NOTE ON THE "REPORT FROM THE COUNCIL OF TRADE."
To the laborious conscientiousness of Essex as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland we are indebted, indirectly, both for the Report from the Council of Trade and for its nearest fellow, Sir William Temple's Essay upon the Advancement of Trade in Ireland. Since the Report was but a summary of the unpublished Political Anatomy, in connection with which alone it has since been printed, it calls for no extended comment.
A MS. copy of the Report, apparently transmitted by Essex to Arlington, is at the Record Office[1]. Another copy of greater personal interest, is in the Pepys collection of J. Eliot Hodgkin, Esq., of Childwall, Richmond on Thames. This copy was given by Petty to Pepys and remained in the possession of Pepys' descendants until it was acquired by Mr Hodgkin in 1889[2]. By his kind permission both Petty's autograph corrections and the significant divergences of the MS. ('H') from the printed version are here noted.
