. J. Wilkins, Warden of Wadham College; Seth Ward, Professor of Astronomy; Dr. Wood, Thomas Wallis, M. D., etc.10 Dr. Petty was resident in Oxford 1648, 1649, and left it, if Anthony A. Wood is not mistaken, in 1652. He was about 1650 elected Professor of Music at Gresham College by the interest of his friend, Captain John Graunt, who wrote the "Observations on the Bill of Mortality," and at that time was worth but forty pounds in all the world.11 Shortly after (A. D. 1652), in August, he had the patent for Ireland; he was recommended to the Parliament to be one of the surveyors of Ireland, to which employment Captain John Graunt's interest did also help to give him a lift; and Edmund Wyld, Esq., also, then a member of Parliament and a great fautor of ingenious and good men for mere merit's sake (not being formally acquainted with him) did him great service, which, perhaps, he knows not of.12 To be short he is a person of so great worth and learning, and hath such a prodigious working art, that he is both fit for and an honor to the highest preferment. By this surveying employment he got an estate in Ireland (before the restoration of Charles II.) of £18,000 a year. He hath yet there £7,000 or £8,000 a year, and can from Mt. Mangorton, in the county of Kerry, behold 5,000 acres of his own land.

A. D. 1667, on Trinity Sunday, he married the relict of Sir Fenton, of Ireland, Kt., daughter of Sir Hardress Waller, of Ireland, a very beautiful and ingenious lady, brown, with glorious eyes, by whom he hath sons and daughters, very lovely children, but all like the mother. I remember there was a great difference between him and Sir 3, one of Oliver's Knights, about 1660. They printed one against the other. The knight had been a soldier and challenged Sir William to fight with him. Sir William is extremely short-sighted, and being the challengee, it belonged to him to nominate place and weapon. He nominates for the place a dark cellar and the weapon to be a great carpenter's axe. This turned the knight's challenge into ridicule, and so it came to nought.13 He can be an excellent droll (if he has a mind to it), and will preach "ex tempore" incomparably either the Presbyterian way, Independent, Capucian friar, or Jesuit.14 He had his patent for Earl of Kilmore and Baron of Shelborne, which he stifles during his life to avoid envy, but his son will have the benefit of the precedency.15 A. D. 1660 he came into England, and was presently received into good grace with His Majesty, who was mightily pleased with his discourse. A. D. 1663 he made his double-bottomed vessel, of which he gave a model to the Royal Society made with his own hands, and it is kept in the repository of Gresham College. It did do a very good service, but happened to be lost in an extraordinary storm in the Irish Sea.16

He is a person of an admirable inventive head and practical parts. He hath told me that he hath read but little, that is to say, not since twenty-five years, and is of Mr. Hobbes' mind, that had he read much, as some men have, he had not known so much as he does, nor should he have made such discoveries and improvements.17

He went towards Ireland in order to be a member of that Parliament, March 22, 1679-1680.18 I remember one St. Andrew's Day (which is the day of the general meeting of the Royal Society). I said methought it, was not so well that we should pitch upon the patron of Scotland's day; we should rather have taken St. George or St. Isidore (a philosopher canonized). "No," said Sir William, "I would rather had it been on St. Thomas, for he would not believe till he had seen, and put his fingers into the holes according to the motto, nullius in verba. "

He hath told me that he never got by legacies in his life but only ten pounds, which was not paid. He hath told me, that whereas some men have accidentally come into the way of preferment by being at an inn, and there contracting an acquaintance on the road, or as some others have done, he never had any such like opportunity, but hewed out his fortune himself.19

He is a proper handsome man, measured six-foot high, good head of hair moderately turning up: vide his picture as Dr. of Physick. His eyes are a kind of goose-grey, but very short-sighted, and as to aspect beautiful, and promise sweetness of nature, and they do not deceive, for he is a marvelous goodnatured person. Eyebrows thick, dark and straight. His head is very large. He was in his youth slender, but since these twenty years and more past he grew very plump, so that he is now abdomine tardus. This last March I persuaded him to sit for his picture to Mr. Logan, the graver, whom I forthwith went for myself, and he drew it just before his going into Ireland, and is very like him. But about 1659 he had a picture in miniature drawn by his friend and mine, Mr. Samuel Cowper (prince of limners of his age), one of the likest that ever he drew.

