On his return to his native country, he speaks of being preferred to the king's navy, but in what capacity is not known*. This he attributes to the knowledge he had acquired, and his "having been at the university of Caen." In the navy, however, before he was twenty years of age, he got together about 607, and the civil war raging at this time, he determined to set out on his travels, for further improvement in his studies. He had now chosen medicine as a profession, and in the year 1643, visited Leyden, Utrecht, Amsterdam, and Paris, at which last city he studied anatomy, and read Vesalius with the celebrated Hobbes, who was partial to him. Hobbes was then writing on optics, and Mr. Petty, who had a turn that way, drew his diagrams, &c. for him. While at Paris, he informed Aubrey that "at one time he was driven to a great streight for money, and told him, that he lived a week or two on, three pennyworths of walnuts." Aubrey likewise queries whether he was not some time a prisoner there. His ingenuity and industry, however, appear to have extricated him from his difficulties, for we have his own authority that he returned home in 1646, a richer man by 107. than he set out, and yet had maintained his brother Anthony as well as himself.

How this 70l. accumulated will appear by his will. It may suffice here to mention, that in the following year March 6, a patent was granted him by parliament for seventeen years, for a copying machine, as it would now be termed, but which he calls an instrument for double writing. In an advertisement prefixed to his "Advice to Mr. Samuel Hartlib," he calls it, "an instrument of small bulk and price, easily made, and very durable; whereby any man, even at the first sight and handling, may write two resembling copies of the same thing at once, as service-, ably and as fast (allowing two lines upon each page for setting the instruments) as by the ordinary way, of what nature, or in what character, or what matter soever, as paper, parchment, a book, &c. the said writing ought to be made upon." Rushworth also, having mentioned the patent for teaching this art, transcribes nearly our author's words; and says, "It might be learnt in an hour's prac

tice, and that it was of great advantage to lawyers, scriveners, merchants, scholars, registers, clerks, &c. it saving the labour of examination, discovering or preventing falsification, and performing the whole business of writing, aswith ease and speed, so with privacy also." The additional fatigue occasioned to the hand, by the increase of weight above that of a pen, rendered this project useless as to the chief advantage proposed, that of expedition in writing but it seems to have been applied with some alterations to the business of drawing; the instrument for which is too well known to need any description here.

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Though this project therefore was not very profitable in itself, yet by this means he became acquainted with the leading men of those times. He next wrote some very sensible remarks on national education in useful branches of knowledge, in a pamphlet entitled "Advice to Mr. Hartlib for the Advancement of Learning," and in 1648, went to Oxford, where having no scruples respecting the state of political parties, he taught anatomy to the young scholars, and became deputy to Dr. Clayton professor of anatomy, who had an insurmountable aversion to the sight of a mangled corpse. He also practised physic and chemistry with good success; and rose into such reputation, that the philosophical meetings which preceded the Royal Society, were first held (for the most part) at his lodgings: and by a parliamentary recommendation he obtained a fellowship of Brazen-nose college, in the place of one of the ejected fellows, and was created doctor of physic, March 7, 1649. He was admitted a candidate of the college of physicians, June 25, 1650. The same year, he was chiefly concerned in the recovery of a woman who had been hanged at Oxford, for the supposed murder of her bastard child*.

On Jan. 1, 1651, he was made professor of anatomy;

This was one Anne Green, executed at Oxford, Dec. 14, 1650. The story is, that she was hanged by the neck near half an hour; some of her friends, in the mean time, thumping her on the breast, others hanging with all their weight upon her legs, sometimes lifting her up, and then pulling her down again with a sudden jerk, thereby the sooner to dispatch her out of her pain. After she was in her coffin, being observed to breathe, a lusty

fellow stamped with all his force on her breast and stomach, to put her out of her pain; but by the assistance of the doctors Petty, Willis, Bathurst, and Clarke, she was again brought to life. "I myself," says Derham, "saw her many years after that. She had, I heard, born divers children." Physico-Theol. See also a printed account of it, entitled "News from the Dead," &c. edit. 1651, and in Morgan's Phonix, 4to.

and, Feb. 7, music professor at Gresham college, by the interest of his friend Dr. Graunt. In 1652, he was appointed physician to the army in Ireland, and he was likewise physician to three lords lieutenants successively, Lambert, Fleetwood, and Henry Cromwell.

