interrupted for some time during the unsettled state of public affairs, were resumed. It was resolved to give the organization a more permanent and a more serious character. Petty was one of the promoters of the change which transformed the "Philosophical Club" into the Royal Society. He was one of the original Fellows, and was placed on the Council.[1] In 1661, April 11, he was knighted and was sent by Charles II to Ireland as Surveyor-General.[2] In the Irish Parliament, which met early in the summer, he sat as member for Enniscorthy. In August he was sent to England as one of the commissioners from that Parliament to watch over the interests of the English landowners. The Act of Settlement of September, 1662, with the Explanatory Act of the following year, were favorable to Petty and the interests that he represented.
To keep possession of his property he was obliged to engage in continual lawsuits, and his name appears frequently in petitions to the King to recognize his claims.[3] He did not scruple to use questionable means to defend the integrity of his estate. After winning a suit against the Duke of Ormond he boasted that he had employed witnesses, who, to use his characteristic expression, would swear through a six-inch board.[4]
Knowing the policy of the English Government towards Ireland, we are hardly surprised at find-
- ↑ His return to a scientific life—to the unprofitable pursuit of a Virtuoso—was of short duration. As Hartlib pointedly expresses it, "He had other fish to fry."
- ↑ Cf. A. Wood, op. cit., and Worthington's "Diary," anno 1661.
- ↑ Carte papers in Bodleian Library.
- ↑ Carte's "Ormond," cited by Lecky, "History of England," ii, p. 194.
