Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/378

 It is clear, however, from the fifteenth chapter, and from this, that he had actually invested £7469, either his own or admittedly due to him, viz., £3181, army debt, and £1000, debentures therewith (p. 217), £1263 in redemption of mortgages (pp. 223—288), and £2025 for labours of distribution, for which 18,482 acres had been set out to him at the usual rates (pp. 225—227). The additional sum, stated to be "above £3000," at page 227, and £3139 here (which are probably the same), arising from comparing what he had, with what he might have had if his employment had not precluded him from dealing in the ordinary way, does not appear to have been then satisfied. There can be no doubt he considered it fairly due, especially in the absence of specific remuneration for his employment as commissioner of distribution, nor any that his extraordinary labours were not on the whole over-requited, compared with many around him, as it can scarcely be doubted that but for his survey and subsequent operations, the lands would not have been surveyed or set out before the Restoration. But neither is it to be wondered at, that to persons not conversant with the circumstances, nor acquainted with the peculiarities of his case, it might have appeared extreme and irregular. For example, the £3181 was indemnified fully in land, but it appeared to represent only £614 of real debt, and the 9665 acres given in requital for the £3181 and £1000 debentures, would seem conveyed for the £1000 only; the 3000 acres of redeemed land, also, would appear conveyed for half-a-crown, yet in both cases the full amount was paid, and the smaller sums merely satisfied the technicalities of title.

We are not even now in possession of all the circumstances. Dr. Petty writes with his mind full and clear upon his subject, but presupposes much knowledge in his reader, then common, but now lost. The soldiers' pence would seem to have been fully satisfied by the 9665 acres, and the right subsequently given by the Act of Settlement on that account, related only to the adventurers' lands, yet that Act recognises his former services as a commissioner of distribution being still unrequited. The boldness with which he defended his acquisitions may be inferred from the successful issue of a suit on his part against even the Duke of Ormond, mentioned by Carte, vol. II. p. 393, and all this could not have taken place after the Restoration, if there had been doubt of the former probity and correctness of his conduct, or ground for the charges or articles of impeachment.

To the personal character of Dr. Petty, this chapter is among the most important in the history. It belongs, indeed, rather to that subject, than to the history of the survey, yet it would be improper even here to pass it without these few remarks. And it is fortunate that the proceedings in Dublin led him to place even these facts on record, as subsequent events crowded on too rapidly to allow any judicial conclusion to be come to, for his exculpation and satisfaction. He earnestly desired that all proceedings on the subject "may be published in print," very properly remarking, page 279, that "without this, these proceedings, which may bee a ruine to your petitioner, will be but sport to his adversaryes, allthough they miscarry, they staking nothing to your petitioners whole estate and reputation."

Thus far all was in a fair course of being brought to issue in Ireland, where all parties could be made cognizant of the circumstances, and Dr. Petty 's exculpation or the reverse