Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/76

 ranked first, had previously been satisfied in full, and anything still remained unallotted.

The Council, however, which by this time had passed entirely under the influence of Henry Cromwell, finding the financial situation to be even more serious than it had been believed to be, decided against the demand of the officers to be satisfied in full. A furious controversy at once sprang up, and many of the officers threatened to refuse to take up their allotments, irritated, no doubt, by the sight of their more fortunate colleagues who had got satisfied first in the haphazard and questionable manner already described. Meanwhile, the officers who in the early distributions had gained this unfair advantage were representing themselves as aggrieved, and were asking for more; probably hoping that this was the best means of at least retaining possession of what they had got. The Council, however, refused to be intimidated by any of the contending factions. 'Liberty and countenance,' Henry Cromwell said, 'they may expect from me, but to rule me or rule with me I should not approve of.' They were therefore informed that it was intended that the overplus of the lands, if any, which might remain after the satisfaction by the two-thirds payment was, owing to the financial necessities of the situation, 'to lye entirely together for the better convenience of the Commonwealth and remaining part of the army,' and that whether the exact proportion paid would ultimately be two-thirds, or some other proportion, must depend on circumstances. This decision in no way satisfied the claimants; and to Dr. Petty, as he himself points out, it became the cause of 'great and unexpected hardshipps,' as most unjustly, he was made responsible for it by the officers, who quite understood that under the terms, however courteous in appearance, there lay a hardly concealed intention of using whatever surplus lands might ultimately be found to exist, for the payment of expenses of the survey and of the other