Life of Sir William Petty 1623 - 1687/Chapter VIII

by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice

 

CHAPTER VIII

IRELAND

1678-1685

 

Captain Graunt—The Church of Rome—Condition of Ireland—Roman Catholic intrigues—The Popish Plot—Kerry—The Admiralty Court—Reform 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 Roman 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 undoubted truth, if a Roman 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 River Company. As he possessed 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, carrying 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.'^[1] The inventor of this story forgot that Graunt was a City man himself, and likely to be a heavy loser by the fire which he was accused of creating.^[2]

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 consideration 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 500l., besides the year's rent for my own rebuildings, making, as I conceive, about 700l. 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.'^[3] He accordingly made Graunt his agent in London. But misfortune 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 anyone, even to an old friend. Sir William proposed an Irish agency, where his change of religion 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 will be seen from a letter of Sir William's.^[4] '150l. 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 Dublin, viz. I was thinking to have gotten 3 great Baronys in Kerry belonging to me and several others to be united into one vast Manor,^[5] 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 Romanist, might be of an indifferent 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.'^[6]

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 Roman Catholic. The answer is obvious. Although the conduct of the leading Roman Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth was a splendid proof that their religion in itself was no bar to patriotism, yet Roman Catholicism in the reign of Charles II. was none the less an object of fear, and Roman Catholics of just suspicion.^[7] Men of opinions as different as Temple, Penn,

 

 

and Sidney, but all men able to form a competent opinion, believed that some kind of plot was on foot.^[8] Those who had fought and suffered in the Civil War—whether Royalist or Republican—were conscious that the Queen Dowager, foreign alike in blood and religion, had been 'the principal instrument to advise and encourage the King in his illegal actions;'^[9] and when she returned after the Restoration 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.'^[10] 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 intrigues 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 personality 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 of the well-devised scheme of the French negotiators at Dover, which sooner or later was to culminate in the public adoption of the Roman Catholic religion by the King, and the admission of the professors of the true faith to a predominant share of power.^[11] 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 Clément and Ravaillac, 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 Roman 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 liberty; 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 Royal Exchequer compelled the King to seek financial aid from their wealthy treasury, made the limitation 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 Roman Curia, which simply regarded that island as a counter in the great political game being played on the Continent, and was determined 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 Roman Catholic religion considered as an abstract scheme of belief and morals, and the imperium in imperio 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 knows 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 monarch in the world can doe; and consequently the peace and settlement of all 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.'^[12]

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 Council, for the good of the whole Church, why may not the same God immediately inspire into every elect soul, such truth as he himself knoweth to be sufficient for him, without all the perplexities and dangerous dependencies upon Councils, priests, and prelates whom no one can understand.'^[13] But it was not Protestants only, Sir William 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 Galileo and Campanella, to the founders of the Royal 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 approbation 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 Roman Catholics, knew, with the example of Italy and Spain before him, that the political supremacy of Roman Catholicism meant, at that period of the world's history, the entire destruction 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.'^[14] The exigencies of party strife made it necessary for the ministers and legal advisers of the Crown and the leaders of the opposition 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 Roman Catholics of rank and position. Soon a demand arose not only for precautions against open attack, and for the prosecution of the leaders of the Roman Catholic party in England, but also for violent measures against their coreligionists 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.^[15]

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 ascertained, had increased one-third; and the farm of the revenue, notwithstanding the defects of which Sir William was the constant and unsparing critic, showed according to his calculations a yield three times greater than the revenue of 1657.^[16] 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.^[17]

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; 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 implant 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 sending butter, cheese, beef and fish, to their proper markets, which are to the southward, and the plantations of America.'^[18]

But all such developments required time and the maintenance 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 Roman 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 Roman Catholic could be convicted, and crime went unpunished, as 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.^[19] 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 beginning of the confused period which followed the fall of Clarendon and the retirement of Ormonde in 1668, they made a bold attempt to resume the offensive. Lord Robartes 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 Roman Catholic. Notwithstanding the nominal existence of the laws forbidding the presence of 'Popish priests,' Talbot, the Roman 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 Parliament, 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 Roman 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, like Lord Robartes, nurtured in Presbyterian traditions. But his melancholy 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 cry against the Roman 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 involving him personally in the unpopularity which attached to real or supposed Popish sympathisers.^[20] 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 practical impossibility of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, in their then reduced condition, being able, at least at that particular moment, to give serious trouble, whatever might be the intentions of their co-religionists in England, or the hopes of some of the Roman Catholic leaders in Ireland, such as Colonel Richard 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 experienced soldiers; that there were places of strength and cities of refuge within easy reach of the sea, to which in case of necessity the Protestant population could retire till reinforcements 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.^[21] These memoranda he sent to Southwell.^[22] '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.'^[23]

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 civil 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 decline of the powers of the Privy Council. Sir William 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 maintain 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 himself to whatever small knot of political or religious intriguers might have caught the royal ear in private, or have got possession of the House of Commons. The plan was aimed 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.^[24]

'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^st of April 1659; and, on the 22^nd, the 1^st 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:^[25] 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.'^[26]

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.'^[27]

'Though your 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 most of our statesmen, nor have they many friends; however pray use your interest to get them in, and endeavour to get yourself made Clerk of the Councill, and make hay therein while the sun shineth.'^[28]

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.'^[29] '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 certainely wearing 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.'^[30]

