Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/71

 Thomas Taylor. No less valuable were the services of Mr. James Shaen, who had already been employed as one of the Commissioners for the Civil Survey: a man of great parts and energy, but prone to believe, in whatever was being done, that his own and none other could be the organising head and hand. He was inclined to become the enemy and rival of whoever was placed above him, and was probably equally hostile both to Worsley and Dr. Petty.

On April 12, Dr. Petty received from Worsley the instructions to be observed in making up the books of reference, which, when completed, were, with the maps, to be returned into the office at Dublin. He then proceeded to organise a staff of one thousand persons, consisting of forty clerks at head-quarters, and a little army of surveyors and under-measurers, who worked on the spot in each district.

'In all these arrangements,' says a contemporary account, 'he had vast opposition, while he in a manner stood alone. But he was wont to meditate and fill a quire with all that could in nature be objected, and to write down his answers to each. So that when any new thing started he was prepared, and as it were extempore, to shoot them dead. And as the distribution required exactness in accounts and method, and was a dangerous work, for that the great officers expected to get the parts they had coveted, which going by rate would disappoint, he was forced to show wonders of his own sufficiency by being ready at all points. This in like moment he composed by early meditation of all that could happen, so that he retailed everything to their disadvantage. When, upon some loud representations, the rest of the Commission would refer to him, stating all that had passed (which seemed to require a week's work), he would bring all clearly stated the next morning to their admiration. His way was to retire early to his lodgings, where his supper was only a handful of raisins and a piece of bread. He would bid one of his clerks who wrote a fair hand go to sleep, and while he ate his raisins and walked about, he would dictate to the other clerk, who was a ready man at shorthand. When this was fitted to his mind