( 338 )
"Afterwards the soldiers, who were to have the satisfaction of their arrears at the same rate, not being willing to cast lots upon such desperate hazards, did, anno 1653, equalize counties within each province, viz., took some in Leinster at £1 2s. per acre, some at £1, &c., and those who were satisfied anno 1655, and afterwards did equalize, not only counties, but baronies also, valuing some baronies in Leinster at £1 4s. per acre, and some but at 6s., and others at all rates between these two extremes. But so as, notwithstanding all the said differences, the whole province should be given and taken at 12s. per acre, according to the then law, and the inequality remaining after this equalization was to be corrected by a lot." With the orders of council last quoted, Dr. Petty for the present closes his account of the distribution,—a work so great that, as he says at the beginning of this chapter, "to doe the same perfectly would require a treatise by itselfe;" but of which the outline and general arrangements may be gathered from what he has here left us, although the details and actual operation may well be seen to be "one hundred times bigger and more difficult than in this orderly description it will probably be conceived to be." In truth it is difficult to imagine a work more full of perplexity and uncertainty than to locate 32,000 officers, soldiers, and followers, with adventurers, settlers, and creditors of every kind and class, having different and uncertain claims on lands of different and uncertain value, in detached parcels sprinkled over two-thirds of the surface of Ireland. Nor, as he subsequently experienced, a task more thankless in the eyes of the contemporary million. It was for his comfort that he obtained and kept the good opinion of those who were unprejudiced and impartial.
During this period, however, Dr. Petty had received various grants of lands himself, in satisfaction of his debts and claims, for which he found little chance of obtaining payment in money. The details of these transactions are given in the following chapter, but it appears to have produced much angry remark, and to have increased the jealousy with which he was already viewed. The Doctor's description of his position, in the last pages of this chapter, is at once so humorous, and in many respects so true, that, while it will awaken the sympathy of all who can appreciate the difficulties he had to encounter, and the jealousy and misrepresentation from which he suffered, it is at the same time cheering as exhibiting the firm heart and buoyant spirit which carried him through them all.
At p. 184, " 17th of July" should be " 7th of July."
At p. 188, "roots and perches" should be "roods and perches."
At p. 189, " 6thly" is manifestly "7thly;" but so in MS.
At p. 192, "sett out in the barony of Carey" should be "not sett out," &c.
At p. 186 reference is made to two resolutions of general councils, viz.: of November, 1653, and April, 1654, which are stated to be "extant in print," but of which no copy has been discovered. In this, however, as in many other cases throughout the work, where papers referred to are not given in the narrative, the substance is easily collected either by the reference to them, the context, or the comments to which they give rise.
At p. 195, the same word, "overseen," applied to Mr. Worsley in p. 44, occurs. In this case it obviously means "overlooked." The meaning is probably the same in the former case, but the phrase is less intelligible.
