( vi )
words are, with few exceptions, written as they would be at the present day. It has not been thought desirable, however, on this account, to depart from the manuscripts themselves. The College copy has been chiefly followed, and the Lansdowne manuscript resorted to when it removed obscurities.
In regard to the date at which the work itself was written, it is only to be observed, that the narrative terminates in July, 1659. At page 81, the author speaks of October, 1659, as past, and in the same page writes, incidentally: "A great part of the army, at least the most complaining part, had their land anno 1655, the rest receiving theirs anno 1656, since which there have been three Parliaments." We know that the Parliament which was assembled in 1656 was dissolved, in 1658, by the death of the first Protector. Richard Cromwell's Parliament, in which Dr. Petty sat for West Looe, met in January, 1659, and was dissolved in April of the same year. The remnant of the Long Parliament was called together in the following month, interrupted by Lambert in October (which may have been considered as completing a session), assembled again in December, and in March, 1660, dissolved itself, after issuing writs for the Convention Parliament, which met on the 25th April, 1660, and restored the King.
This would fix the date of our history towards the end of 1659, or beginning of the following year, which is confirmed by many parts of the narrative, as well as by other works of the author.
Thus, in the volume called "Reflections upon some Persons and Things in Ireland," which was probably written very shortly afterwards, he speaks of the change of government: "My adversaries having thrown down the government, laws, and governor under which I acted, may oppress me too." This would seem to refer to the destruction of the Protectorate by the army, not to the restoration of
