Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/75

 ragged condition by reason of the precedent irregular and somewhat obscure actings, anno 1553 and 1555, and other uncertainties of debt and credit, as also of clashing interests.'

Nor did the confusion grow less as the inquiries of the Civil Survey Commissioners proceeded. When their estimates first began to come in, it had been believed that the moiety of the ten counties allotted to the army would only satisfy the debt up to a maximum of 12s. 6d. in the pound. As, however, the work of Dr. Petty advanced, his accurate methods began to reveal the fact that in all probability the extent of the forfeited lands had been underestimated. The committee of officers thereupon demanded that they should be at once paid two-thirds of the claim and receive the remaining third afterwards. Owing, however, to the crippled condition of the finances of the Commonwealth, the Council declined the proposal in regard to the remaining third, and the committee reluctantly agreed to accept in lieu a promise that if, at some future time, it were found possible, they would be paid the balance in lands contiguous to the original allotment; a promise which the officers felt it would in all probability be impossible to carry out in practice, and was therefore regarded as little better than a mockery. This decision laid the seeds of future bitterness which rapidly grew; for soon it was more loudly declared than ever that a sufficiency of land evidently existed for the satisfaction of the whole army debt in full. The army committee accordingly petitioned that the regiments now about to be disbanded might be put into speedy possession of their full and entire satisfaction, according to the Act of Parliament, offering, if it was found on a final account being taken of the whole business, that any parties entitled had been shut out, to compensate the losers in money. They also pointed to the four counties reserved by the Government as in their opinion equitably within their own claims should any lands in them remain ungranted, especially if the adventurers, who