Persons and Things in Ireland"[1] frankly confesses that, not being acquainted with the island wherein the copy of that discourse was written, he was forced to guess at many interlined and imperfectly obliterated words and sentences, as also at the true places of many of them. Wherefore he desires the reader to excuse the literal errata, and as for others to enquire of Dr Petty himself for his own sense and direction concerning them[2]. The printers of his other works were less frank but hardly more accurate, and to enquire of Dr Petty himself is no longer an available solvent of perplexity. Under such circumstances the beautiful manuscripts of the "Political Anatomy," the "Political Arithmetick," and the hitherto unpublished "Treatise of Ireland," which passed (indirectly) from Southwell to the British Museum[3], assume a high degree of importance. They all bear Petty's autograph corrections and by their use it has been possible to make his economic writings plain in several passages which heretofore were hopelessly obscure. Authentic manuscripts of the "Verbum Sapienti[4]" and of the "Report from the Council of Trade[5]" have also been used, but no good manuscript was found of the "Treatise of Taxes," the "Quantulumcunque" or the various Essays.
Of these manuscripts none but that of the "Treatise of Ireland" has been exactly followed in preparing the present edition of Petty's Economic Writings. The pamphlets previously published are all reprinted from the first editions except Graunt's "Observations," and the variations of the manuscripts are mentioned in foot notes in every case where it seemed possible that the manuscript reading could modify the sense of the printed version.
