Page:PettyWilliam1899EconomicWritingsVol2.djvu/309

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614
Treatise of Ireland.

Quarters of that Number in his Hands of any Sort, or in any Sense.

2. That if he then had 300000 Acres in his Hands, above 200000 thereof was the course Lands of Kerry; upon which he had onely some Chaffages[1].

3. That the said Lands were indeed 200000 Acres, but it was by the erroneous Measure of the extream[2][3] Column: Whereas they contained indeed scarce 30000 Acres by the Legal Measure of the reduced Column, according to which very Measure, they were not worth 2s. per Acre before the Warrs.

4. His Grace, upon Trial of the Matter in the Court of Claims, quitted these Lands to those who had Right in them, a little after the Author wrote. So that in Truth, upon the whole Matter, this vast Scope of Kerry-Lands would not have made above 140 Part of the Adventurer's Satisfaction, which that Author conceived might have been a full Satisfaction to them: And as his Grace was abused by this Narrative, so was he also by them who put him upon Meddling with those Lands at all, which he held about 5 Years upon their Sinister Perswasions.

A. I instance, in the next Place, the horrible Grumbling against Sr. Wm. Petty as an exorbitant Gainer by the said Settlement. Can you say any Thing of him?

B. That Man has been 35 Years upon the Stage of Irish Affairs, so as a Volume might be Writt concerning him. But the Answer to your Question may be short, vizt. That Gentleman made an Admeasurement of Ireland in the Year 1655 and 1656, now fairly recorded in his Majesty's Surveyor General's Office, by distinct Maps of every Parish; and also Printed and Published in distinct Maps of every County and Province. And the same was appointed to be done, not onely by the Usurper's Acts, but even by the Act 17º Car. Imi and the Work was confirmed not onely by several Years of Probation during the Usurper's Government, but also by the Acts made in Ireland since the King's Restauration; and

  1. MS., 'Cheiffryes,' altered by Petty.
  2. 'Extream' inserted by Petty.
  3. MS., 'of,' altered by Petty. (no footnote marked in text - Wikisource-editor)