Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/373



the close of the last chapter Dr. Petty states the necessity of his going to London, to confer with the commissioners there sitting on the claims of the adventurers, but postpones the narrative of that journey till he should first detail the circumstances which led him to become the possessor of lands in Ireland. He states that surprise was commonly expressed at his not investing his money in the country in which he had gained it, and that his not doing so was attributed to erroneous motives, rather than the real one, which was the desire to keep himself "free and clear from all kind of partiality and injustice," and that, being desirous of "being really a benefactor to the same land whereon God had already blessed his endeavours," he began to think of buying debentures, which being "both scarce and deere," led him to propose another mode, and, finding as much profitable land yet undisposed of as would entitle him to "neer £3000," at the one penny per acre he was to have for the survey of it from the army, forming a portion of the uncollected debts made over to him in lieu of the £614 8s. 9d., due on other accounts, by order of the council, on the 11th February, 1656 (page 163), and conceiving that in equity the money was rather due from the land than from individui vagi," petitioned the council to be satisfied in land for the otherwise bad debt of one penny per acre, to be allowed to expend £1000 in debentures, to redeem lands mortgaged for more than their value, and to choose the lands he should so possess, which the council, by order of the 6th March, authorized.

Of these, the first was certainly a great improvement on the hopeless penny an acre. The second required the sanction of the council, by the Act which prohibited all surveyors or others employed in carrying it out, from themselves purchasing debentures, but allowed public debts to be discharged in lands; and, the third was an exception from the usual system, which, however, he states in the Reflections, had been frequently granted to others.

Yet none of them can be considered inequitable, nor, as he afterwards states, injurious to any party.

These concessions made, the Doctor proceeds with his usual energy to have them carried out, with the utmost care in every detail. The commissioners of distribution accordingly investigate the extent of his claim on account of unpaid pence, which they find amount to £3181 14s., for which, with the £1000 added by himself, they set out to him 9665 1 6, profitable lands, with a proportion of unprofitable, in the places chosen by him, conveying the whole nominally for the £1000, on condition that he remit to the army the payment of the £3181 14s., thus making a legal title; and binding him in security of £3000 to certain conditions, which should guard both the Commonwealth and army against any contingent or future injury thereby.

As to the Commonwealth, it was conceived that the odd roods and perches gained by the public in the distribution, with consent of the army (see page 189), and the advantage to the public of the equalization of rates, described in the last chapter, would prove an equivalent for