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 terminated his connection with the Privy Council. His experienced eye possibly doubted the stability of the new system; nor was he mistaken. The sun did not continue to shine 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,^[31] 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 Robert 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.'^[32]

His position at the Admiralty was another cause of trouble, That position, he had by this time discovered, was no bed of roses. His knowledge of the principles of the art of navigation 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 1^st 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.'^[33]

At first there was little or nothing to do. 'The famine in our court,' Sir William 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 overfasting.'^[34] 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 unfortunately 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.'^[35] 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 Admiralty claiming the right to act as a coroner, a jury was impanelled, a verdict found, and the corpse buried; whereupon 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 interfere 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. France 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 unfortunately 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 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 Parliament of the Commonwealth that law proceedings should in future be conducted in the vernacular, he founded 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.^[36] 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 the very place where they happen?'^[37] '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 punishment.'^[38]

Under the combined influence of his 'text letter oppressions' 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 animâ suâ.' 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 recompense or reward than the satisfaction to have done well.'^[39]

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-organisation 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'clock morning.

'We set sayle in the Yatcht from Dunleary^[40] upon fryday noon, the 2^d instant, being our weding day; and after a delicate 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 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. Robbin Napper comes with me, as also one of the black coach horses, Maurice and Phil.

'The Principall passengers were my Lady Reynolds and her daughter upon account of my Ladye's deep consumption. There came also M^r Justice Turner and his Lady with her woman Cicill, who was dear Masyes maid. There is also the Elder Lady Davies, young M^rs Stopford and her sister, all goeing for the Bath and 2 of M^r 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 shillings a quarter, Wednesday last.

'Alderman Anderson has marryed 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 Yatcht 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.^[41] 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.^[42] 'Yesterday,' he writes, 'came to toune. It was declared on Sunday night at Windsor, viz.: that the Revenue of Ireland is to be managed by the Lord Langford, Sam: Kingdon, one Mr. Strong, of the Excise, Mr. Dixon, of ye Customs of London, and Captⁿ Bryden, of Dublin, who as 'tis thought does but represent M^r Trant. By good luck I never sollicitated any body in the case. I only putt in 3 severall papers of proposals, which I think did the service no harme.'^[43] ''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 2,000l. But I am represented (as the Duke of Ormonde told me this day) by some to be a conjurer, by others to be notional and fancifull, near up to madness, and also a fanatick.'^[44] The appearance in London of Sir William was in fact the signal for a general alarm amongst the whole tribe of revenue farmers and contract-mongers, who hung about the Court and the public offices. Sir William was, however, made a Commissioner of the Navy, and won golden opinions from the King, who admired his varied talents, and only reproached him with excess of zeal and aiming too high: qualities never welcome at any time to that easy-going monarch. 'There is not a better Latin poet living,' says Evelyn, 'when he gives himself that diversion; nor is his excellence less in Council and prudent matters of state; but he is so exceeding nice in sifting and examining all possible contingencies, that he adventures at nothing which is not demonstration. There were not in the whole world his equal for a superintendent of manufacture and improvement of trade, or to govern a plantation. If I were a Prince, I should make him my second Counsellor at least. There is nothing difficult to him.... But he never could get favour at Court, because he outwitted all the projectors that came neare him. Having never known such another genius, I cannot but mention those particulars amongst a multitude of others which I could produce.'^[45]

Having once more failed in his efforts to reform the public services, Sir William returned to Ireland and undertook a long journey into the wilds of Kerry. There he was overtaken by the news of the illness of his children from small-pox in Dublin. 'I can say nothing,' he writes to Lady Petty, under the renewal of this calamity 'but that I have been earnest with Almighty God for their deliverance and your patience in the worst of events, hoping that you leave the disease to Nature without interfering anything of pretended art. This letter may come to your hands about the 3rd of October, and in what conditions it will find you God knows. With reference to both the Children, I can only repeat my prayers for your Christian courage and patience, and tell you how joyful and thankful I should be in case of a good event. But otherwise I cannot tell you how I shall bear it.'^[46]

Returning to Dublin, Sir William found his children on the road to recovery. He is next heard of busy with the formal incorporation of the Philosophical Society of Ireland on the same lines as those of the parent society in England, and in the establishment of the Dublin College of Physicians. In both these societies he maintained a constant interest. For the Irish Society he drew up a sort of scientific primer, or, as he termed it, 'a catalogue of mean, vulgar, cheap and simple experiments.'^[47] He also drafted the original rules and constitution, or, as they were termed, the 'advertisements of the Society.'^[48] In after-years his activity on these two learned bodies was looked back to in Ireland as 'the instrument, under God, of reforming the practice of physick in that kingdom.'^[49]

Minutes of the Dublin Society, 1683-84.^[50]

'Jan. 28, 1683-4.—Sir W. Petty produced an instrument in wood contrived by himself for explaining the difficulty about the volution of concentrick circles or wheels, on which he promised to discourse at the next meeting.

'Feb. 4.—Sir W. Petty discoursed on the instrument he produced at the last meeting.

'Feb. 18.—Ordered that Sir W^m Petty bring in a scheme of experiments to be made relating to land carriages.

'March 30.—Some discourse passed concerning the keeping of a Diary of the weather, which was looked upon by Sir W^m Petty as very difficult to perform, so as to make it useful and instructive, without a great apparatus of barometers, thermometers, hygroscopes, instruments for telling the point of the wind, the force of the wind, the quantity of rain that falls, the times of the sun's shining and being overcast. As to the common thermometers of spirits and hygroscopes of bat, beards, wooden planks, etc., hitherto invented, it was objected that they loose their quantity by keeping, and that they are not constant standards, and if we made new ones every year, we can make no estimate of the weather in relation to what was observed last year by others.

