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Kerry, which was doubtless doubly desolate, having suffered severely by the earlier Desmond wars. The Doctor's return of 400,000 profitable acres in that county may not have been too great. In 1841 it is stated to have contained 414,000, arable, and in the Land Improvement Commissioners' Digest, p. 585, 400,000 more is said to be improvable, but the "pathetical, though plain, narrative of Lewis Smith," who surveyed it, shows the almost impossibility of distinguishing the classes of land in the state they then were. So that we may fairly attribute the difficulties of distributing that county to the causes stated by Dr. Petty, rather than to any defect in the survey.
On the whole, after all the disputes on this subject, and those between the committees of the several provinces in regard to their allotments, the Lord Deputy and council, on the 20th of May, 1656, directed that the army should appoint trustees for the purpose of the distribution, in conformity with an ordinance of the Protector's council of the 2nd of September, 1654, which was accordingly done, and Dr. Petty was named as one of them. The order of the Lord Deputy and council, of the 20th of May, 1656, further enjoined that the survey "within the provinces already admeasured by Dr. Petty, be adopted by the army, according to the contents of the survey returned by the said Doctor."
The survey, therefore, was pronounced sufficient, and Dr. Petty, so far from being personally objectionable to the army, was, at their own recommendation, nominated one of their trustees for subdivision and allotment.
There is in this, as in former chapters, some confusion in the dates of documents, and some of those quoted or referred to, are not given. But in all these cases, the missing papers are either recapitulated in those which refer or reply to them, or are so obvious from the context as to leave no ultimate obscurity.
At p. 81, "when as" should be "whereas," At p. 86, line 5, a resolution of the council, dated 9th of May, 1656, and in line 30, a paper of the same date, signed by Sir H. Waller, are referred to. These are not given; but at p. 91, fourth line from the bottom, the former is again mentioned, and by reference to the commission from the council, referred to in the last line of the same page, the substance of both the papers of the 9th of the same month will be found recapitulated.
The resolve of the general council of the 6th of April, 1654, referred to at p. 89, fourteenth line from the bottom, is not given. At p. 91, the words, "see page 70, 71," probably refer to pages in some copy of the Act of the 26th of September, 1653, not now known. The sixteenth and seventeenth pages of the resolves of the general council and of the agents of the province of Munster probably relate to pages of certain council-books of the committee of officers. A few of these curious books are extant, and preserved in the Paymaster of Civil Services' Office.
At p. 100, line 9, the words "wee could ten or twenty acres to be worth one" are so written in the MSS. Some word is probably omitted.
