Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/37

38 Petty appointed one of the commissioners, who sat as a Court of Claims to settle the Irish land question. In 1666 he appeared personally with other prominent Irishmen before the English Parliament to protest against the Bill which prohibited the export of Irish cattle into England. In 1679 he was again a member of the Irish Parliament, and took an active part in opposing the contract which the Government had made with the revenue farmers. In the later years of his life he became a member of the Irish Council of Trade. As an Irish landlord he devoted himself to the industrial development of the country. An account of his Colony of Kenmare is given by Lord Macaulay. Much of the later portion of his life he passed in England. The intervals of his absence from London are indicated in the "Transactions of the Royal Society." From 1661-1671 his name does not appear. A shorter period of absence is marked from 1675-1678, and again during the years 1680 and 1681. For several years he remained on the Council of the Society. In 1674 he became its vice-president. In Dublin he founded the Irish Royal Society, and became its first president in 1684. In the year 1677 he began to complain of ill health. This and the worries of constant litigation weighed heavily upon him. In a manuscript letter to Aubrey he uses the following language: "I begin to be afraid of living in a place where we have ten exasperated enemies for one friend, and where I am obliged to spend my whole time upon what I hate." The failure of his naval experiments he took greatly to heart, and he complained bitterly of the ridicule their want