A Statistical and Historical Inquiry into the Progress and Magnitude of the Population of Ireland; [bound with WHITELAW, James. An Essay on the Population of Dublin. Being the result of an actual Survey taken in 1798, with great care and precision, and arranged in a manner entirely new.

First edition of each work, both important titles in the field of Irish demographics, with excellent Irish provenance. Thomas Newenham (1762-1831), born in County Cork, was a member of the Irish parliament and strenuously opposed to the Union. He believed that English ignorance would lead to the mismanagement of Irish affairs and so set out to investigate the economic and social resources of Ireland, in the hope of favourably influencing public opinion. "Moving to England in 1800, he turned his mind to economic matters, writing an important demographic study in 1804 entitled A Statistical and Historical Inquiry into the Progress and Magnitude of the Population of Ireland which was published the following year. This was a significant work, which argued that the population of Ireland had been underestimated by British economists" (Dictionary of Irish National Biography). James Whitelaw (1749-1813) was born in County Leitrim and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. "In 1798, with the approbation of the government, he decided to compile a census of the population of Dublin. His object was to encourage improvement in policing, social conditions, industry, and education; he also sought to develop a mathematical system that could be used to calculate the populations of other comparable European cities. Whitelaw and his assistants therefore visited every house and personally inspected each individual, thereby ensuring that his return would have a high level of accuracy. Gathering the information took ten hours a day for five months, with another five years compiling the information into tabular form. Whitelaw inquired into the number of houses, their stories, age, size, and state of repair, and situation in the street as well as the name and occupation of the proprietor and the number, sex, rank, and condition of all the inhabitants, whose number he calculated at 182,370. This is an early example of a systematic scientific approach to demography. The census was placed in Dublin castle for safety and was later transferred to the Irish public record office, where it was destroyed in the civil war (1922). The full census was deemed too expensive to publish in its entirety, so Whitelaw summarised the information in An Essay on the Population of Dublin (1805)" (Dictionary of Irish National Biography). The first title page has the ownership signature of George Ferdinand Shaw (1821-1899). Born in Dublin, Shaw graduated from Trinity College Dublin as Senior Moderator in Mathematics in 1844, and was elected a Fellow of the College in 1848, and in 1890 a Senior Fellow. He served as the first Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen's College, Cork from 1849 until 1854. He was active in journalism, and in 1859 was the first editor of The Irish Times, afterwards writing for The Nation, Saunders' News Letter and the Dublin Evening Mail. The volume was afterwards in the library of the Irish economist Robert Dennis Collison Black (1922-2008), Professor of Economics at Queen's University Belfast from 1962 to 1985, with his ownership signature dated 1944 to a slip of notes on the book mounted to the initial blank, and a note presenting the book to him from a "Cony" (?). Black is best remembered for editing and publishing the Papers and Correspondence of William Stanley Jevons. Newenham: Goldsmiths' 19044; Kress B.4951. Whitelaw: Goldsmiths' 19046; Kress B.4993. Two works bound in a single vol., octavo (211 x 122 mm). With 3 folding tables and other tables in text of first work, 5 folding tables and other tables in text of second work. Contemporary calf, rebacked, new red and black morocco spine labels, blue and red sprinkled edges. One corner restored and others a little worn, endpapers browned and contents a little toned with occasional light foxing, still very good.…