Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/259

 one vast Manor, and you should be judge and seneschal thereof. This being done, 'tis true you would live imperially; but in an obscure corner of the world; but such where I am forc'd to go twice a year, thro' thick and thin. Consider hereof: I will not attempt the doing hereof except for your sake. Let me know what acquaintance you have gotten by your solicitation and attendance on the great ones, to frame something on that ground. Sir Henry Ford thinks that you, being an Englishman and a Romanist, might be of an indifferent nature to solicit an Union between England and Ireland, to which many of both kingdoms, both English and Irish, seem well affected.... As for difference of religion,' he goes on to tell him, 'you have done amiss in several particulars.... However we leave these things to God; and be mindful of what is the sum of all religion, and what is and ever was true religion all the world over.... I cannot approve of some other things; nevertheless try all the other friends you have, and you shall see none of them shall prove so effectuall as Yours, &c.'

Sir William continued to befriend Graunt to the end of his days, and after his decease in 1674 he provided for his widow.

It may be asked why, considering his liberal opinions on all religious questions, did Sir William deem his friend 'to have acted amiss' in changing his religion, and becoming a Roman Catholic. The answer is obvious. Although the conduct of the leading Roman Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth was a splendid proof that their religion in itself was no bar to patriotism, yet Roman Catholicism in the reign of Charles II. was none the less an object of fear, and Roman Catholics of just suspicion. Men of opinions as different as Temple, Penn,