Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/21



is unquestionably a very valuable manuscript, and contains an historical relation of proceedings taken towards carrying into effect the Act passed in the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, in 1653, for the Survey and Distribution of the Forfeited Lands in Ireland, drawn up by Sir William Petty himself, in vindication of his conduct in the business, and in answer to the charges brought against him by Sir Jerome Sankey and others.

I bought it at the sale, at Christie's, of the Southwell Collections at King's Weston, after the death of Lord De Clifford, whose ancestor, Sir Robert Southwell, Secretary of State, temp. James II. and William III., was the most intimate friend of Sir William Petty. It bears the autograph of Sir Robert on the fly-leaf, and some of the marginal notes are certainly in the handwriting of Sir William; but although the character of the manuscript, generally, strongly resembles that of some early autograph manuscripts of Sir William, I doubt whether he would have spared the time required to make a fair transcript of so bulky a composition, however laborious he was at the period of its compilation. I incline, therefore, to think, that the manuscript is the work of some clerk in his employment, whose handwriting had been formed on the model of his own, and that it is the fair copy prepared for the Press.

It is distinctly mentioned in his publication, entitled "Reflections upon some Persons and Things in Ireland," &c., printed at London, 1660, in 8vo., as one of the works he had then in hand, relating to the forfeitures in 1641; and among the original correspondence between Sir William Petty and the Southwells, which was disposed of at the same sale, I found several of Sir William's and Sir Robert's letters, in which it was also referred to. See also Thorpe's Sale Catalogues of the Southwell Manuscripts, purchased by him at the same auction.

Whether the original draft of the manuscript, or any other copy of it, be in