I have heard Sir William say more than once that he knew not that he was purblind, till his master (a master of a ship) bade him climb up the rope ladder, and give notice, when he espied such a steeple (somewhere upon the coast of England or France, I have forgot where), which was a landmark for the avoiding of a shelf. At last the master saw it on the deck, and they fathomed and found they were but 2 foot of water.20 Before he went into Ireland he solicited, and no doubt he was an admirable good solicitor. I have heard him say that in soliciting he could dispatch several businesses, nay, better than one alone, for by conversing with several he should gain the more knowledge and the greater interest.

In the time of the war with the Dutch they concluded at the council board at London, to have so many out of Ireland (I think 1,500). Away to Ireland came one with a commission, and acquaints Sir William with it. Says Sir William: "You will never raise this number here." "Oh," said the other, "I warrant you I will not abate you a man." Now, Sir William knew it was impossible, for he knew how many ton of shipping belonged to Ireland, and the rule is to so many ton of shipping so many men. Of these ships half were abroad, and of those at home so many men imperfect. In fine, the commissioner could not raise above 200 seamen there. So we may see how statesmen may mistake for want of this political arithmetic. Another time the council of Dublin were all in a great racket for the prohibition of coal from England and Wales, considering that all about Dub is such a vast quantity of turf, so they would improve their rents, set poor men on work and the city should be served with fuel cheaper. Sir William knew prima facie this project could not succeed. Said he: "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 the turf, it is true it is cheap on the place, but consider carriage, consider the yards that must contain such a quantity for respective houses; these yards must be rented. What will be the charge?"

Memoranda: About 1665 he presented to the Royal Society a discourse of his in manuscript of building of ships, which the Lord Brounker (then president) took away and still keeps, saying, "It was too great an arcanum of state to be commonly perused;" but Sir William told me that Dr. Robert Wood has a copy of it, which he himself hath not.

Sir William Petty died at his house in Piccadilly (almost opposite to St. James' Church), on Friday, 16th day of December, 1687, of a gangrene in his foot, occasioned by the swelling of the gout, and is buried with his father and mother in the church at Rumsey, in Hampshire. My Lady Petty was declared Baroness of Shelborne and her eldest son Baron of the same, a little before the coming in of the Prince of Orange.

Chapter II: Illustration and notes on Petty's Life from Contemporary Sources

CHAPTER II.

ILLUSTRATIONS AND NOTES ON PETTY'S LIFE FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES.

f11 In 1769 edition, "University of Oxon." All the manuscript copies of the "Will" that I have seen, read "Caen."

f22 According to Burrows' "Register," p. 483, he took the M. D. degree in 1650.

f33 Petty here refers to the "Invisible College" or "Philosophical Club," out of which grew later on the Royal Society. Cf. Masson's "Life of Milton," iii, 662, and note.

f44 Petty was Fellow and Vice-Principal of Brasenose College in 1651 and 1659. Burrows' "Register," p. 483.

f55 A. Wood gives his father's name as Anthony. "Athenae oxonienses," iv, p. 215.

f66 The compiler of the catalogue of the Lansdowne manuscripts in the British Museum asserts that a Hampshire clergyman, William Petty, whose manuscript letters are indexed in the collection, was a brother of Anthony Petty, and conjectures that from this relative Sir William received his Christian name.

f77 On Petty's return to England, probably through the influence of Hobbes, he was introduced to Hartlib. This remarkable man, whose name is familiar in the literary history of the time (cf. Masson's "Life of Milton"), became Petty's patron. In a letter to Boyle of 1647 (Boyle's Works, vi, 77) he expresses great admiration for the talents of his young acquaintance.

I put into your hands the design of the history of trade. The author is one Petty, twenty-four years of age, a perfect Frenchman, and a good linguist in other vulgar languages, a most exact anatomist, and excellent in all mathematical and mechanical learning. As for solid judgment and industry altogether masculine.

Petty soon became interested in Hartlib's scheme for the reform of education, and showed his desire to co-operate in the movement by writing a "Tractate on Education," dedicated to Hartlib. At the same time he invented a copying machine. Reference is made to this invention in the "Tractate." A parliamentary patent was secured for it, and a description of it, dedicated to Robert Boyle, was printed in 1648. This invention, like a good many of Petty's later mechanical devices, proved a failure. Curiously we find in a letter, written by Sir Christopher Wren some years after, a reference to a similar machine. Wren, without mentioning any name, complained that a model of his invention, in a still imperfect condition, had been seen by chance by a visitor, and reproduced. The failure of the reproduction of his unfinished invention had made it impossible for him to give to the world his own perfected instrument for multiplying copies of writing. The history of Petty's own invention leads us to suspect that he may have been the person whom Wren accuses of this dishonorable act. From what we know of Petty's insensibility to strict honesty, where he saw any chance of furthering his own interests, we cannot say that he was incapable of such an action.