'March 17.—Sir W^m Petty produced a paper of experiments relating to land carriages. These are registered.

'March 24.—Sir W^m Petty produced an engine for trying experiments relating to land carriages, and discoursed of some experiments he had made therewith in order to the answering some of the Queries he had formerly proposed. The instrument was a solid parallelopiped of 5 inches thick; and 50 inches long, weighing 99 oz., being so ordered that it may be put on wheels, either one sott or two sotts, of equal or unequal diameters; or it may be laid on a sled, or to be drawn on four or two dragging wheels, or on the full flat. Ordered that the Experiment be tried before the Company, though the particulars may be registered. Wednesday next appointed to begin those experiments at Sir W^m Petty' s house.

'June 9.—Sir W^m Petty produced a paper containing a scheme of Experiments for examining Mineral Waters. These are registered.

'June 29.—Mr. King read an accurate and ingenious account of Clonuff waters, to the experiments Sir W^m Petty proposed to be tryed on mineral water.

'July 7.—Sir W^m Petty gave an account of a commodious land carriage he had lately contrived, which drawn by an ordinary horse of about ten pound price, carries one that sits in it at ease, and a driver on the coach box with a Portmantle of 20 or 30 pounds weight, 25 or 30 miles Irish a day. This carriage is likewise very easy for the traveller, and far more so than any coach, not being overturnable by any height on which the wheels can possibly move. It is likewise contrived to be drawn about the streets by one man, with one in it, and that with less pains than one of the Sedan bearers do undergo. It is likewise very cheap, an ordinary one not costing over 6 or 7 pounds, the 4 wheels being over ½ the money.

'Nov. 1.—Sir W^m Petty was chosen President: W^m Molyneux, Esq., Secretary, and W^m Pleydel, Esq., Treasurer.

'Nov. 3.—Sir W^m Petty, our new President, brought in a paper of Advertisements to the Dublin Society, containing some proposals for modelling our future progress. These were so well approved of that they were readily submitted to by the whole Company.

'Dec. 1.—Our President, Sir W^m Petty, brought in a paper, "Supellex Philosophica," containing 40 instruments requisite to carry on the designs of this society. He likewise ordered that hereafter at every meeting an experiment in natural Philosophy should be tried here before the Company, and that the President should appoint on the foregoing Monday what should be tryed on the Monday following and the persons to try it, that accordingly a fit apparatus may be made.'

But even the construction of his land carriage was not sufficient to distract Sir William's attention from his favourite experiments with the sluice boat. 'The fitte of the double bottom,' he writes to Southwell, 'do return very fiercely upon me. I cannot be dissuaded but that it contains most glorious, pleasant and useful things. My happiness lies in being mad. I wish I were grown mad up to that degree as to believe I am honestly dealt with.'^[51] 'I work every day upon the Ship models,' he writes to Lady Petty, 'and have succeeded wonderfully upon that design. Many think I have little to do when they see me earnest upon it. But I assure you it is such refreshment and recreation as, without it, I could hardly perform my other business. I expect no profit from it, but intend it as a noble legacy to my Sons.'^[52]

Sir William's former ill-luck made him cautious in inviting others to join him. 'As for the ship experiments,' he writes to Southwell, 'I have used them as opium, to stupify a sense of my sufferings, nor should I have my friend do himself harm by praising or pressing them.'^[53]

A paper is preserved showing fourteen proposed trials of the vessel, as to the result of each of which Mr. Pepys and Admiral Sir A. Deane joined issue with him, backing their opinion with heavy sums, while at the same time expressing 'their most faithful wishes' for the success of the vessel, and that they might themselves prove wrong.^[54] The result unluckily more than justified their doubts, as the last edition of the 'Experiment' was not nearly so successful as the first. 'Sir William Petty's ship,' Mr. Molyneux writes to Mr. Asten, on December 23, 1684, 'was tried this day se'nnight in our harbour; but she performed so abominably, as if built on purpose to disappoint in the highest degree every particular that was expected of her.... The seamen swore that they would not venture over the bar in her for 1,000l. a man. Even right before the wind she doth nothing, so that the whole design is blown up. What means Sir William will take to redeem his credit, I know not; but I am sure a greater trouble could hardly have fallen upon him.'^[55] Sir William fully acknowledged his failure to be enough to make him 'stagger in much that he formerly said.' 'I intend,' he goes on to say, 'to spend my life in examining the greatest and noblest of all machines: a ship; and if I find just cause for it, will write a book against myself, so much do I prefer truth before vanity and imposture.'^[56] To the last the subject exercised a fascination over him, and allusions constantly recur in his letters to his hope of some day successfully solving the problem.

