Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/81

 Providence in fixing a portion from the Lord in that particular district. 'This party of men,' says Dr. Petty, 'although they all seemed to be fanatically and democratically disposed, yet in truth were animals of all sorts, as in Noah's Ark.' 'The great officers expected to get the parts they had coveted,' and were ready to make everybody who stood in their way suffer for their opposition. Owing to these furious ambitions and jealousies, the hope that the committee of officers would be able to settle all the differences amongst the allottees before the distribution began, was disappointed, and the commissioners, of whom Dr. Petty by the force of circumstances became the directing hand, owing to his technical knowledge, had now to settle for themselves the burning question of what proportion of each claim was actually to be paid, and also to decide how to deal with the earlier allottees, as well as to settle many minor points.

In order to arrive at a just decision they determined to pass over all previous discussions, declarations and concessions, and reduced the whole army by calculation to the state it was in in 1654, when they had cast the regimental lot so as to allow derivative claims. This was the debtor side of the account. They then ascertained what lands were at their disposal, according to the Act of Parliament and the Orders in Council issued under it. This was the creditor side of the account. 'The whole forfeited land set aside for the army was destined to pay the whole army debt at certain values specified by the Act; and it was necessary that the whole should be cast or recast in one crucible, that all might share alike. Accordingly, setting aside the enhanced rates at which the former settled parties had been redeemed, the prayer for additional compensation, and the remonstrance of the army against it, Dr. Petty appears to have computed the claims of the whole army as if one uniform distribution had been made, and then considered each as having received, or being about to receive, such or such a quota pars, in order to make up the