Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/308

 mixed with those Acts as should mend the condition of all men.'

A few days later he wrote to Southwell: 'I have been at Windsor, where I had private and ample conference with the King, who told me expressly and voluntarily that he would neither break the Act of Navigation in England, nor the Settlement of Ireland; that hee would never persecute for conscience, nor raise his revenue, but as the wealth of his subjects increased. I also conversed with some Grandees, who do seem to go close hal'd, and not quartering according to the best advantage of that wind, which so blew from the King's gracious mouth. For my part I find the storme so great, that I cannot lay my side to it, but am forced to spoon away before it, without carrying a knot of saile, and yet believe that all things may do pretty well, if God be not very angry with us.'

During one of these interviews the King, in confidence, gave Sir William copies of two papers found in the late King's private chest, explaining the reasons which had induced Charles, and also the Duchess of York, to adopt the Roman Catholic faith. On another occasion he visited the King in his camp at Hounslow. There he found assembled a formidable force, which had at once become an object of suspicion. Sir William would, however, appear to have formed a favourable opinion of the sincerity of the King's professions that what he desired in England was a measure, intended no doubt primarily to benefit the Roman Catholics, but to be made feasible by the inclusion of the Nonconformists. He was, however, unfavourably impressed by the atmosphere of the Royal Court, and could gain no clear view as to what plan the King had to secure toleration in Ireland, if the government passed into the hands of the Roman Catholic majority.

'To leave our mimicks and ridicules,' he wrote to Southwell, 'what do you say to our lands in Ireland; to the