In 1646, along with Hartlib and Boyle, Petty joined the "London Philosophical Society." This unpretentious club, inaugurated in 1645 by Theodore Haak, was the parent of the Royal Society. The object of the society, which included, besides these already mentioned, the well known names of Drs. Wilkins and Wallis, was the promotion of the study of natural science.

f88 Being a man of fortune, he sided with the people then in authority. He went to Oxon when the great rout of loyal scholars was made by the parliamentarian visitors, settled there for some time, followed the faculty of physic, exercised anatomy, and became professor of anatomy. A. Wood, "Athenae Oxonienses", iv, p. 215.

f99 An account of this incident is given in a pamphlet entitled "News from the Dead," reprinted by Morgan in the "Phœnix Britannicus," p. 232, ff.

f1010 Petty had not allowed his interest in the "Philosophical Society" to drop. Some of the original members of the London club, now resident at Oxford, along with several new adherents, held meetings at his lodgings. Cf. Introduction to Peter of Langtoft's Chronicle.

f1111 Burrows' "Register", p. 335, April 18, 1651. Principal and fellows of Brasenose gave Petty leave of absence for two years with continuance of his stipend of thirty pounds a year.

Evelyn, ii, p. 95. "Sir William came from Oxford to be tutor to a neighbour of mine."

f1212 Petty's career in Ireland is hardly touched upon by Aubrey. The following account is derived from his own works, chiefly the "Down Survey." This book, unlike Petty's other works, is extremely dull, and difficult reading. Pendergast, in "The Cromwellian Settlement," has made constant use of it, and with the help of his book, I have been able to throw some light on the next few years of Petty's life.

Strafford, in following out the familiar policy of transplanting English settlers into Ireland, had brought about a rebellion among the natives. To suppress this outbreak, an army had to be sent from England. This army was raised and supported by money advanced by private individuals, subscribed on the security of 2,500,000 acres of Irish land to be confiscated at the close of the rebellion. The debt was still unsettled at the end of Cromwell's Irish campaign in 1652. As the army had not yet received its pay, the government proposed to settle both of these claims, by granting to each party confiscated land sufficient to meet their demands. The army was induced to accept the same rates as had already been agreed upon by the subscribers, who are called for brevity the "Irish Adventurers." According to this agreement, the money value of a thousand acres of land varied from £200 to £600, according to quality and location. The original Irish landowners, and even the older English proprietors who had lived in the district of rebellion, were to be transported to Connaught. It was proposed to send the poorer native inhabitants to foreign countries, the men to Spain, the women and children to the West Indies.

The first step in carrying out this scheme was a survey of the land, which was to be set off for the various claimants. Worsely, the surveyor-general, had made a survey in 1653, which was notoriously erroneous. Petty immediately pointed out the defects and the way to remedy them, offered to undertake a new survey, to be concluded within thirteen months, and to prepare a general map of the whole country. The surveyor-general, anxious to retain this work in his own hands, subjected every part of Petty's offer to minute criticism. His objections were answered, and Petty, supported by influential friends, secured the contract, which was signed on December 24, 1654. The survey was performed with the promised rapidity, not by introducing new scientific methods, but by careful direction of the numerous subordinates among whom the labor was apportioned. The opposition which had met Petty at every step had a deeper ground than the personal enmity of Worsely. Cromwell was carrying out in Ireland the policy that he had already adopted in England, of trying to draw to the support of the government the conservative element of the country. He attempted to attract the Presbyterians in Ireland, who had large vested interests there, and used them to break down the power of the clique of army officers, who were Anabaptists, and notoriously republican in politics. Henry Cromwell, who supplanted Fleetwood as commander of the forces in Ireland in 1655, had directions from his father to give the country a settled government in place of the anarchy which the selfish interests of the army had encouraged. Petty allied himself with the Protector's party, and was soon promoted to be Henry Cromwell's secretary, and finally Clerk of the Council.