Henri Pétain

“ His religious feeling dominates all his actions. In Bordeaux, the day Reynaud resigned, I was told Pétain’s words as he heard the debacle was reaching its end: “France must suffer for her sins!” Mystically he surrendered, and mystically he still exclaimed a year later to a nation which had endured twelve months of [265] injury and abasement with no prospect of relief, “You are suffering and must suffer for a long time still because we have not yet paid for all our mistakes.” ”

“ Before the great attack by the Germans on the fortress, he was unknown except to those in close touch with the army. In a few weeks, he had become world-famous. His rapid promotion was due to the perspicacity of de Castelnau, who had the general direction of the line from Soissons to Verdun. The second in command observed the vast German preparations, the accumulation of guns and the massing of infantry, and with the assent of the Generalissimo, set Pétain to work to stem the tide of the enemy advance. With characteristic energy the new-comer flung himself into the task. ”

“ On the 24th, the enemy brought up fresh storm troops and, although harassed by the French artillery on the left bank of the Meuse, they succeeded in taking Hill 344 to the East of Samogneux, Fosses Wood and the village of Ornes. But on the same day French reinforcements arrived, namely the 37th Infantry Division of the 7th Corps, the 31st and 306th Brigades of the 20th Corps under General Balfourier who provisionally took charge from the Meuse to the Woëvre. At the same time also General Pétain took over the command of the army of Verdun from General de Castelnau. ”

“ It was resolved to give the organization a more permanent and a more serious character. Petty was one of the promoters of the change which transformed the "Philosophical Club" into the Royal Society. He was one of the original Fellows, and was placed on the Council. [14] In 1661, April 11, he was knighted and was sent by Charles II to Ireland as Surveyor-General. [15] In the Irish Parliament, which met early in the summer, he sat as member for Enniscorthy. In August he was sent to England as one of the commissioners from that Parliament to watch over the interests of the English landowners. ”

“ In the field of his peculiar interests Petty sought the same quantitative precision which he demanded of his scientific colleagues. Now in economic investigation, as writers on the method of political economy never weary of iterating, the experimental method is in general precluded by the nature of the materials. The far seeing minister of an autocratic Czar may sometimes make industrial experiments on a gigantic scale and even isolate them from the disturbing influences of parliaments and newspapers, but he is not at all likely to utilize them for purposes of economic speculation. ”

“ If General Lambert had been able to prove himself the possessor of abilities equal to his ambition, Dr. Petty would probably have not unwillingly seen him succeed to the position of Protector, for Lambert was himself the friend of science and a patron of learning. Even if Bradshaw, a very different character, had been able to grasp the Presidency of the Council with the stubborn obstinacy from which Cromwell had evidently more than once apprehended possible danger to himself, Dr. Petty might perhaps have considered the administration at least placed in safe hands ”

“ The revolution caused by machinery had not altered the face of the industrial world. Allowing for all this, it must, I think, be conceded that in a remarkable way Petty reproduces under a seventeenth century garb those features of Ricardo's work, which have exerted so potent an influence on English thought in this century. Finally, it is extremely curious to compare Petty's tendency towards using fictitious illustrations to explain a general principle, with Ricardo's employment of the same sort of help. ”

“ The Government backed Petty, in whom they had got hold of a man of extraordinary genius and energy; and while Worsley was kept on as surveyor-general, Petty was allowed to contract to do the work of land-survey in thirteen months, importing skilled labour and London-made instruments. [184] And meantime, Robert Boyle, under Petty’s guidance, was working quietly in an anatomical laboratory in Dublin. Petty, in his outspoken way, had written to Boyle while Boyle was on his flying visit to London in 1653. ”

“ Van Petten, whose death occurred July 12, 1914, was an untiring worker in all the ladies' branches of the First Methodist Church. A woman of broad sympathies and great heart, she was especially interested in the welfare of the children, was a member of both the Home and Foreign Missionary Societies, to the work of which she gave a great deal of her time and much of her energy and strength, and in her death the deserving poor lost one who had ever been their generous friend and kind adviser. ”

“ On the morrow, I dragged him to an editor. The great man read, and, rising, gave Pettit his hand. That was a decoration, a wreath of bay, and a guarantee of rent.
And then old Pettit smiled slowly. I call him Gentleman Pettit now to myself. It’s a miserable name to give a man, but it sounds better than it looks in print.
“I see,” said old Pettit, as he took up his story and began tearing it into small strips. “I see the game now. You can’t write with ink, and you can’t write with your own heart’s blood, but you can write with the heart’s blood of some one else. ”

“ The history of the Down Survey is but one chapter in the life of Sir William Petty, but, with his many subsequent works and papers, some still unpublished, it places him among the most remarkable and distinguished men of that stirring age. His enemies are forgotten, and he has passed away, but his works live after him. ”

“ On the other hand, Petty gained the confidence of Henry Cromwell, who appointed him his private secretary and additional clerk to the privy council, and placed complete reliance on his ability and honesty. It should be borne in mind that Petty never actually held the appointment of surveyor-general of Ireland to the Commonwealth, but was nominally employed either with or under Worsley, who retained the title of surveyor-general throughout the whole of these transactions, until he was superseded by Vincent Gookin [q. v.] ”

“ The Essays in Political Arithmetick, together with the Quantulumcunque, form the third group of Petty's writings. They are almost altogether taken up with attempts to calculate the population of various cities. Like the Political Arithmetick itself, they have a public purpose. They explain to James II., who, at least in Petty's fancy, was willing, if only he could afford it, to cut loose from the dependence upon France inaugurated by his brother, that his own capital of London was a greater city than Paris, and, indeed, the greatest in the world. ”