The model of a double-bottomed vessel built by Sir William Petty was formerly preserved at Gresham College, but it is now lost. This, however, was not the model of the actual vessel which perished in the Irish Channel.^[57] A controversy on the subject having subsequently arisen, Sir William wrote to Sir Robert Southwell as follows:

'I say (1) that the model at Gresham College is not the model of the real ship which was built; that having two decks, whereas the model hath but one; (2) that the History of the Royal Society hath already given an account of the fate of the ship; (3) if we say any more we must tell how the ship which required so many men had but 17 when she perished; the rest having been taken out of her by the "Dragon" frigate; and might add how little encouragement that design had from the most navarchale Prince, with many other things. But you have taught me more discretion, than to follow truth too near. But I have a treatise ready to vindicate the design, and the necessity of attempting it, which will make it rise again when I am dead.'^[58]

Events, however, more serious than the failure of his plans for the construction of the sluice-boat now came to disturb him, for early in February 1685, Charles II. died, and a new king ascended the throne of the three kingdoms, on whose accession the Roman Catholic party founded confident expectations of a restoration to their lost estates and former predominance in Ireland. But before entering on the consideration of the action of Sir William Petty in the crisis immediately preceding the Revolution of 1688, the reader may be invited to peruse the following letters belonging to the period he has already traversed:—

Sir William Petty to J. Aubrey.

'Dublin: 29 May 1678.

'S^r,—I have received your kind letters, for which I thank you. As for the Reprinting the booke of Taxes I will not meddle with it. I never had thanks for any publick good I ever did, nor doe I owne any such booke. As for that of Duplicate proportion, I take M^r Lodewick's Paynes trial to put that discourse into the real character, to be an honour to Bishop Wilkins and myself, but doubt of its acceptance in the world.

'As for the opinion of Dr. Woods and others, that the Emanacions of Visibles, Audibles, &c. should have been in triplicate (not duplicate) proportion, I say that neither is demonstrably true, but that duplicate doth better agree both with reason and Experience. Carpenters and Wheelewrights say that the diameter is to the Circle as 1 to 3. Others say better as 7 to 22, but neither is exact; yet both serve the turne. So what I have done in that discourse was only to keep men from grosse errors, and for bringing them into the way of exacter truth. I hope no man takes what I say'd about the mocion and burthen of horses and the living and dying of men for mathematical demonstracion, yet I say they are better ways of estimating these matters then I had ever heard from others. I hope better are now found out. But there are 2 or 3 real mistakes in that treatise of which more p^r next.

'I am,
'Yours and Mr. Hooks, &c.
'Wm. Petty.'^[59]

 

Sir William Petty to Sir Robert Southwell on the death of Lady Southwell.

'Dublin: 31 Jan. 1681.

'Dear Cousin,—I rec^d last night the Ill News of a separation between those who had been happily united. And I doe now endeavour to answer the devout custom of condoling with you; and I do it by imagining & figuring to myself what condicion I myself should be in upon the like occasion.

'I am persuaded we are both Unison harp-strings as to the Love of our Wives; wherefore, you being struck, you may easily believe that I also tremble, and really so I doe.

'When your good father dyed, I told you that he was full of years and ripe fruit, & that you had no reasons to wish him longer in the pains of this world; but I cannot use the same argument in this case, for your Lady is taken away somewhat within half the ordinary years of Man, & soon after you have been perfectly married to her: ffor I cannot believe your perfect Union & assimulacion was made till many years after the Ceremonies at Kingsington.

'What I have hitherto said tends to aggravate rather than mitigate your sorrow. But as the sun shining strongly upon burning Coles doth quench them, so perhaps the sadder sentiments that I beget in you may extinguish those which now afflict you. The next thing I shall say is, that when I myself married, I was scarce a year younger than you are now; & consequently do apprehend that you have a second crop of contentment & as much yet to come as ever I have had. In the next last place I beg you to divert yourself, by entertaining some powerfull thoughts of other kinds. I had yesterday a hopefull day in the Exchequer. I have the vanity to think that to tell you so would a little refresh you: I wish you could hear a thousand of such news from a thousand as sincere friends as is

'Yours,
' W.P.'^[60]

 

Sir Robert Southwell to Sir William Petty.

'Kingsweston, 28 Feb. 1681.

'Dear Couzin,—You were not onely my comforter uppon the death of an excellent father, but you excercised greatte skill to prevent his death. And now by yours of the 31^th past, you doe not onely console the greatte loss I have sustained in a wife, but you seeme to think it reparable. As to the loss, 'tis true 'twas but of a mortall thing, and soe I must submitt. He that has an unlimited jurisdiction did it; for we wanted nothing that humane ayde could give. But perhaps I ought not to repine, that one whoe had soe many preparations for heaven, was taken to the rewards thereof.

'But when by 19 yeares conversation I knew the greate virtues of her mind, and discover since her death a more secret correspondence with Heaven in Acts of pietye and devotion which before I knew not of, you will allow me att least for my childrens sake, to lament that they have too early lost their guide.

'I have had many other close tryals since my father's death. The loss of a good mother, of an onely sister, two nephews educated by my care, and a beloved son who dyed three years before. And yet I may saye he dyed but even now, for by what steps & motions he declined towards his grave, just the same were now gone over againe by his deare mother, to the observation & sorrow of all that beheld. Soe that a tragedye of the greatest past affliction I ever had, was thus repeated upon me; and I leave you to judge whether I had not loade enough. But I hope all these rugged paths will but conduct me to my journeyes end. 'Tis certain the Earth becomes less worthy for the good whoe leave it. And weake Nature may be allowed to think Heaven the more desirable for their friends who are gone before.

