PET
General of Ireland; and he was returned to the Irish Parliament for Enuiscorthy. "It was," says John Mitchel, "in the County of Kerry that Dr. Sir William Petty had his principal estates. For years the vales of Dunkerron and Iveragh rung with the continual fall of giant oaks.' There was a good market ; Spain and France were searching the world for pipe- staves ; in English dockyards there was steady demand for ship-knees ; and Sir William knew exactly where there was the best market for everything. In Ire- land itself, also, he set on foot ironworks ; and fed the fires from his own woods. . . There was no source of profit known to the commerce and traffic of that day in which Sir William did not bear a hand." Macaulay gives an interesting account of the difficulties with which his English colony, settled at Kenmare, had to contend, from the forces of nature and the hostility of the inhabitants. The individuals com- posing it (seventy-five men and one hun- dred women and children) were ultimately obliged to take refuge in a fort built on a promontory until the arrival of ships to convey them to England. In 1667 Sir William Petty married the relict of Sir Maurice Fenton, Bart. He built a fine house in London, and when drawing up his will in 1685, estimated his income at .£15,000 per annum, and his personal pro- perty alone at some £45,000. In Dublin he had founded a Philosophical Society over which he presided. He was one of the original members of the Eoyal Society, and a constant contributor to its transactions. He was the beloved friend of many eminent men, including John Evelyn, who frequently mentions him in his diary: " If I were a prince, I would make him my second councillor at least." Macaulay styles him "the be- nevolent and enlightened Sir William Petty;" and says he "created the science of political arithmetic." He died i6th December 1687, aged 64, and was buried beside his father and mother in Rumsey Church. The present Marquis of Lans- downe inherits much of his estates. [See notice of Earl of Shelburne, page 201.] Petty is described as having been " a pro- per handsome man, measured six foot high, good head of brown hair; his eyes a kind of goose grey, but very short-sighted, and as to aspect beautiful, and promised sweetness of natur; and they did not deceive, for he was a marvellous good- natured person." "The variety of pur- suits in which he was engaged," says the EncyclopcEdia Britannica, " shows that he had talents capable of achieving anything
PHE
to which he chose to apply them ; and it is certainly not a little remarkable that a man of such an active and enterprising disposition should have found time to write so much as he did in the course of his busy life." Twenty-five of his books and essays, chiefly upon scientific and social questions, are enumerated in the notice of him in Wood's Athence Oxonienses. The most important of those relating to Ireland are: his Maps of Ireland, pub- lished in London in 1685, comprising a general map of Ireland, the provinces, and counties, in thirty-six plates, with portrait of himself; and his Political Anatomy of Ireland (Lond. 1691), re-published by Mr. Thom in his Tracts Relating to Ireland. This invaluable work gives a minute ac- count of the condition of the country in 1672— its extent, population, and pros- pects, its resources and political condition. SirW. Petty estimated the area of Ireland at 1 7,000,000 statute acres (14,000,000 tillage and pasture, and 3,000,000 plantation and waste). The actual area is now known to be 21,000,000 (16,500,000 tillage and pas- ture, and 4,500,000 plantation and waste). He estimated the population at 1,100,000 (800,000 Irish, 200.000 English, and 100,000 Scotch; or, 800,000 Catholics, 100,000 Es- tablished Church, and 200,000 Dissenters). It is interesting to remark that in two hundred years the proportion of Catholics has increased from 7S to 76 per cent, of the total population, and of members of the Established Church from 9 to 12 per cent., the proportion of Dissenters having fallen from 18 to 12 per cent. He estima- ted the number of families in Ireland at 200,000 (160,000 " with no fixed hearths"); and the number of houses at 40,000, of which 24,000 had only one chimney. The present number of houses is 1,100,000, of which, as nearly as can be judged, 300,000 have only one chimney. The originals of his maps can be consulted in the Eecord Office, Dublin. '*t 16 »<> «4 1271 u^ ^ 284.
284t 324t
Phelan, William, D.D., a distinguish- ed clergyman of the Established Church, was born at Clonmel, 29th April 1789. His parents were Catholics, and he was educated as one ; but it is said that, being shocked upon one occasion by the plain statement of a co-religionist of the doctrine of exclusive salvation taught by their Church, his opinions gradually underwent a change, and he entered Trinity College as a Protestant, in June 1806. He soon became distinguished by his literary at- tainments, and was befriended by WilUam Conyngham Plunket and Dr. Magee. In 1814 he was appointed second master in
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