“ Aubrey says 'that they read Vesalius together, [7] and that the younger student traced the optical schemes for the elder, for he had a very fine hand in those days for drawing, which draughts Mr. Hobbes did much commend.' [8]
Through Hobbes, Petty became acquainted in Paris with several of the most brilliant of the English refugees, such as the Marquis of Newcastle and Sir Charles Cavendish, and also with Father Marsin Mersen, the mathematician. ”

“ Petty should go to England and meet the committee of the adventurers. [66] He was also entrusted with the care of handing over to Secretary Thurloe the addresses of the Irish army accepting the order of things established by 'The Humble Petition and Advice,' and 'The Instrument of Government'—addresses not obtained without great difficulty from the Independent and Anabaptist officers—and he was also the bearer of letters to General Fleetwood, and to Lord Broghill, then in England and unwell. ”

“ Petty, being a person of detached political opinions, belonged precisely to the class of men able to serve, for whom the Protector was looking in the peculiar circumstances of the hour.
Petty had powerful friends in two leading adherents of the Protector in London: Captain John Graunt, who had served with distinction in the war, and was the reputed author of some 'Observations on the Bills of Mortality' and Mr. Edmund Wylde, a member of Parliament, 'a great fautor of ingenious men for merit's sake,' [24] and also in Colonel Kelsey, the commander of the Oxford garrison. ”

“ Petty's reason for assigning these advantages to labor applied in the production of non-perishable goods is political. He believes in a strong government. He wishes to strengthen the hands of England against her foreign neighbors and set her above possible attack. ”

“ He tells us it is against nature to prohibit the export of money (Quantulumcunque) . In another place (35) he remarks that "making civil and positive laws against the laws of nature" is vain and fruitless.
It is evident that Petty was no stranger to the political ideal of Hobbes. In the "Treatise on Taxes" we are put in the way of tracing Petty's own conception of the functions of the State. The widest interpretation is given to its powers. There is no limitation to its interference. In education and in religion, it stands supreme over the individual. ”

“ His tracts on the Low Countries and on Irish trade deal with subjects treated fully by Petty. When two very intelligent men are both reviewing the same ground, it is probable that we shall find remarks in one easily paralleled by the other. The smallness of the Irish trade, Temple tells us, is due to revolutions, political intrigue, bad government and absenteeism. [8] All this is familiar, but we look in vain for the peculiarities of Petty. There is no use made of statistical information; there are no attempts to interpret the facts in any but the ordinary way of intelligent observation. ”

“ Charles Petty was abroad in 1686. 'I am glad,' Sir William wrote to his godfather, 'that wee agree that the main end of travelling is to learn frugality, circumspection, discreet jealousy, and generall prudence; with such Behaviours as will adapt us for conversation with all mankind — without laying much weight upon Languages, University Arts and Sciences—and Interest in the famous men of other nations. ”

“ Petty's predilection for a statistical method is due, I fancy, to the influence of Bacon, which was predominant among his scientific associates in the inchoate Royal Society. Like all Baconians, he believed in the usefulness of observations, and, by implication, in the uniformity of nature, and looked forward with confidence to the time when a precise knowledge of the external world should lay firm foundations for invention, and thus introduce the rule of man. ”

“ Paul Pétau was a man of universal accomplishments. He was the rival of Scaliger in the science of chronology; his doctrinal works are praised as 'a monument of useful labour'; 'he solaced his leisure hours with Greek and Hebrew, as well as Latin verse,' and, according to Hallam's judgment, obtained in the last subject the general approbation of the critics. He formed a valuable museum of Greek, Roman, and Gaulish antiquities, with a cabinet of Frankish coins, to which Peiresc was a generous contributor. His library contained several books that had belonged to Grolier ”

“ Not only can each specific condemnation of some restriction upon trade be offset by a specific commendation of some other restriction, but, what is far more important, it is clear also that to represent Petty as an advocate of laissez-faire on principle is altogether to misrepresent him. ”

“ His reputation has principally survived as a political economist; and he may fairly claim to take a leading place among the founders of the science of the origin of wealth, though in his hands what he termed political arithmetic was a practical art, rather than a theoretical science. ‘The art itself is very ancient,’ says Sir William Davenant, ‘but the application of it to the particular objects of trade and revenue is what Sir William Petty first began’ (Davenant, Works, i. 128–129) . Petty wrote principally for immediate practical objects, and in order to influence the opinion of his time. ”

“ An investigator may fancy his problem solved when it is merely restated in a new form. The new and neater form may be a step toward eventual solution. Achieved solution it generally is not.
The influence of the statistical method, as exemplified in Graunt's Observations and in Petty's writings, can be traced in two directions. One springs primarily from Graunt, flows through Petty's Essays, and leads, as has already been said, to modern vital statistics: the other proceeds from Petty's Political Arithmetick through Davenant and Gregory King to Arthur Young and Chalmers. ”

“ I say when this Cat Sir Hierome, had burnt his paw, by reaching the Apes Chestnuts out of the hot Embers, Worsly out of pity resumes his primitive trade to plaister him, wherein also others joyn, that they might by some means or other fave themselves from being publickly laught at, and to perswade the world that they could not be outwitted by Doctor Petty: the latter of which, they indeed needed not to have troubled themselves withall, Doctor Petty having been alwaies forward to do them right, as to the point of their wits ”

“ But when, owing to the firmness of Henry Cromwell, the disputes had at last been brought to some kind of at least superficial settlement, the work of distribution had to be entered upon. This was really a far more difficult matter than even the survey which preceded it. In the first, Dr. Petty had had mainly to contend with the natural difficulties of the country; in the second, whoever was entrusted with it would have to wrestle with the fiercest passions of the human heart, excited by greed and ambition. ”