taining the refusal of the first offer, he told the bishop of Killaloe, through whom it was made, that he would ‘sooner be a copper farthing of intrinsic value than a brass half-crown, how gaudily soever it be stamped or gilded’ (Life of Petty, p. 155). His ambition was, however, to be a privy councillor with some public employment, an honour which just escaped him during the events of 1679, owing to the failure of Temple's plans for reorganising the privy councils of England and Ireland. He seems to have been especially desirous of being made the head of a statistical office which should enumerate the population correctly, reorganise the valuation of property, and place the collection of the taxes on a sound basis, and should also take measures against the return of the ravages of the plague, and protect the public health. His special hostility was directed against the system of farming the revenue of Ireland, which in 1682 he had the satisfaction of seeing abolished; but his own plans were not accepted. His constant and unceasing efforts at administrative and financial reform raised up a host of enemies, and he never, therefore, could get favour at court beyond the personal good will of the king. He was, however, made judge of admiralty in Ireland, a post in which he achieved a dubious success, and a commissioner of the navy in England, in which character he received commendation from the king ‘as one of the best commissioners he ever had.’ Evelyn draws a brilliant picture of his abilities. ‘There is not a better Latin poet living,’ he says, ‘when he gives himself that diversion; nor is his excellence less in Council and prudent matters of state; but he is so exceeding nice in sifting and examining all possible contingencies that he adventures at nothing which is not demonstration. There were not in the whole world his equal for a superintendent of manufacture and improvement of trade, or to govern a plantation. If I were a Prince I should make him my second Counsellor at least. There is nothing difficult to him … But he never could get favour at Court, because he outwitted all the projectors that came neare him. Having never known such another genius, I cannot but mention those particulars amongst a multitude of others which I could produce’ (Evelyn, Diary, i. 471, ii. 95–7). His friend Sir Robert Southwell, clerk to the privy council, with whom he carried on a constant correspondence, once advised him not to go beyond the limits prescribed by the extent of the royal intelligence (Life, p. 284).
Pepys gives an equally favourable view of the charm of his society. Describing a dinner at the Royal Oak Farm, Lombard Street, in February 1665, he enumerates the brilliant company and describes the excellent fare; but, ‘above all,’ he adds, ‘I do value Sir William Petty,’ who was one of the party. Neither, however, the praises of Pepys or Evelyn, nor the great undertaking he so successfully carried out in Ireland, nor his scientific attainments, considerable as they were, are his chief title to fame. His reputation has principally survived as a political economist; and he may fairly claim to take a leading place among the founders of the science of the origin of wealth, though in his hands what he termed political arithmetic was a practical art, rather than a theoretical science. ‘The art itself is very ancient,’ says Sir William Davenant, ‘but the application of it to the particular objects of trade and revenue is what Sir William Petty first began’ (Davenant, Works, i. 128–129). Petty wrote principally for immediate practical objects, and in order to influence the opinion of his time. To quote his own words, he expressed himself in terms of number, weight, and measure, and used only ‘arguments of sense,’ and such as rested on ‘visible foundations in nature’ (Petty Tracts, published by Boulter Grierson, Dublin, 1769, p. 207).
Early in life Petty had gained the friendship of Captain John Graunt [q. v.], and had co-operated with him in the preparation of a small book entitled ‘Natural and Political Observations … made upon the Bills of Mortality [of the City of London]’ (1662). This, which was followed in 1682 by a similar work on the Dublin bills, may be regarded as the first book on vital statistics ever published. Of its imperfections, owing to the paucity of the materials on which it was founded, nobody was more conscious than the author himself. He never ceased, for this reason, to urge on those in authority the necessity of providing a system and a government department for the collection of trustworthy statistics (cf. Ranke, Hist. of England, iii. 586). In 1662 Petty published ‘A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions’ (anon. and often reprinted). In 1665 he wrote a financial tract entitled ‘Verbum Sapienti,’ and in 1672 ‘The Political Anatomy of Ireland.’ Both were circulated in manuscript, but neither seems to have been printed until 1691. In 1682 was issued a tract on currency, ‘Quantulumcunque concerning Money;’ and in 1683 (London, 8vo), appeared ‘Another Essay in Political Arithmetick concerning the Growth of the City of London: with the Periods, Causes, and Consequences thereof.’ The publisher explains, in the preface to the second edition