'There is but one strong Motive in me to respite such desires; which is the consideration of 4 young children whoe will hardly find soe good a friend as myself in the whole world. They deserve well from me, & with application may be leade into the Paths of a virtuous life. They are all parcels of their Mother, acting in small different resemblances the tenor & habit of her life. Soe that as to your expedient, I look uppon it, under correction, but as a meere knocking these 4 on the head. And I cannot think myself out of the Bonds of Wedlock while they live. Your owne case & mine (about this age) was quite upon a different foote, & without any proportion. I speake not this in sorrow, for I have wiped that away, & am cheerfully entertaining my selfe heere with my children; & cannot wish for a better Employemt of my life. My son either walks or rides about with me, repeating att a time an 100 of y^r verses (of the 100^th psalme) with such Accent of delight as would perhaps give you Entertainment to heare him. The Loadstone, Mercury, the Bee, the 4 small Animalls & so too the Stars &^c, are all to him as the Marine Compass. And would you have me forgett this Boye, whoe remembers with pride the kiss you gave him for demonstrating at 8 years old, an equilateral triangle? Well of this I have saide enough to justify my rejection of any Salvo that can ever be thought of on this side Heaven, & I will onely add, as to my selfe, that being wonderfully troubled with the Scurvey in my nerves, I am under all the tryalls I can brave to get some deliverance from it.

'As to your good Sentence lately obtained in the Exchequer, I am sure I take reall Comfort in itt, & wish from my hearte that you may see a short & prospering event of that greate perplexitye, that soe the world might have the fruits & treasures which your leisure & tranquiletye would afford.

'My blessing to my Godson, & to his hearty brother. My boy puts in his humble service to his fine Couzins. And I am ever

'Y^r Most Hum. Ser.
'R. S.'^[61]

Sir William Petty to John Aubrey.

'Dublyn: July ye 12. 81.

'S^r,—I recev'd your kind letter, but have noe sorte of memory or idea of the paper you mention concerning the Coals in Surry, but am glad to understand there is any such thing; and do wonder that noe provision is made for Fuell in case the Newcastle trade were intercepted.

'I am not forward to Print my Political Arithmaticke, but doe wish that what goeth abroad were compared with the copy in S^r R. Southwell's hand, which I corrected in March.

'I have taken care that the Elephant which was so unfortunately burnt here, might be disected for so much as the fire left capable of it; which, such as it is, shall be sent to the Society. The poore man who owns it, hopes to make some advantage by shewing the skeleton, the trunk, and gutts, and consequently values them at a vast Rate; wheras I hoped to have purchased them for the repositary, but doe wonder that the English and Dutch surgeons liveing in India, have not made a perfect Anatomy of this Creature, especially of its Trunke, nor sent the principall Bones of the largest of them.

'You write of some other particulars which you had from Doct^r Wood and Mr. Weeks. Pray pursue that matter, for I begine to be afraid of liveing in a Place where we have 10 exasperated enemies for one friend, and where I am forced to spend my whole time upon what I hate.

'Pray give my service to Mr. Colwell, Mr. Hill and Mr. Hooke, and as many more of our Society as you think fitt, for I name these three because I observe them to have been most constantly there.

'I am S^r
'Your affectionate humble servant,
'W^m. Petty.^[62]

'For Mr. John Aubrey at Mr. Hooks Lodgeing In Gresham College, London.'

Sir William to Lady Petty.

'Dublin: 10 Sep. 1681.

'I shall returne little answer to yours of y^e 30^th of August, otherwise then that I am affected with what you say of jour ague, and am glad you understand the cure of it. Wee are here all in good health, and our affairs do rather mend than otherwise.

'I am just now returned from Kilkenny, having through God's mercy not had the least disaster or disappointment in that affair. My Lady Dutchesse is soe learned in the art of Civility, that it is a hard matter to discern them from reall kindness—but I assure you that if she hath not a reall and extraordinary kindnes for us both, I am much mistaken. In particular she did (what was not usuall) earnestly invite me to lye in the Castle, and that with extraordinary expressions to others, which was, "That where ever shee had a house, I should never lye out of it." It were vanity (and perhaps tedious) to relate the rest. Let it suffice that I say I believe that she is very reall, etc. My Lord Lieutenant also was kinder than ordinary, soe as my hopes that he will doe us good in our business doth not lessen: And I find that by the printing of our papers, the business is better understood than formerly.

'Adieu, my dearest.'^[63]

Sir William to Lady Petty.

'Dublin: 25 March, 1682.

'I am now returned from Kilkenny, where you were remembered by the Dutchess, Lady M. Cavendish, and many others; as also was Cozen Waller. I thought my Lord Lieut^t would have done something for me more than hee did; but a little progresse was made at the expence of 13^li in a 10 dayes journey; and I hope well next terme. They come to towne in the beginning of Aprill, and think to bee in England in May, and Lord Arran to be Lord Deputy, but this you should have written. The cause of this journey is sayd to [be] the marriage of Lord Ossory.

' As to S^r J. Shaen, hee never did mee good, nor did I ever do him wrong. Hee is a dangerous freind and a mischevous foe. Let him make himself rich, and I will hope to make him honest and pay his debts. As for the petition, let Nature work. If the Reduced Collumn prosper, we can spare it. What is meant by the King loosing 13000^li per annum, if my Kerry state be true, I know not.

'I am ravisht with deare My: Annes writing. I shall bee glad to see the like progresse in Arithmetic, for if God blesse mee, I will give her somwhat to reckon. But shee shall not bee bound prentice to a scrivener, but shall bee her owne papas steward and secretary mistresse....