Some time after his settlement in Ireland, having observed, that the lands forfeited by the rebellion in 1641, which had been adjudged to the soldiers who suppressed it, were very insufficiently measured, he represented the matter to the persons then in power, who granted him a contract, dated Dec. 11, 1654, to make the admeasurements anew; and these he finished with such exactness, that there was no estate of 60l. per annum, and upwards, which was not distinctly marked in its true value, maps being likewise made by him of the whole. By this contract he gained a very considerable sum of money. Besidés 20s. a day, which he received during the performance, he had also a penny an acre by agreement with the soldiers: and it appears from an order of government, dated at the castle of Dublin, 19th March, 1655, that he had then surveyed 2,008,000 acres of forfeited profitable land. He was likewise one of the commissioners for setting out the lands to the army, after they were surveyed. When Henry Cromwell obtained the lieutenancy of that kingdom in 1655, he made the doctor his secretary, appointed him a clerk of the council there in 1657, and procured him to be elected a burgess for West Looe in Cornwall, in Richard Cromwell's parliament, which met Jan. 27, 1658. March the 25th following, sir Hierom Sankey, or Zanchy, member for Woodstock in Oxfordshire, impeached him for high crimes and misdemeanors, in the execution of his office. This brought him into England, when, appearing in the House of Commons, April 19, he answered to the charge on the 21st; to which his prosecutors replying, the matter was adjourned, but never came to an issue, that parliament being suddenly dissolved the next day. Henry Cromwell had written a letter to secretary Thurloe, dated the 11th of that month, in his favour, as follows: "Sir, I have heretofore told you my thoughts of Dr. Petty, and am still of the same opinion: and, if sir Hierom Sankey do not run him down with numbers and noise of adventurers, and such other like concerned persons, I believe the parliament will find him as I have represented. He has curiously deceived me these four years, if he be a knave.

am sure

the juntos of them, who are most busy, are not men of the quietest temper. I do not expect you will have leisure, or see cause, to appear much for him; wherefore this is only to let you understand my present thoughts of him. The activeness of Robert Reynolds and others in this business, shews, that Petty is not the only mark aimed at."

Upon his return to Ireland soon after, some further endeavours being used to bring on a prosecution, Petty published the same year, "A Brief of the Proceedings between sir Hierom Sankey and the author, with the state of the controversy between them," in three sheets; which was followed by "Reflections upon some Persons and Things in Ireland," &c. He then came again to England; and brought a very warm application in his favour from the lord lieutenant, in these terms: "Sir, the bearer, Dr. Petty, hath been my secretary, and clerk of the council here in Ireland, and is one whom I have known to be an honest and ingenious man. He is like to fall into some trouble from some who envy him. I desire you to be acquainted with him, and to assist him, wherein he shall reasonably desire it. Great endeavours have been used to beget prejudice against him; but when you speak with him, he will appear otherwise." Notwithstanding this, he was removed from his public employments in June.

It may be here necessary, for the sake of his very curious. answer, to mention the charges which his enemies brought against him: These were, 1. "That he the said Dr. Petty had received great bribes. 2. That he had made a trade of buying debentures in vast numbers, against the statute. 3. That he had gotten vast sums of money and scopes of land by fraud. 4. That he had used many foul practices as surveyor and commissioner for setting out lands. That he and his fellow-commissioners had placed some debentures in better places than they could claim, denying right to others. 6. That he and his fellow-commissioners had totally disposed of the army's security; the debt still remaining chargeable on the state."

5.

The principal object of his answer is to demonstrate that he might, without ever meddling with the surveys of the Irish lands, have acquired as large a fortune otherwise; and his demonstration must be allowed the praise of ingenuity at least: "In the year 1649" (says he), "I proceeded M. D. after the charges whereof, and my admission into the college of London, I had left about 60%. From that time till

about August 1652, by my practice, fellowship at Gresham, and at Brazen-nose college, and by my anatomy lecture at Oxford, I had made that 60%. to be near 500l. From August 16, 1652, when I went for Ireland, to December 1654 (when I began the survey and other public entanglements) with 1007. advance money, and of 365l. a year well paid salary, as also with my practice among the chief in the chief city of the nation, I made my said 5007. above 1,600l. Now the interest of this 16001. for a year in Ireland, could not be less than 2001. which, with 550l. (for another year's salary and practice, viz. until the lands were. set out in October 1655) would have encreased my said stock to 2,350l. With 2,000l. whereof I would have bought 8,000l. in debentures, which would have then purchased me about 15,000 acres of land, viz. as much as I am now accused to have. These 15,000 acres could not yield me. less than, at 2s. per acre, 1,500l. per ann. especially receiving the rents of May-day preceding. This year's rent with 5501. for my salary and practice, &c. till December 1656, would have bought me even then (debentures growing dearer) 6,000l., in debentures, whereof the five 7ths then paid would have been about 4,000l. neat, for which I must have had about 8,000 acres more, being as much almost as I conceive is due to me. The rent for 15,000. acres and 8,000 acres, for three years, could not have been less than 7,000l. which, with the same three years' salary, viz. 1,650l. would have been near 9,000l. estate in money, above the abovementioned 1,500l. per ann. in lands. The which, whether it be more or less than what I now have, I leave to all the world to examine and judge. This estate I might have got without ever meddling with surveys, much less with the more fatal distribution of lands after they were surveyed, and without meddling with the clerkship of the council, or being secretary to the lord lieutenant all which had I been so happy as to have declined, then had I preserved an universal favour and interest with all men, instead of the odium and persecution I now endure." In this manner, he endeavours to prove how he might have made his fortune. How he did make it will appear hereafter in his will.

In 1659, he had enough of the republican spirit as to, become a member of the Rota Club at Miles's coffee-house in New Palace-yard, Westminster. The whimsical scheme of this club was, that all officers of state should be chosen