church in which Petty's baptism is recorded and in which he lies buried[1]. But the fact by no means implies Petty's authorship of the "observations." It is not less reasonable to suppose that Graunt, when studying the London bills, applied to Petty for such comparative material as he afterwards sought from four other friends in various parts of England[2]. As for the allusions to Ireland, they indicate rather that the author had not been in that kingdom at all than that he had made personal observations there. One of them is a casual remark in connection with his belief that deaths in child-bed are abnormally frequent "in these countries where women hinder the facility of their child-bearing by affected straitening of their bodies... What I have heard of the Irish women confirms me herein[3]." In the other passage the author says "I have heard,... I have also heard" this and that about Ireland[4].
Those who have agreed that Graunt was the author of the "Observations," need not leave to their opponents the exclusive use of internal evidence. They, for their part, may first point out that there are considerable differences of language between Petty's works and Graunt's[5]. Every one at all familiar with seventeenth-century English pamphlets has sympathized with Sir Thomas Browne's solicitude lest "if elegancy still proceedeth, and English pens maintain that stream, which we have of late observed to flow from many, we shall within few years be fain to learn Latin to understand English." Petty's "Reflections" and his "Treatise of Taxes and Contributions" are of about the same size as the "Observations."
I have run through all three, and counted the Latin words, phrases and quotations, excluding those which, like anno, per annum, per centum, are virtually English. The "Reflections," in the 154 pages which are indisputably by Petty[6], contain at least twenty-four Latin phrases, the "Treatise" at least forty-two. The "Observations" show, aside from the sentiment on the title-page, but six Latin phrases; and of the six, three are within as many pages of the "Conclusion" (pages 395—397, post) in precisely the passage which exhibits the
- ↑ See pp. 412, note, 388, 400.
- ↑ See p. 399.
- ↑ P. 361, 362.
- ↑ P. 396.
- ↑ Dr Bevan (p. 44) would dissent: "It is difficult to discover any great diversity in style, language, or in any other point between the 'Bills' and Petty's authentic writings."
- ↑ The letters ostensibly addressed to Petty were probably written by him, but, to be on the safe side, I excluded them. Cf. Fitzmaurice, 92.
