of the Protector—Failure of these attempts—Dr. Petty is knighted on the occasion of the incorporation of the Royal Society—Marked favour shown by the King and the Duke of Ormonde to Dr. Petty—Sir Robert Southwell, Clerk to the Privy Council, and Sir William Petty—A grant of land in Ireland made to the Royal Society—Anecdote of Sir William Petty by John Aubrey—Sir William Petty's scientific experiments—The 'double-bottom' ship—Success and subsequent failure of the 'experiment'—A party at the Durdans—Sir William Petty and Mr. Pepys—Latitudinarian views of Sir William Petty—Designs a treatise entitled the 'Scale of Creatures'—His hostility to the Church of Rome—The Oporto Auto-da-fé—The death of George Penn—Sir William Petty's hostility to the Calvinists and Anabaptists102
Sir William Petty invests a portion of his fortune in Irish land—Kerry in the latter half of the seventeenth century—Parties at the Restoration—The Acts of Settlement and Explanation—Sir William Petty's estates confirmed to him—Completes a map of Ireland—His relations with the widow of Henry Cromwell—'The Political Anatomy of Ireland'—His estimate of the results of the successive changes in the tenure of land in Ireland—The farmers of the Irish Revenue—Their extortionate conduct—They claim arrears from Sir William Petty—Hostility of Sir James Shaen—Difference with the Duke of Ormonde—Letter to Lord Aungier—The commercial policy of England—Hostility of the English landed classes to Ireland—Sir William Petty opposes the Irish Cattle Acts—The Acts passed—Effect of the Acts on the rate of exchange—Rise of the class of absentee proprietors—Sir William Petty proposes a union between England and Ireland—His high opinion of the capacity of the Irish character—His plans for improving the country—Settlement at Kenmare—Condition of the South of Ireland—Continuation of the struggle with the farmers—Fall of the Duke of Ormonde—Attacks on Sir William Petty—Sir Alan Brodrick challenges Sir William Petty to a duel125
Marriage of Sir William Petty—Sir Hardress Waller—Lady Fenton—Troubles of furnishing—Offer of a peerage—Sir William Petty's reply—His London house destroyed in the Great Fire—Domestic correspondence—Versatility of Sir William Petty's character—His manifold accomplishments—Anecdote of Sir William Petty and the Duke of Ormonde—Sir William Petty's children: Charles, Henry, and Anne—Correspondence with Lady Petty—The Quakers of Balliboy—Letters from William Penn and John Aubrey—Character of Sir William Petty—He is committed for contempt of court—His spiritual consolations—The Duke of Ormonde again Lord-Lieutenant—Sir William appointed