'I have seen the transactions of Gresham Colledge, wherein I find the paper D^r Wood sent mee, for which I thank him, and an accompt of the other things hee mentions. Tell him, I ever thought the fatigue of his place too great for him in quantity and quality. A person of more strength and youth, tho' of far lesse learning (nay of no other learning then what is barely requisite) might do well enough. Neither will the Sallary of 100^li gratify a better. I wish twere in my power to proportion rewards to merits. I would begin that vast neglected worke by doing D^r Wood right; but "curs't cowes have short hornes."

'When you have done with Brother James, let him goe directly to Kerry, as formerly directed. I say nothing of our boyes, because my sister does it. Mr. Mesnill is desperately in love with Lady Clancartty's Frenchwoman, whereof shee complaynes alowd and I grumble inwardly. Wee make no signall progresse.

'Adieu, my dearest.'^[64]

Lady Petty to Sir Robert Southwell.

'London: Feb. ye 15.

'I should not send the enclosed, Dear S^r, w^thout asking yu how yu doe, fearing the retirement yu are in suits too much with the melancholy of your Temper at the time, and may prejudice your health, for which I'm sure none is more Concern'd. Let me advise yu to admite of the Ingenious and harmless diuersion of your preety Chilldren, and endeavour to preserve your health, the loss of which may be so preiudiciall to them and all your friends; amongst which number I hope you will please to allow me, who am with all respects, Sir,

'Y^r affec^t huble servt
'E: Petty.'^[65]

 

Sir William Petty to John Aubrey.

'London, 22 August, 1685.

'S^r—I received the Favour of your Letter dated the 17^th Instant, being just returned from Epsom, where haveing been with my Wife and Family about 12 days to take the Ayre and the water, just as wee were comeing away, wee had such an overturn of the Coach, as hurt several of us more or lesse, but my wife so terribly, that wee doubted of her life, the two or three first days, but have this day at the month's end brought her home past all fear of Life or Limb as wee think.

'I have carefully perused your letter, and do heartily thank you for prefering mee in your thoughts to the purchase of Tobago, and do believe it to be such an Elysium as you Fancy; but the designe is as forraigne and incongruous to my circumstances as any thing can bee, for I am above 60 years old, and am under some extraordinary thoughts concerning our affairs in Ireland, nor am I willing to be a Leader of Malecontents; neverthelesse if there were two or three such Partners as I did like and could trust, I might (things standing well at home) venture £500 upon such a Designe; for my opinion is upon what I have observed from the Accounts of the People, that not above half the Women are maryed, and that if the Government pleased there might bee such a multiplication of mankind, as in 1500 years would sufficiently plant every habitable acre in the world.

'As to the measures of all sorts, it is a shame that they are not reduced to One, not onely over all our Kings Dominions but over the whole world also. But the difference thereof is a kind of mental reservation to the advantage of one party in the bargain. I wish you would, besides the Account of Sheep and the quantity of Ground they feed on, (which is a laudable designe), bring me an Account of the People of two or three Parishes, according to the directions I printed when I was last in England.

'I long for the Terme because you promise to be hear then, and in the meantime wish you all the good you can wish to yourself, and remain

'Your very humble servant
'W. Petty.^[66]

'For John Aubrey Esq^re, att Broad Chalk neer Salisbury.'

 

NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII

York Buildings: December 6, 1684.

Your Sluce-Boat (the S^t Michael) being by Our latest Advice from Dublin, upon y^e point of entring on her first Tryall at Sea; Wee send you Our most faithfull wishes for her Successe, with a Paper that may (if you shall soe think fitt to use it) in some measure Compensate the Charge you shall have goeing in the Experiment; remaining w^th inviolable respect,

Yo^r most affectionate and most
faithfull humble Servants
S. Pepys, A. Deane.

S^r William Petty's 15 Propositions touching his Sluce Boat, Answered by S^r Anth^o Deane & M^r Pepys.

S^R William Petty.

Whereas there is now Building at Dublin, a Double-Keel'd or Sluce-Vessell, concerning whose Strength, Burthen, Saileing, Steerage, Rideing at Anchor, accomodations, &c, many Opinions have been offered, to the Prejudice of y^e Designe; therefore to distingush the said Opinions from Envy and Calumny, the following wagers conserning the said Shipp are proposed, viz.:

1. That at her Launching shee shall not draw above 3½ feet water at a medium.

2. That with eight paire of Oares, shee shall row equall to a wherry of one paire, putting either of her ends foremost.

3. That being fitted for the Sea with Cables, Anchors, Boats, &c. on board, shee shall (over and above the same) carry 40 Tunns weight, without drawing above 5 feet water, beside the Keel.

4. That shee shall goe to Sea without Ballast, and yett carry as much saile as any other vessell of her Breadth.

5. That (as an Argument of her Strength) after 7 dayes being at Sea, the distance of her Keeles shall not alter half a Quarter of an inch.

6. That shee shall not Leake above a hogshead of water a watch, one watch with another, during her Passage to and from Holy-head.

7. That shee shall steer better than any other Vessell of her length, that is to say, come about above a Quadrant in Lesse time and space.

8. That shee shall goe from within y^e Barr of Dublin into y^e Bay of Holy-head, and back againe within the same Barr of Dublin, in any 48 houres of the whole yeare, wherein there is a full moone.

9. That shee shall with any Winde and Weather, carry Saile enough to worke her.

10. That shee shall ride more easy at an Anchor, y^t is to say, heave and sett in sharper Angles and Slower Vibrations, than any other Vessell of her Length.

