Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/366

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the difficulty of identifying them; the abstracts having been supplied piecemeal, thus obliging him to send parties backwards and forwards; as hard as if the "master of a shipp, who had contracted to export one hundred tun of goods," were "bound to make a hundred voyages to performe it;" sometimes robbed by his workmen, without time to wait for redress; the want of meresmen and guards, from the rapid "transplantation," and the sending away of the troops to England and Scotland; the peculiar wetness of the season, especially at the beginning of the work, when he was urged to expedition, and when the men, being inexperienced, became discouraged, and this at the same time as the dispute about the forty acre parcels, adverted to in the sixth chapter. In several cases he had done more than he was required, and given more detail. He had encountered peculiar difficulties in the county of Dublin: delayed by the urgency of the soldiers with his surveyors, sometimes to survey one lot, sometimes another. He had surveyed Carlow and Kildare without the aid of the civil survey at all; had received his advance payments in base Spanish money; had lost much time from the subdivision not having been, as intended, contemporaneous with the survey. He also pleads the low scale of remuneration on which he had undertaken the work, more especially to the State, more than half being paid by the army at his own instance; represents having to pay the old surveyors, a great hardship, as their operation ought rather to have been considered an unsuccessful experiment on the part of the State, and borne as a public loss. He only asks the same consideration he has always given to those under him.

This was followed, as was no more than just, by an immediate order of the council, dated 7th November, 1656, referring to their order of 15th May, and Mr. Worsley's report, but making no comment upon it, and directing the persons who had been employed by Mr. Worsley in making the examination, to attend the board with a "perfect and particular accompt of the contents of the several baronyes which the said Doctor hath admeasured," for the consideration of the council.

While this was in preparation, the Doctor, at the instance of the council, condensed his applications into the following heads: —

That his survey be accepted;
That his securities be released by March next;
That he be paid before the lands are finally given out to the army;
That his accounts be not delayed for the final subdivision; and
Claiming remission of a considerable part of the repayment to the old surveyors;

each of which he supported by good and sufficient reasons in detail.

The first was granted on the 16th of May. The second had been referred to the Attorney-General. The council, by order of the 12th November, 1656, referred the third and fourth to the auditors of the Exchequer, and the last to a committee, to consider and report upon.

The Doctor then prayed that his payment be not delayed on account of this latter question, but that the deduction to be made for repayments, may stand over till his final settlement for counties subsequently surveyed, and for the Church and glebe lands, which prayer was also referred to a committee for inquiry, that the same may be respited, and the account pass as desired, which was accordingly ordered on the 24th of November, 1656.