Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/117

 actually and of themselves alone committed the fault, vizt, the under surveyors; and why should the under surveyors bee blamed for missing that which one hundred diligent and concerned seekers could never find, and which the Act of Parliament kept hid; and as the above report of the eleventh of May, 1654, setts forth, neither prescribes nor warrants any meane for these distinctions, soe, as, in the judgments of the authors of the said report, there was noe other meanes left but what was used, vizt, the oathes of the surveyors?

Whose invention was the allowing a greater rate for profitable then unprofitable; whereas the Doctor demanded but one summ for the whole, or one and the same rate for the thousand, and brought the former practise of allowing fourty-five shillings for the profitable, and nothing for the rest, as a maine objection against that method of administration which he endeavoured to evert; and why was he pressed and threatned to imploy the old surveyors, whome he could not, in above two monethes treaty, bring to worke otherwise then by the thousand acres? whereas he easily made the new ones, who soon excelled the others, to be paid by the mile in length, wherein noe possible byas could be, and according to which way the greater and more disputed part of the whole survey was performed; soe that allthough his superiours would not lett the byas be taken off from him, yet he tooke it of as much as he could from others, and those in whome it was most dangerouse.

Moreover, when he did use all the meanes aforementioned, for the satisfactory performance of this nice service, allthough the effect had noe ways answered, yet ought he to have been thanked for his endeavours and superarogancy herein: ffor it was not cleare that he was by his contract bound to this thankless office, but only to offer reasons whereuppon others might judge. Hee was to have meeresmen appointed him by the State, to tread out before him the dislimitations he was to make; and, lastly, the Commissioners of the Civill Survey seemed by their instructions to bee not only qualifyed, but enjoyned to express the proportions wherein each denomination was profitable and unprofitable, the which judiciall assignement, with the geometricall content, would have answered all intentions.

Soe that he is blamed for doeing a necessary worke that he was not bound to; is punished for performing that worke amisse before it appeare to be soe; the pretended miscarriages of others are charged only uppon him; hee is blamed for not doeing [what] the wisest concernees have pronounced impossible; hee