11. That shee shall have a Cabin of 14 foot long, 11 broad, and 6 high in the Clear, & shall without the said Cabin carry 12 horses & 12 Tuns of goods.

12. That shee shall passe the Barr of Dublin any houre of the day, and goe from the Key of Dublin to the Key of Chester any day of the yeare.

13. That shee shall Out-saile, By and Large, any other Vessell by one- sixth part.

14. That shee shall cost lesse, than any other Vessell of the like performances, after the first Experiment.

15. That shee shall Saile with the same hands as any Vessell of 40 Tuns.

 

S^r Anth^o Deane and M^r Pepys do (in Returne hereto) Undertake:

1. That drawing but 3½ feet water at her Launching, shee shan't make good y^e 2^d, 7, 8, 10, 12 & 13^th of the following Propositions, for £100.

2. Shee shan't; for £500 upon each end.

3. Shee shan't; for £200.

4. Shee shan't and make good y^e 7^th, 8, 10, 12, & 13^th of the following Propositions; for £100.

5. Any one day of the said seven proveing of soe much wind, as to bring her to lye a try but one twelve houres, her Keels shall alter their Position more than the 8^t of an Inch; for £100.

6. Shee shall Leake more than another Vessell as new built as shee; for £100.

7. Another Vessell of the same length and Proportion of Rudder, shall come about in Lesse time; for £100.

8. Shee shan't; for £100 a time.

9. The Vessell that opposes her shall doe the same; for £100.

10. The sharpnesse of Angles, & Slownesse of Vibrations being of dificult decision at Sea in foul weather, it is offered for greater certainty, that another Vessell shall ride with her at Sea in a Storme of wind, when the first of them that breaks loose or cutts, shall loose £100.

11. Another Vessell of the same length and breadth shall have and doe as much for £100.

12. Shee shan't; for £500.

13. Shee shan't; for £200.

14. A vessell of y^e like or better performance shall bee built for lesse than shee, even after the first Experiment; for £100.

15. A Vessell of like Burthen shall saile in the Sea with fewer hands, for £100.

Note.— That upon condition S^r William Petty will personally be on board his Vessell (as wee will on ours) at the proofs of the 4^th, 5, 8, 10 & 12^th Articles, the wagers upon each of those Articles shall bee double.

S. Pepys; A. Deane.

York Buildings: 6 Dec^r 1684.

 

