The Father of Statistics Tile Petty Papers Some Unpublished Writings
of Sir William Petty. Edited from the Howood Papers by the Marquis of Lansdowne. (Constable. 2 vols. 52s. 6d.)
Sin WILLIAM PETTY, whose forte was said by John Evelyn to be Latin poetry, thus addresses his only daughter, Anne, in English verse :-- - -
My pretty little Pusling and my daughter An That shall be a countesse, if her pappa can. If her pappa cannot, then I make no doubt But my little Pusling will be content without."
Hut Irk pappa's aspiration was only realized after his death and the " little Pusling" married Lord Kerry, who was later promoted to an earldom, from which marriage has descended the present editor of the Papers.
- These two volumes will be found of very special interest and importance as a quarry for the investigator of economic and general history, while they will also serve for the delight of those who would browse over a field of quaint miscellaneous
information. They arc the record of the reflections and observations of one who was a prescient and very advanced social thinker—a man who like his famous contemporaries, Pepys and Evelyn, was blessed with a limitless curiosity and an extraordinary versatility of thought, while at the same time he was gifted with high practical capacity, for he possessed (as his editor points out) " an undoubted genius for engaging in enterprises of profit."
Petty was physician to Cromwell's Army in Ireland
mid an Irish landlord who ran a successful iron-smelting industry and a timber trade in Kerry, an ingenious inventor of a double-keeled boat and the " calash," prototype of the hinsom cab—so he touched life at many points. Above all, :he had a passion: for list-making and for figures, and with his insistence on the importance of dealing with all politico- ,ecOnomic problems in terms of what he calls " number, weight and measure," it is not extravagant to claim for him the title of the Father of Statistics. It is true that the first example of the applieation of modern statistical method- is Afforded by Observations on the London Bills of Mortality .pnblished In 1662 under the niurie of John Graunt The :in4thorship of this work is, however, disputed, and Lord _Lansdowne adduces tolerably convincing reasons for assigning the main credit of the analysis to Petty and not to Graunt. ..f)7iWhat strikes one, as the eye runs over this enormous iii5emblagell'fibtes, is the modernity of view :they display. thereyhardV.a.r4oblem or a reform in being or under dis- 4sioff at *lie, present day on which Petty does not offer £one suggest* hint. Maternity .benefit, cost of living Aceording to .-the fluctuation of prices, religious toleration, adult -suffiagi;," isolation :bOspitals for _infectious diseases and colehe§ ifie importance of .vital statistics and national • registration, a complete scheme for a census which even kAkes account of best-sellers, the division of London into titantons " or postal districts and its formation into a county, t.'c widening of London streets, the discontinuance of Latin 4.11c1 Greek in education=-011 these topics and.„e9un.tless_!Oore are propounded as "juicy matter to the Assembly of Reason." As a doctor, Petty seems to have been on the track of the germ theory of disease and periodicity of epidemics ; lie insists on the importance of anatomy and especially of comparative anatomy ; the Medical Research Council is foreshadowed in Petty's advocacy of preventive medicine, of investigation into epidemiology and the incidence of disease in sedentary trades and varying climates, and of " the different nutritions in several foods." Labour he wrote of in his Treatise of Taxes as " the Father and active principle of Wealth," and in some of his notes occur dim suggestions of the dole and the policy of Three Acres and a Cow. But perhaps Petty's most curious anticipation is that of the modern " tank," useful alike as a movable fort and " to run a push with great violence against any object." This lie calls a " war-chariot," and he urges the general use of the contrivance precisely on the grounds that Captain Liddell Hart or any other modern soldier might urge it to-day —mobility, security, economy of men and economy of expense.
There are in the Papers many scattered jottings which will serve to correct or shed some small new light on history, particularly with regard to the story of Ireland, which was a country Petty knew intimately. Even in his day he throws out a hint that Ireland might be made into " a Free State tributary to England," but foresees the difficulty " where and in whom the soveraigne power of Ireland doth lie," and the possible danger to England if the Irish " upon Account of Religion and Revenge of wrongs " make " friend- ships and corrispondence with forain nations." Petty's celebrated Down Survey maps of Ireland prove Macaulay wrong in accusing Petty of having denuded Kerry of its woods to smelt his iron, for the maps, which were made before any smelting furnaces were installed, show Kerry as notably bare of woods. Another note of Petty's indicates that Cromwell's " Hell or Connaught " policy was not quite so ruthless as is generally believed, since " of all Lands remaining to Irish Papists anno .1640, 5 . parts of 9., have [in 1671] remayned or been restored to the said Irish," while only some three thousand of Cromwell's old .soldiers were left to occupy the forfeited lands. Aniericins will be specially interested in the lists Petty gives of office-bearers, merchants, and soldiers in New England and of certain social particulars like "the best house in Boston is of brick, 4 storyes high and 4 roomer on a floore." Petty was deeply interested in all colonizing schemes both in Ireland and 'America, and amongst other parcels of land he had acquired from Penn in Pennsylvania there were three city lots, " the very centre [says his descendant and editor] of the business portion of Philadelphia." This land descended to Petty's great- grandson and heir, Lord Shelburne, but the War of Inde- pendence supervened, the claims were jumped, and the three city lots remain to this day in American hands. But what would Big Bill Thompson be saying. itAb7.1.0412_,
- _
Previous page
