Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/28

399] the "Adventurers" to entrust their interests to Petty. In the summer of 1658 he visited London and arranged with them a satisfactory agreement, in which they consented to accept his survey as the basis for their own allotments. The number of those waiting to be satisfied was very great, and the conflicting interests caused considerable delay. There were held as many as 33,400 debentures on Irish lands. Of these were returned only 11,804, the rest being held back in the hope of obtaining better terms. The delay caused a vast amount of speculation, for the poorer soldiers were obliged to sell their debentures for ready money to their superior officers, who desired to get an estate in Ireland. As a government official Petty could not legally take a share in this land jobbery, but be soon managed to overcome this difficulty. His salary as land commissioner was in arrears. The government compensated him by assigning him 6,000 acres of land, and gave him permission to buy £2,000 worth of debentures. Such notorious advantages could hardly pass unmarked, especially as Petty's official pluralism and his influence with Henry Cromwell made him all the more open to attack.

One must give him the credit of possessing conspicuous energy. His various duties he performed assiduously. He lived abstemiously. He spent a large part of the night dictating to his secretaries. He mastered the details of his varied official work by systematic labor. While he tells us that he disregarded the unpopularity which he brought upon himself, it is evident that he was somewhat sensitive to its violence. In a letter to Boyle written in February, 1657, he expresses himself in the following