---

1. Burnet, History of his Own Times, i. 423, 424.
2. As a matter of fact, Graunt was not admitted a Governor of the New River Company till twenty-three days after the breaking-out of the Great Fire, and the evidence of his guilt was invented long after the date of the supposed transaction. See article 'Graunt' in Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary, where the whole story is examined.
3. Oct. 3, 1667.
4. Dec. 24, 1672.
5. Partly carried into effect A.D. 1721, by the erection of the Manor of Dunkerron.
6. Dec. 24, 1672.
7. 'L'Angleterre,' says a great French historian, 'frémissait de sentir autour d'elle et sous elle gronder ce monde de la nuit.... Vaine panique dit-on. Pourquoi vaine? On la juge telle, parce qu'elle empêcha ce qu'elle craignait. L'Angleterre fut comme un taureau, que le loup vient flairer la nuit. Il frappe de la corne au hasard, et frappe mal; mais ses coups fortuits qui montrent sa force et sa fureur, donnent à penser à l'assaillant.... Le complot très vrai fut la trahison des deux frères, Charles II et Jacques II, qui vingt-cinq ans durant annulèrent l'Angleterre, ou même la vendirent à la France.'—Michelet, Hist. de France, xiii. 255.
8. Sidney's Letters to Savile, p. 24; Penn, Collected Works, ii. 678; Temple Memoirs, ii. 491.
9. Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 327.
10. Pepys's Diary, i. 274; Secret History of Whitehall, i. 45.
11. Secret History of Whitehall, i. 45 et seq.
12. Bibl. Sloane Collection, British Museum, 2903. Plut. xcviii. D. Papers collected by Dr. Hill.
13. Ibid.
14. The words are those of the motion made by Shaftesbury in the House of Lords. Parl. Hist. iv. 1022.
15. The Eleventh Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, Appendix, Part ii., contains a great mass of valuable information for the study of the Popish plot, though the papers therein referred to relate mainly to the State Trials and other public events, and do not throw much light on the question whether any real plot existed. The influence of events in France on the belief in a plot in England has not been sufficiently taken into account by the English historians. This error has arisen from treating the final Revocation of the Edict of Nantes as an isolated act, instead of as the completion of a long series of previous events. See L'Eglise et les Philosophes au Dix-huitième Siècle, by M. Lanfrey (Paris, 1879, ch. i. 'L'Eglise militante sous Louis XIV'). For illustrations of the influence of these events on English opinion, see the preamble of the Bill introduced into the House of Lords, entitled 'the Protestant Foreigners Bill' (December 17, 1680), printed in the above Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, p. 259.
16. Political Anatomy, chs. iv. p. 312 and xi. p. 354.
17. It was left to the folly and selfishness of the next generation of English statesmen and manufacturers to crush the Irish trade in manufactured woollens.
18. Political Anatomy, chap. xi. p. 354; xiv. p. 379.
19. Political Anatomy, pp. 327-330. Compare the letter of Archbishop Boyle to Archbishop Sheldon, quoted in the note to Burnet, History of his Own Times, i. 459, 460.
20. The death of the Duke's son, the Earl of Ossory, at this moment, was generally recognised as a great public calamity, and is thus quaintly alluded to by Sir William: 'The name of Ossory is a tender thing; he that sullys it by handling with dirty thumbs won't be excused by saying he meant no harm.' This did not prevent him writing a copy of indifferent English verses on the occasion. Seventh Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, p. 742, 'Ormonde Collection.' Carte, iv. 483-490.
21. Political Anatomy, ch. v. p. 318.
22. 'Considerations how the Protestants or non-Papists of Ireland may disable the Papists, both for intestine rebellion there, and also from assisting a French invasion as the state of both parties now standeth in the present year, 1679.'—Petty MSS. The opinion of Archbishop Boyle, given in Burnet, History of his Own Times, i. 459, points to the same conclusion.
23. To Southwell, June 10, 1679.
24. Carte, iv. 581.
25. The Navigation Laws already described, of which the 17 and 18 Charles II. c. 2 (English statutes) was the principal Act.
26. Petty to Southwell, April 29, 1679.
27. March 8, 1680.
28. To Southwell, June 10, 1679.
29. May 3, 1679.
30. June, 1679.
31. Ossory to Ormonde, June 5, 1680. Seventh Report of the Historical MSS. Commissioners, p. 739. Report on the case of Bandon, farmer of the Revenue of Ireland, 1684. Re orts on a suit between J. Marshall and W. Petty on the Crown, respecting grants of land in Kerry, 1683. Rawlinson MSS., Bodleian Library.
32. Nov. 3 1680.
33. Those who are interested in the merits of this question will find the arguments on either side in 4th Coke's Inst, 37 et seq., and in a short treatise written expressly in answer to Coke, by Dr. Zouch, an eminent civilian, Judge of the Court of Admiralty in 1641, and again in 1660. The controversy revived with the office of Lord High Admiral, in the reign of Charles II. On one occasion, Dr. Leoline Jenkins argued at the bar of the House of Lords in support of a Bill introduced for the purpose of defining the jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty, in opposition to Chief Justice Vaughan. On another occasion he is related to have encountered in the same cause, but before the King in Council, a still more formidable antagonist, viz. Lord C.J. Hale, who, says Molloy, in his preface to the treatise De Jure Maritimo et Navali, 'by his law, position, as other his great reasons, soon put a period to that question, which during his days slept, and it may modestly be presumed will hardly (if ever) be awaked.' Life of Sir Leoline Jenkins, I. lxxvi.
34. To Sir Peter Pett, 1679. There are several letters at the Bodleian Library on the subject.
35. To Sir Peter Pett, March 19, 1679. At the Bodleian Library among the Rawlinson MSS., and at Longleat, some memoranda exist, by Sir W. Petty, on 'Admiralty Jurisdiction.'
36. This point about the jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty over seamen's wages is referred to in Sir Leoline Jenkins's speech at the bar of the House of Lords, Life, I. lxxx. As to Whitelocke and the example of Moses, see Lord Campbell, Lives of the Chancellors, ed. 1868, iii. 392, note.
37. To Sir Peter Pett, 1679.
38. Jan. 4, 1679.
39. August, 1683. Petty MSS.
40. The modern Kingstown.
41. Notes of interview with Lord Privy Seal, Duke of Ormonde, and Earl of Rochester. Petty MSS.
42. See Sir W. Temple's Memoirs, i. 317.
43. To Southwell, Sept. 5, 1682.
44. Ibid. Sept. 16, 1682.
45. Evelyn, Memoirs, ii. 95-97, i. 471.
46. Limerick, Sept. 24, 1683.
47. Philosophical Transactions, No. 168.
48. Weld, History of the Royal Society, i. 300.
49. Lodge (generally a good authority), Peerage of Ireland, ii. 353.
50. Minutes of the Philosophical Society of Dublin. British Museum Ad. Papers, 4811.
51. 1683.
52. To Lady Petty, December, 1683.
53. April 19, 1683.
54. Petty MSS., also in the Longleat MS. referred to in the Preface.
55. Aubrey says: 'There is yet a double bottomed vessel in the Isle of Wight made by one Mr.... which they say sayles well.' Bodleian Letters, ii. 416.
56. To Southwell, Dec. 18, 1682.
57. The collections at Gresham College were removed to the British Museum when the original College was demolished in 1768, but the model of the 'Experiment' is not now in existence, unless it can be identified with one of the ancient models in the Naval Museum at Greenwich.
58. Petty to Southwell, Feb. 1681. Amongst the Petty MSS. there are two volumes of papers relating to the different trials of the 'Experiment,' and other questions of ship-building, with diagrams. The Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian Library contain 'An Essay on a general scheme of Naval Philosophy,' marked as 'lent to Pepys' in 1682; and 'An Account of models of ships, produced and explained by Sir William Petty;' also 'A Notice of the Double-bottomed ship.' In the Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach, vol. ii., ch. vii., an account is given of an attempt by John, Marquis of Lansdowne, in 1806, to renew the experiment of his ancestor, which, however, nearly ended as disastrously as that of 1684.
59. Egerton MSS., British Museum, 2231, H. 90-98
60. Petty MSS.
61. Petty MSS.
62. E erton MSS., British Museum, 2231, f. 92.
63. Petty MSS.
64. Petty MSS.
65. Ibid.
66. Egerton MSS., British Museum, 2231, f. 95.