( 335 )
Dr. Petty certainly possessed the faculty of turning disadvantages to account, of which this is an example. It was forced upon him partly by his having to pay the old surveyors, instead of the expense of their operations being charged to the public as a failure of the State, or of the State officers, who employed them before Dr. Petty's work began; and partly by the mixed system of payment by the State and by the army, instead of wholly by the former, as one general contract. To this form it came at last, being recognised as a debt due from the land, whether before or after the soldiers were settled on it. (See also notes on chapter XV).
In this chapter, again, at page 157, the order of the committee of officers is referred to as 18th, instead of 11th December, 1654, but in the following page the date is correct.
CHAPTER XIII.
Pages 166-184.
This chapter is wholly occupied with the giving back of the Doctor's contract, on the expiration of a twelvemonth from the close of his work, his application for which had been referred to the Attorney-General, on the 23rd of February, 1657, who, on the 13th of April following, recommended that it should be given back, and the sureties released. The council, however, ordered that it should be deferred till one year, from the 1st of October, last past. To this the Doctor presented a strong remonstrance, without date, but which from the context appears to have been between May and July. His first application was grounded on the year having elapsed, during which, by his agreement, complaints were to be received. He now pleads that, if such be not admitted, there is no other date which can reasonably be fixed, as any such date must have reference to the allotment and distribution of the lands, not to the survey itself, which was completed in the prescribed time, and that such allotment in no way depended on him, he having been always ready to perform his part in it, as will have been seen by the former chapters. He alludes to the jealousy with which he had been viewed; to the absence of complaints against his own conduct of the work, or that of the "unruly multitude of instruments" he had been forced to employ. He represents that he will be less able to serve with advantage in his present arduous duty of distribution, if he appear under their lordships' displeasure, and finally adds, if such be thought necessary, that when his present bonds are released, he is ready to give further security for what may still be required of him, provided reasonable consideration be given him for such extra assurance. This remonstrance was supported by a petition to the same effect from the officers, agents, and others, and the demand was so reasonable and just that it could not but be granted. Accordingly, it was so ordered by the council, under date the 17th of June, and on the 24th of June the Doctor delivered into the Exchequer "all books, with the respective mapps, well drawne and adorned, being duly engrossed, bound up, and distinguished, placed in a noble depository of carved
