Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/52

 Act of Parliament on which they were founded. The men employed, Dr. Petty said, were not 'skilled artists' at all, but mostly, as he thought, 'conceited and sciolous persons' at whose proceedings Worsley, whether from pride or ignorance, or actuated by worse motives, winked, with the approbation, as Dr. Petty believed, of his influential and highly-placed patrons.

Dr. Petty, in fact, suspected the Surveyor General of being as inefficient in his profession as the recently discomfited Apothecary-General had been proved to be in his purchase of drugs, and he expressed his opinion, as to these 'miscarriages,' to Worsley himself, and proceeded to 'admonish him,' recommending him 'skilled artists' for his work. Worsley did not relish his advice, and preferred that of his own nominees—persons whom Dr. Petty termed 'mere bulks and outsides.' The quarrel deepened, and Dr. Petty came to the conclusion that Worsley was dishonest as well as ignorant.

The first great disbandment of the army took place in 1653, and some distributions were actually made in 1654 to those who were most clamorous. These Dr. Petty impugned at once, believing that the public was being robbed; and he proceeded, as he says, to attempt to persuade 'several sober and judicious persons in the businesse, that the way of Survey the State was upon was a mistake.' He found a willing listener in Henry Cromwell, who, from the time of his first arrival in Dublin on his mission of inquiry, had become the object of the attacks and