Page:William Petty - Economic Writings (1899) vol 1.djvu/334

236 navy is now triple or quadruple what it was forty years since, and before the Sovereign was Built ." The "Sovereign of the Seas" was launched 14 October, 1637 . These three passages, which all point to 1676 or 1677, occur in the Rawlinson MS. as well as in the undated Southwell MS., and the 1690 edition. The opinion that the Political Arithmetick was completed at a date later than the Political Anatomy is also confirmed by the larger estimate of the population of Ireland which the Arithmetick makes.

Of the numerous MSS. of the Political Arithmetick, by far the most important is that bound in the same volume with the MS. Treatise of Ireland, and called by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice the Neligan MS. The history of this MS. is similar to that of the Southwell MS. of the Political Anatomy already traced. It was given to Sir Robert Southwell by Petty and remained in Southwell's family until purchased by Thorpe at the De Clifford sale in 1834. It passed into Dr Neligan's possession, and after his death it was bought for the British Museum becoming Additional MS. 21,128. In view of its history, I call it the Southwell MS., and refer to it in the footnotes as S. This MS. is not so neatly written as the Southwell Political Anatomy; the ink is similar but the paper is of a different size, and it has one similar and one different watermark. The corrections are far more numerous, and are unmistakably in Petty's hand. It may be the very same MS. which Petty corrected for Southwell in March, 1681 and wished to have compared with "what goeth abroad ." If it be the same, Petty 's wish is at length fulfilled: the readings of the Southwell MS. are now compared with the text that went forth in 1690 wherever the differences between them are significant. But mere variations in spelling and minor grammatical differences (like "hath" for "has")